A few hours after we went to bed, we were back up, packing up everything for our flight home.
We arrived at McCarron International Airport about 5:10 a.m. for our 7 a.m. flight and booked it pretty quickly through check-in and security. We walked to our gate and quickly heard an announcement that it had been changed to a different terminal.
Then, before we were to start boarding, another announcement came over the Allegiant intercom.
"Flight 442 with service to Moline will not begin boarding. Due to a flat tire that needs to be changed, boarding will begin about 7:30 or 7:45 a.m. We will continue to update you with information that we receive."
Then, an announcement began from the gate next to us.
"Flight 454 with service to Dallas will not begin boarding. Due to a flat tire that needs to be changed, boarding will begin about 7:30 or 7:45 a.m. We will continue to update you with information that we receive."
The passengers at our gate just looked at each other with questioning eyes. Does our plane have a flat tire or is the one next to us? Are they confused on the tarmac?
Well, as it turned out, both planes had flat tires.
It didn't bode well for how the rest of the day would go.
I'll sum it up for you.
We got on the plane 45 minutes late. We sat on the plane for an hour and were then told to get off the plane. (They never announced it, but because we were sitting in the front seats we overheard it was issues with the navigation system.) We ate a quick meal and got back on the plane, now about 10 a.m. We moved 100 yards onto the tarmac. We sat for an hour. We pulled back to the gate due to engine troubles. We got off the plane. We were given $8 to eat something and it bought a small sandwich. We sat for an hour.
"Your plane is unusable."
What!?
"Your flight is not cancelled. We will let you know when we find out what will happen."
We waited for an hour.
We received an e-mail that said our flight was now at 8 a.m. the following day.
We waited 15 minutes.
"Your flight has been cancelled. We are working on finding hotel rooms for everyone and will let you know when rooms will be assigned."
We waited a half-hour.
"We will not be getting hotel rooms for you. Good luck."
---
We ended up having to get a hotel room at Treasure Island, which usually runs around $70 per night plus the $39 resort fee. However, when rooms are completely booked and it's a Friday night at the last minute, those rooms then run $450 per night.
But we didn't have a choice, and we were supposed to get reimbursed from the airline, so we made our way in a half-hour Uber ride to Treasure Island.
Grumpily, we made our way up to our room, which actually turned out to be gorgeous, and the people there were incredibly nice, making sure we had a room with a view of the Las Vegas Strip.
We walked around for a while, not quite knowing what to do with ourselves on this unexpected evening until we were chatting and I remembered that Nate had wanted to go to Hofbrauhaus, an authentic Bavarian restaurant, but we hadn't gone with our friends the first weekend we were in Vegas because we weren't sure they would like it.
Deciding to make the most of the annoying situation we were in, we ordered another Uber and made our way to the restaurant.
---
The ceiling was hand-painted. The waitresses were in authentic German garb like you would see during Oktoberfest. The seating was at long picnic tables.
Looking over the menu, the waitress encouraged us to order an appetizer that included every sausage made in house as well as soft pretzels.
Which we ordered, for dinner.
I'm not huge on some German cuisine. I like sausage, but I don't like mustard, sauerkraut or potato salad. I don't even really like beer.
However, I had never tried authentic German food and authentic German beer with it. Layering a dark beer, with absolutely delicious sausage and potato salad not made with mayonnaise, I was in heaven. I even sampled some sauerkraut, and it turns out that when it doesn't come from a can it's pretty darn good.
I will admit though, I didn't try the mustard. We ordered a beer-cheese sauce that I almost licked clean before Nate started in on his pretzels.
"You wanted some of that?" I asked, when he looked quizically at the almost-empty cheese sauce container.
"No, don't worry!" he said sarcastically, laughing at me.
"I thought you would want the mustard. I'm sorry!"
He laughed, scraped up what was left of the cheese sauce and then finished his pretzel with mustard.
---
Back at Treasure Island, we were headed to our rooms when we passed an older couple holding waffle cones with creamy ice cream scoops on top.
"I want ice cream," I said, not at all hungry but just obsessed with the dessert.
We followed a sign to an ice cream shop and ordered our own --- me a waffle cone complete with a scoop of coffee and a scoop of chocolate.
Back in our room, I finished my ice cream --- my stomach complaining about how full it was --- while staring at the sunset going over the desert mountains. The lights of the Strip were coming alive, and people were starting to head out for the night.
We said good-night to Las Vegas and crawled into bed.
It was 8 p.m.
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