Star Tech Journal

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STAR*TECH Journal
ACME '93 TRADE
April 1993
SHOW
CHEAP TOURIST CONVENTIONEERS DEPARTMENT
THE JOHNSTON ARMY OF BUFFET SEEKERS (JABS) HITS VEGAS!
... continuing travel saga of the bi-annual trade shows
Buffalo Bill
Sharon "Vendress" Johnston
Johnston's General Store
Buffalo, New York
(The Johnstons were previously
heard from as they were drooling
over their Las Vegas accommoda-
tions in STAR"lt'I'ECH Journal
November 1992)
FRIDAY NIGHT A WEEK BE-
FORE DEPARTURE
Visited United's counter at the
Buffalo terminal, hoping for some
rebate cash against our $350
voucher (from last year's ACME
flights, see S*TJ April '92) plus
$63 cash equals $413 roundtrip
per person, but no luck ...
United was offering comparable
$298 roundtrip flights to Vegas,
but they required a 14-day ad-
vance purchase ( or in our case re-
ticketing, and that would have
made us late for the show ... wish
we'd seen the Continental ad on
CNN sooner to cash in ... United
did offer a lower return fare from
Vegas back to Buffalo which was
14 days away, but for the $25
refund on each ticket and no Sun-
day seats available, I decided to
roll the dice and play bump on our
Sunday soldout flight for which
we held tickets, but this time on
our return flight we would lose to
a blizzard, not win on a
bump ... (sing along now, "lose to a
blizzard not win on a bump .. "
Oops, that was the Nashville
AMOA Show ... )
MONDAY ...
United Airlines was their usual
efficient self and whisked us out
of Buffalo -bumpless- to
Chicago's O'Hare, then an air-
borne movie and a seafood snack
for the longer flight to Vegas ...
Quote of the film: "Maybe what he
likes is somebody trying to help
him." -Paul regarding Buster, A
River Runs Through It ... $4.00.
Slot Machines at the Las Vegas
Airport!!... Here are the losing
reports for my friends back home:
I took a lucky quarter to bet for
Christa ( our family friend and
convention-time housekeeper) in
the first available slot at the air-
port, and her credits went 1, 4, 10,
13, 10, 10, 7, 4, 1, 0 as I pulled the
handle hoping for a big win ... Big
Steve Stalikas, our electrician,
parted with a lucky buck and ran
4, 10,7,10,16,16,13,l3,l0,l0,
7, 4, 1, 0 ... Keith Fischer our tech-
nician had a much more brieflong
distance credit outing with his
dollar as 4, 1, and 0 ...
Palisades Amusements' Leon
Cauchois was in his best host
mode as he picked us up at the
airport just as our suitcases hit
the sidewalk. We quickly checked
into Sun Harbor Budget Suites,
upgrading to a first floor room at
$169 plus $25 linen service for
the whole week, and loading up
on coupon-packed What~ Hap-
pening in Vegas magazines ...
then it was off for a buffet?
... nope, too late in the evening to
catch my favorite Binion's Horse-
shoe Seafood Buffet with the two-
foot heap of chilled shrimp on the
cold buffet just to the right of the
split crab claws, that would have
to wait for tomorrow night.
So we caught the downtown
lights (still my favorite photoge-
nic scene) and a restaurant be-
fore visiting Smith's Supermar-
ket to stock up our one-bedroom
efficiency apartment with Host-
ess mini-muffins for breakfast,
Molson Golden/Canada, Samuel
Adams Lager/Boston, Amaretto,
a case of Coke (cheap pop in this
town!), Asti Spumante, the
souvenier flask refill size of 190
proof Everclear Grain Alcohol
(still not available in NY so it's
great to bring this stuff home to
impress your fellow bowlers, plus