Oh, too funny! What a visual, too. Thanks for part 1, Jen. Can't wait for part 2. After watching reruns of the show "Airline", I think the airport employees don't get paid enough to deal with some of the people they have to. I hope Lori and Custer won't end up on "Cops" or sumfin! lolol

Oh, how funny!

Donna (^_^)

Oh I think that is such a hoot. Could she hand the stuff to you to mail back to her house? Or did they throw the stuff away?
Waiting for the 2nd part to the story. I hope they're winners.
Leslie

I'm in Texas so they just tossed her stuff. Either that, or someone gets some great cleanser & moisturizer to take home. I think they also confiscated Custer's belt buckle....they must have a size restriction on that too. I was hoping it wasn't a really special one. Lori buys her "lotions and potions" from me....that's why she has me on speed dial! lol

I had to revise my "visual" cause I remembered she said they had taken their shoes off so now Custer is in his boxers and socks! LOL

OMG, that's a riot! You're kidding me, they kept his belt buckle. I'd be madder than hops! I'd love to see what happens to everything the airlines confiscate. You know they take a lot of it home. I hope they at least donate it to a women's shelter. Sheesh! I do hope she takes some pics. Can't wait!

I saw on TV recently where they sell all of that stuff - I think online. You can't believe what people carry with them... Poor Lori and her DH! Hope the rest of their trip is better, although it makes for fun reading!
:-)

HAHAHAthat's funny!

What a great story.
Ron

I cannot believe the dumb rules they have!! Hope they did not keep the belt buckle! I would be furious and you would see me on national TV I have seen travelers dressed a certain way, just wave and go on and my son in law mom gets searched every time. After all, she is mid 70's and about 5 feet tall and brown hair and brown eyes.

Jen's story is pretty close to what happened.
I truly thought I was allowed four ounces.
Silly me.
It's three and yes, they took my eye makeup remover (a FULL bottle! and my cleanser.) And yes, Jen is on speed dial.
LOL
She's my personal beauty consultant and I know from experience I can't too many days without my moisturizing stuff or I shrivel up like a raisin. I'll bet my care package is already here, at the post office, bless her little heart! That woman knows and emergency when she sees one! I called her from the airport bar as I was sucking down my second long island ice tea.
LOL

I've not flown since 9/11.
I actually believed all I had to do was hand them my government issued, Homeland Security Approved 'this lady has a fake knee' card and that would be that when the beeper went off.

Silly silly me!

Immediately, and I mean NOW they send you to a little room off to the side of the xray machine and you are instructed to 'sit down and wait for an officer'.

Here I am, clutching my card in my hot little hand, waiting, in the a plexiglass (or maybe it's bulletproof?) room, waiting for an officer to appear. This guy was nice.
He asked me to lift the leg with the artificial knee and it (the leg) was searched very very carefully, from toes to hip with not only the wand but hands. Then I had to stand on a platform with footprints on a pad, with arms outstretched and the wand was run over me twice. Then I was patted down.

Custer didn't lose his buckle as he had taken it off and put in in the bin to go through the xray machine. He'd checked his pocket knife so that wasn't a problem. The rivets in his wranglers (me too for that matter) and, of all things, the individually wrapped jawbreakers and lifesavers in his shirt pockets were a big problem and set off the alarms Apparently there is metal in the wrappers?
Who knew?
He replaced chewing tobacco with candy and always has a pocketful. TThe Homeland Security guy recognized this and had him take the candy out of his pocket. HLS in Salt Lake were very good. Thorough and professional but courteous too.

Now Homeland security at the Las Vegas airport were NOT nice.

One lady in particular was a big-@ss bully and she embarrassed the rest of the crew.

Custer and I were at the END of a line of maybe ten people.
Because we knew Custer had to remove a whole bunch of stuff we let everyone go ahead of us.

I was helping Custer put his boots, hat, belt, candy, etc in the bings when this woman yelled at us 'Unless you want me to search your bags you better hurry up and believe me, you don't want me in your bags.' The look on her face was a good indication she meant what she said.

Now.
I know I have more guts than sense but even I didn't want to tangle with Homeland security and this woman was obviously having a very VERY bad day.

With his eyes rolling an officer came and after Ern told him what he needed to remove, he helped him out. Meanwhile the woman is still yelling at me to 'hurry up'.

Before I went through the scanner I pulled what I thought was our boarding passes out of my purse just as it went through the xray machine. I got only the envelope and the bad-mood woman screamed at me that I'd really screwed up because she wouldn't let me on the plane without my boarding pass. I told another woman officer 'they're (the boarding passes) are in my purse' and she said 'I know. I saw and I'm sorry. Just go on through and we'll take care of it.'

Meanwhile Ms 'I need hormones' was carrying on when the guy with Custer told her it was alright, he'd watched what happened.

Of course I had to go to the security room (a good idea, actually) and the lady officer kept apologizing to me. I told her I understood why security had to be tight. She acknowledged the other woman was way way out of line. As we continued down the concourse (after getting Custer dressed again...lololol) we heard the woman berating the next group of people.

