Up at 5am to leave Bellagio. No time for that excellent pool or the greatly desired and cavernous buffet breakfast. There was just time to admire the worlds largest chocolate fountain and then checkout under an equally memorable Bellagio art styled ceiling.
Next was a swift taxi rider to McCarran airport for about 10 USD, much quicker than the shuttle bus like Gray line since it goes straight there.
This is the story of the start of our long day of waiting and hoping, just we did not to know it yet.
First stop after the numerous security checks .. Cinnabon. Quite why this tasty snack is not available in Europe I dont know. Whilst delicious of course it overtly does look like its dangerous to your waistline so perhaps its X rated food nature prevents successfull marketing in Europe, Still delicious!
So we are leaving Vegas and here is are some of the other things we noticed:
1. What exactly is that number on top of gambling machines. I refer to a large increasing number probably of some sort of win. It seems to scroll upward at a rate that means its probably for the whole casino not an individual machine. Who knows?
2. Why is WiFi free or cheapest in cheap motels but in the most expensive hotels chargeable or in some cases totally unavailable. Dont the rich need the internet?
2. Why is WiFi free or cheapest in cheap motels but in the most expensive hotels chargeable or in some cases totally unavailable. Dont the rich need the internet?
3. Did you ever get trapped in a Casino. These football field sized playing fields have plenty of signs for the Bar, ATM machines. But signs to the redemption machines .. thin on the ground. And like a mythical unicorn signs to get out a casino ontp the stip .. invisible. The number of times I walked into a large casino and then walk in circles despeartely trying to escape .. many!
Back to the airport. We were taking American to Chicago and then taking a connecting flight to Raleigh Durham RDU airport. The destination hotel and car were prebooked so we could not afford to be late ...
At McCarran we did notice our 09.50 flight was delayed to 10.15. The gate assistant said it was because the tail winds were strong and meant that we would get there too early if we left on time (file under excuses, dubious). Then the time slippled to 10.30 and then 11.50 . Clearly the tail winds were getting very strong. Finally we were lured into getting onto the plane and I prompty fell asleep.
About an hour later I woke to what was the worlds quietest and smootest flight. On closer inspection we found that we had not actually taken off. Oh dear. A quick calcuation showed that even Superman could not get us to Chicago ontime and we arrived at 17.00. Not amusingly this was the time our connection was leaving, They waited around, just not for us.
So whilst in the air we tried to think positive and admire the view. We flew over a crop circle training centre at one point, then some equally impressive square fields later on.
After landing we spent the next 6 hours or so were spent rushing around Chicago airport trying to rebook our flight to arrive for this Thursday night. Initially American had rebooked us on the 07.55 Friday morning flight and apparently (numerous phone calls later) they did not need to provide any compensation for delay or inconvenience since this was due to natural factors. This may be the windy city however the conditions looked fine by European or Swiss standards. I know Chicago too has challenging winters (and hot windy summers) so I really cant understand what was the problem, but it is true that over 30% of flights this Thursday were delayed or cancelled. Result .... a great day for food vendors at Chicago airport.
Eventually we phoned a 1-800 number whilst waiting in an infinitely long rebooking queue. Turns out you can (in theory) go to any Amnerican checkin desk and ask for rebooking. So we left the queue (sorry line) and about 3 desks later managed to get a rebooking for an already delayed 21.00 flight to RDU.
Without further ado then, we caught the delayed 22.30 flight arriving RDU 01.00 and were impressed to get Hertz car at 02.00 and arrived at our room in Red Roof Cary NC at about 03.00
Definitely time for Bed, Friday is our shopping and meeting friends day and we need to be as fresh as we can.
Summmary: A long day, 1000 miles flown, 30 miles driven, very tired
