Well, we did it. We took a girls trip
to Vegas and we came back unscathed. Here is our pre-flight pic at Olive Garden. We tried to get our server to go with us...and he thought about it....but thought he better keep his job. His loss.
So we get to the airport with a crazy driver named Zach who I am sure was trying to kill us. There wasn't a corner he couldn't (or wouldn't) turn on 2 wheels. Poor me, I was sliding all over the place. No butt to keep me on my seat!
So we get all checked in and settled in the loading area. We had quite a bit of time to spare so we spent it Facebooking, talking, walking around and people watching. Well, as time as approaching to load, a gal sat down next to Justi. I didn't think too much of it. She was face timing with someone as was multiple others in the place. The next thing I know, Justi is laughing. One of those "I don't want anyone to hear me laugh" kinda laughs. I look over to her (I'm beside her) and that just makes her laugh even more. Trying not to raise suspicion, I mouth the words "What?" and she tries to tell me..... "Loo...(laughter) look at...(laughter)." I can't figure out what she is talking about. She is trying to avert her eyes to this gals legs without her knowing and I'm still not getting it. She finally says "toenails" between gasps for air.
People, this next picture doesn't even BEGIN to show the nastiness that we saw! I mean, it took some real creativity to even get a picture since there was someone between us and I didn't want her to see what I was doing! Poor Justi has tears streaming down her face and I am about to throw up. Acrylic nails on her toes....which is something I have NEVER heard of and if that wasn't weird enough, this gal has let them grow out so far it looks like she has a literal glue factory between the nail and the cuticle!! I mean we could have parked a Prius between the two!!! I don't know what it was but it reminded me of rubber cement. YUCK!!! I don't know how she will ever get that scraped off. I hope she got it taken care of.
There you go. You're welcome. But like I said, this picture does it NO JUSTICE for how literally gross and disgusting it was! Moving on..........
Let me tell you something. I never thought, in my entire life, that I would get my sister Kathy on an airplane. She's terrified of bridges, let alone go up in the air!! We purchased these tickets six months ago so she was kinda locked in. For six months she gave herself anxiety about the whole thing. Luckily, she and I got to sit next to each other and mother-and-daughter team sat in front of us so we all got to chat and take turns peeling Kathy's fingers from Justi's seat at every movement on the part of the airplane! How dare that thing move!!! She did great, folks. She was scared, I won't say she wasn't; but she got through it with grace and I couldn't be more proud of her. On the way out, we had to go up through some weather and get on top of it so there was a little turbulence. I looked over at her one time and she was staring a hole right into the back of Justi's seat; white-knuckled hands about to pull the magazine holder right off that thing. I asked “Are you okay?” She didn't answer me at first and I thought maybe she had just suffered the worst right there without anyone knowing but she finally said “yeah,” so then I could start breathing again. I love to fly so it's hard for me to understand the fear but then again, she doesn't get my whole clown thing either so there ya go.
She doesn't even look scared there, does she??? I think this was taken in the air but I could be wrong.
Two hours and 40 minutes later, WE HAVE ARRIVED!!! Look out Vegas!! We have plans to tear this town up like you will never believe!
I will tell you right here and now, in
front of God and everyone, that we are a wild group and you really
need to watch it when you go places with us. Especially Vegas. With
the exception of the first night, we were in our hotel rooms by
probably 10-10:30. I'm talking PM. Yeah, we are THAT crazy!!!
The only reason we got in late the first night is because we arrived
in Vegas in the late evening and our gracious host shuttled us around to see some sights.
Heck, one night I thought I would
live life on the edge and stay up until 1:30 am!!!! Of course,
they all had crashed out around midnight so I cleaned our hotel room
so the maid would know EXACTLY what we needed. It didn't do any good
though. We still had to track her down the next day for extra
towels, toilet paper and Kleenex!!
