Yes, we have no bananas

Went to Dairy Queen and was told that they don't put cherries on their sundaes because there is a maraschino cherry shortage.  I can live with that.  But then more shortages started to appear!

Next shortage we encountered was a particular printer cartridge we needed.  Another shortage, only the Office Max guy told us it was a "worldwide" printer cartridge shortage.  Hmmmmmm.

Then we were at Subway for a quick lunch and asked for banana peppers on my sandwich.  I got the longest story from my sandwich artist (that's what they call themselves) about the fact that there was a worldwide banana pepper shortage!!  Really??  I just bought a bottle of them at the grocery store.  Maybe the shortage is why Olive Garden has limited the number of peperoncini  in their all-you-can-eat salad to TWO!  Yep, just two peppers per bowl per table.  Count them sometime if you order that.  Pray that you never have 3 people at your table all vying for a peperoncini. 

 The shortages did not end there.  We ordered the Cavs Game Pack meal at McDonalds which comes with 2 sandwiches, 2  packs of McNuggets and a boatload of fries with nacho cheese drizzled over the fries.  EXCEPT, we were told that they were out of nacho cheese.  I didn't ask if there was a worldwide nacho cheese shortage because I just couldn't take it if there was. What would people do at baseball games or carnivals with NO NACHO CHEESE??? 

Now I'm thinking there might be a conspiracy of some sort.  Let me know if you have also experienced any worldwide product shortages.  I'll start putting a list together. 

Apparently there was a worldwide banana shortage back in the 1930's when this song was first written.  Performed here by the Pasadena Rooftop Orchestra.

Zebra at the Mall

I joined the ranks of mall walkers today!  Haven't been in a mall in several years. There seemed to be a few changes since I last walked through a mall!  One thing that didn't change was the food court, however.   We had to stop and have lunch before hubby and I did our mall walk.

Once lunch was over, we started our walk and walked into children riding animals all over the mall!  We dodged zebras, lions, cows as toddlers and pre-teens zoomed around us--even the occasional adult. These riding children reminded me of the elderly on mobility scooters only more out of control! 

The nice thing about mall walking is SHOPPING!   If we wanted to rest, we could pop into a store along the way and look through the sale rack.   The Sleep Number bed store is on the route if we wanted to actually lie down!  I'm still a 65, I found out.  That's my Sleep Number, not my age!   And Spencer Gifts from way back when is still there in the mall.  But now they carry more "goth" merchandise than X-rated gag gifts like they used to sell.

It was surprisingly enjoyable to mall walk and we will probably do it some more. 

Epley

Being blond, I have been called dizzy many times.  But in late January, I started having vertigo when I laid down, sat up, bent over . . . did anything except stand upright!!!   Thinking this must be an ear infection, I went to an urgent care center in Las Vegas for treatment.

The people who were in that urgent care center were VERY SICK with horrible coughing, blowing noses, and moaning.  Worse was the lady who kept sticking Q-tips up her nose, pulling it out to examine each one and then storing them in a ziploc sandwich bag!!  At that point both hubby and I  developed NAUSEA from watching that over and over because she plopped down directly across from us.

One hour of waiting in that godforsaken urgent care turned into two and then three hours!  There was no hand sanitizer in the entire waiting room.  I had run out of my personal small bottle of Purell around hour one!  Adding to the ambience, the TV in the room was located under a flower arrangement that looked exactly like a bedpan turned on its end.   I was sure that CNN Headline News on the TV was going to announce a pandemic in Las Vegas because I was in the midst of it.  Vertigo started to seem like not such a bad thing comparatively, and I was beginning to think of how I could just live with this ailment and escape this waiting room.

Long story short, I was finally seen after three hours of awaiting.  I got drugs, a shot in the booty and instructions to come back in 10 days if things were not better.   

Thirty days came and went after which I got sicker.  In addition to vertigo I had bronchitis and ended up in the ER where I got more meds, another shot and told by the doctor that vertigo can take up to 6 months to go away.  YIKES!

