Another difficult travel day in the US…

Five years ago, we’d seen photos of this car, a 1959 Cadillac convertible (woody) hanging from the ceiling at Hard Rock Café in Lahaina. On our return drive from Kaanapali Beach, we stopped to take a few photos of our own, as shown. For more photos, please click here.

This may sound awful to say as proud American citizens, but we’re are disappointed with the service at airports in the US. Questions go unanswered, the staff appears disinterested in traveler’s needs, and we discovered somewhat of a blase attitude of many airport employees.

Of course, there are many exceptions but these past two flights, one from Fort Lauderdale to Minnesota and yesterday’s flight from Minnesota to Nevada, left us wondering if the average worker is dissatisfied with their job.

No, I won’t get into all the potential reasons why we may have experienced these inconsistencies. Nonetheless, we were grateful to arrive safely on somewhat of an uneventful flight, barring some turbulence as we approached Las Vegas, where it was raining.

It is cool here, but we don’t mind. It’s certainly not as cold as it was in Minnesota. Today’s high is expected to be 45F (7.2C), cool enough to require we dress warmly. The sun is shining today after a few days of rain.

It was wonderful to see my son Richard after two years and four months. Once we arrived at his home, we dropped off our luggage, piled into his Escalade, and headed right back out the door to go to Thanksgiving dinner. 

The restaurant he selected located across the road at Green Valley Ranch was perfect. Tom and Richard ordered the traditional Thanksgiving dinner while I had a Cobb salad. The turkey dinner had too many items I couldn’t eat, and the salad was filling and satisfying. 

As I’d mentioned, Tom’s cough has exacerbated, and last night after returning after dinner, he went directly to bed. I am still coughing but am now convinced it’s a virus, not a bacterial infection, and there is nothing we can do to make it go away. Not antibiotics, not steroids…just time.

This gives me pause when considering upcoming cruises. What can we do to prevent catching the dreaded cruise cough? I can only surmise that avoiding the buffet, restrooms, and elevators when we can maybe the only way to ramp up our avoidance of catching these awful bugs.

We’d hoped that today we would go to the DMV to renew our driver’s licenses. We’ve heard stories of people waiting all day to be called for their renewal. We have no interest in waiting in a queue for hours. Richard suggested we wait until next Tuesday when it won’t be as busy. 

Soon, I’ll take off to visit my sister Susan at her new home in Las Vegas, a beautiful assisted living facility, about 30 minutes from here. I can hardly wait to see her.

Tonight, we’ll all head out for dinner at a favorite spot of Richard‘s on the strip. Many new hotels and restaurants have been built in the past few years. We’ll enjoy having an opportunity to see the new properties and dine at one of the restaurants.

At the moment, I’m seated in his comfy living room with a great cup of Dunkin’ Donuts Decaf Keurig coffee. At some point today or tomorrow, I’ll grocery shop to make a meal in the next few days. We’ve been eating out almost every day (except for a few fabulous dinners Karen made) since we arrived in the US on November 8th.

A home-cooked meal may be just what the doctor ordered. Settling in here in this low-key environment is also on the list of healing properties, a little more leisurely pace than we had in Minnesota.

We wish our friends in the US a fruitful “Black Friday.” the big sale after Thanksgiving each year. We prefer not to partake in the festivities! We hope everyone who celebrated Thanksgiving had a fabulous meal with quality time spent with family and friends.

Photo from one year ago today, November 29, 2018:
Many species visited our garden in the early mornings;  kudus, bushbucks, warthogs, helmeted guineafowl, and duikers. What a great start to the day! For more photos, please click here.

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