Enough about the maid!!! Let's roll back a little bit and talk about our wonderful host/tour guide/all around wonderful guy! If you've ever been to Vegas, you might know him. Heck, if you've ever been to Branson, you might know him. Let's get real here folks, if you've ever been to Fontanelle, Iowa, you might know him! Sadly, I never got the chance to meet him when he was visiting Fontanelle so it was quite a shock to me when we were heading down the escalator to the baggage claim and I see him sitting there just smiling at us because the only two on this trip that know him, didn't even see him. Then there's me...who has only seen his pic on Facebook a few times but have heard about him at least a hundred times, and I spot him right away. "THERE HE IS!!!" Justi's head swings right to the baggage claim because she thinks I mean our bag because she was almost convinced ours was either still at Omaha or had gone on to Cincinnati. Not sure why the thought of our bag entered her mind.
Oh wait, yes I remember! She saw them take a bag from our airplane back to the airport. It didn't matter that it was a red suitcase and ours was green. She was convinced!!! Anyway.....the one and only Jeffrey Micheals, sitting there waiting for little ole US!! It was so nice to meet him after all these years. I hope next time we get to watch him perform! This guy is seriously one of the nicest men you could ever meet in your life. I'm not exaggerating one bit!
Justi and her two BFF's. She has more but we were the only ones willing to go
out in public with her! HA!
I got to see (from a distance) the Trump Hotel & Casino. I hope to stay there someday!
Now, let's talk about the Hard Rock Casino and Hotel! It was nice. We all enjoyed our stay there, even if ya'll did snore! Haha yeah they all snored. Not me though. One night they made me sleep on the floor. It was crazy. If you have been to the HRH, none of the pics will entertain you but if you haven't been there, it's pretty awesome. Lots of little restaurants in there and things to do.
This was the door handles to their event center. Pretty cool, huh?! And all the hotel room doors had different pictures and sayings on them. The Elvis one is the coolest one!
We didn't have a balcony, so to speak, from our room. We had double doors that opened up to the city and in the morning, the view of the mountains were spectacular! There were five bars going across the front of the doors so we couldn't walk out if we wanted. Now...we could have climbed and jumped if we wanted to but nobody wanted to. I was able to lean forward enough to get a shot of the big guitar at the front of the hotel because ya know, getting a picture from the actual front of the building would have been WAY TOO EASY!!!
There were a couple of restaurants inside the building that I would have like to tried but we either didn't have the time, the energy, or the money! Man this place is expensive! Make sure you save about 6 paychecks for spending money on the strip and for those sly thieves called your hotel! A bottle of water is $5 at Dunkin Donuts inside our hotel. Next trip, I am going to drive out and go to Fremont St and get 3 cases of water! Everything is cheap there, including the entertainment; but we will get to that soon enough!
There was the FU Asian Kitchen and the Pink Taco and we didn't get to them, sadly. They had a shirt in PT restaurant that I wanted to get but they didn't have the right size. The front said "If you don't eat the Pink Taco" and then on the back it said "Your best friend will!" I about died laughing.
When we finally got there...and I mean finally because I"m pretty sure my friends weren't my friends at this point. Walking all that way for some dick. What was I thinking?? We arrived at this restaurant inside the casino and this guy (worker) was chasing this small child across the room, screaming at him to "Get the hell back over there or I"m going to kick your ass. Sit down and stay there!" I looked around for a chair because I thought I was in trouble too. Scared the begeezus out of me. All these kids...and there were just as many kids as adults in the place...everyone was just laughing their fool heads off. I can not imagine why any person would take a child to a place like this but if you have, please don't tell me. It will ruin my image of you forever. That place was made for me, not for a child. I don't need to tell you that we did not eat there. I ate at Panda Express and fought that son-of-a-buck the rest of the night. He put up a good fight but I won. I'm never going back there again. I don't care what town it's in.
Treasure Island is a cool place to see also! Arrgh matey!
See that bridge behind us??? Yeah we were just on that thing!!! Trust me, when a semi crossed over, you felt it!!!
Anyway, there are some really cool and exciting things to see on the strip and I can't tell you what they all are because aint nobody got time for that. If you haven't been, just go. I'll go with ya. Here are just a few examples of the neat stuff you see. More pics will be posted on my Facebook soon but samples are given here first.
I can't believe I didn't go in here. Just to say I did!!! Dumb, dumb, dumb!