Two and a half months and $8,000 later, I still had vertigo.  Until last night!!!  I was searching the internet for cures for vertigo when I discovered the EPLEY MANEUVER!  Hubby did the Epley Maneuver on me and within 10 minutes, I no longer had vertigo!   I'm sharing this as a public service so that no one else has to through this costly insanity that I experienced.  I am also wondering WHY two physicians and countless nurses don't know about and use this.

Packin

I thought that the tour leaders on the Vegas Mob Tour were going to be actors dressed up like mobsters.  Boy was I wrong!  Our tour leaders, Frank Cullotta and Robert Allen are the real deal.  And we were in a van with these guys and 12 other people who had paid $100 each to see where mobsters ate, blew up cars in parking lots, murdered people and committed robberies.  Here is a video of Robert interviewing Frank.

These guys would answer any questions we asked with honesty and well, some crudeness.  In our group was someone from 97.1 CBS Radio Detroit who was on the tour as part of a piece he's doing.  The interviewer from Detroit never asked the question that I wanted to know.  So I blurted it out!

"What happened to Jimmy Hoffa?" I asked, and then worried about the answer I was going to get.  I was told that within 3 hours of being shot, Jimmy Hoffa was ground up like ground beef at a butcher near where he was shot and thrown in the dumpster with some old ground beef.  Geez.  I'm not sure if I should be sharing that.  Am I supposed to adhere to that "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" thing?

Anyway, Robert also confided to us that the mob knocked off both of the Kennedy's and Marilyn Monroe!   So when it was time for us to have a picture taken with Robert in front of the house where Casino was filmed, I asked Robert another question.  "Bobby, are you packin'?"  He said nah.  So I wasn't worried about squeezing his arm too hard. 

An interesting thing we learned about the movie "Casino" which is based on a true story, is that Frank was Martin Scorsese's advisor on set to make sure things were authentic in the film.  Towards the end of the movie is a scene where Ginger Rothstein is assassinated in Costa Rica.  And the hit man actually was Frank Cullotta in real life.  During the filming, the actor playing the hit man kept flubbing it up and not doing it right time after time.  Frank, who was sitting there next to Martin Scorsese, got pissed, took a prop gun, walked onto the set and re-enacted how he himself had shot the guy.   Then said to the actor, "That's how it's done!"  Scorsese kept that in the film. You can see Frank at 2:17 in the clip below shooting the guy in the back of the neck.

Meanwhile, we have 1 more day left in Vegas.  Consequently, we ARE packin!

Danke schoen, Mr. Newton!

Have to admit it.  I have always disliked Wayne Newton.  Every time he would be on TV, I'd scream and run from the room.  I laughed when he was in the movie Vegas Vacation, however.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2lekJ45lmE

 So when we realized there are only a few more days left in OUR Vegas vacation, we started listing the things we have not yet done.  Two things were left:  Go on the Mob Tour (to see where the Mafia ate, drank, and planned murders in Vegas) and visit Wayne Newton's home Casa de Shenandoah.

We arrived at the front gates of Wayne's estate and there was no guard in the guard house. Yippee!  So I hopped out of the car and directed hubby to take my picture with my hands in the air as if saying, "Here I am at Wayne Newton's house!"   There I stood with my arms up in the air.  And hubby couldn't get the camera to work.  So I stood there and stood there and stood there with my hands up in the air as if the police have directed me to put my hands up!  And I kept yelling to hubby in the car, "Did you get it??  Did you get it yet?"

After what seemed like forever, hubby got the picture and I decided to peek inside the gate.  There was a museum across the street with tours and things that if I paid an exorbitant amount of money, they would open the gates to Mr. Las Vegas' estate.  But I didn't like the guy THAT much.  So I simply knocked on the gate to see if Wayne Newton was home and yelled, "Is anybody home?"

Not sure why it didn't occur to me that in this age of high tech security, there would be a lot of cameras honed in on the crazy blond at Wayne Newton's front gate yelling and holding her hands up as if she's at gunpoint.   Apparently, there are cameras and sound.  That's why security came racing across the street to find out what the heck I was doing.  I ran to the car and hubby made a quick getaway down East Sunset.

Danke schoen, Mr. Newton!

Seeing Green!

