It's about 3:15am on Thursday morning, but my Wednesday is just wrapping up. My parents, sister and niece are in town visiting and my plan was to head over to the Silverton where they are staying, have breakfast with them, drive my sister and niece to the airport so they could fly to San Diego for a wedding, take my parents back to my house and cook them dinner. The plans needed some slight tweaking as the day progressed.
The breakfast was fine and everything seemed to be going smoothly until about an hour before leaving for the airport.
About an hour before leaving, Danielle called and said that my sister's flight was delayed. So we bummed around Silverton for a little while and I caught my first picture of snow falling in the Vegas valley outside the Silverton valet area.
The valet pulled my dad's rental van and we hopped in, right after taking another picture of the snow.
Before heading down to get the van, I shot this pic out of the window of my parent's room at the Silverton. Quite a view, eh? I couldn't believe I was actually seeing snow accumulate in Vegas!
This is the first snowball that I've made in almost two years. The last snow that I was in before today was midway through Oklahoma when Chris and I made our epic trip to Vegas.
Once we got on the road and heading to the airport, I realized how serious the situation was becoming. I called Danielle so she could get back on the internet and let us know if the flight status had changed.
This is a picture while walking from short-term parking to the main terminal at the aiport. Seconds after taking this picture, Danielle called letting me know that my sister's flight had been cancelled!
After spending over four hours in the airport waiting in line so she could re-book her flight, we walked back to the rental van (being guarded from the ticket police by my dad) and I took a picture of this mass of humanity huddled around the luggage carousels. These were NOT incoming people who just landed in Vegas. These were all of the people who had checked baggage right before the airport closed, thus stranding everyone you see in this pic in Vegas for at least another night.
A trip from the airport back to the Silverton usually takes about 15 minutes. It took us 90 minutes!!! This pic was taken in a rare moment of light traffic on Pebble somewhere between Eastern and Las Vegas Blvd. I wanted to avoid the highways because I had visions of overturned SUVs and jack-knifed semis in my head. Eastern Avenue was a clusterf**k all the way from Tripicana to Pebble, and I heard it was even worse going farther south!
We finally got back to the Silverton as I took this pic from the top of the parking garage.
After spending a few more hours with my family at the Silverton, I walked out to my car in the parking lot by way of the pool area. The jacuzzi sure looked tempting!
I found my car covered in snow for the first time in two years.
How the hell am I supposed to get all of this snow off??
Even I laughed at myself when I decided to keep my snow scraper in the trunk of my car these past two years. Now who's laughing? I am!
After cleaning my car off and making the very wet, yet uneventful drive back to my place, I took a pic of my neighborhood at around 2am Thursday morning.
I also deciced to walk down the street and check the mail for some reason. I was greeted by this friendly creation near the mailbox.While driving home from the airport, we were listening to Vegas news radio. Apparently, this is the biggest accumulation of snow since 1979. I've really been missing the white stuff this year as I've NEVER gone a winter without it until last year. Unfortunately to see it again, it meant my sister missing at least a day in San Diego with the wedding party/bachelorette party. Hopefully all of this stuff will be melted down enough tomorrow for her to make her flight around 4:30pm.
Tomorrow is also the day when I am supposed to implement my parent's Christmas presents. This year Danielle and I will be taking them to a nice dinner at Mon Ami at Paris and then getting over to the MGM for the 9:30pm showing of KA. At least that's the plan, which greatly depends on if my sister will make it out of Vegas!
I'm suprised I found this time to post on the blog. Even without working (vacation days), its been a very busy and tiring week so far with my folks in town. I'll try to catch everyone up at some point early next week, so have a great weekend if I don't check in again before then.
4 comments:
Too bad you had to have the airport involved in your plans on the day snow decides to fly in Vegas.
You know from living back east that this would have been nothing for us to handle. However, even a half inch can cause kaos without salt on the roads. Good idea keeping your snow brush in your trunk.
Hope you have a Merry Christmas.
Rob,
Ah...memories of home! Glad you had the scraper!! Hope your sis got going safely and your plans go on smoothly. Did your family like the Silverton?
My family and I have lived in the Vegas Valley since '81 and this is about the fourth time we have seen it snow. I can definitely say I have never seen it snow so much here and for so long. (several hours) Although it didn't really stick in the lower part of the valley where we live now (Eastern and Sahara, inner-city Vegas), there wan enough for the school district to close the schools for a "snow day." (dad works for CCSD driving a bus) I haven't heard of a snow day since I was a little boy living in New Albany, Indiana.
Jimbucc is right about the roads. The only snow plows or salt trucks within 300 miles are the couple stationed on top of Mt. Charleston! It was actually supposed to snow even more than it did. That little bit sure made me homesick for the Mid-West. I don't miss working in or driving in the snow, but it sure was nice almost always having a "White Christmas."
North Central Ohio hasn't gotten that much snow this year -- let. I'm sure it's coming though.
Jay from Ohio
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