THE VEGAS BLAST!!!!!!
Now before I start, I have one Huuuuuuuuge THANK YOU for Whip_Lady. Without Whip, this page wouldn't exist. She worked very hard on this page. All the pics were too big and she re-sized every one of them for me. Lori, you're great, thanks a million. I couldn't have done this without you. Now I owe you big time, use this favor carefully! LOL
All the pics on this page are thumbnails. Click on the pics to see a bigger version.
Fluff and I left Calgary on Thursday, October 19, 2000. It was fluff's first time ever to fly. The first take off was a little rough and I'm quite grateful that she didn't throw up on the plane. She turned a few different shades of green but she did great! The pilot just wanted to give us our money's worth I think. Our travel agent sure didn't give us the best schedule. We had to spend 4.5 hours at the airport in Denver. That was quite an adventure in itself! What a day that was!!!
Our first picture, the airport in Denver... Fluff on the left and Missy on the right
If you're like us and still part of the smoking minority, you don't want to be stuck at the Denver airport for very long. We had to walk about 3 miles to get to a small lounge, the only place where you can smoke in the airport, and we had a drink. A very expensive drink if I might add!!! Then we had something to eat and played a few games of real crib. Wow... People in Denver are anything BUT friendly. Talk about rude and miserable people! Nowhere did we meet someone who was nice to us in that airport. After looking at a directory of the place, we realized there was another smoking lounge somewhere. There wasn't a single door to go outside. When we asked directions to the other smoking lounge, we were told that we had to take the train to get there!!!! So we're on our way to.... baggage claim... on the train!!!
Fluff on the train at the Denver airport
Finally, the wait is over and we're on our way to Vegas!!! Seemed like we'd been gone a week already. We were supposed to meet Cribbie at the Vegas airport but he took a different exit and we missed him. After waiting about 40 minutes and walking around looking for him, we gave up and left. We took a bus shuttle to the hotel. When the driver took the luggage out of the bus, I couldn't find mine. Then I realized that some woman had taken off with my luggage instead of hers. So I went running after her and that's when Cribbie grabbed me. He was standing right there at the door. We checked in, and we headed to the Splash bar where everyone was supposed to be. Right!!! No one there we recognized. We arrived at the hotel after midnight and it was well after 1am by then. So we sat at the Splash bar and had a drink. Then I see this woman walking toward us... she looked kinda familiar. HOTTTTTTTTTTT !!!!! We hugged and introduced ourselves and she took us to another bar where the rest of the crowd was. There we met Hook, Kim and a few Yahoo people. We were there quite late and we left a "little" tipsy... this was only the beginning...
Capt_
Hook, Missy, Fluff and HOT (cribbie is getting the drinks!! lol)
I'm not sure who went back to the room first... or how we even got there. We got lost a lot in that hotel... But it seemed like we had been sleeping only for a few minutes when Cribbie got in and woke us up at 7am... He just wouldn't shut up. Then he wanted to talk on the phone... He found Jeff's phone number in his pocket and tried to call but he couldn't even get an outside line! Consider yourself lucky Jeff, trust us on this one!!!! Then he called the front desk. Oh boy!!! We're not exactly sure why, but he had quite the conversation with the person who answered the phone. HOT was afraid he would get us kicked out of the room. ROFL. We laughed so hard, we were crying. And Cribbie was dead serious during the whole conversation, talking to the front desk about being in the penalty box and please don't kick us out. Eventually he hung up. Fluff was faking being asleep during all this... but HOT got her to react with the simple comment that "married people are used to faking sleep" and Fluff's answer was "you bitch!". LMAO
HOT and I stayed up...Cribbie probably passed out at some point, I don't remember (if he didn't we would have probably knocked him out anyway!). And Fluff...she eventually crawled out of bed too. A few hours later, all 4 of us were awake, showered, and ready to start all over again....
cribbie
HOT
Fluff
The four of us went for breakfast (lunch) and gambled a little (hummm...), Missy and Cribbie played Keno while they were eating... Missy won a big $1 and Cribbie won $3.... we had a drink or two (or three, or four, or five, and who the hell was counting anyway????). We went back to the room and Missy called 2121 at his hotel... of course he's not there. She left a message but forgot to leave her name. After all, he should know who it was!! And he did too! Good guess David!!! Then we kinda all went our own ways I think... Fluff and I played a lot of the slot machines. Did we win? Of course not, what a stupid question!
OMG, Friday night comes.... Crib room... at the registration desk we met Speed... uh oh... He and I hugged, exchanged a couple of words and that was it. Rick comes over to meet him... OMG Rick... noooooo pleaaaaaaaaase.... I didn't quite get everything that was said between them, I just saw the expression on Rick's face and that was enough for me... I took Rick to the other side of the room for a few minutes and then he went back. More words were exchanged. Didn't look that bad... Rick went back a third time to say that he was willing to move on and shake hands with speed, but speed had already left by then. PHEW!!!! No trouble!!!! Speed, if you read this, IT'S OVER... thank God!!!
