Las Vegas trip report day 2. Or maybe day 1.5. I could not sleep at all in my room at Plaza. It simply would not cool down. No I did not call the front desk.
I am up at 4:30 AM and kill some time before the Dunkin Donuts at Fremont opens at 5:30. There is rain in the forecast for today.
Once again it takes me 76 years to put up a trip report!
This trip was originally going to be 3 days in March. Then a week. Then JetBlue cancelled Mint flights from NYC. Then Delta’s flights went sky high. So I said fuck it and went to Atlantic City.
Then somehow I ended up booking a Vegas trip. I don’t really remember what was going through my head when booking. I know that at many points during Covid, I decided to bank my vacation so I can use it to go to new (to me) countries when it is over. And then somehow ended up booking a week in a half in Vegas. Not even working, just vacationing.
Oops?
I am flying to Vegas on JetBlue Mint. I am downstairs in my lobby at 6:30 AM waiting for my Uber. There is a strange man in my lobby at 6:30 AM who scared the fucking lights out of me when I opened the main door and saw him standing there. There are only 4 apartments in my building so it is extremely uncommon to see strangers, let alone strangers at 6:30 AM. I may or may not have screamed a bit. He was just as shocked to see me. He was dropping off something for one of my neighbors (at 6:30 AM?) and she also got a bit stunned when SHE opened the main door and saw ME standing on the other side of it. Fun times in my lobby.
My Uber comes and I am at JFK in about 25 minutes, which is way better than last time when it took 2.5 hours. Continue reading
Ah, Omaha.
So many people asked me why I wanted to go here. This includes my Uber driver from the airport, the nice guy who checked me into my room, and my former manager who grew up in Omaha.
Plain and simple, I wanted to get closer to having slept in all 50 states. Much like most of the stops on this trip, this was the perfect time to do this. I am not on vacation. I am simply traveling around and working remote.
Omaha was the sole reason I packed gloves. It was supposed to be in the 30s here. Imagine me arriving and finding it 70 degrees outside. What the hell Omaha.
I stayed at 402 hotel. Poor 402 hotel. I arrived and walked into the lobby, immediately hit with beautiful cool air from the air conditioning, wiping away the 70 degree weather I had not been expecting. The lobby was cool, clean and wonderful. That’s where it all ended.
I am told the hotel had recently had a flood and the elevators aren’t working. Cool. Came to figure out that the flood had been months ago and there is zero action being taken to fix the elevators. Honestly, I am not even convinced they were really broken as I could swear I could hear elevator dinging from my room a couple of times.
First bonus: The room smelled like pee. And would not cool down. I ended up taking the air conditioner filter out and wiping off the thickest layer of filth. Then I sprayed it with my “I am traveling for 30 days in a carry on sized bag” Febreeze. Killed two birds with one stone. Cool air, no pee. Continue reading
I left Birmingham in the rain. The train to New Orleans was relatively empty. It was very nice to stretch out.
After arriving in New Orleans, I got an Uber. The driver didn’t pick me up in the correct spot. I know I was in the correct spot because I saw quite a few people getting picked up there. I had to walk and find her car.
Then she could not find the address of my apartment. I don’t blame her for this. But it was pretty chaotic because she kept driving around. The streets here are weird and there can be 2 street names parallel to each other. I finally told her to let me out at an intersection that Google maps said was a 2 minute walk to my apartment and I found it.
I was staying at Sonder Suites. I was supposed to check in yesterday and did not because I had to stay another night in Birmingham to be at an important work meeting today that I did not trust my hot spot for (there is no WiFi on Amtrak west of Chicago) and who wants to be talking in a work meeting on a train like an asshole anyway?
My apartment was non refundable, no changes, so I could not change the dates. I did have a tiny fear that since I had not checked in last night, it would have voided me out of the system, but it did not. You do not speak to any actual person with these types of stays. They email you a code to the building and a code to your room. No reception desk, nothing.
My room was really nice.
As I am continuing to post about this trip, I decided to break off my rant about being stranded in New Orleans from my actual post about New Orleans. My New Orleans recap will be the next post.
So for the New Orleans portion of this trip, I worked for a few days and then I had planned to spend Saturday here to have a full day to check out the city. I lost a portion of that after getting a call from Amtrak. My next train is to Memphis. That train is cancelled.
I am told I can go to Jackson, MS to catch the train. It is not running between NOLA and Jackson, but continues on my route from Jackson. How do I get to Jackson? The woman on the phone said I had to get myself there. Wait, what? There is no way this is a real fucking phone call. You are doing NOTHING to get me to Jackson?
I have never heard of Jackson in my life.
So Google it is.
You read that title right!