What do you want to bet me and Custer are on some Homeland Security list now?

We're glad to be home.
It was a whirlwind three days and we had a ball.
Since we don't drink (much) or gamble (Much. We each allowed ourselves fifty bucks to gamble with. Custer played for two hours before he lost his mad money. I cashed out of the poker machines $1.25 ahead...LOLOL) we spent out time shopping at the trade shows.

Custer bought a saddle. His shoulders are shot and it hurts him to swing his old (heavy) saddle on a horse. Since I don't want to spend the rest of my life saddling his horse we bought him a new one. Digger rides one of these saddles (a G Bar G) so we got a second-saddle discount ($300) and they guy wants to see some of my cowboy photos for his next sales brochure. He also was a picture of Digger and Custer riding their saddles to display in his store and his booth at trade shows. I think we can do that.

I got some great silver earrings (several pairs) and a beautiful woven wool and knitted coat. We spent some money buying rodeo tickets but that's what we were there for. To see Brooks and Dunn or Celine Dion at a casino costs $150-$200 a person. Our rodeo tickets (very good seats) were a little less than that.

Now I need to get ready for Christmas.
There is not a room in my house that's not torn up.
Digger is hanging Christmas lights outside.
My living room tree is up but not decorated.
Every plant in the house is crammed into a corner of the dining room and my bedroom is wall to wall laundry.

Later all!

Lori

ROFLMAO!
I want more, I want more! Looking for the updates of their misadventures!

OMG What a HOOT!!!! I am reading this and thinking only Lori!! LOL Ms Lori our rough and tough terrorist with the artifical knee! Good gosh.
I am thinking I will avoid Vegas! LOL Not that I'd have a chance to go thru it but I don't wanna be meeting up with MS Grouchy, yep thats a good excuse.
DD flew to Nashville in October. She ended up throwing a jar of jelly meant for DH. They stick to the rules for sure.
Hey there ya go Lori, next time head in the opposite direction, DD said they were really nice!!

I just read it to DS and it was a hoot!!

I think that crabbly woman used to work at DFW! I think she got ahold of me in May! What a pain. Glad you had fun and to think you came out $1.25 ahead!! Major win.

LOL at all of this even though some of it probably wasn't very funny to you.
I've enjoyed reading " The Saga of Custer and Lori ".

Linda

Salt lake was a big eye opener.
LOL
At least the security people recognized us as the type who don't get out of the pickup much and were helpful.

I THOUGHT we were prepared for the LasVegas but the lady with a the bad mood and big voice got to me. Had we been holding up a long line I could understand some irritation on her part but we weren't. We made sure we were last so's we wouldn't hold anyone else up. Who knows what the woman would have done if we were first in line?
And threatening to search our bags?
Way out of line if you ask me.
That's what the xray machines are for; to check for violations. My bag got searched in Salt Lake because of the four ounce bottles. As there was nothing illegal in our carry on in Vegas there would have been no reason for a search, other than the woman was throwing her weight around.

I told the lady who patted me down I understood the security restrictions. She again, apologized for the other woman's behavior. All the officers were embarassed by her behavior.

Vegas has changed so much in the past six years!
The growth is amazing! We stayed at the Flamingo in a very nice room (part of the priceline deal) and the new shuttles are very nice. Slow, but nice. For two bucks they'll take you anywhere on the strip. There's lots of stops though so if you're in a hurry a taxi is better.

We didn't do much sightseeing.
The Bellagio's water show was disappointing.
I was expecting a Christmas 'dance'.
It was to the Pink Panther and entertaining but not nearly as spectacular as the last the I saw it.

The trade shows were way fun and we ran into dozens of people we knew. One could drop a ton of money there but I was pretty conservative...and still spent plenty. I got three pairs of silver earrings (one pair each of Gist, Vogt and Smith) for what I think were reasonable prices. Each pair is unique as they are handcarved and I like that. The only true vanity I have (besides trying to control the crater-map system around my eyes) are ear rings.
We also got some great tack for our horses.
I found some bits I really like for our barrel horses but didn't bring them home. There was lots of silver (tasteful silver) so they were expensive. I couldn't justify spending $180 on a bit I could buy for sixty (without silver) so I left them behind. I'm kind of sorry I did now. Maybe I'll send for some later?

One the flight home we gave up our seats to some people from Montana. They had a connecting flight to Dillon in Salt Lake and there was only a thirteen minute difference between arrival and take off times. The attendants were wonderful with these people (I thought of Liz)as they made sure the folks would be the first off the plane, found out where the next gate was and arranged for motorized transportation.
The flight crew helped a lot with the radio too, I'm sure.
Delta does a good job in my opinion.

Now I'm wading through laundry, getting the tree decorated and the excess stuff put away. Then I get to start on the downstairs.

We've been doing some remodeling and painting so the house is completely torn apart. I hope my guests next Sunday don't look up or down. I ran out of paint for the upstairs ceiling trim and the new carpet won't be laid until after Christmas. Maybe I'll just keep the lights low and they won't notice?
LOL

Lori

Lori, I love your adventures. Wish you had some pictures to post.