No Dinero

McCarrin Airport
Las Vegas, NV
85 degrees

My travel schedule is starting to hit me. It's about 5PM local time, in Vegas, and I am thoroughly exhausted. My flight out from Phoenix was delayed by 3 hours so I arrived here close to 11 PM, which was 2AM in my head. My co-workers picked me up at the airport and we all had a very late dinner at the Monte Carlo. I went to bed as they headed for the casino floor.

I awoke at what I thought was 5AM, but after being up for 30 minutes...realized no one had rolled the hotel room clock back on this, the second day of daylight savings time. So there I am, 4AM wide awake. The hotel fitness center wasn't going to open until 6AM, but that would be too close to my 7:30 breakfast with the team. I opted to do my workout outside in the cool morning air. Because of the 24/7 congestion in Vegas, coupled with the fact that the ENTIRE CITY is under construction, jogging the sidewalks of the strip was not a good choice. I noticed that the 5 lane valet driveway at the Monte Carlo was closed and blocked off for a resurfacing project scheduled for later this morning. I looked to be about 125 feet long and maybe 5o feet wide. The best part was there would be not obstructions or interruptions.

I treated it like a small track and completed week 3, day 1 of the C25K program. My intervals this week are 90 seconds of running, 90 seconds of walking, followed by 3 minutes of running, 3 minutes of walking and then the entire cycle is repeated. Of course I began with a 5 minute brisk warm up walk and ended with a 5 minute cool down walk. I noticed the difference in elevation, running at sea level in Florida vs. 2028 feet here. The air was thinner and cooler and my lungs worked slightly harder.

My return flight to Phoenix was cancelled but I was able to get on an even earlier flight. However, I arrived at the airport 3 hours early so here I sit again. Southwest wanted $80 to change my flight to an earlier departure. I think not. Looking around, this is not a very nice airport, compared to most I have been in this year. Thank God for my laptop.

The result of my corporate meeting is that I will take temporary responsibility for covering the DC Metro area, which includes 3 branches in Gaithersburg, MD; Chantilly, VA; and Alexandria, VA. All of this is in addition to South Florida. It might sound like a strange plan, jumping from Florida to the nation's capitol but GA, SC, NC were already covered by a guy who's still here and they didn't want to hamper his long standing relationship with those branches. If I have to get on a plane, it really doesn't matter where I go. My Phoenix duty will be for this week only, as they chose to give it to a California guy. After the jet lag I'm going through now, it's just as well that I stay in the eastern time zone.

I managed to come and go from Vegas without gambling. It's easy when you carry no cash.