Las Vegas, Club De Soleil, Nevada

June 9th to the 17th, 2018

CLUB DE SOLEIL,

We drove the 500 or so miles into the Las Vegas area to visit the kids for the week. We also brought their dog, Scruffy, to visit them as they had been missing him but were maxed out with their other two at the apartment. They had gotten the okay from the management at the apartment complex for the visit for the week. Scruffy wasn’t so excited and hated the car ride. I think he was worried we were going to dump him alongside the road somewhere, as that is what we suspected had happened to him when Aaron and Arla adopted him.

We were able to get the week at a new resort we had never tried, Club de Soleil, a one bedroom for $242.00 for the week. The resort is older but clean and seems to be well maintained. The elevators are not very useful so it was difficult lugging everything up the stairs. In retrospect, we should have gotten a cart at the front where we checked in, unloaded the car, taken the elevator near the lobby to the 3rd floor and then rolled our way to the unit. We were told to park in the back, which was near our unit, but no elevators nearby.

The buildings are all connected with walkways that the carts pass over just fine. Nice pool.

The bed was comfortable, I spent a lot of time on it.

During the ride Michael complained of a pain in his stomach and as the week progressed, the pain got worse. He wasn’t fully able to enjoy his time with the kids as he spent most of his time trying to get comfortable or sleeping off the pain. After a few days he decided it was time to go to the local Urgent Care. The one he chose was affiliated with UNLV and was just a few miles from the kids’ apartment. He was given an X-ray and was told he had a blockage and given advice on what to buy over the counter at the pharmacy to help get himself unblocked. We headed directly to the local pharmacy to get the items and he took them in the car on the way back to the resort. It took a few days but things started to get unblocked and he started feeling a little better. He had stopped eating, a sure sign something was wrong.

At Aaron and Arla’s, on the couch and all four dogs want to be near me. It is not that I have a special soul, it is just that they know a feeder when they see one! I can’t help but notice my girth as I look at this picture. The week before I had a routine checkup with my cardiologist. I weighed 318 and my blood pressure was up. He told me I was not applying a good end game strategy and that I needed to lose weight. He asked me if I was still doing Kung Fu, I told him no, but that I do aerobic weed whacking. He openly scoffed. He suggested Haylie Pomroy’s Fast Metabolism Diet book. I bought it and brought it on this trip. I started reading it.

That was our lost week but the good that came out of this was that this was the beginning of the weight loss journey for Michael. He started reading a book his cardiologist had recommended, and started applying the information to lose weight.