A Self Described Homebody Travels to Las Vegas

I was looking for some travel ideas when I came across a deal going to Las Vegas from Miami and staying at the Stratosphere Hotel. Don’t know much about this hotel, other then what is written in the caption. The Travel Channel, if memory serves me correctly, did a story on this hotel; but I’m not positive how I felt about it one way or another. I haven’t been in Vegas since I was 13 years old; so most would say that I have never been there.

I do enjoy gambling and the occasional show that my wife more then likely would drag me too, but really, other then that what is there to do in Vegas? I secretly thought that when they came up with the whole slogan; “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” was meant, in some part to me. I’m so boring that upon my arrival I would have to use that discrete slogan rather then tell them that I simply hung out in my hotel room watching television.

I am, without question, one of the biggest home bodies that I have ever met. I blame this on my parents; my father specifically, although my mother should carry some of the guilt. Growing up, they would take my sister and I on vacations, but it seemed to me that my father was always more excited about coming back home then us kids were of going. I think he felt more comfortable with his surroundings when he knew what channel ABC was on so that he wouldn’t miss his evening news. He was never really big on experimenting with different foods either. To this day he will not eat any type of fish unless my mother prepares for him…same way every time.

Yes, I am the product of my parents; and I’m damn proud of it. My wife, an emphatic traveler herself, would gladly give up her existence as she knows it to have a chance at the job that Sandra Brown has. Traveling the world, staying at wonderful and exotic places and reporting it all back to the people on the other end of the television; people like me who think that it might be better to watch a show about traveling to these places, as it is to actually set foot in them.

So, after coming to grips that no matter how much I would like to convince myself; and others that only have a passing idea of the real me, there is no way that I will be that renowned traveler. I enjoy taking trips, but much like my father, I find comfort in coming back home. Sometimes that feeling of comfort overshadows the pure excitement that I had counting down the minutes before my vacation; but I put on a brave face and I trek on.

Might kind as quite a surprise to learn that I have became a travel writer for a travel newsletter. It has, after all, come to a shock to me and to those people close enough to me to know that I, in all intents and purposes, really don’t like to travel beyond my 5 mile radius. I’m not an adrenaline junkie nor am I that much of an adventurer; but I do enjoy telling stories. My laptop is as important to me as bug spray on my trip, because no matter where I go, the one thing that needs to be done is to record it all.

So here I sit in this crowded airport waiting for my seat to be called to board this Boeing airliner that is to serve as my chariot for this journey. Not having seen the bright lights of Vegas, I have pre-determined notions of what to expect. Will the lights welcome me in? Will the room be as comfortable as it sounded when the travel agent described it to me? Will I think of the movie ‘Casino’ as I sit in wait in great haste for my room service meal?

My trip to Vegas is here. I feel, that for the first time in a great while, I will find it more enjoyable to go on my vacation, then I will be of going home. Maybe this is what they mean about things happening in Vegas, a convenient little antidote that I will surely employ.