Many of you realize that I’m a night owl. My normal bedtime is around 2AM. That’s my normal routine and has been most of my life. So it came as quite a shock when I had to get up at 5AM Wednesday morning to go to Toronto.

What’s that? You thought I was going to Vegas? Well, yes. I was going to Vegas. But Air Canada, in its wisdom, thought it was important to fill up the flight from Toronto to Vegas. So when Marilyn, my darling wife, booked this trip, that was the deal they offered. We got a great price on the airfare but a lousy itinerary.

So we flew from Winnipeg to Toronto to Las Vegas. We got here about 5PM. Got to the hotel. I didn’t sleep much on the plane. We were both tired, and being an old guy, I had a nap. In Vegas. I flew over 7 hours to get to Vegas so I could have a nap. How sick is that?

We woke up a little later and discovered we were hungry. We decided to check out the 2 for 1 buffet at the Excalibur. That made it only $19 for the two of us. We had to wait 45 minutes in the queue. I was quite ready to eat by then.

Back in September, I had posted a thread in a poker forum about my upcoming trip to Vegas. I asked for advice about which rooms to play in, where to go, where to eat. Nobody mentioned the Excalibur as a great place to eat. Wednesday night I discovered why. There isn’t much good to say about it. The food wasn’t very tasty. The meat was tough since it had been sitting under heat lamps for hours. The dessert, Peach Cobbler in my case, did taste like peaches but it had a glue-like consistency. My conclusion, skip the Excalibur buffet.

Marilyn decided that an early night was called for. That meant I was free to play poker. But I too was tired. I know I don’t play my best poker when I’m tired. In fact, I may play my worst poker when I’m tired. I don’t think. I just throw chips around, hoping that my cards are good enough. When I run out of chips I stop. I didn’t want my first night in Vegas to be that story so I skipped to the end. I stayed in my room. I watched a movie. I read a little. When I got really tired, I went to bed.

So that’s the story of my travel day. A long time in the air, blah food, old people needing naps. Check back here soon. The next exciting installment, Vegas – Day One will show up in a few hours.