Viva and Leaving Las Vegas
It was almost five years ago—the first week of March 2020. I was getting ready to go to St. George, Utah and then a few days in Las Vegas. The trip had been scheduled for a year earlier but a kidney stone had forced a postponement. This time I was dealing with a cough and a cold, but that wasn’t going to stop me.
At this time the Coronavirus hadn’t become the next big deadly thing, but people were extremely aware of it and getting extremely careful. I got my first real taste of this the day before I left. I was going to a grocery store to buy some things for the trip. I was getting ready to enter the store with another customer directly behind me. I started to cough—not even a big one, more like a throat-clearing cough—and the man immediately jumped back until I was well clear of him. It was my first sign of how this trip was going to be.
The next day I was at O’Hare airport waiting for my flight. I needed to use the bathroom and saw there was a long line to get inside. As I got closer, I saw that the line wasn’t for the urinals or toilets but for the sinks to wash your hands. I noticed that the hand-washing process was taking longer than usual. Lots of soap, lots of rubbing hands together and lots of rinsing water. Sign number two!!
Next came the fight. The airplanes from to Chicago to Vegas are usually jammed packed—not this one.It was half empty. They’re usually lively with anticipation of having a good time—not this one. There was dead silence. I was in a full row and in the middle seat. Not a word was said between the three of us. No one got up to use the bathroom—amazing for a four-hour flight. I noticed no one else on the plane left their seats either. Very weird—scary weird.
When the plane landed at McCarran Airport and we disembarked, there was a rush toward the bathrooms. Again, it wasn’t to pee but to wash their hands. It was the same sight that I saw hours earlier in Chicago.
After a couple of days in Utah, it was back to Las Vegas for two nights at the Flamingo Hotel. I don’t gamble but I do like to walk around the casino and people watch. I noticed that while there were plenty of people at the tables and slot machines, they were trying not to get too close to anyone else. And this was before social distancing was a thing. One thing I did see again were lines at the bathrooms for more handwashing.
After two days of this, I was more than ready to head home. The person in charge of the music at the airport must have read my mind because they kept playing Sheryl Crows’s “Leaving Las Vegas” over and over again. I like the song but enough is enough.
The flight back to Chicago was the strangest one of my life which is saying a lot—even for Spirit Airlines. There were less than thirty riders on the plane. Everyone had their own row—talk about social distancing. I spent an hour talking with one of the fight attendants. She told me there had been a lot of cancellations in the last couple of days. She thought people were starting to get too scared to travel—and man, was she right.
Less than a week later the shit hit the fan!!
On March 11, an NBA basketball game between Utah and Oklahoma City was postponed shortly before tipoff because Jazz player Rudy Gobert tested positive for Covid. It didn’t take long afterward for the NBA to put a hold on their season. The NHL soon followed. College sports, including the NCAA basketball tournament were canceled. As shocking as this was, it was only games—the toy department of life. The real shit hit the fan soon after.
The reason for this way too lengthy diatribe is that today I’m heading back to Las Vegas for the first time since then. It’s been a long five years in the making.
I expect things to be a lot different than my last trip although when you fly on Spirit, you never know. One thing that has happened is the airport’s name has changed. McCarran is now Harry Reid International Airport. I’ve read that Harry was a big fan of popular music. He had Carole King performing at his funeral. Let’s hope they aren’t playing “It’s Too Late” on a loop at the airport.
And oh man, I woke up this morning with a bad sore throat, a runny nose and a mild cough. Bird flu? I hope the lines at the airport bathroom sinks aren’t too long.