The Blissful Dog On The Road Again

The Blissful Dog in Vegas, Baby

What a month! Ashley and I have been to Las Vegas, Chicago and Columbus, Ohio within the last six weeks or so. In case you didn't know, we are based in far, FAR northern Minnesota. And yes, it gets soon freakin' cold here in the winter. I. Have. No. Words. Got that out of way, now on to our adventures...

SUPER ZOO is one of the biggest pet industry trade shows i  the USA. It is held in Las Vegas, usually toward the end of the summer. There are over 1200 exhibitors packed into the Mandalay Bay event area and it is as wild as it sounds.

The Blissful Dog had a booth there in 2015 and I went by myself. This year I took Ashley with me, as I had learned the hard way that a monster show like that is hard to do solo. As shocking as it may be to hear…I have tendency to take too much stuff, which means more to schlepp, more to unpack ands setup and more to haul home when it is over.

The Luxor was our home base while at SUPER ZOO. It is right next door to the Mandalay Bay and about half the price. So, I will stumble my tired ass that full mile from the LUXOR to the trade show to save $$$$. Plus, the path does lead through a sweet shopping area and the ever-present food courts.

For some insane reason I decided we would save a bazillion dollars by schlepping all of our product samples, product give-a-ways and random stuff in checked bags rather than ship it ahead of time. Plus, shipping product that has BUTTER in the name to Las Vegas in July/August for it to then sit in an un-airconditioned warehouse for days...nope, nope, nope.

WHAT THE $#@% WAS I THINKING???

So, Ashley and I carefully packed everything except the booth itself into four of the biggest rolling suitcases DELTA allows. We weighed them (over and over) to stay under the 50 pound limit. Then we crammed as much as we could into the carry-on bag and huge bags we were calling purses. 

We made it to the airport and threw money at the curb-side guy taking luggage and he helped us, trying hard not to injure his eyes from the rolling. All was good until we got to Las Vegas.

After hauling the EIGHT bags totaling almost 300 pounds out to get a cab we were sweating and ready for some Las Vegas action. Which for us meant a slice of pizza, cold water and bed! Our cabbie dropped us at the Luxor and we realized it was some random entry hidden far from elevators and bell people.

FIRST WORLD PROBLEM ALERT!

We hauled ALL of that luggage for almost a mile, over carpet and a slight incline. OK, I know, no one was shooting at us and we were NOT starving, but it was HARD!

We made it to the check-in only to realize the hordes of people were NOT lined up to see Carrot Top (he wishes). They were ALL checking in. Ashley sat down on her rolling suitcase and announced I was going to go check us in, that she would be right there. I saw the muscles around her eyes twitching from the force of the side-eye she was giving me...

After a decade or so (maybe an hour), we were checked in and looking for a bell person, only to be told they were at the OTHER side of where we were. And yep, we were supposed to haul all that luggage over there to go to THEM.

We decided we were in too deep already, shrugged and hauled it across the casino (AGAIN) to the elevator and to our room. Which was stuffy as my meemaw's old handbag. And THAT is the start of the next chapter.