First day in Vegas, Saturday, Oct 23rd

As you probably already know... I hate flying! I seem to do better on shorter flights, but a touch of vertigo and turbulance usually spells disaster for me. And no, even though we were in 1st class, I only had 1.5 drinks! I spent much of the flight in the lavitory and was greatful to finally arrive in Las Vegas, and to our relief, with all of our luggage!

We arrived quite late to the South Point Casino, which is about 4 miles South of the Mandalay Bay hotel. Since we missed the courtesy shuttle (last pick up was 9:30 and we got in around 10), we ended up taking the airport shuttle to the hotel. The van was old and I think our driver was retired from the demolition derby circuit, since we almost hit 2 light polls, ran over a curb and hit every bump in the road along our 5 mile journey.

We arrived at the hotel and were quite relieved to find a clean hotel room well equipped with a nice 42 inch flat screen TV! Although well appointed and quite large, apparently towels and hangers are a premium and have required several calls to housekeeping to get more than 2 of each.

One nice feature of this hotel for me is the state of the art indoor equestrian center, which was hosting the California Saddle Horse championships this weekend. So, while Rick obsessed about when he could get his bowling balls, I sat and watched the show. Although we shipped the bowling balls and they arrived Tuesday, they were stored till 9:30 tonight, so I've been dealing with "Nervous Nelly" all day. Rick spent the better part of 2 hrs in panic mode, when he wasn't able to locate his stuff, but found just about everyone elses' (253 other competitors) equipment. The boxes finally showed up about 2 hrs ago in a back hallway of the bowling center and Rick is still wearing holes in the carpet, since he can't physically get everything situated.

As the bowling ball drama unfolded, we caught up with Kip and Trip Roberts, from VA, who were planning on driving to Vegas. We found out that they ended up flying out of Nashville, after a bad car accident which totalled the car, and luckily left everyone uninjured but shaken up.

We tried our hand at a few slots and are only down a little. We have decided it's much better to play during the day, the place isn't as crowded, smokey, and the cocktail waitresses seem to deliver drinks quicker.

Tomorrow starts tournament practice at 7:30 AM and with 254 competitors bowling, should be interesting. Thankfully, the horse show ends tomorrow, since Rick is worried my viewing priorites might be a bit out of whack.

Count down to the WSOB..T-Minus 36 hrs.