After feeling so putridly ill for the past 2 weeks which generally affected my overall mood, St. Patrick's Day in Vegas couldn't have come at a better time. So we hit Fremont Street tonight in search of a little Erin go Brauch.  I found this little fellow sitting on the bar outside the D casino on Fremont Street!

I don't know if I was seeing things or not, but there were leprechauns everywhere!

Hubby took this photo. I don't think she's a leprechaun, but she made very good use of the color green.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Bronchitis the Musical

The adventures in Las Vegas continue as I spent the night in the Summerlin Hospital Emergency Room Resort and Casino.  As I noted on my FB page, there are no slot machines in this place.  This is not like the Heart Attack Grill which I blogged about earlier.  This is the actual ER.  Went there because I'm sick.  

Yes, Sin City has made me sick.  As we walked into the ER at 11 PM, the only signs we could see were PEDS, Pediatrics, and colorful pictures along with crying infants in the waiting room.  I glared at hubby and said, "Did you bring me to a CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL????"   But after speaking with the triage nurse, she assured me this was an adult hospital.  She also looked a little relieved that they had a grown up to work on.  But I still felt funny having to tell her my weight wasn't a childsize 13.2 pounds.

Long story short, 5.5 hours later they said I have bronchitis.  They gave me meds and more meds to take home with instructions to rest (I'm in VEGAS, are you kidding me??) and to take my temp and get back there immediately if I have a temp. 

Dutifully this morning, I took my temp with my newest Vegas souvenir (a Vegas Walgreen's thermometer) and announced to hubby that something is wrong with this digital temperature taker because it says L.L6.   What is THAT error code???  He laughed and reminded me that I was blond, left-handed, Polish and had the thermometer upside down.  By the way, I feel better already.

Windy!

Only 3 weeks left here in Vegas.  So now the question becomes do we want to snowbird again next year and if so . . .where?

That led us to our journey of the day to the planned community outside of Vegas called Summerlin.  We hit the GPS and off we went to see if Summerlin would be a great place to winter next year.  As I got in the car, I noticed that my hair stood straight up from a whirling gust of wind.  I guess in Ohio when we get 45 mph wind gusts, it's a tornado and we are cowering in the basement.  But it's Vegas!  It's just wind. 

The sky grew dark as we drove into Summerlin.   But it wasn't from rain, it was sand and debris flying through the air!  I thought about sticking my head out the window because I've heard that dermabrasion is good for the skin.  Thank goodness I didn't because just then a very large tree branch blew in front of our car and hit the front grill!  That was followed by countless plastic grocery bags smacking every car and minutes later, a wet mop came flying in front of us!  And down the road a bit, a refrigerator box flew on by.  I thoroughly expected to see Elvis Presley fly across the road next.  After all, it is Vegas.

 
We loved Summerlin.  We didn't, however, like our lunch on the way home at Dona Maria's Tamales which one would think would have excellent tamales, but alas. . . . their tamales were boring.

On the way home, we smelled something burning.  Thinking it might be a car near us, we didn't think much of it.  But it continued.  We stopped the car and sure enough it was our car that smelled like it was burning!   Not wanting to end our adventurous day exploding into flames, we pulled into a Goodyear Service Center where they put the car up on the lift, removed the remaining tree branches from the grill and pointed out to us that somehow a plastic grocery bag had gotten wrapped around the exhaust system.  No worries, the burning smell would be gone as soon as the plastic bag melted off.   I wondered what a melting mop would have smelled like if it had gotten caught on our exhaust system.

This one's for you, Bill!

It's been a shitty few weeks.  After returning from my Dad's funeral, we got the awful news that our best friend at home, Bill, died.  Not able to afford the whopping $$$$ to fly back to pay our respects, hubby and I decided to do our own thing to honor our friend.

If our recent losses have taught us anything, it has taught us to do things we want to do NOW.  Don't wait.   So with that mantra in mind here in Vegas, I gave hubby a list of things we wanted see/do in Vegas before we leave for home at the end of March.

So hubby (aka Mr. Ticketmaster) got online and started booking things for us to do.  I thought he might spread things out a bit, but at this point, we have gone to 3 shows in 3 nights with more to come!  Whew!

We saw "Jersey Boys" about the life of Frankie Valli.  It was great!  That was preceded by a romantic dinner at Martorano's in Paris Casino.

