This is Day 11 of our trip report, covering Friday, October 22, 1999. It begins in Las Vegas and ends back in Boston.
We spent the early part of the day packing, and in late morning we went down to Rio's new Star Deli for a bite to eat. Roz had a tuna-salad sandwich on roasted organic wheat bread, along with a side of sauerkraut and a very tasty cup of matzo-ball soup. I ordered a smoked tongue sandwich. With coffee and a Dr. Brown's diet cream soda, the tab came to about $20, reduced to $5 with the credit that was part of our package.
At mid-day we did a video check-out from The Rio (total cost $396 due to some non-reimbursable expenses) and drove down to Shade Tree Shelter, where I gave executive director Brenda Dizon the check I had received for my recent e-Vegas Las Vegas Blurbs royalties. I also gave her $100 donated by several people, to be converted into coins that will be hidden in the shelter's children's play area for them to search for and find. As I sad goodbye to Brenda, it was a comforting feeling to know that we will soon be living in nearby Henderson and will become further involved with Shade Tree.
Moving right along, we headed over to Sunset and mailed ourselves a care package of bulky items we had collected during the trip, many related to our home purchase and for which we had no room in our luggage. This was the second such shipment we've made during this period, first time we've needed to do this twice.
Then it was a short jaunt to Eagle Sentry Inc., whose co-owner David Nielson will be serving as our home-theater consultant and installing our home-security system. We spent about 90 minutes with Dave, devising a wiring plan for the theater system we'll install in our living room, determining what combination of audio/video equipment to plan for, planning the location of cable and satellite TV hookups, as well as outlining where we'll put a hub and wiring to network our computers in the house.
Before we left, Dave took us into the model home theater his company built on the premises to demonstrate the ultimate in picture and sound. It is a setup any one of us could have for about $125,000 (gulp)! Speakers whose names I didn't recognize, but costing about $15,000 each. Four comfortable easy chairs on risers. A THX sound system. Dave showed us segments from the James Bond Film, "Golden Eye," and we could feel our bones vibrate when the bass sounds took over during some of the scenes. Absolutely awesome!!
We're going to have the local outlet of California Closet Company build and install a lot of our cabinetry, simply because Sun City Anthem's design people are not able to offer us the customization we want. One of these items will be the media wall with storage that will run across the entire far wall of our living room. So we drove over to California Closet on Polaris after leaving Eagle Sentry, where we made preliminary plans to work with their designer to build cabinetry for the living room, breakfast nook, my office, the combination guest bedroom and home office for Roz, and the garage.
After a brief stop to get ideas at a nearby company specializing in office furniture, we drove over to The Rio for an early dinner at the Village Seafood Buffet. Cost was about $53 with tax for the two of us. Having listed every buffet item on two previous occasions, I absolved myself of having to do it this time, so I'll just say that the seafood buffet continues to be a strong and satisfying choice for seafood lovers.
Leaving the buffet, we drove over to Avis and returned our car. In nearly 12 days we logged 656 miles, easily a Las Vegas driving record for us, and the cost of the rental after application of a free day via America West coupon was $301.
Our flight from Las Vegas to Phoenix was smooth, and now I'm completing this report on the plane from Phoenix to Boston, where we're told we'll arrive to drizzly weather and temps in the high 40s or low 50s. In contrast, Las Vegas hasn't had measurable rainfall since September 22. Temperatures most days were in the high 80s and low 90s, with evening temps in the low 60s for the most part. It was a little cooler and windier, with temps in the 70s, only for a couple of days around the time of the earthquake.
This was certainly a momentous trip. As usual, we reveled in the company of wonderful friends, new and old. But of course the big event was finally taking that decisive first step across the line that will divide our lives as easterners and our lives as proud residents of the State of Nevada. Just one more New England winter to endure!
A final note: At the outset of this report, I surmised that it would likely hold special interest for those in our age group who are thinking of retiring to Southern Nevada, or who at least want info about the process of preparing to do so. I hope I have stayed true to that promise. But there is much, much more that I did not go into great detail about in the report, because I didn't want to use a trip-report format to digress to that degree. This is much information to share, however, about the steps we have taken relative to the move. For example, we had to make decisions on no fewer than 286 upgrade and options selections for the house, and we selected 88 of these to increase the home price by $46,000. As a result, we have a good handle on the range of options one will be exposed to during the process, as well as their cost and desirability. So if you have specific questions I can help you with, feel free to send me an e-mail and we will answer as best we can.
--Best wishes from David and Roz in (sadly) MA