I tried to get a video of this because it was hilarious. He would come out and talk about his restaurant and then he would walk off screen. Then he would come back and say "Can someone get me out of this box?" Too funny!
Treasure Island is a cool place to see also! Arrgh matey!
So, the first full day we spent walking up and down the strip. So thankful that Jeffrey came and joined us on the last part and showed up a shortcut back to our hotel. Even though it didn't feel very short, I'm sure it was a lot shorter than we would have made it on our own! We got to a bus stop at one point and we could see our hotel, so we took a break at the bus stop and I decided we could just make it the rest of the way on foot. What a stupid, stupid thing to say! Damn tourists anyway!!! This isn't Iowa. Just because you can see it, doesn't mean you can touch it. Justi and I earned those blsters on our feet!!! Maybe now you see why we were tuckered out so early in the evening!!!
For a couple of bucks we could have grabbed a bus but instead I gave my money to a homeless dude and his dog. I can't not give to the dog dangit!
I got to hear the song of my people so many times while out there. You know the ones.....sirens. They got my attention every time. We even saw a guy get arrested on his bicycle. It was cool. He must have been peddling ass.
When you're in a place like Las Vegas, it's easy to lose track of time. Obviously they don't have clocks out there so you don't know how long you do anything and they sure aren't going to tell you! I remember as we were going up an escalator to a cross bridge and Jenna says "We haven't even been here 24 hours yet." I literally could not wrap my mind around that. I couldn't believe it but it was true. We had already done and seen so much but because we arrived in LV in the evening..... crazy!
I realize Jenna is a grown ass adult and lives on her own and has her own business and all that but taking her to the strip was quite scary for me. I kept telling her "Don't get ahead of us! Someone will steal you!" She was either sick of hearing that or out of her mind high from all the pot that was in the air that she started saying it back to me! Seriously, they can't pick me up and carry me off like they can her! There was a little scare and I ran up and made eye contact with the filthy creep I thought was headed her way. I was ready to tangle.
And yeah.....the pot smoking is so out of control in that place. It makes me sick to smell it. I know a lot of you out there feel differently about it but my mind will never change on the subject. I hate it.
Moving on.....
Saturday night we were all sore from walking and so there we were, laying on our beds in the hotel room just talking. It's not like we get to do that at home!!! Like I said, we earned our blisters!!! I got to reading those auto-correct fails to the girls and Kathy, Jenna and I got to laughing. Can not believe Justi slept through that commotion! Jenna was sure we had inhaled too much "mota." Those auto-correct fails get me every time. I don't care who you are. If those don't make you laugh, you need to pull the stick out of your ass.
On Sunday, one of my most favorite people in the world, who also just happens to be my cousin Brian, came and took us to the Hoover Dam. He showed up with his granddaughter Kiki and that made my day! Brian drove us to the Dam and Kiki entertained us with Ghost and Ghoul riddles. We didn't know any of the answers unfortunately. I blame it on jet lag! I had been to the Hoover Dam once before but it is nothing like it used to be. Wow was it something to see! Even if you don't want to go to Las Vegas, go to the Dam. You won't be disappointed!!
Here's a pic of the beautiful water as we were approaching the parking area to the Dam. SO BLUE!!!
I went clear into Arizona to get a picture of this sign! We were just beginning our trek on the Pat Tillman Bridge! Scary and exciting all at the same time!!!
AND THEN WE WENT DOWN THERE!!! DOWN TO THE ONLY PLACE I KNEW HOOVER DAM EXISTED!!! SO EXCITING!!!
I'm so happy I had such a great group of gals to help me celebrate my upcoming 5-0!!! Only a month and three quarters to go so keep celebrating!!
After we had seen the Dam, we trekked it back through Boulder, which none of us had ever been to. Jenna and I are suckers for souvenir shops so that town could have been bad for us. Oh boy if we would have had a car, we would have filled it there and sent for another car to come get us! We get back into Vegas and eat lunch at the In and Out Burger. This is the restaurant that I want around here. Only a few things on the menu so they can get people "in and out" quickly. The burger was amazing. The fries were amazing. The shake was amazing. But the most amazing thing I saw there...and I may have said the words "I want to quit my job and be a french fry girl," was when they put the potato in the holder, pulled the switch down and voila! FRENCH FRIES! They filled up a sink of them, let them soak, then drain and in the fryer they go. I was so intent on watching it, I about didn't hear my number. I mean I was stopping all the girls and making them watch the french fry guy. BEST MEAL EVER!!! I can't even tell you what that guy looked like!!! If we ever get one of these restaurants around here, you know where to find me!
