Day 1
We began our excellent adventure the way countless others have before, by spending weeks packing clothes, arranging flights, taking care of last minutes catastrophes, making sure substitutes will fill in where we normally are, and generally stressing ourselves out so bad that we nearly kill each other. We finally get into the car, and head down the road; and a wonderful peace comes over everything -- we are finally commited to a vacation. The drive to St. Louis is complicated only when we travel through road construction on the north side of St. Louis. 270 to 70 to 170, and we're driving by the airport. The in-laws don't want us to park in the long-term lot at the airport, they want us to park where Sam and Audrey, and Karol and Ken always park, The Drury Inn parking lot. We see the sign, but can't figure out how to get there. We find the road, but discover the Drury sign we saw was for their offices, not the hotel, it's down the other way. Then we end up heading into the wrong parking lot, and have to reverse back to the road (there was no way to turn around). We finally find the correct lot, get parked, and catch the shuttle to the airport. We head to the Northwest Airlines counter to check in. The ticket agent asks us if we'd rather take a TWA flight leaving the same time, but flying non-stop. No additional fee. We say yes, and head for the TWA counter, as the line behind us starts growing, I recall a vaguely heard news report about labor problems with TWA, and begin wondering if this was such a good idea. I get to the front, and get our seats -- none of them anywhere close to each other, but the agent assures us that the flight attendants could take care of that. After a hastily eaten, $21 lunch, we board the plane, where thanks to a couple of friendly and cooperative fellow passengers, we end up sitting together. Now comes the worry time -- 3 yr old Laura has never been in any form of aircraft, will she flip out? No, thank goodness, she thinks it's lot's of fun. Our cabin crew is not the crew that's supposed to be there. The labor problems have stranded our flight attendants in another city. The airline asked for volunteers to leave hot, steamy St. Louis, for not quite so hot, and very dry (and presumably more interesting) Reno Nevada. We had 4 stewardess's in 3 variations of uniform -- all very happy about going to Reno. Thanks to the change in flight we end up in Reno about 3 hours earlier than we expected, and we needed to call for our ride to Carson. Let's see, video game room, slot machine, slot machine, slot machine, slot machine, slot machine, slot machine, slot machine, slot machine, slot machine, slot machine, slot machine, slot machine, slot machine, slot machine, ah, there's some pay phones. We call, and 2 hours later, our ride arrives (needless to say, where Laura enjoyed most of a 5 hour flight, she found 2 hours at the airport far less enjoyable). We head out into the mountainous desert where 45 minutes later, we reach Carson City. Ken, Louise, Bob and Rosa are ready to eat. We're still on central time -- it's midnight for us, we'd rather sleep, but instead we start on what will be the first of many very large meals in resturants during our stay. As we head for the ranch (such as it is) we notice nearly everything advertises the availability of the Slots, Poker Slots, Totem Poles, Keno -- Liquor store and Casino, Bridal Chapel and Casino, Proctologists and Casino, Funeral Home and Casino. In our semi-concious state we find it all very funny. We get to our home for the next week, and crash into bed.
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