Day 431, Flying home

The alarm went off at 5:15 am and I was in the lobby of the hotel at 5:45 am to catch a taxi to the airport.  My flight was at 7:50 am and the request you be there two hours ahead of your scheduled departure in order to pass through security.

Flying home from Las Vegas in the last row.

The flight was on time and I arrived in Salt Lake City and quickly made my way to the next gate.  I only had 50 minutes between flights and was soon on my way home.  8 days seemed to have been a long time and I was ready to get home.

I got  home about 12:45 pm and was greeted by the leftover parts and blood of gopher on the carpet and projectile hair-ball vomit. I was not too happy and went to work on shampooing the carpet.  I unpacked my bag and started a load of laundry. I let the chickens out to enjoy the day and then headed off to the office to check in, and then to the bank to deposit my now 7 day old paycheck.  I had several errands to run and was back home by 4:35 pm.

I got back home and started a second load of laundry and laid down and took a nap.  It had been a long week and I was glad to be home.  After a short snooze I went out and mowed my lawn for one of the last times of the season.

With clean sheets on the bed I was ready for a good night sleep in my own bed.

Day 430, The last day of the conference

Today is the last day and we had more scheduled appointments with potential clients and several workshops.  My brain is starting to go numb, so I'm glad today is the last day.  The big of highlight of today will be the closing dinner and reception at Aria.  

Aria Hotel and Casino

By 5pm the conference and exhibitor area was over with.  We had 2 and half hours to kill before we needed to Aria for the reception.  We headed back to the hotel and took advantage of the time to head to the gym for a workout and then a 20 minute soak in the hot tub.

An entire wall made of chocolate flowers

The problem with staying at the Hilton was it wasn't the host property and all the shuttles were running from the Wynn and Encore to the Aria.  We opted to take a cab straight to the Aria, which ran about $20.  The Aria is one of the newest Mega Hotels in Vegas, weighing in with 4,400 rooms.  The sheer size of the property could not be captured with my iphone camera.  The Aria is massive on a grand scale with no expense spared at any level.  The Aria was part of a enormous project estimated to have cost over 9.2 billion to construct and furnish.  We were all invited to the Haze Night Club at the hotel and it was an exclusive opportunity to experience something out of this world.

A very tall cake!

Our cab dropped us off at the front door of the Aria, where guests were arriving like royalty to a palace.  You couldn't help but feel that you were about to enter someplace very special and not of this world.  To get to Haze, we were told to walk into the casino and turn left past the "futuristic bakery".  We weren't exactly sure what that meant, but when we got there we new we were there.  All I could say was wow.  There were cakes that were 13' tall, entire walls made out of chocolate flowers.  Everything was was so amazing you couldn't help but be at awe.

An impressive Wine List at Haze Nightclub at Aria.  Yes, a
bottle of Cristal Methuselah is listed at $75,000!

After our detour through candy land we headed to Haze and the very large number of even bigger body guards standing at every angle of the club let you know this was for a very discerning clientele.  The upper level balcony extraordinary, with reserved seating, provocative sofas, and crystal and sterling silver appointments.  The wine list opened that illuminated like an iPad and displayed a wine list that is second to none and the prices to match.

I think everyone was  having a great time, but soon it was time to call it a night and it was back to the hotel and another $20 cab ride.

Day 429, Wednesday in Las Vegas

The weather has not been what I expected and it is cool, windy and rainy.  The talk of all the locals is how great the rain is and happy they are to see it.  Todays conference events at the Las Vegas Convention Center, which is located right at the Las Vegas Hilton.  This one of the main reasons why we booked at the Hilton, but what we didn't figure on is sheer size of the convention center and the fact that our conference is literally at the absolute other end of the center.  This wouldn't seem like that big of deal usually but the size of the convention center can only be described as massive.  We estimated that it had to be a mile from the Hilton lobby to the location of our conference.  Most of the trek could be done inside which was nice since it was rather stormy and wet out.

The Wynn and Encore Hotels and Casinos
 are the coppery buildings and over 30 stories

On one of the outside portions of the walk, I was able to snap a picture of the Wynn and Encore Hotels and Casinos which were the host hotels.  The walk to these hotels was about 2 miles from the Hilton and we had walked that after last nights event.