Oh! Look who showed up to see us!!!
Mani and Wendy Sue!!! So happy to see them! I have to grab quick ones of Wendy because she always says "I don't look good." She always looks good.
Mani and Wendy Sue!!! So happy to see them! I have to grab quick ones of Wendy because she always says "I don't look good." She always looks good.
When we got back to our hotel from the Dam trip, Justi and Jenna proceeded to head to the pool and Kathy and I hit the casino for about 15 minutes. I lost $8 and she lost $15. We are a couple of wild and crazy big spenders!!! Back to the room we went where I proceeded to take a nap. Yes, I took a nap in Vegas. I'm not sure what Kathy did because I was so busy checking for light leaks.
Sunday night and it's time for Fremont Street. This is probably the majority of the reason I like Vegas. Canopy light show, freaks, good eats, zip line. You name it, if it's weird it was there. They named this first one just for us gals, I'm sure!
So before I wind this up... let's talk about a couple of things. These girls stand almost naked in the street and dance. They want people to come dance with them so they can hang all over someone and get money from them. Looking at these girls, I just don't get it. I just don't. I never will. The only thing I can come up with is that their self-esteem has to be under the sewer system. Just no. If they see you take a picture of them, they will point you out, in front of God and everyone's dog, to come dance with them. Trust me. Heard it from a friend who...heard it from a friend.....
Now, this story will end our Sunday night and our Fremont Street experience. Let me set the scene. Jenna and I had rode the zip line earlier in the evening and Justi held onto Jenna's wallet for her. Well, she forgot to give it back and Jenna was still in a souvenir shop and Jeffrey had waited with her while Kathy, Justi and I headed up the street. We just wanted to pee and leave. Our blisters were telling us they had had enough! We were about 2 blocks away and Justi and I were just going into the bathroom when she gets a text message to bring the wallet back. So we use the restroom and then leave the casino through another door. Of course, we had left Kathy at another entrance. I told Justi to go on and I would wait there and have Kathy come down to where I was at. So Justi takes off and I text Kathy to "come down the street." While I am waiting, I look straight across the street to see Chucky and his Bride. Now this movie never bothered me. It wasn't one of my favorites but it didn't bother me. Of course, me being me, I whip out my phone and zoom in to take a shot. Got it!
Now...seeing life sized Chucky was weird enough but when his Bride made eye contact after I took that picture, I about shit my pants. She pointed, smiled, and tried to lure me over there. My eyes had to have been the size of silver dollars and my index finger went up as I mouth the word "NO." She kept motioning me to come over and smiling that creepy smile of hers. I waved my index finger at her and said out loud "NAAAA!" I wasn't giving two shits as to who was listening. I just took off up the street. Finally find Kathy and knew I was safe. We ventured back down and met up with the others and I was telling them about the creepy Bride and as we started back up the street, I look over and she's freaking waving at me!!!! I just got the hell out of there. I didn't care how my blisters felt at the time. WE OUT!
I forgot the part abut zip lining. It was amazing. Everyone should try it. They have one where you can zip line 3,200 ft over the rim of the Grand Canyon. That would be amazing!!!! Anyway, I don't have a video at this time. Maybe someone will share one with me one of these days.
Monday, on the plane ride back to Omaha......................... I'm not going to mention any names because I don't want anyone judging my people but............................... this conversation may have happened.............
"Shellie is there a speed limit in the air?" to which I replied "Yes, they have air cops that hook onto the side of the airplane and the cop comes inside the cockpit and writes them a speeding ticket. Keep watching!" You can't make this shit up!
There was SO MUCH MORE to our story but I just don't have the time or strength to get into it tonight. This will have to do until more details come out. Thanks for reading! See you next time!
