Day 269 - Project365

If you have a free day while traveling back from anywhere and the airlines calls for volunteers to give up seats, I suggest you do it!!! Today Joyce and I were set to leave Reno at 7am. We had arrived at the airport at 5:30am reluctantly ready to bored the plane and head back to Florida. The message that they had overbooked had been announced and that they were looking for volunteers to to relinquish their seat in return for a 300.00 voucher, no one seemed to jump.

The woman in a inquisitive and almost auctioneer style said "do I hear 400.00?" then we had a few people volunteer. Joyce gave me that look and I knew just what she was thinking. 400.00 will most definitely get us pretty far. I wasn't sure at first as I had never done this before. After several minutes with no more volunteers, I decided to live on the wild side and go for it. We postponed our flight, made 400.00 and were rebooked for 3 hours later.

I figured why not bust out the camera and attempt to grab some interesting shots as I was most likely going to be with out lights for the next 12 hours. I snapped a few shots of Joyce against the rising sun light pouring into the terminal window. There were two gentleman sitting a few rows back. We started chatting it up with them and learned that they had been at Lake Tahoe for the bike and foot races. "all I have to show for it is this sunburn" the one man said. I had asked if he would mind stepping in and becoming day 269. He gave me a sad and overused excuse, "I'm in the witness protection program" I found it nesesary to inform him that I've heard that more times than I'd liked. He thought it was original. He and his friend were among the first people to turn down my request. Oh well! some people just don't want to be immortalized in Michael Herb's Project365.

Joyce and I decided we might as well take advantage of Nevada's gambling and hop on the free shuttle the new Grand Sierra Casino. Joyce was still hungry after our quick breakfast so we set out to find more food. Unfortunately everything was closed as it was barley 8am. Today seemed to be a lucky day and we were in a great mood despite having to haul 2 carry on bags a piece through the casino. We figured why not consolidate the load on our shoulders and double up the bags on the rolling suite case. This worked great until I tried to drag it up a set of 3 stairs and the handle just expelled from the case sending the 3 bags tumbling down the stairs. It may have been embarrassing if it wasn't so damn early! Stupid case on stupid stairs. Now we had to carry the bags. Joyce being Ms. Gyver figured if we used my belt we could attach it to the case and drag the case. Now we were now dragging the case as if it were a un cooperative dog. Not very classy but definitely functional. Every few minutes it would flip and we'd end up dragging it sideways. We most definitely looked like a couple a idiots with what looked like a bunch of hand me down half dead luggage. Hey… if your gonna travel cheap you can't bitch about your luggage. The suite case I brought my lights in sadly didn't make it. It was an unfortunate and untimely demise but not at all sudden. It was a long and drawn out death. I felt bad for that poor thing. It had been tossed, dragged, beaten and stuffed so many times not even tina turner would have survived this amount of torture. Take the M out of mike and what do you get!

At this point I figured it was time for a bet. Joyce and I each took 10.00 and we'd see who can make more money gambling. 20 minutes later Joyce is up 15.00 and I'm down 10.00 - Stupid slot machines! We quickly hit up Port 'O' Subs for a sub par meat sandwich. On the way out of the Casino, right as I was rounding the corner to the exit, the duffle bag I was carrying around my neck, snapped a strap not too dissimilar to when we as young, horny adolescents would snap bra straps in the hallways of school. Except this time something actually went flying… My bag catapulted off my neck like it was allergic to me. Luckily my Wacom Tablet didn't sustain any more damage. Damn this casino and its hatred towards luggage. I swear it was a conspiracy! Management didn't like that we were polluting its pristine casino floor with nasty airline luggage. Trust me Grand Sierra, I was equally un enthusitatic about lugging this shit around!

We again took the shuttle back to the Airport. but this time we weren't alone. A few strange people were joining us for the ride. One of them was even nice enough to give us this new fangled water called EvolveHP. It claims to increase oxygen utilization at a cellular level. I'm not sure it actually did anything other than make me have to pee 20 minutes later. Perhaps it was the fact that I was passing through security for the second time and had to suck it down or throw it out.

