Sunday at Loews Resort

We drove up to Provo, UT yesterday to watch the Huskies play BYU.  That's the third time we've seen Husky football since we left Seattle:  at Hawaii, at ASU and at BYU.  Each time we lost.  Worse, each time we didn't even play well and could have won if it hadn't been for stupid mistakes.  We still have tickets for the Arizona game in October, so that will be the start of our turnaround.

We overdid season ticket purchases for everything this year. I assume it’s a backlash from the lack of cultural activities on Maui, but this year we have season tickets to Arizona Opera, Tucson Symphony, a Broadway show series in Tucson, and a 6-show package at the University of Arizona. That is overdoing it.

Of course, attendance at any of these depends on where Heidi is in her treatment cycle. If she’s in the hospital we’re not going. If she’s home but in a state of depressed immune function, we’re not going anywhere where she could be exposed to sick people. If she’s home but not very energetic, we’re probably not going to sit outside in 90-degree heat watching football. We have only one event booked in September for a show that runs through October, so that will be easy to reschedule. It appears, though, that stubhub.com may become a good friend of mine.

The drive to Provo made much more sense back when we were going to continue on to SLC and then fly to Seattle. We had planned to drive a rental car so we could drop it off at the airport. Now the trip to Provo was just a 300-mile side trip. Too far just to watch your football team lose.

Now I’m too tired to write anymore. Why am I tired? No coffee places around. Utah should be known as the Decaffeinated State. It’s always been SOP for us to hit up a Starbucks as we’re driving away from a destination. The first one on our route today is 220 miles away. It’s going to be afternoon before we get there. What do people do in college here? There were a couple coffee joints near our hotel, but the first one we found was closed because it’s Sunday. Utah has fewer places to get coffee than any place we’ve ever been, I think. Maybe the South Pacific has less. Maybe.

In Henderson, NV now.  We had 12 hours to drive home from Provo and didn't want to do it in one day.  There were a couple options for driving home, and Las Vegas was one.  With a little more planning we could have gone there, watched a show and then driven home the next day.  But, instead, we decided to stay at The Loews Resort on Lake Las Vegas.  Normally we don't seek out expensive hotels.  We go places to see things that are outside, and the room is just a place to sleep.  But when your wife is starting chemotherapy for leukemia in a few days, those kinds of concerns go out the window. 

This is the kind of resort where many of the guests are dumpy guys with trophy wives.  We used to see that at the resorts on Maui too.  Only now the trend is for the women to bring their little fufu dogs to walk around the grounds.  My favorite is when they have two dogs, but the guy is too macho to actually walk the dog so he just carries it.  I can't tell how having your dog with you improves the resort experience.  Maybe I gotta gain 30 lbs to figure it out.