September 24 – Moving On

First a country comes to town story about Vegas.

We splurged and stayed at the Bellagio and upon arrival in the room I looked over a basket of goodies and jokingly said, “Look honey they have a gift basket just like Holiday Inn has for Priority Club Members,”  I lifted each item from the basket telling Nancy what it was; knowing all along that it was the mini-bar food and very expensive.  I mean like a bag of Lays is $3.00.  Clever me.  Funny me.  Until the bellman came with the luggage and began to show us the room features.  He concluded with the comment, “Whatever you do don’t touch this food unless you want it.  Each item has a sensor that automatically charges it to your room bill if you move it.”

What!!???

Called the front desk and yep I had run up a $63 min-bar bill and hadn’t opened a bag.

Of course they were nice enough to credit me once I told them what had happened.  Guess I’m not the only Yahoo that comes to town.

We rolled out of LV about 9:30, covered ground we had covered yesterday going through Boulder City and Hoover Dam.  We moved on until we hooked up with I-40 and then it was non-stop to, you might know, Albakirkie, 535 miles of hard road.

We did so with a degree of regret as we passed by towns that had been on our main route coming out.  Once in while we glimpsed the old road and it seemed to beckon for our return.  It is not practical for such highways to exist anymore it swwms.  We all have to get to where we’re going as fast as possible.  Yet now I know what the modern world has made me miss.  Towns like Baghdad and Oatman and Grants and Winslow.  Places where real people live real lives of “quiet desperation” per T.S. Eliot.  Places like Madison and Hartsville.  Places that I know and that know me.

Tomorrow we’ll make Oklahoma.

Life is good if somewhat melancholy at times.