Next night, we saw Santa Fe and Fat City Horns.  This band is made up of the A List background musicians from the big shows that play in Vegas like Celine, Beyonce, Donnie and Marie.  And the shows are pretty much word of mouth advertising.  Their music is awesome.  If you are ever in Vegas, they are at the South Point Casino Showroom on Monday nights at 10 PM.  Only costs $5 to get in at the door.

Last night, we went to see Penn & Teller the famous magicians.   Once we got seated, we listened to a great jazz combo entertain and we were told that all of the audience was asked to come on stage and sign a manila envelope that was to later be used in the act.  Hubby and I went on stage to sign.  We were the only ones up there since we were early.  And the music coming from this combo was great.  So I grabbed my darling hubby who had had dance lessons 15 years ago so he could dance at our wedding and he gave me a twirl right there in the middle of the Penn & Teller Theater stage--just us.  We didn't get any applause--just in our hearts.  I couldn't understand why no one else would want to do that, too!

Here's the thing, though.  Every time we have done something fun like this, we have had our best friend, Bill, or my Dad in mind.  Before every show, we play blackjack and get the requisite free drinks.  We always order Tanqueray and tonic, a favorite drink of Bill's.  And we make a toast at the blackjack table TO BILL! or TO DAD! and have everyone else there join us.  We honor those we lost and loved by doing things they would have also enjoyed.  Hope some day someone will do the same for me.

3000 Miles to Graceland

Yesterday, SPRING happened in Nevada.   Spring is my favorite season and this year because I'll be going back to Ohio in April, I get to experience spring twice!  Here is a cactus in bloom that we ran into.  Those cacti on either side, we found out later, are called "Jumping Cacti" Cylindropuntia fulgida because the parts actually jump out onto you if you get too close.  I was close and lucky I didn't get attacked!

Nelson, NV is where we ended up to see the desert in bloom.  Not an easy place to find, it turns out.  It is located at the southern tip of Nevada and has 37 residents.  Gold and silver was discovered there in 1861.  It's known as a ghost town.  And throughout the history of the town, there were disasters, killings and lots of sinister folks hanging around.  Then there were also flash floods from the nearby Colorado River that wiped out half the town!

What is left is the gold and silver mine, a ghost town and remnants of what is left.  Very fun to wander around.   The movie "3000 Miles to Graceland" was filmed there.

Not sure what happened there!  But it's also part of the town.

This is my favorite thing.  A piano sitting among the jumping cacti!!!  Name THAT tune!

 

Five miles down the road from Nelson is the Colorado River.  I took this picture with my cell phone and as eerie and surreal as this looks, that's how it was.  There were no other humans to be seen or heard there except hubby and me.  It was a place so peaceful.  That's something I needed after the past few weeks in my life.

There are no Paczki in Vegas

As someone of Polish descent, Pączki (pronounced POONCH-key) are a big part of Fat Tuesday.  In fact, in my family, it's a given that one must eat a Pączki each year on the Tuesday before Lent for good luck.

For the uninitiated, we are not talking about just a jelly donut.  Pączki are made from especially rich dough containing eggs, fats, sugar, yeast and sometimes milk. They feature a variety of fruit and creme fillings and can be glazed, or covered with granulated or powdered sugar. We are talking 450 calories and 25 grams of fat!   

Where I come from in the upper mid-west, there is a large Polish/Hungarian population and hence, there are Paczki in the grocery stores and bakeries all over the place.  Last week it dawned on me that there aren't even good donut shops in Las Vegas, let alone ethnic bakeries.  So where in the world would I find my lucky Paczki to enjoy and ensure a year ahead of good fortune??

I checked all of the local grocery stores--none.  The internet revealed ONE Polish delicatessen in Las Vegas.  And yes, they said they would have paczki!

However, I'm retired and sleep in until at least 9:30 AM (depending upon what time the Thunderbirds decide to practice over my bedroom).  By the time I rolled out of bed and got ready to leave, a phone call to the Polish delicatessen revealed that they were sold out of paczkis and had no idea where I could locate one.   The early bird gets the paczki, apparently.  I was out of luck. . . literally for the entire year.

