BAM BAM - BAM BAM BAM

Day 1 - Scramble, squadron scramble!

With a three year backlog of no trips to Vegas, the Quad Queen was still champing at the bit for more Vegas action, and with the weather cold in Florida, why not head back to Vegas, where the weather was also cold, but it's Vegas?

We'd originally booked Christmas week, flying out Christmas Eve (connecting through Denver) and returning New Years Eve.

Then Mother Nature pooped a nuclear typhoon bomb blizzard cyclone on everyone.

United issued a travel change waiver, and it looked like I could secure a room at Mandalay Bay, so we rebooked for two days earlier to avoid all the consternation and precipitation. And, our flights connected in Houston, not Denver. Lesson learned!

And, for good measure, we added a day on the end.

From the previous trip report, the Quad Queen had COVID, but she was pretty much over it. I'd tested negative through the whole week.

As this storm thingy moved in we realized we'd made the right move. There was a delay leaving Tampa, but we had a long layover in Houston, so we figured the connection would not be a problem.

In Houston, we had time to grab some food (not trusting the promised dinner on the next United leg) and Mrs. Flusher had this horrid burger from Steak 'n Bake or whatever it is. The thing was just ratty, gray, and gross.

Meanwhile, I had some Chinese from Panda Express and shockingly, it was, hot, freshly made, and delicious in every respect. I completely lucked out. Probably the best 'mall' Chinese food I've ever had.

The Rubble's boy has an eponymous food 'concept' at George Bush Intercontinental Airport.

There were various exciting sites to see at the airport.

At the gate, the announcement dance began. The plane was there and ready to go but we were waiting for a flight attendant, who was in the airport (they said), but had to make her way to the gate. Then the attendant's plane had landed and she was almost here. Then the attendant was waiting to depart the aircraft and swiftly make her way here.

Finally, after an hour of standing around waiting in line, we saw The Attendant arrive. And she spent a good three or four minutes shooting the shit with the gate agent. This angered me.

Aboard and on our way to Vegas, we enjoyed a drink or three, and the in-flight dinner. The choices were all really odd, weird things - where was a hunk of chicken, or a moo-moo steak??? It was all capiche this quinoa vegan that, flouncy no-protein crackery selection this, or... a fancified cheeseburger. Of course, we opted for the cheeseburger (with recovered ocean plastic free range flouncy quinoa vegan salad) and it was absolutely horrid.

The best part was the A1C 10,000 chocolate caramel puck cake for desert. I stopped after half of it when my fillings started to vibrate with the sugar radiation.

We made it to Vegas, picked up our luggage, grabbed a cab, and made our way to Mandalay Bay.

The phone check-in worked like a charm, and the electronic key also worked.

The room, however, had issues. For starters, pieces of broken candy cane on the toilet room floor, including wrapper. I'm talking big hunks, some of which had gotten sort of glued to the floor.

I did what any practical husband would do - got on my fucking hands and knees after a 11 hour trip and cleaned up the worst of it myself before the Quad Queen saw it. I'd deal with them tomorrow about this, and more, as you'll see in the next post.

Although we were very tired and sore, we had to hit the casino, which is the whole point of it all.

We each got a quad and a couple of drinks, and some water for the room, and headed up to Candy Cane Dreamland.

Quad Queen -$40
Royal Flusher +$110

Trip +$70