Most of us had already met by then. Except for Stunners. Lois sees us first... we hugged and it was so cool to finally meet face to face. Then Bev, same thing there. And David and Tom were sitting and playing crib.... They looked up at us, said hello, and went back to their game... Men....
Dave (Stonecold_2121, baseball cap), Lois (Stonecold_EZ) next to him, and Bev
(Stonecold_Lucky, purple) and Tom (Stonecold_Major)
David, Lois, Catamont (blonde) and Scottish_Outlaw. David... keep your
hands on the table where we can see them!!!
The tournament finally starts... I won my first game against an ACC player (WOOHOO), lost the second to a cheater!!! A Yahoo guy I think, who kept looking at the card every time he cut the deck (until I got mad!), knocked the pegs over and just put them back on the board... (hell if I knew if it was right, shit!). Then I'm playing Tom and Rick is playing Cribbie.... Go CribGreats!!!! Great job Rick, we both won. Tom is done, Rick will meet Cribbie later and win again. WTG Rick!!! Sorry Cribbie. :-)
CribGreats win, woohoo!!! This round....
David is kicking Rob's (CribGreat_meyer) butt here, and Tom and Missy
are looking on....
David (look at that grin, I wonder who he just beat...or what he's
thinking....!) next to him is Scottish_Outlaw and behind at the other
table is Fluff.
Fluff did really well in singles, she went almost to the end. We thought for sure she was going to win some money. We were all cheering for her!!! She beat Lois here!! WTG Flufferooooooooo.... Sorry Lois. :-)
At this point most of us were wayyyyyy too busy partying to follow what was happening in crib land until the games were over. And then one would always ask who won, and we'd be happy for them or get them to party with us.
Now it's PARTY time people... If you were sober, we probably don't remember you that night. You definitely had to be one of us drunks to be able to stand us for the rest of the night for sure. When you look at all these pictures, please keep in mind that ALCOHOL RULES from here on end!!!!
Cribbie met his doubles partner for the next morning, Jeff, aka Steelyourcrib, aka Desert_Shark (the one who almost got a phone call at 7am).
Cribbie on the left and Jeff on the right
Missy, HOT, and Jeff behind us
Rick and Cribbie
Missy and Cribbie
Missy, Capt_Hook, Rob behind us and Rick 
Rob, Missy, and Rick
Missy and Rob
Capt_Hook and Rick, and Rob (baseball cap) and Cribbie
Goddess_ladida, One_God0, and HOTGoddess 
The night doesn't stop here... far from it. Tom took me on a grand tour of the hotel in a wheelchair. It suited me just fine, I couldn't walk anyway. Not sure where it started but I know that I don't know where it ended, it just seemed like the middle of nowhere. Then we said good night and he left. I was lost.... there is a God because I ran into Rick... he took me to the restaurant where Fluff and Cribbie were sitting. Thank you Rick!!! I don't remember how or when we all went our own ways... Rick must have left before us because Fluff and I took Cribbie to Rick's room later that night.
YO RICK!!!! wakey wakey.....
I don't remember if Fluff and I went back to the room or gambled some more... it was quite late, or very early anyway by the time we got to bed... Wake up call at 9am... We had this bloody doubles tournament that started at 10am... That was rough! Cribbie looked like he had died a few times during the night... he was green from head to toe. None of us fared too well in the doubles... Hot and I and Stunners were eliminated in the first round (glad we beat them though!). Fluff and Cribbie were partners (Jeff didn't make it back lol) and they won the first round but lost in the second. Rick and Rob did a little better I think and went to the 3rd or 4th round before losing.
I didn't take any pictures that day, we all looked like hell. Besides I didn't have the energy to even hold the camera. We all went back to the room to try to take a nap in the afternoon. It didn't work. We were probably just over-exhausted. We rested for a few hours anyway. Around supper time, Fluff and I left with coupons to go get some free stuff in the casino. I spinned a wheel and won a t-shirt. Fluff got a coffee mug and I got a deck of cards for freebies. How appropriate!
I thought if I had a few drinks it would put me to sleep eventually. RIGHT!!! I went back to the room, and got Fluff. We went walking around the casino (I think Cribbie was with us then too, no idea where HOT was) and we ran into Tom and David at a poker table. So I figured I'd sit there and have a free drink. Hell, you gotta be gambling to get a free drink. No problem... So I ended up paying $95 for that free drink!!! Fluff and Cribbie left and I stayed there with Tom and David.
Now... listen to this... the jackpot for a Royal flush is $86,000+. Tom gets his cards. He looks at the first one, ace of hearts. Second one, king of hearts. Third one, Queen of hearts. Holy cow!!!!!! He doesn't want to look anymore. Fourth card, 10 of hearts. HOLY SHIT!!!!!! We're both getting excited now, and he looks like he's going to faint... fifth card... ten of clubs. WTF?????? Damn.... you can't get any closer than that without winning... So, so sorry Tom....
