Lady Luck

There's nothing like wrapping up 10 days on the road with a trip to Vegas for an extra three days on the road.

After five days in Amarillo, I jumped on a direct flight to Vegas for the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo - not as a contestant, just to clarify any potential confusion.

When I got to the Amarillo airport, the lady at the check-in counter gave me some lip about having a heavy suitcase. I wanted to backhand her, but didn't feel like a public scuffle. I thought about explaining the complexity of having to pack for three very different types of trips all in one suitcase, but I figured she wouldn't really care anyway. She just didn't enjoy having to hoist the world's largest suitcase onto the conveyor belt.

Flights to Vegas have an atmosphere on board that is noticeably different than any other flight you may take. It's almost like a Christmas Eve feeling - you really don't know what you're going to get into, but it's going to be fun.

The airport is basically right next to The Strip, so you being to see all the craziness right as you fly past the Grand Canyon.

This was my third trip to Vegas for the NFR. I've never been to Sin City during any other time of the year. I like the NFR crowd. The whole city recognizes the economic impact the NFR brings in (nearly 70 million non-gambling dollars) during Vegas' downtime.

I went this time with five Vegas newbies. I think it takes several trips out there before you really comprehend everything that is going on in this A-typical setting. I still haven't fully comprehended it. In fact, I'm not even sure if that's possible.

Vegas knows just how to capitalize off of everyone's weaknesses: greed, gluteny and, well, I'm sure you can guess the other one. But, the great thing about Vegas is you don't have to partake in all the things from which it has gained its fame.



And it's not uncommon to see a random gathering of Elvis impersonators. This particular group at Mandalay Bay was a mixture of Japanese and British folks.

Every rodeo fan needs to go to the NFR at least once in their lifetime. For those of you who for some reason scowl at the idea of rodeo, well, that's your problem, but the 10 nights of the NFR are unlike any rodeo experience you may have had in the past. It's very Vegas. It's not hokey. It's the best of the best. Fortunately, there's no stupid clown acts. It's broadcast on ESPN every night, so it's made for TV. It goes quick, and it's entertaining. Over $5 million was up for grabs at this year's NFR.

We attended the third round, and were in attendance along with Charles Barkley, Miranda Lambert and William Shatner.


That's Charles Barkley if you didn't already see him.

There's three "Cowboy Christmas" tradeshows to walk through, offering merchandise galore and all things cowboy.

Meanwhile, we ran into Pete Rose who was signing autographs at Caesar's Palace - most likely to raise money for his terrible gambling problem. Good thing he was in Vegas.


Despite winning an occasional $40 after losing $20 in slot machines, wandering through the casinos is my favorite part of experiencing Vegas. Every hotel is larger than life. Nothing there makes sense - the architecture, the engineering...it's all huge and ridiculous and awesome.

We went to see Cirque du Soleil "O" at the Bellagio our last night in town. That show was so amazing I'm still trying to figure out what all happened. Unreal.

Perhaps the craziest part of the whole trip was the flight leaving Las Vegas. We hit the worst turbulence I've ever been through. I've been on enough flights that I usually don't care about a few bumps. Only these were more than bumps. The plane was going from side to side, up and down, and we had a few drops.

People were screaming. I've never been on a plane were people we're screaming. We were over the Grand Canyon at the time, which luckily I had a beautiful view below to help distract me from an uncertain firey death.


At least it would've been in one of the Seven Wonders of the World if the plane had crashed.