The beginning of my vacation all blurs together in my mind. There was a pre-vacation energy running through my veins, and wrapping up work, the house, and packing all seemed to happen in a blink. We left Thursday night and went to Chicago, crashed at Tedd’s, and somehow survived through Friday until 2pm when the limo came to pick us up. Nothing like feeling like a high roller going to Vegas than being picked up in a limo. Or drinking a bottle of champagne in a limo. While calling all the people you know gloating you’re on vacation and they’re working. Or drinking the second bottle of champagne (that one was mostly me, and it was mostly warm.)

So, cue O’Hare, mostly drunk. It’s going to be a good vacation. We flew American down to Dallas, and I gotta say, I’m mostly impressed with American Airlines. Their commercials about improved leg room is right on – the seats were comfty. What irked me, in my sobering stage, was that I was starting to get the munchies, and I could see the suckers in first class eating and I could smell their dinner. The steward only gave me a small bag of pretzels and a 6 oz glass of ginger ale. Not even the full can they were pouring. That pissed me off.

In DFW, we stopped off at a bar to keep the buzz flowing and got large steins of Shinerbock. Mmmmm shiner. About halfway into his, Stuck started getting giggly, so I knew I wasn’t the only one enjoying myself. The flight out of Dallas brought us around a big thunderstorm. Tedd was sitting by the window, and snapped some photos (see the picture gallery,) of the storm from the plane.

Around 9:30/10pm PDT we landed in Burbank, CA and met with Vanessa and her Mom and Stepdad. (Ness had already been out there a week before we arrived.) They drove us back to their house in Ventura, giving us the audio tour of the area and geography on the way. We had snacks and beers when we got home, and basically just crashed. A day of travel does that to you. Early that next morning, we had breakfast and got on the road to the six hour desert drive to Las Vegas.

How’s that for a teaser?



19 Comments to “Getting there is half the fun”

  1. Flash | June 22nd, 2004 at 10:41 pm

    Dave, you’ve always been a tease…get to it already.

  2. Dave | June 22nd, 2004 at 11:08 pm

    The plan right now is one part of the story a day, for the next five or so days. Can you wait until tomorrow?

  3. ajp | June 22nd, 2004 at 11:59 pm

    no. duh. ;)

  4. Marc | June 23rd, 2004 at 9:25 am

    You know you could have asked for the full can. They’re happy to give it to you if you ask….

  5. Dave | June 23rd, 2004 at 10:04 am

    What else are they happy to give to me if I ask? We tried to get wings for Kermit, and they said no.

  6. Rich | June 23rd, 2004 at 11:36 am

    mmmm wings.

  7. Eric | June 23rd, 2004 at 2:33 pm

    All I had to do was ask? Damn.

  8. Josh | June 23rd, 2004 at 3:50 pm

    Wait a minute, I didn’t know kermit made the trip! Son-of-a-bitch, he could have went golfing with us! :)

  9. Marc | June 23rd, 2004 at 4:27 pm

    ummm…. http://marcolson.net/gallery/Vegas2004-ames/122_2209_IMG

  10. Flash | June 23rd, 2004 at 10:47 pm

    one a day, huh? it’s been “tomorrow” for almost 23 hours and it’s been over 24 hours since your last story.

    /me taps his fingers impatiently

  11. Flash | June 23rd, 2004 at 10:48 pm

    also, BRINGMESOMEGODDAMNPANCAKES!!!!

    (I’ve been thinking and saying that all day.)

  12. EJ | June 23rd, 2004 at 10:58 pm

    “one part of the story a day”, my ass.

  13. Dave | June 24th, 2004 at 12:04 am

    It’s being drafted right now, and will get posted sometime tomorrow. Come on, guys, you know I can almost never stick to a deadline.

  14. Flash | June 24th, 2004 at 8:46 am

    oh yeah? OH YEAH??? alright

  15. Marc | June 24th, 2004 at 11:20 am

    what he meant was one a month…

  16. EJ | June 24th, 2004 at 11:51 am

    Hmmm, noon and nothing. One Hit Wonder, anyone?

  17. Dave | June 24th, 2004 at 11:59 am

    OH THE PRESSURE

  18. Anonymous | June 24th, 2004 at 3:30 pm