Back in circulation!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

LAS VEGAS, NV -- I am writing tonight's blog on a brand new laptop which we bought this morning. After clear indications that our old one was failing rapidly, it finally gave up the ghost. No amount of tapping, button-pressing, plug-pulling or even silent prayer would get it going again. At seven years of age, the laptop had become a better doorstop than anything else, but for those years, it served us well.

So, after picking up some groceries this morning, we headed to a local Best Buy and talked to Eric, a young man with lots of advice on what would serve our particular needs well. We've got a Samsung that's sleek, lightweight, and with plenty of memory and other good things.

Val devoted the rest of the afternoon to setting everything up; a tedious and frustrating process which he tackled with great patience and few swear words. The reward of seeing e-mails from family and other helpful information from the Internet was most gratifying! There are still installations and preferences to settle, but we're connected at least, and that means a lot.

So, now I can catch you up on what has happened yesterday and today. Yesterday we walked over to the section of Las Vegas Boulevard known as The Strip and caught the double-decker bus to ride it to the end of the line and back. We got excellent seats, on the top deck at the front, so we could see all the amazing hotels, colourful landscaping, flashing billboards and passing throngs. We also hopped off to pick up our tickets for the show we went to tonight, at Bally's, and grabbed a sandwich before heading home.

When we came full circle, we returned to the trailer for a quiet afternoon, including a nap, to get ready for our night out. We had tickets to see Jersey Boys, the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, at the Palazzo Hotel. It was a terrific show! Excellent acting, stage effects and, of course, all the old songs we listened to in our teen years, performed perfectly. We really enjoyed it. And when it ended, we walked out of the theatre and virtually straight onto the bus which took us back to our RV park.

This morning was our shopping session. We wanted to stock up on food so that when we leave tomorrow, we can save time at the campgrounds by not unhitching the truck. It's much easier to shop without dragging the trailer along!

Our evening's entertainment was Jubilee! -- a traditional Las Vegas show with chorus dancers in feathers and rhinestones by the ton, gents in top hats and tails, as well as acrobats between set changes. They depicted the story of Samson and Delilah as well as the sinking of the Titanic, with spectacular sets and lighting, and even pyrotechnics. A glittering show! We weren't quite as lucky with the bus this time, but the crowds were in good spirits, so it wasn't tedious.