The conference today was very productive and we were able to meet with several potential clients.  Tonight is a "free" night and we did not have any formal events scheduled.

Back at home I have not heard anything from Justin and the progress of the Traveleze, which leads me to believe that there isn't nothing new to report.  I know he was expecting another trailer, so it might have showed up.  I also know he is expecting a big project that he told me he would have to stop work on the Traveleze for a few weeks, so perhaps that's what has happened.  I would really like to be there to watch the progress anyway, so I'm content.

With tonight being a free night we ate in the Hotel, and I played the slot machine spending my $10 in a hurry.  The weather outside seemed to be a little less stormy, so I put on my running shoes and went for run.  I ran past the Stratosphere and then down the strip for quite a while before it started to rain.  I estimated I ran about 5 miles.

Day 428, Tuesday and the Conference gets started

We got the conference center at 9am to get our registration packet and to review the list of participants.  We made a list of those we wanted to meet with and the ones that we thought would match our needs.

Wynn Hotel Lobby

The first big event would be at 3 and were boarded a bus to the Wynn hotel for a manditory meeting and then a reception. At 6pm we boarded buses and went a sport complex that featured baseball. We had a great dinner and then were alowed to mingle.  We made 5 really good contact and went searching for sport events that we thought would fit in our community.

After the reception it was back to the Wynn for another recption event that opened at 10pm and went to midnight.  We were both tired so we only stayed for 15 minutes and then walked back to the Hilton about 2 miles away.

Day 427, Fly to Las Vegas



Delta Airlines 757

 Robin dropped me off at the airport at 5:20am and I had no trouble getting through security.  My flight left at 6:20am and I flew to Salt Lake City.  The connection time was less than an hour, so I walked from one plane and right to the gate of the next.  The plane from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas was a 757 and it was packed to capasity. 

I got to Las Vegas on schedule and caught a shuttle to the Hilton.  The Hilton is massive and the casino was in full swing (it never stops).  I met up with counter part from home and we checked into the hotel.  We met back down at the lobby after a brief settling in went to look for the conference location.  The conference center is truly enormous and we finally found the check in area.  The conference would start tomorrow and will bring sporting events and venues from around the country into one location.

The Stratishere Casino

We had dinner at a small shop in the hotel lobby and called it an early night.  I watched TV for an hour and then went for a 5 mile run past the Stratosphere Casino.  It was a beautiful night, but started to rain on my run back to the hotel

Day 426, Sunday

Another Sunday and we all went to Church.  Robin and Brad's church has sum 7,500 members and is massive compaired to my church in Redmond.  We met Dr. Nick and Ann there and afterwards we all went out to brunch.  Brad's son and his wife to be were in town from Houston and Brad's nephew from joined us.

Back at home I had a lot of my tasks I needed to get done before the day was over.  We planted plants, worked on sprinkler heads and tightened towel bars and toilet paper holders.  It was a nice day and before long it was dinner time and then it was time to hit the hay.  Tomorrow I would have to get up at 4am to get ready to head to the airport.

Day 425, Saturday

I adjusted to the time change and was able to fall alseep at a descent hour and I was able to wake up earlier today too. 

On my list of projects that I needed to get done, included repairing the fence in the back yard.  there were a number of sections where the nails were pulling out and with a pocket full of screws I was able to securly attach sections of fence and vairous boards back in place.

Robin and went shopping at lowes for a few supplies that I would need latter to fix loose towel bars, spray paint to spray out the electrical box and gray plastic conduit.  We also bought automatic light sockets that will turn on and off the garage lights when it gets dark.

I got a phone call in the afternoon that my father had shown my pickup truck to the interested party from Medford.  My Dad said he really liked the truck and that he would be calling me to talk ablout it.  I knew the truck would show well and it looks as close to knew as possible.

Surprisingly Oklahoma is host to a number CREW events and this week they were hosting a Olympic qualifing event and they had a number of teams from around world and US looking to qualify for the Olymics.  Robin and Ann and I went down to the Oklahoma River to watch the event and see what was happening. 

It was another fun day in Oklahoma.