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Tommy & Tally's Vegas Pokerfest Adventure
After spending a week making perfect Vegas Mix™
music CDs for the party like Tom Jones,
Elvis, Sinatra, Dean, along with great lounge
jazz including Sarah Vaughn, Billie Holiday,
Louis Armstrong, and Etta James, and of course
the obligatory killer U2 mix.... and gathering
great DVDs to put on like U2s latest concert
tour, we pack and head to Burbank airport
around 12:15pm Saturday afternoon for a 2:10pm
flight.
12:45pm: Security is a breeze since not only is
the airport dead being a Saturday, but everyone
is checking their luggage because no one can
bring their lip gloss in the passenger cabin anymore.
As we pass our gate, we notice our flight status
is DELAYED - departing now at 2:45pm.
We don't think much of this since we assume it
must be delayed from wherever the aircraft is coming from.
2:30pm: We see a plane land and taxi to our gate
that we can see from the bar, so we finish up,
head over, and get in line for group A.
2:45pm: The final few people finally crawl off
the plane but there is a sudden announcement by
the gate agent that "There is an Air Traffic
Control problem at McCarran, and the flight is now
delayed until 4:30pm." Tommy hears there is another
flight, and just when we decide to head to
that gate to see if we can go stand-by, there
is another announcement that "Air Traffic Control
is not allowing any flights in or out of Vegas."
3pm: We find out the details that it's a huge
wind issue. Apparently the wind is so bad two huge cranes
blew down overnight at Hoover Dam. Southwest
is trying their best to get everyone who is connecting
in Vegas on other flights to get them to their
final destination while we're doing the math about when
we'll make it to the Poker Party we're supposed
to help Bart run. If we take off at 4:30pm, and if we
land in Vegas and are not re-routed to Phoenix,
we'll land (hopefully) at 5:30pm. Pick up a recording
device at Altitunes (shop at McCarran) for Tommy's
iPod since the deck he expected to rent from
work was already gone (full paying customers
get priority) by 6pm, get our luggage by 6:15.
Skip the cab line and pay extra for a town car
and be at the Paris by 7pm after stopping for alcohol
at a supermarket. Get our key, drop our bags
and change, then be out the door to wait in a cab line
at Paris prime time on a Saturday night by 7:30.
We would hopefully make the party by 8pm at the latest.
3:10pm - They make an announcement they might board by 3:30pm. We sit back down in the A line.
3:15pm - It's back to 4:30pm, maybe 5pm with the
added stipulation that "if the winds kick up we
could be diverted to Phoenix, so anyone with
a connection, please come to the desk for alternate
connection information." There is a line of people
who are waiting to get on a standby list, but they've
stopped taking names for the next several flights
because of the delay, and the fact all flights for the
rest of the day are overbooked.
3:17pm - We make a call to Paris, explain
the situation, and ask if we can't get there will they still
charge us? "No, you're casino guests. We will
cancel with no charge."
3:20 - We head to the gate agent and ask if we
can get funds credit if we bail. "No problem."
However, our bag can't be pulled since now that
everyone is checking bags it would take an
hour to dig for it, so instead they'll have to
reroute it back to Burbank. Fine. We only life five
minutes from the airport so that's no problem.
3:35pm - We arrive home to grateful kitties who are happy to see us.
4:15pm - Because I can't help myself, I
check online to see what the status of our flight is. It shows it
left at 3:30pm and is scheduled to arrive at
4:30pm. FUCK. I call my friend who lives there and is one
of the guys in Forever Plaid at The Gold Coast.
He says it's still windy, but not as bad as it was last night,
but still bad. He's not surprised to hear about
the delays. I look up returning flights from LAS to BUR
to see when our bag will come home and see several
cancelled flights.
6pm - We head down to the Home Depot Center for
the Galaxy game - where we tie,
and lose yet another chance for the MLS CUP CHAMPIONS
to even make the playoffs this year.
10pm - We call Bart at 10pm. He's having too much fun and in the middle of a poker game so he can't talk.
Overall it has not been a good day. Hopefully,
when I head back to Vegas on 9.26 to perform
Comedy of Errors for Nevada Shakespeare in the
Park, it won't be windy. Please, oh please, don't be windy.