Viva Las Vegas!

At the end of April, we flew to Las Vegas for the Broadcast Education Association conference, where I had three research presentations.

We left Knoxville on time at 3:15 p.m. and arrived in Atlanta for our connecting flight. We boarded the plane in Atlanta on time and were ready to take off, but the captain told us there was a problem with the electrical system, so we went back to the gate for the maintenance staff to take a look. This took a while since we had to taxi back to the gate.

The maintenance crew boarded the plane and determined there was an issue with the back-up generators, so we all had to get off that plane and board another one. Keep in mind this was a full flight, so it took a while for this process to occur. Once we were ready to take off, the captain told us we would be furthered delayed since the control tower had lost the paperwork for our flight and would need to refile it. Finally, we made it into the air and because of all our delays, our compensation was a lovely pair of cheap headphones. Granted, I'm grateful they put safety first and had us get on another plane, but it was still a long night.

We arrived in Vegas and took a shuttle to our hotel, and we were of course the last stop, arriving at 11 p.m. Vegas time (2 a.m. Knoxville time). The woman at the front desk informed us that our room wasn't ready since someone had checked out late. She could put a rush on cleaning it, but it would still take an hour and a half. She ended up putting us in another room for the night that had 1980s decor and a murphy bed.



This is the view from our original room. We were on the 21st floor.




See how the pool is shaped like a moose head.




We changed rooms the next day and had very nice renovated accommodations as you can see below.





I had three research presentations Thursday and Friday, so we had a little time to have some fun. We didn't gamble much, just playing a few of the slot machines. You can't smoke in the Vegas restaurants, but you can in the casinos...another reason why I don't like to gamble.

The flight home Saturday was much smoother, and Dolly and Sammie greeted us at the door, not so much because they missed us, but they were hungry!