Vegas - Day 1

After a frustrating night, needing to change flight plans, we were finally on our way to Milwaukee Mitchell Airport at 3:30 am.  We got to the airport around 5 for our 6:15 am flight.  It was very busy, but fortunately we didn't have to wait in lines since I'm in a wheelchair.  Even so, after going throught the security check they were calling my name as we were heading to the gate.  They had the aisle chair ready to go and the guys helping me knew what they were doing.  So aside from being rushed all went fairly smooth.

We arrived into Las Vegas at 8 am.  After everyone departed the plane, the guys came with my wheelchair.  This time though they brought my chair right into the plane...tight fit but since I was in the bulk head we were able to skip using the dreaded aisle chair.  That doesn't happen often but this Southwest plane had a bit more room to maneuver in. 

Then we met Dan Hocker from Wheelchair Getaways Van Rentals at baggage claims and headed out to pickup our rental van.  It was a 2010 Dodge Caravan with all the neccessary tiedowns and the passenger seat removed so I could ride shotgun.  It was sunny and hot...90 something already...we were in Vegas!

The airport is fairly close to our hotel...about 20 minutes  We are staying at the Golden Nugget in the Rush Tower located on Fremont Street, which I guess use to be the main strip years ago.  The GN was just recently renovated and is quite beautiful.  I was anxious to get to our room to see if it was accessible.  Even though I specifically asked for an accessible room with roll-in shower when I made the reservations and checked three times (including the night before) prior to getting there, I wasn't surprised to see that the room did not have opening under the sinks, nor a roll-in shower.  So back down to the reservation desk.  The guy there was quite helpful.  Apparently they have several accessible rooms but only a couple with roll-in showers.  We got a new room on the 15th floor that had everything I requested, plus a nice view of Fremont Street. 

After we got settled, my friend Sami & I changed clothes and freshened up so we could meet up with my niece Jenny in Henderson where she lives with her boyfriend.  Henderson is a very nice, security guarded community about 30 minutes South of downtown Las Vegas.  After the grand tour of their house, we took off to eat and hang out at Lake Las Vegas.

Lake Las Vegas is a beautiful 3600 acre residential and recreational community that surrounds a man made fresh water lake.  Inside the community is a European-style village that has a wide assortment of specialty shops and restaurants.  One of the places we spent time in was this Southwestern shop where we were able to sample shots of tequila.  After that we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant.

Tomorrow we have a long day with an early start...8 am...to go to Skydive Las Vegas to meet an instructor and get evaluated for skydiving, then kayaking Lake Mead in the afternoon.  So we went back to the hotel to do some cares & get some rest.