Leaving Las Vegas

Our Las Vegas visit is down to its final day.

On Friday morning the movers come to take our belongings to the storage unit and we will be hitting the road shortly after that. I expect by noon we will be on our journey home.

Looking back on this winter, it's easily been the most stressful visit we've had in five winters we've spent in Las Vegas. Helen's broken ankle on our sixth day here dominated everything we could do for about two months. From Dec. 6 when she fell to Feb. 10 when she finally got her "Frankenstein" boot removed, our activities were very limited.

And for the past month or so, financial strains have ratcheted up the stress. My efforts to access funds from our retirement account has been a travesty in customer service. Our annuity holder operates on 1960s style technology with paper checks mailed out to customers, while the rest of the business world is comfortable with direct deposits and e-cash transfers. Anyway, we're hitting the road tomorrow.

But don't get the idea that we didn't have any fun this trip. Helen and I were able to enjoy two great shows - LOVE, the Beatles-theme show at the Mirage and Human Nature, four Aussies who sing Motown hits at the Venetian. We also saw a great concert, blues guitarist Kenny Wayne Shepherd at the Orleans.

And we had visits from Scott and our friend Gail and her husband David. Always fun to have company! We enjoyed trips to the Red Rock Nature Area with all of our visitors. Fun to show off that aspect of LV.

It will be good to get back to Michigan and see our friends. Time to get back to work writing, too. I did a bit of writing from here, but it's not easy. I'm all ready looking forward to returning next winter, so I need to line up some writing work and building a nest egg.

I've decided to save all my loose change and every day toss it in a bank I have. Then next November I'll count it out and use it for gas money to get us back to LV.  I figure about $360 ought to cover the trip, guesstimating 120 gallons at $3 each. Stash $1 a day in quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies should be do-able, right?

Thanks for reading this erratic blog. I promise to do a better job of telling our LV tales next year, when our adventure continues!!