However, I got a little text message from two young friends of mine later in the day.  They were wishing me a Happy Pączki Day and eating paczki on my behalf!  So maybe all is not lost.  Not sure if surrogate paczki eating will ensure good luck throughout the coming year.   We shall see!

Moapa Indian Reservation

Ten years ago on a visit to Las Vegas, I wanted to visit an actual Native American Indian reservation.  In the guidebooks, I found that close by was the Moapa Reservation AND they had a casino!  We hopped in the car with the directions (this was pre-GPS in the car) and off we went to find the casino.

A great big sign says "You are entering the Moapa Indian Reservation".  And after that sign, there was nothing for as far as the eye could see.  We decided to simply travel down the one road and surely there would be signs or we could see the casino or something.

On we journeyed to a crossroads.  After an argument and flip of the coin, we took the road that look most traveled.  And we drove and drove and drove.  Finally there was a little sign pointing ahead to a two pump gas station.  That wasn't the casino, we were certain.  On we traveled for miles and miles of just desert and tumbleweed until we looked at each other and said, "You don't think that gas station was . . . . . the casino!??"

We turned around and traveled back.  By this time, the entire day had been spent traveling the roads of the reservation.  If the Indians were hiding, they were doing it quite well, because we never saw a living thing!  On the horizon was the gas station again and we pulled in.  There was a little white metal building and then the gas pumps.  If nothing else, we thought we could go in and ask for directions to the casino.

I opened the door of the white metal structure and it was a tiny carryout.  On the left was a wall of about a dozen slot machines!  We had found the Moapa Casino!   I had to buy a souvenir of what turned out to be a day-long trip around the entire reservation.  I found a Moapa coffee mug on the shelf which I bought.

Having broken my Moapa coffee mug a year ago, I vowed to go back and get another one if we ever came back to Vegas.  So here we are.  Off we went to find the reservation again and replace my cofffee mug!

With a GPS, the Travel Plaza (as it is now called) was easy to find.  Now, they have an actual, yet still small, casino.  Also, now they are renowned for massive fireworks, cigarettes and booze sales tax free.  There is even a little restaurant where we had lunch.   I won $12 on a penny slot machine which paid for my lunch.

The sad part, though, is that they no longer sell Moapa Indian coffee mugs.  They had Elvis mugs!  And personalized blinking key chains.  And flipflops.  Seems like something has been lost even though a lot has been gained at the Moapa Travel Plaza.

Jordan

Anybody know someone with a new baby named Alexis?  Four weeks of embroidering pink baby things like bibs, towels, blankets in the chosen name of my soon-to-be-born granddaughter all went out the window January 28th.   Some ultrasound tech (who apparently needs more training) said GIRL 6 months ago.   Two days ago, Jordan became my newest grandson!!

I realize that all newborns look alike.  But here he is anyway.  Grandmas have to boast.

Flying Machines

These were the directions:  By the trash barrels on Hwy. 375 near Coyote Summit, take the dirt road that leads south from the highway and follow it up the hill about 300 yards off the highway.  That is where we could watch the good guys (Blue Team from NATO) and the aggressors (Red Team from Nellis AFB) engage in very realistic dogfights in the airspace over Railroad Valley and the old Cedar Pipeline Ranch.

WHAT A MINUTE!  I have seen this movie!  We end up off the beaten track getting bombed ourselves because we are in a restricted area and no one realizes we are there!!!  Having already been in one movie in Vegas, I didn't want to end up on the evening news, too. With that in mind, we instead parked ourselves at the end of the very public Nellis AFB runway to watch the planes take off and land for the Red Flag exercises in North Las Vegas.  These are very realistic aerial war games to give pilots from the U.S., NATO and other allied countries practice for real combat situations.   Here's a pic of a jet from Nellis landing with the Vegas Strip in the background.

I read somewhere that it costs approximately $5,000 every time an F-15 or F-16 takes off for an hour of practice.   I think I saw $250,000 of our taxpayer money fly by today!

The London Bridge

"I need . . .water. . . .Joe?  Are ya there, Joe?  The thirst is gonna kill me.  Water . . . need water."

