We've made it to Las Vegas with no major problems, but plenty of fun travel adventures.

We left Sunday morning about 6:45 and drove south to Chicago before snow began snarling traffic and slicking the roads. Chi-town radio was going bonkers with dire warnings of bad roads and bad weather, but it was really no problem for any experienced northern Michigan driver. They were lamenting that Chi-town was gonna get 1 to 3 inches Sunday and another 1-3 on Monday. We rolled through that and the snow was pretty much over by the time we crossed the Mississippi River at St. Louis. We hit another patch of flurries near Rolla, Mo. where we spent the first night. We'd been on the road for about 13 hours, stopping only for gas. We had packed several p&j sandwiches and a few apples for nutrition. Dinner that night was a tasty deep dish pizza from Papa Johns, delivered right to the room.

We hit the road early on Monday, rolling out of Rolla about 7 a.m. Heading west, we went into Oklahoma, through the northern Texas panhandle and into Santa Rosa, NM, just east of Albuqueque where we spent the second night. It was another 13 hour driving day, but Helen was a real trooper. We made no stops, except for gas. Dinner this night was some burgers and fries from a nearby fast food joint.

Another early start on Tuesday as we sailed out of Santa Rosa about 6:45. The scenery along I-40 was stunning, with bright blue skies and vast horizons. It's really "Big Sky Country" but also has some real pockets of poverty along the highway. We were able to roar along about 80 mph, since the speed limits are pretty much 75 all the way.

Crossing into Arizona, the scenery changed as the altitude climbed. Instead of the arid New Mexico territory, we rolled into hilly, even mountainous, turf that is covered with pines. Northern Arizona is somewhat similar to northern Michigan, but about 40 degrees warmer with no snow right now. We clipped along, passing Prescott and reaching Kingman (birth place of Andy Devine) about 3 p.m. That's when I phoned the apt. management and let them know we were on our way. Kimberly, the mngr, said they close the office at 5 p.m. so we had to be there by then to get our keys and check in. She was skeptical that we'd make it, but I assured her.

So we set the cruise control on the quick side of 80 and kept a sharp eye out for patrol cars. It's 100 miles from Kingman to LV, but you also have to cross the Hoover Dam and traffic there can slow to a crawl - like 5 mph. Plus we had to navigate LV freeways during rush hour...

Anyway, we arrived at 4:45, got our keys and unloaded the car into the apt. We had no place to sleep and considered staying at a LaQuinta hotel which is right next to the apt. But I really wanted to stay in our new home, so Helen and I went looking for a futon, which we plan to use for a couch and a bed for visitors. Luckily, we located Futons4Less, only two miles from us on West Sahara. After about 45 minutes of checking out the inventory, we bought a futon and mattress, plus a platform bed with a great mattress, plus an end table that the guy was selling cheaply.

But it was already about 7 p.m. and the guy couldnt deliver the futon and bed until the next day, so we were still without a place to sleep. We decided to take the futon mattress to the apt and use it to sleep on the floor, LOL! It worked great! We had a good night's sleep in our new place and awoke fresh and ready on Wednesday to get the new apt. in order.

After buying the futon, we went to our storage unit and took a load of items to the apt. That included our kitchen, bathroom and other items we left there since last year. On Wednesday, I finished emptying our storage unit, bringing our TV and TV stand to the apt. Also on Wednesday, we called the local cable company - Cox Cable - and got the TV going, but had trouble getting the internet service working.

I had to make three calls to Cox today to get it all squared away, but now we're up and online.

This morning we went to Target to buy some kitchen knives, a set of flatware, a wine opener (to open a gift bottle that the apt manager presented us) and a stock pot to use for pasta. We'll be using that pot to also fire up some popcorn tonight - that's our wild Vegas lifestyle, LOL!

Today I had my first gambling trip to the strip. Not real profitable, but a lot of fun. I got down there around 10:15 a.m. and started out winning at blackjack at Bally's. Then played in an 11a.m. poker tourney there, finishing in the mid-20s out of 48 players. Crossed the street to Bill's Gambling Hall and dropped a few more dollars playing BJ before winning some back at a goofy game of Blackjack Switch. You play two hands and can swap cards between the two hands. That's the advantage. The disadvantage is that blackjacks only pay even money and if the dealer's hand hits 22, it's a push.

After playing there, I wandered next door to the Flamingo, where I suffered a real lip-beating at blackjack there. Hand after hand saw me either busting out or losing to a dealer's better hand. That can happen at bj and you just have to recognize it and try to limit the losses. After that losing session, it was already 2:30 p.m. and I was ready to head home.

Along the way, I made a $30 4-team hockey parlay bet for my good friend Terry. He'll collect $910 if it hits tonight. I also picked up a 5-team football teaser bet that will pay me $100 if...err, when, it hits.

That pretty much catches us up to date. More LV adventures tomorrow...