Here we begin on leg 2 of my 30 day Amtrak USA Railpass. If you are new, you can find my itinerary HERE.
I last left off in High Point, NC, which you can read about HERE. My next leg takes me to Birmingham, AL. Hotels in Alabama in general are very expensive, maybe due to hurricane damage in New Orleans? Birmingham had the cheapest (although still expensive) choices so Birmingham it is!
Since my train is leaving at like 1:00 AM, I have the realization that I boarding a train in the middle of the night and people will be sleeping, stretched out into an empty seat next to them. The Amtrak website shows me the train is 70% full.
So you know what? Fuck it. I am going to purchase a sleeper ticket so I can have a room to myself. WOO HOO.
My train is an hour late but I get to the station on time anyway. I figure I may as well sit outside and smoke, rather than stand outside my hotel room and smoke.
I get to the train station in time to catch the train at the originally scheduled time, ignoring the delay. I cannot get down to the platform. The stairs are locked and the elevator is not working. There is someone inside the station. I try and ask him if he will unlock the stairs when the train is coming. I don’t know that he knows the elevator is not working. I knock on the locked door and see him. He sees me. He actually starts shaking his head “no.” I have not asked him anything, he is too faraway from the door. But refuses to come to the door, or open the door. So I throw him my ever reliable middle finger and walk to the nearby bench to sit down and talk to my cute little stuffed dog about how much I fucking hate this person. Continue reading
I took a 30 day trip on Amtrak back in September/October. You can find the itinerary HERE.
I have been a total lazy slob with getting these posts up. I feel like I am forever apologizing for this. I wonder if you were to Google “lazy slob blogger” if mine would come up first.
So in preparation of this trip, I decided to book a hotel near Penn Station the night before leaving. I haven’t been riding the subway since Covid made my job remote. I have probably taken it 5 times total since March of 2020. I didn’t want to deal with leaving my apartment at 6:00 AM and dealing with train delays. So I booked a night at the New Yorker hotel.
I had matched from Total Rewards Diamond to Wyndham Diamond for absolutely no reason other than I could. Well it turns out I got a free upgrade to a suite. Although this is wasted on me, I loved the view. My only trips to Manhattan since March of 2020 are to the first stop on the subway, down in Chinatown, to get my roots straightened.
I was also offered, as Diamond, a late check out. I couldn’t take advantage though as I had to leave early to catch my train to High Point, NC. Continue reading
So a few months ago, Amtrak had a sale on USA Rail Passes. Rather than the regular $499 rate, they were $299. I bought one on impulse. I was not sure if this was the best or worst idea ever. I am still not sure.
You can find the details HERE or you can read on where I explain it in my own words.
So you have a pass that is good for 30 days. You can take 10 train rides. Since my pass was a special offer, I had a very clear use by date. Normally, it is good for 120 days after purchase (30 days after first segment is traveled).
Thing I did not know before booking: Amtrak does not have WiFi west of Chicago. So my plans of working from a train were foiled. I had to be a bit more creative. I also needed to make sure I could be online completely during working hours. Not like arriving in a city at 4:00 am and not be able to check into a hotel / not be able to find somewhere open to work from. Same with checking out of hotels. I didn’t want to take trains that left at like 3:00 PM if I had to check out of a hotel at 11:00 AM. Most of my work is video calls, I didn’t want to be making these from a train station. Most sit in places, such as Starbucks, have their dining rooms closed because of Covid.
I only wanted to sleep in states I had never slept in before. I wanted to go to New Orleans. That was really all I needed to get started. Continue reading
Last day of this Las Vegas trip report WAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
I start my day at California hotel in beautiful Downtown Las Vegas I had set my alarm for 4:00 AM but it turns out I set it for 4:00 PM instead of AM because I am a fucking asshole. I did wake up at 6:00 AM though and am out at 6:41 AM.
Love the cotton candy sunrise!
Day 18 of this Las Vegas trip report sees me up at 8:00 at California Hotel. I do not go out until 10:30 because I am a slave to restaurant reservations and that was the first open spot Market Street Café had for breakfast after I had showered. Should have called earlier. I just cannot get into the groove of this reservation thing.
In the café, I am seated less than 6 feet away from what would have been a flip flop wearing Fred Flinstone. Except he didn’t have his Flinstone feet in the flip flops so they were just out there in the wide open.
I had Eggs Benedict, which were good.
After eating, I lost $100 on quarter Double Double Bonus video poker. Then I lost $100 on Ultimate X Bonus Streak video poker. Then I went over to Circa where holy shit! Not only did I get 15 Buffalo heads for the second time in my life, it was the second time on this trip!
Continue reading