That was what my younger brother would always play when he was a kid.  He'd pretend his canteen was empty and he and G.I. Joe were crawling across the desert on their bellies to find water.  Today, we drove across the Mojave Desert and I kept visualizing G.I. Joe and my brother crawling across there!  I got really thirsty, too.

We were on our way to see the London Bridge which is located not in London, England, but in Lake Havasu, Arizona!   Apparently, Robert P. McCulloch purchased this 1830 bridge and brought it to Lake Havasu piece by piece in 1967.  It took 3 years to reassemble it and now it's THE attraction in the city second only to the lake itself.

The London Bridge is the kind of thing where we said, "Ok, seen that.  Don't need to go back."  There really isn't much else to do at Lake Havasu.  We took an 8 minute ferry boat ride across the lake to California where they have a tiny casino and even smaller restaurant.

Then it was back in the car for the journey across the Mojave desert back to Vegas.  But not before stopping at Terrible's McDonald's (love the name of that place) for two large drinks.  The thirst can kill ya.

Buskers

I love Fremont Street more than the Vegas Strip because the people on Fremont Street are more down to earth.  And I win more at the casinos there.  Although I have disproved the theory several times that the slot machines closest to the front doors of the casino pay off more. 

As in many large cities, Las Vegas and particularly Fremont Street have what are known as buskers--people performing in public places for gratuities. Or pretenders.  Here are few buskers I've seen lately:

 Man Pretending to be the Easter Bunny

Pretending to be a Wench and Pirate

Pretending to be an . . .uh . . well, you get the picture.

But it's not just on Fremont Street that there are pretenders.  Right across the street from us is a cell tower pretending to be a pine tree! 

Spilled Salt

Last night,  a relation spilled the salt next to me.  I'm not naming names so that the guilty party won't be ostracized.  Yes, I'm superstitious about only ONE thing.  And that is spilling salt.  In the past, I tried to laugh it off when older family members would tell us to be so careful about spilling salt. They all believe.  But then I started to pay attention to when salt was spilled and what ensued immediately thereafter.

What I personally observed has made me realize that spilling the salt foretells bad things happening.  And it's not just to the person who spills it, but family members and loved ones.   People say that if you spill salt, simply throw some over your left shoulder and that takes care of any bad luck.  Take it from me, left shoulder, right shoulder, that does NOTHING.

So the salt was spilled last night at 9 PM PST.  Several hours later, my Dad fell, was rushed to the ER and had to have 10 stitches in his forehead.  This morning, hubby missed a step on the staircase and came crashing down on his knee cutting his hand. Some would say that this has no relationship to the salt.  I think it does. Things usually settle down about 2 weeks after any salt spillage, I have found.

Here is a list of things that have occurred directly after a witnessed salt spill.

1.  Ex. husband lost his job without warning.
2.  Grandmother died.
3.  Severe illnesses happening out of the blue to too many relatives to count.
4.  Car accidents

So I say to you, next time you spill salt, just watch what happens.  You might become a believer like me.  I've got about 13 more days to go.  I'll let you know if anything else bad happens.

Bourne Again

I was in a movie today.  Hubby and I signed up to be extras in a movie being filmed in Las Vegas.  

And that's about all I am allowed to say about the whole thing.  No kidding.  We had to sign waivers that nothing could be put on social media regarding the experience with specific references.   The production company will sue me if I do.  Production companies seem to have deep pockets (except for paying extras -- see below).  Therefore, I'll tell you some things that I think are NOT going to get me sued regarding being an extra in a huge motion picture production.

First, hubby saved my life 4 times today when simulated gunfire and panic erupted. 

I got to stand 10 feet away from Matt Damon.  He's sooooooooooooooooooo handsome and when he smiles, he's adorable.

The cheap production company did not pay us for being extras, nor did they buy us lunch!!  The extras who were SAG (Stage Actors Guild) union members of course got paid and lunch.  For a movie that will make $1 billion at the box office, they can't buy us a sandwich?  geez

What I observed of the movie making process was a study in disorganization.  It seemed to me that what they needed was a good 1st grade teacher to step in who could tell people how to line up, where to go, where to stand and when to move.  Things could get done so much faster and more efficiently.  From what I saw, movie making seems to be 90% trying to get organized.  

