What Vegas Taught Us

The National Finals Rodeo gets under way December 3^rd. Thinking about it recently got me reminiscing about the time my husband and I went—way back in 1998. We’d been married four years and had our first child.

Going to Las Vegas that year was our first trip together two years after our son was born. We learned the hard way that we should’ve prepared ourselves for overstimulation, total togetherness and getting shorted on sleep. By the time we headed home, we’d had three fights.

 If couples don’t experience at least one argument while traveling together, their relationship must be warped. I’ve confirmed this to be true with my friends and relatives that have vacationed with their spouse.

 My husband and I laugh about our Vegas fights and the whole Vegas experience we had as naïve travelers on that trip, but at the time there was nothing funny about it. Going to Las Vegas was probably not the best place for us to try to reconnect, get refreshed and escape the pressures at home. Big cities with too many people have never been our style and being surrounded by big crowds, big lights and late nights just added stress to the existing frustrations of our trip.

 My column next week is about our NFR trip and the fights we endured. Two of those fights have become marital memories that we’ve been known to retell to friends. Sometimes with beer induced fits of laughter.

 Although our trips for two still remain at one, my husband and I have gained a much better understanding of each other since our NFR in Vegas experience. We didn’t know anything about each other compared to what we know about each other now. When we took our kids on a week-long family trip last summer, traveling went a lot smoother and was much more enjoyable for my husband and me. The only tiff we experienced was a mild disagreement the night before we were to fly back home. We’ve come a long way since Vegas.

I relay our NFR trip foibles in a way that I hope readers can relate to regarding traveling tiffs of their own. Now that we’ve been married a lot longer, my husband and I find those fights amusing.