It began for me Friday morning when I woke up at 4:30 am. I hadn't slept well, being so excited at the prospect of seeing Garth in Las Vegas that evening. Yet, I didn't really feel tired as much as excited and ready to get going to the airport.

My husband and I left for the airport around 6:00 am. We had some time to kill so we stopped at Rolling Pin donuts for a quick breakfast, then on to the airport.

Dropping me off at the AmericaWest door at the San Francisco airport, I lugged my large green suitcase to the long line and prepared to check-in. Being around 7:30 am on a Friday, the line was full of both business travelers and tourists. There was a large group of Japanese travelers in front of me. I guess they arrived in the U.S. and were heading to Vegas to check it out. Their luggage had Japanese addresses on them. I was right, as they did indeed end up on the same plane as I.

Off to the lovely x-ray machine. Out comes the digital camera and disks. They ask me to turn it on and open the lens cover. I do, and pass it and the disks through the side, and walk through the x-ray.

Recovering my belongings, I make the long trek to my gate. Why is it that no matter where I travel, or when, my gate is ALWAYS at the END of the terminal? I read my book to pass the time and wait for the plane to board.

At around 8:35 am, our plane starts boarding and I make my way to my seat near the front of the plane. I pack my carry-on under the seat in front of me and continue to read my book, waiting for the plane to take off. Everyone seems to be on the plane when I see some paramedics and firefighters get on and make their way to the rear. I figure they must be on a vacation. Still, it's odd that they'd go in uniform. Time passes by and finally there is an announcement that a lady had fallen on her way down the runway and they were looking her over. After about 30 minutes the firefighters and paramedics leave. The lady has a sprained ankle, yet she is fine to travel. We are on our way.

I arrive in Vegas about 25 minutes late, and make my way up the ramp, lugging my carry-on with me and wondering why I always pack so much stuff. The first person I see when I exit the ramp is Gretchen with a sign saying Shel on it. She explains how she thought she was going to be late getting to my gate as she arrived on United and had to travel halfway across the airport to reach my terminal. Since I was late, she had nothing to worry about. She also decided that she was checking her bag when she went home. Gretchen, unlike me doesn't pack everything she owns... or well, half everything she owns... ok, just way too much stuff. ;)

We get to National to check-in for our rental car, and Gretchen gets in line while I go get my suitcase. Luckily, while we were making our way across to the baggage claim, the airline was delivering the luggage and my case was there, intact. I check it out at the gate and walk over to Gretchen. She says she went for an upgrade for a few dollars a day more. Sounds good to me. We then make our way to the bus to take us to our car.

We're dropped off at the lot and find out that our car isn't there but will arrive shortly in the spot in front of us. We stand under the shaded parking waiting for the car. About five minutes later, an employee asks us if we've been helped. We tell him we're waiting for our car, which is supposed to be a mid-size car. He looks around and says that there aren't any available, but we can have the larger car for no extra charge. Hey, what a deal!

The car is a Chevy Malibu which I instantly love. It's a beautiful green, and it has a cassette. I whimper, wishing I had brought my Garth music on cassettes, but I didn't think we'd have a cassette or CD player this weekend, so I didn't. Rats! Well, if we'd have had the car we originally planned on, we wouldn't have had a cassette in there so it's no loss.

First stop WalMart to get our sign supplies, some soda, snacks and of course, *WATER*!! If you've ever been to Vegas, you know you don't want to drink the water. We pick out some different colors, and some white poster board for our friend Gina.

Next stop, the Quality Inn - Key Largo. We check in, and go cart our stuff to our room. Ahhh... we turn the air conditioning on high, and start unpacking our things.

Our room overlooks the pool area. Here's a photo of our view of the pool:

We make our signs for the upcoming shows, and then change into our concert gear and head out for dinner. We decided to eat at Chevy's Mexican Restaurant, which SHOULD HAVE BEEN on the strip. I wrote the address down and brought it with but 2 passes by it and it wasn't there, so we decided to head out near the venue and eat at a Mexican restaurant we saw there.

Good choice there, the restaurant was called Totos which isn't very Mexican sounding but the food was great, there was plenty of it, and the service was really good also.

View the Las Vegas Slideshow 1.

I have so many pictures that I had to make
Las Vegas Slideshow 2.

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