Eventually somewhere at some point I ran into Fluff again because we both sat all night and played more slot machines.... oh and don't forget more alcohol too... We won some but ended going to bed broke, kinda. We got back to the room at 6am and... HOTTTTTTTTTTT...... rise and shine girl!!!! ROFL About an hour later, a knock at the door. It's Bev (Goddess_ladida) who's moving in with us for the last day. It's getting harder and harder to get out of bed.....
Missy on the left and Fluff on the right... LEAVE US ALONE!!!
Wow, Cribbie even looks more awake than we are!!! Scary
thought... 
Sunday morning...we haven't been outside of the hotel yet and we've been there 2 full days already. So Fluff, Cribbie and I go to a coffee shop on the strip for breakfast. We stopped in just about every store on the street along the way. We were gone for about 5 hours. We took pictures of a few things...
Paris in Vegas, the Eiffel Tower 
Now this one was quite cool... the water was dancing to music... the Bellagio Hotel
The Mirage Hotel 
Back to the hotel....this is our last night in Vegas and we're going to make it count!!! We all decide to get drunk... very drunk... imagine that! ROFL
Just to show how smart drunks are, this is Bev in the picture (ladida)... we both take a
picture of the other at the same time. She must have a great picture
similar to this one..
WOOOOHOOOOO look at those legs!!!! OHHHHHH BABY!!!! 
ELVIS LIVES!!!!!! 
Have another drink Barb, you look sober!!! 
Now
Fluff on the other hand....
Oh and don't forget Ladida.... 
Now, now Barb and Cribbie....
That night, my stomach told me to quit drinking, like enough is enough already. I drank more in 4 days than I did in 10 years!!! I went to bed shortly after 3am... at 4am Cribbie walks in with fluff, oh no!!! He sits on my bed and to wake me up he shakes me like a madman... Jerk! lol Oh he woke me up alright... he also managed to send 4 days worth of alcohol straight to my head that gave me a monster headache. Then he and Fluff left again. I couldn't go back to sleep. I took 2 Advil and went for a walk outside in the fresh air. Then I sat at the slot machines for a while. I couldn't remember the last time I ate so I went for breakfast, I figured I must be hungry by now. Besides I didn't want to wake anyone else in the room before it was time. Check out was at noon but Barb's plane was leaving at 1:30 so I knew she'd be up early.
I went back to the room at about 7:30am and Barb and Bev were awake. Cribbie and Fuff walked in about 1/2 hour after me. Cribbie drank and gambled all night. Fluff sat by the pool and read a magazine. Cribbie is the only one who got any sleep that morning. Barb and Bev left to go for breakfast and the 3 of us met them at the coffee shop later. One_God and his wife were there too. It was time to say goodbye...
Barb and Bev say goodbye... 
Missy and Barb say goodbye
And now we're all going in different directions... Cribbie's plane was leaving at 11:30pm, Gawd I wouldn't have wanted to be in his shoes!!! He came with us to the airport, our plane was leaving at 3:48pm... We said goodbye to Cribbie and we went to check in... We met Bev (ladida) there, her plane was leaving 20 minutes after ours, she lives in Brooks, about 2 hours outside of Calgary. She waited until it was time for us to board and we said goodbye to Bev.
Fluff and I were on our way to L.A. where we had a two hour stopover before finally flying home. We had been warned about LA airport.... 2 hours there sure wasn't too much time, not like our 4.5 hours in Denver a few days before. A bus took us from where we'd just gotten off the plane to the other side of the airport to make our connection to Calgary. There, we found a door to the outside world, so we took advantage of it to go for a smoke and take a few pictures.
Los Angeles Airport... or parts of it 
Our plane is delayed a little more than 1/2 hour but we finally board... The 3 hour flight allowed us to take a little nap. And finally we're home!!!!!
STUNNERS... LOIS (EZ), BEV (LUCKY), DAVID (2121), AND TOM (MAJOR), RICH (One_God) AND RENEE (his wife), BEV (ladida), BILL (cribbie), LORETTA (hook), AND, OF COURSE, MY BOYS RICK AND ROB, AND BARB (HOT).... VEGAS WAS A TOTAL BLAST AND I'M SO GLAD I GOT TO MEET YOU ALL. What a great bunch you all are!!!!
Fluff, I'm very happy that you could make it. You were not only a great travel companion, we just had a great time, period! Now we have to do lunch in Calgary to compare pics!!
HOT, I couldn't have had a more perfect roommate. You were great... I'm not sure another one would have accepted 4 (because 5 was YOUR doing lol) in the room without a word... We had a blast and I don't regret one minute of the entire weekend. Even if it almost killed me! LOL
See you all next year!!!!
!!!!