Now, for the second time, we were sitting in the terminal waiting for the flight to take off. "attention all passengers, this flight has been oversold and as a result we are looking for volunteers to give up their seats in return for a 300.00 voucher" Joyce and I looked at each other and non verbally agreed we would once again give up our seats and cash in on the voucher. I casually stroll up to the counter, wait my turn and with my smoothest voice I say "hey… so do you need any more volunteers?" the woman looked up and with a half smile and smirk said "did you already volunteer once?" in which I replied "um… ya that was us. Hey we got to fund the trip to Alaska some how!" I think thats what did it as she had told the last woman that they weren't looking for anymore volunteers. This now would bring our total up to 700.00. Got to love this shit! Making money for sitting on my ass! Joyce and I now have the money to go to Alaska. Money to survive once we get there… were working on that!

The next available flight to Palm Beach won't be until tomorrow so we have now opted to fly to Dallas tonight, Stay at a hotel and eat on the airlines dime. Not a half bad deal if you ask me… which your not asking because your reading this!

While in the TSA torture line for the 2nd time Joyce had learned that her sister Joanne was at the airport. She had noticed our FB post saying we had traded our tickets. She had come up to the airport in hopes of meeting yours truly and while she was there, seeing her long estranged Big little sister. I'm not sure what it is but I have to attribute Joyce's un natural height to the fact that she grew up in Nevada. All that Nuclear testing in the 50's and the near fact that Aliens love Nevada. Her mother is short, her sister is short, her grandma is short and her grandpa is a dwarf (not really but he's almost). Her father is maybe 5'10" so thats the only way I can figure she grew to be 5'9". She is in fact the tallest woman in her family. Anyways, that was a digression to explain the BIg little sister thing. So Joanne met us outside as we now had 2 hours to kill. What better way to do it then shop. (fun wow!) We first headed to Ross to look for a replacement to the now handicapped suite case. There was a long, scientific analysis of the two "prettiest" bags there. She got down to their level and inspected the craftsmanship, the build, the cubic inches of space, the zipper, the wheels. She took them for a test drive. First she had one in each hand then she took them for individual tests. The only thing she didn't do and not because it wasn't suggested was to shot put the fucker across the store in true baggage handler fashion. I'm confident that she made the right choice…. 45 min later "ah, I hate it. it doesn't have handle on the bottom" … 5 minutes after that "I love this thing, it rolls like a dream!" After nearly 7 months of Joyce I now just accept the frequent and often utterly confusing contradictions that spew forth from her mouth.

At the moment of typing this sentence we are cruising at 37,000 feet some where above Utah, Nevada, New Mexico or Texas. If the phone had enough service I'd be able to tell you exactly. However, even Verizon has spotty service in the middle of nowhere over 7 miles above the earth.

Other than this blog I've been kept company by Joyce's hilarious rendition of a 80 year old smoker. A raspy hoarse voice that just puts images of a old smelly woman chocking down a entire pack or pal mals while sucking on a box of wine and leaving that nasty lip stick stain on the glass. I swear if you don't look at her while she's doing this, it really does send chills down your spine. You'd think your grandma is sitting next to you. Not my grandma of course but that one where you shudder at the mere thought of having a smudge on your face in her presence. "Come here, you little shit. Let ole grandma get that off" as she sticks her decrepit, long, nicotine stained finger in her moist smokey mouth only to pull it out with a generous glob of god only knows what. "don't squirm so much, you little shit" Can you picture it?

we arrived in Dallas just after 8:30pm. All I can say is that this airport is HUGE! It took 15 minutes from touch down to terminal and another 20 minutes from terminal to the outside. Along the way I saw the quintessential Texas cowboy. He was even traveling with a saddle as his carryon! I would have asked to take his picture but he looked to be in a huge hurry and we were rushing to get to our hotel before they stop serving food.

We were given a voucher for a free night at the Hyatt Regency. Rooms are 200.00 a night and water is 4.00 a bottle. I knew right away that the 24.00 they gave us in meal vouchers wasn't even going to cover half of what dinner would cost at any of the 3 restaurants in the hotel. Since it was late and we were hungry we bit the bullet and dropped 34.00 after the voucher. I ordered a wedge salad with a grilled chicken breast which was to say the least, lack luster. When you pay 17.00 for a salad you should get more than 5 pieces of diced tomato!! Joyce's meal was worth the 28,00 as she got a huge sage marinated chicken breast over a bed of wild rice in some sort of very light tomato marinade. All together we left full. However, I would not go there if I was paying out of pocket 100%

So thats it… I budgeted for 3 weeks and just spent my last dime… and not with a second to spare. Tomorrow returns us to our regularly scheduled Project365

Lighting:

Natural Sunlight.