Day 1 - Part 1

The Mrs and I had packed the night before, so when we awoke on Thursday morning, we were ready to go. Flying out of GSP is quite easy for us; it's a 8-minute drive and the airport is never very busy. We were flying Northwest and our stop-over was in Detroit. I knew there were at least two bloggers from the area, so I wondered if perhaps there'd be a chance meeting. Alas, the Brothers Genius were not in sight and Mrs_Blood and I sat awaiting our connection to the real Vegas(tm).

Perhaps five minutes before boarding, I see one of those motorized terminal carts approaching our gate. At first, I didn't see anyone on it, but after some closer inspection, I saw some very tiny person riding in a backpack attached to the cart's driver. Out of all the bloggers, I certainly least expected to find Iggy in Detroit. I introduced him to the wife and we got to chat for a bit until our seat assignments were called for boarding. Unfortunately, it was a very full flight and we couldn't get an open seat for Iggy to sit with us. It was probably for the best, I'm sure he needed some sleep and with the penchant Mrs_Blood has for moving her jaw, Iggy wouldn't have stood a chance.

We touched down and regrouped with the blogfather and retrieved some luggage. I expected a dwarf to travel a bit lighter, but he too had to pick up a suitcase at the baggage retrieval. He mentioned Grubby would be picking him up to take him to the Excalibur. I didn't want to impose on Grubby a ride downtown, so we separated from Iggy and grabbed a cab to our destination: The Plaza. Mrs_Blood called AlCantHang who unfortunately had a delay coming out of Philly - he'd be on the late side. I phoned Otis to tell him of our arrival and future plans - we would most likely meet up later in the day. G-Rob was another late arrival, so the Mrs_Blood and I had some time to kill.

After getting an upgrade to our room WITHOUT any $20 persuasions, we checked in and wandered downstairs to the poker room. Felicia had mentioned she'd be there at noon. Since it was about 3:30pm I wouldn't have been surprised to see nobody there. How wrong I was - I saw Felicia, Professional Poker Player(tm) Chris Halverson and his wife and Bill Rini. We grabbed some unspectacular grub at the Golden Nugget and then wandered around Fremont street for a bit. My cell phone rang to announce Maudie's arrival and we hung out and took some pictures. I got to see several times that ever so hot chick eating a fried twinkie in the most vulgar way possible. Like a train wreck of naked swimsuit models, I couldn't turn away.

While on Fremont street, we met up with the "Hey that guy's good looking" Joe Speaker. I bestowed upon him the gift of metal - a CD of the latest Unearth CD. I expect a positive review. Not soon after, the massive HumanHead made an appearance with his super friendly and very attractive wife. Head is indeed massive, had he challenged me to arm wrestle, I'd have made up some sissy excuse and declined. Not soon after that, TheFatGuy shows up and steals Felicia away for a stroll down the nether regions of Fremont. Head, wife, and Joe Speaker resume drinking while Professional Poker Player(tm) Chris Halverson and wife have to make plans to see the Cirque show they had tickets for. That left me, Mrs_Blood, Bill Rini and Maudie to figure out how to spend the next hour or so before our next scheduled appointments. The answer was easy, poker at Binions.

They opened up a new 2/4 table for us and we had a blast for about 90 minutes. I managed to cashout up thanks to a set of 9's that rivered me a boat and someone else a flush. Maudie had to leave for a dinner engagement and future WPBT champ Bill Rini had to get to the Sushi place. Mrs and I made our way to the Excalibur where we heard some degenerates where playing poker.