We all grabbed slices and were just settling in for the wait when the announcement came that all flights were cancelled until at least 5:00 pm.

2:30 pm - At this point we decided to rent a car and drive to Houston, thinking we would have a better chance of getting flights out of there. We said our goodbyes to the Dody Brothers, packed up an SUV and started out on what was supposed to be at most a three hour drive.

But what's a drive through a tropical storm cell without the ensuing traffic jams, dead-end detours and torrents of rain that reduced visibility to just the half-second after the wipers had swept past? After five grueling hours we pulled into Intercontinental Airport.

6:30 pm - We had picked up an hour crossing the time line and our 6:30 flight had been delayed to 9:00 pm, so that also gave us some time to eat. At 9:00 the flight was postponed to 9:40, but finally they called us to board for the 3-hour plus trip to Las Vegas.

2:00 am - The final indignity came when we walked down to the baggage claim. Nothing had arrived. Not one piece out of our seven. So we decided to spend the night at George's house (four-star rated) and hoped for the best in the morning. By the time we got to his house we had been on the road for almost 17 hours. To bed.

8:00 am – While Paul was playing with Dooley, George found out that five of our seven pieces of luggage had arrived so we decided to gamble that the rest would be there by the time we reached the airport.

Thank heavens they were, so we loaded up and took off for Laughlin, thankful that the ordeal was over. Small bonus – pretty cool to see yourself on a billboard.

Once we were at the Riverside Casino things were much better. The rooms were nice and the food was good, but just to get out we made a trip to Oatman which was a little mining town where Clark Gable and Carol Lombard honeymooned. All along the drive out, there are signs for “No Trespassing” on pain of disembowelment that mark the entries to mines still being worked.

The town is mainly souvenir shops now, with lots of fool's gold nuggets, geodes and leather wear for the bikers. One of the biggest attractions is the burros that run loose in the town, descended from the miner's burros.

Back at the casino, the shows were really hot, with very good crowds and plenty of freewheeling humor. And lots of old friends came by including Dr. Joel Brown, Joe Sachs and Eileen Zarowsky. It made our stay at the casino very nice indeed.