And....we're back!

The Daily Lois recently had a week's hiatus while it's creators vacationed in Sin City. Lois stayed behind with her Ya-Ya, her Pops, and her cousin Maggie who was apparently in charge of dog treats, baby wipes, and snaps. At least that's what I hear. We owe the Ya-Ya and the Pops BIG TIME for coming to our house and holding down the fort with the baby girl, the 2 dogs, and the 2 cats. Pops even had time to install some car parts, change the oil, fix a broken step, and put the garage wall back on it's foundation. (That's a story for another day.)


We also owe this guy BIG TIME. This is JR (I changed his name to protect the innocent) who I taught a LONG time ago in 1996 when he was a mere 10 year old. He is now a flight attendant for Air Wisconsin which is part of US Airways. He gave Jay and I "buddy passes" to fly to Vegas - which means we booked our trip for almost nothing. The only catch? We had to fly stand by. JR flys stand by all the time, so he didn't think we'd have much trouble. But apparently, Vegas is quite the popular destination, so none of us were prepared for what actually happened!

We flew from Roanoke to Philadelphia with no problem. But when we arrived in Philly, our connection to Vegas was full and we didn't make it on the plane. The airline automatically rolls us over the next flight departing to Vegas which was 2 hours later. But guess what? It was totally booked, too. In the meantime, our man behind the scenes calls to say that there is a flight to Chicago with plenty of room, and a connection from Chicago to Vegas with room, too. So we run through the airport to get to the right gate only to find out the plane is delayed. So we wait. And wait. And wait. Finally, our flight leaves and delivers us to Chicago, but of course, we had already missed our connection to Vegas. No problem! There are 2 more flights leaving Chicago to Vegas - we're sure to get on one of them. JR puts us on the list for the next flight to Vegas - we show up at the gate and find out it's delayed. Two hours. We get something to eat and return to the gate to find out the flight has been cancelled. Wonderful. We have 30 minutes of panic - what do we do? Everyone else at the gate was in a panic too, when suddenly the gate attendant announces that our flight was NOT cancelled and would take off within the hour. Sheesh. We arrived in Vegas at 11:30pm - 12 hours after we were originally scheduled to get there. But you know what? We didn't care. It was essentially free - and we were in Sin City.

We had a great week - supporting the casinos with our pennies. We actually had pretty good luck with the penny slots this year and didn't throw away nearly as much money as we could have!

Flash forward to Friday. It's time to come home and JR tells us ALL flights out of Vegas are basically fully booked. He has a hair brained idea about sending us to Portland - but I just couldn't fathom that much time in the air. Ugh. We decided to take our chances and left for the airport at 5:30am on Friday morning. There were 4 early morning flights that morning - 2 to Philly and 2 to Charlotte - that would have gotten us home to Roanoke. They were all overbooked and we were told by customer service that there was no way we were getting out of Vegas that day flying standby. SO discouraging. So, we whipped out the computer, bought tickets on a Continental flight to Greensboro through Newark and set out for the gate. Guess what? The flight was delayed 2 hours due to weather and we missed our connection. The gate agent guaranteed us there would be seats for us on the next flight to Greensboro once we arrived in Newark. They did indeed have seats for us, but that flight was delayed 2 hours, too. We arrived in Greensboro at midnight - spent the night in a Comfort Suites - and Pops drove down on Saturday morning to pick us up.


Was it worth it? You bet your sweet butt it was. It was worth every uncomfortable second. If someone told me I could go back next month, but I'd have the same travel headaches, I'd start packing my bags today. Of course, that would be a bit tricky since we don't really know where our bags are? We're hoping they are in Roanoke, but they could be in Vegas? Or Philly? Or Greensboro? Who knows?