My Two Blessings : Arizona Vacation: May 16

My parents live in Bull Head City Arizona, just across the Colorado River from Laughlin, NV. In order to get to Bull Head, you have to fly into Las Vegas, rent a car and drive two hours. We spent more time at the airport waiting for our flight, rather than flying. Security was interesting….Shoes off, even sandals. Put everything in the bins to send through the x-ray machine. James’ cowboy hat set off the metal detector just by waving it in front of the thing. Turned out it has a metal strip in the hat band. So, that went through the x-ray machine. I neglected to take my laptop out of my carryall and TSA took it to a special machine where they remove it from the bag and swiped it for chemical explosives.

“Do you have anything in this bag that will stick me ma’am?” he asks.

“No sir!” I reply in my best manners voice.

“All clear, move along” he says gruffly. Oh goodie, I passed the test…I am not a terrorist.

Father was fascinated by the machine and had to be dragged away.

The flight was quick and uneventful. We reached Las Vegas, hopped on the rental car center bus and picked up our rental car. We rented through Hertz which has the Neverlost GPS system. I love neverlost: it is so easy to program. You have the option of viewing a map or a list of turns and it politely tells you where to go, with advanced warning of lane changes and exits. We once made the mistake of renting a car from Avis along with their supposed GPS system. It turned out to be a cell phone and you called an operator who provided you with verbal directions….once.

We arrived in record time at my parents’ house. The only problem with the rental car was that the windshield wiper vibrated when you went faster than 80. Was this Hertz’s version of a governor so you couldn’t speed…. Hmmm!