Rainy Day in Vegas

Light rain spreads throughout Las Vegas!!!!  OMG!!!  I have never laughed so hard at this weather report from KTNV in Las Vegas this evening.  They had two reporters out in the field because the pavement was wet.  There was .04 inches of rain that fell here today.  Link is below.

http://www.ktnv.com/news/light-rainfall-spreads-through-las-vegas

Living on the edge as we do, we decided to take a drive (in sprinkling rain!) to Henderson, NV today.  Remembering that Celine Dion lives there in Lake Las Vegas, I found her address, popped it into the GPS and off we went.  Here is the front gates of her home.  They wouldn't let us in.

The day was not a complete bust, however.   Later, we received our set passes and information packets for when we are going to be extras on Matt Damon's Bourne 5 movie.   It says right on the passes that we may not share anything in the packet with anyone or on social media -- highly confidential.  So I'll wait till it's over and let you know what happens.

The Heart Attack Grill

I felt a pain in my stomach and thought it was just hunger.  We signed in and were told to go to the waiting room where we had to put on those hospital gowns that are open in the back.  Thank goodness they let us keep our clothes on!  We were at the Heart Attack Grill in downtown Las Vegas.

Here's a picture of our nurse:

We were at the Heart Attack Grill for dinner where if a person is 350 lbs. or more, they eat for free!  Since we didn't qualify for that, I asked if we could get a discount if hubby showed his scar from his actual quad by-pass.  Nope. 

The quad by-pass burger contains 8,000 calories.  We chose the single by-pass for the simple reason that if one doesn't finish eating their burger, a nasty 4 swat public spanking with a paddle is administered by the nurse!  Interestingly noted was the fact that most male patients failed to eat their entire burgers. 

Wine is dispensed in IV bags, jello shots come in syringes and liquor arrives in a prescription bottle.  There are NO sugar-free beverages.  And the vegan menu is:

We decided that a single by-pass burger with lard crusted bun wasn't enough, so we also ordered the butterfat shake with pads of butter floating on top, and the flatliner fries cooked in lard and doused in cheese and chili. Yummy!  Can't imagine eating the 20,000 calorie burger pictured below!

After we finished our food, I had a couple of hubby's Lipitor hidden in my handbag for dessert! 

The Indoor Movie Theater

Many Saturdays when I was a pre-teen, I would go with a bunch of friends to our indoor movie theater to see various features along with a couple of cartoons.  It cost 25 cents to get in and 10 cents for popcorn.  What a deal.

What a deal for parents, too.  They could drop us off and have an entire afternoon to themselves!

The lady who managed the place always had a cardigan sweater around her shoulders and reading glasses on a chain low on her nose.  Her name was Helen and she also carried a large flashlight that she used when she walked up and down the two aisles during the show. I don't think she liked kids because one rarely saw her smile.  Helen did NOT like it if any kid put their feet on the seat in front of them.  If she caught one of us resting our tootsies on the chair in front of us, we would get thrown out of the theater.  But not before making our one phone call to home for a ride.  I'm sure parents didn't appreciate that!

Helen didn't throw kids out who paired up and were "making out" up in the front left section.  She must have been a romantic deep down. 

Today, hubby and I are going to see Star Wars at a local theater.  But this time we are going to a theater that has the most luxurious, reclining seats in town!  Not only do the leather seats recline, but they are electronically activated to move and vibrate with the movie.  Additionally, the middle arm comes up to make for snuggling area and there is a little table on which we can put our popcorn to share.

Helen must be rolling over in her grave with all those elevated feet in a theater!  But I'm sure she is also smiling at all of the romance that can happen in the new theater experience, too!

Nellis AFB

Lunch at Five Guys today on our way to do some errands.  I looked around and the place was filled with young men dressed in camo and pilots.  Turns out that the Thunderbirds are assigned to the 57th Wing based at Nellis Air Force Base by where we are living.  Gotta say that I never felt safer at lunch!  

