reno 911

decent view from the room

it's been quite a trip already and we haven't even done any light paintings.

we flew out of dallas because it was significantly cheaper than the usual houston or austin (or college station, for that matter) and left early enough to have some time to check out the scuba shop there. the store--literally called scubatoys.com--was awesome and we may or may not have bought a few things at amazingly discounted prices. but we took longer than planned and through a slight gps mistake and a few other things ended up getting to our gate just as they were starting to board. i've had closer calls before (including in denver a few weeks ago), but it was closer than jess prefers.

as we were boarding they announced that the overhead bins were full and that we would have to check our carry-on bags to our final destination. this mean jess had to repack a few things, since she wasn't willing to let the camera gear get tossed around by the baggage handlers. as we'd taken our seats, i noticed that the entire bin above her seat was open empty. she said the same about mine.

we were waiting at the gate in phoenix when jess asked me if she'd brought her laptop with her out of the bathroom, because she knew she'd brought it in. she went back in to check and it wasn't there. as we were starting to figure out what to do, the airport paged her to come to the gate security desk. we met a jovial security officer who asked her if she'd lost anything her and, once confirmed, told us that people are usually pretty good about returning things like this and that someone had brought it by just a few minutes before. when he found out that jess was from north carolina, he mentioned that he'd live there for a while and said that it was where pepsi was invented (the name came from the "pepsid" drug that was a part of it. or something.) watching the talkative officer try to make small talk with jess was a little amusing for me.

we're at the sands casino-hotel, which is great, because that means the rooms and the food are pretty dang cheap. and the "circus circus" hotel here doesn't look at creepy as the one in vegas.

we were out for a walk around the non-scary areas this morning and saw a man get hit by a bicycler speeding down the hill. he was knocked to the ground, unconscious for a few moments, and bleeding some from his head. it was my first time ever calling 911 and they oddly took a very long time to answer. i gave the man my handkerchief to hold to his head and we left once the paramedics arrived and everything seemed to be under control.

i found the meeting time for the student ward here and we're about to head out. jess thinks me and my religious ways are a little strange but she's tolerating me as usual and has agreed to explore the campus while i'm at church.