The flight isn't until after 2pm but we left plenty early because we've never flown out of here before and I wasn't exactly sure of the way to get there. We also had to find parking and grab something to eat before the flight too.

We got to the airport and my plan was to park in the economy parking lot at the airport which offers the lowest prices and shuttle service to the main terminals 24/7. Here parking is $6 per day or $36 per week and they shuttle you back and forth. This lot is about 2 miles away from the terminal. I thought it was odd that the higher priced lot wasn't much closer to the terminal but was quite a bit higher. I think parking here is pretty cheap especially compared to other airports.

This airport is bigger than Albany where we've been flying out of most recently but smaller than the major airports in the NYC area. It wasn't very hard to navigate and we arrived at the Southwest check in counter. There wasn’t a line here but check in wasn't bad at all. I booked this flight on August 21 for $143 per person. As always bags fly free on Southwest

Once we were all checked in it was off to security. Things here were good and we were off to the gate. I had purchased an early bird boarding pass so we didn't have to screw around checking in online and would hopefully get some decent seats. We were given spots A - 23 & A - 24 in the line up.

We were way too early for the flight so grabbed a couple of turkey sandwiches in the food court for lunch and surfed the net on the laptop until it was time to board. The prices at the food court weren't too bad compared to most airports. While they were more than my local deli, I didn't have to refinance my house in order to buy them.

The boarding process went well and people weren't acting like assholes trying to hog all of the overhead bin space. I'm wondering if after all of these years people are finally “getting it".

Today's flight is nonstop and scheduled to depart at 2:20pm and last 5 hours and 35 minutes arriving in Las Vegas at 4:55pm. The flight was delayed about 25 minutes because the incoming flight was late. Once we were boarded the captain came on and said he'd have us in the gate about 5 minutes early.

The flight itself was a little bumpy at times but I was able to sleep a bit during it to pass the time. The only thing I hate about flying to Las Vegas is the flights. They are just way too long! The people on the flight were pretty good today too. No one thought they were exempt from the rules and it was quiet for the most part. The only issue I had was the douche bag next to me invading my space. He kept his arm 3 inches over the arm rest into my space and sat with his legs spread eagle so his knee was in my space as well. Every time he bumped me I'd move farther away from him and he'd invade more of my space.

We landed at 4:40pm local time which was 15 minutes ahead of schedule, even with leaving 25 minutes late. When we got off the plane it was off to baggage claim with a quick pit stop. The luggage came out so quickly it was already sitting on the floor next to the carousel and everyone else was gone already. We were traveling light for this shorter trip so we each only had 1 bag. Mine was actually a carry on sized suitcase as I've learned that I don't need as much crap out here with me.

Once we grabbed our luggage we went outside to the rental car shuttle bus and headed over to the rental car facility. I originally booked a mid-sized car though Avis on August 21 for $266 minus a $40 coupon I had on a prepay deal. Figuring with less than 5 weeks until the trip I wasn't going to do much better than this I did use the prepay option. Of course, on September 8 the rates dropped so I cancelled the prepaid reservation and ate the $10 cancellation fee but it saved me $67 to rebook minus the $10 or $57 (plus tax) and I also prepaid for this reservation with a rate of $199 and I still have the $40 coupon taking us down to $159 plus the $10 penalty for the previous cancellation.

When we got to the rental car facility my name was up on the scoreboard and said to stop at the preferred booth but I had to stop off there anyway to drop off the coupon. I was hoping for an upgraded car and we did get one class up from what I'd booked. We ended up with Chevy Impala that was brand new with only 1300 miles on it in new condition still with that new car smell. After looking over the car and loading up the luggage we were on our way.

The first stop we made was to CVS to grab some survival items (water and snacks) and the to our friend Anne's house to grab our tote that's full of more survival items that we don't take back and forth anymore. Unfortunately she forgot to leave it out but that was ok because I needed to go right by there anyway.

For dinner we stopped at Gold Coast to go to the Noodle Exchange. We both got the Won Ton Noodle soup. Before ordering I asked the guy if there was any fish in this and he said it was a chicken broth and pork wontons. He was right about the broth but the wontons were a pork and shrimp mixture. I was not happy when I bit into the first one and had a mouthful of shrimp. He's actually very lucky I'm not allergic to it.

When we were done eating we walked past the bar and I spotted someone that looked familiar and it was my friend Mark the Waiter from the Hilton. We talked to him for a while and then left to go to the hotel to check in.

The next stop would be off to the Rio where we'd be spending just one night at. Now I'm not a fan of one nighters but we packed an overnight back in our luggage so we didn't need to bring everything up to the room. We were originally going to stay here for 4 nights but we got an offer from another property where we'll be moving to tomorrow. My offer for this night came from the coupon page in Total Rewards Magazine and also offered a coupon worth $50 for earning 50 points. Since the games really suck at Rio My hope is to break even on that deal as it's the only action they'll be getting from us.

Checking in was fast in the diamond room and we were assigned room 1783 in the Ipanema Tower. The rooms here are still in decent condition but they are starting to get worn. This room has a view of the north end of the strip and downtown as well as Palace Station. It has 2 queen beds, a night stand, work desk, sitting area and coffee table, 27" TV, fridge and coffee maker. The bathroom is large with 2 rooms, one with the vanity area and the other with the shower/tub and toilet.

we were going to run down and play a little bit to cash in on a coupon that I've got but decided since it was going on 11pm our time and we'd been up since 6am, we'd just relax in the room

It is getting late now going on 1am east coast time so I will say goodnight everybody!

Total win/loss for the day $0
Total Comps for the day $115