Would love to visit Nellis, but it's not the kind of place that gives tours to just anybody.  I guess one has to have connections to get into the Thunderbirds Museum on base.  This morning, I did hear some distance jets and went outside to see some of them doing maneuvers.  They are hard to hear unless one is listening closely.  Anyway, next time I'm at Five Guys having lunch, I'll get to see them doing eating maneuvers!!  I just love Five Guys burgers!

TEQUILA!

No one won the PowerBall!!!!  That could mean a 1.3 BILLION dollar payout.  Here I sit in the gambling mecca of America and Nevada doesn't allow lottery sales.  Can you imagine?

The closest lottery sales outlet to Las Vegas is Rosie's Den and Cafe in Arizona.  Upon goggling the place, this is what I got:

THIS is what I envision happening only it's me trying to buy a lottery ticket.

What a Vista!

Last day of our journey yesterday encompassed so many different vistas that I'm not sure where to start.  Well, let's start with the most important part.  After driving for 5 days in a KIA, neither hubby nor I used the ejection seat option on each other or ourselves.  But my finger came close to the trigger!  I know that certain family and friends were placing bets on which one of us would still be in the car when we pulled into Vegas and which one would be tied to the roof (no room in the trunk).  The problem seemed to be that hubby is a morning person and I am definitely not.  My face kind of looked like this until about noon each morning of the trip when I was forced to get up at 7 AM.

 But hubby looked like this:

Altogether, not a good combination.  I'll just say that coffee solves a lot of problems.

On yesterday's trip, we drove through a winter wonderland in the mountains of Flagstaff.

Then an hour later it was desert like and barren.

Then an hour later, there it was!  I saw palm trees!

Desperado

Only got a few hours of sleep last night in Amarillo.  Not that I didn't try.  But there seemed to be some rowdy cowboys hanging out at our motel last night who decided to have one of those bar room type brawls you see on TV.   Not sure exactly where it was happening, but it was within a room or two of our room.  Arguments were happening, things were hitting walls at 3 AM.  This morning, a screen from an adjacent room was laying on bushes outside.   We made a fast getaway because I broke the card reader completely off the door of our room this morning!  I'm no good with technology especially before I've had coffee.  Blaming it on the rowdy bunch from 3 AM.  Whew, glad to be out of that place! Kept looking in the rear view mirror for the posse on horseback.  But I think those Amarillo cowboys were still sleeping it off.

Today we drove through the Texas panhandle and saw wind farms for as far as the eye could see.  These huge wind turbines quietly capture the wind and make 9% of the area's electricity.  Very eerie to see because there is nothing else around.

Tonight we are in New Mexico at an altitude of 6,100 feet and it's snowing.  Left Ohio to get out of this!

Eau de Amarillo

As we hit the city limits of Amarillo, I glared at hubby.  I thought he had (how do I put this nicely) committed an air attack, flatulence, chemical warfare, a duck call, the nether belch. . . you get the picture.  He denied it vehemently, but he always does. . . then laughs.

Well, the odor continued and the thought occurred to me that this smell could be coming from OUTSIDE the car!   I opened the car window traveling down Route 66 at 60 miles per hour and the scent of cattle poo came flying inside.  Hubby was grinning ear to ear having been vindicated.

Turns out that there are cattle stockyards on the south side of Amarillo causing the whole town to stink.  We got a really good deal on our hotel because it's located on the south side of the town.

Ate dinner at a Route 66 iconic roadside restaurant called The Big Texan.   No chicken on the menu there!

Banana Peels

A question today.  Is it littering if one throws a banana peel out the window of a moving car?  Since the banana peel is bio-degradable and an animal would surely be delighted finding it to munch on along the side of the road, I would think it isn't technically littering and a crime.  But upon reading about littering on Google while eating my banana snack in the car today, I found that ANYTHING tossed from one's car is littering and a crime.  I think it's more of a crime if you throw the banana peel out the window in front of a clown car and cause an accident when they skid on it. 

Ok, you can probably tell that it was really boring driving across Arkansas today.  Consequently, my mind was wandering aimlessly and you just got a lousy excuse for a blog post, in my opinion.  Tomorrow we drive across Oklahoma and the panhandle of Texas. 

I leave with you a beautiful sunset and jet contrails that we saw as we drove to our stopping point in Fort Smith, AR tonight.