The Journey to Vegas

Friday had finally come and it was time to embark on our crazy journey to Las Vegas. After waking up at eight in the morning, we arrived at the airport by noon and quickly got through security. We were a few hours early, so we waited around the terminal for a while. We hadn’t been to Pearson Airport since March of 2020 and I hadn’t realized how much I missed it. Looking for some snacks and water, we went to one of the nearby convenience stores. Curiously, we checked the magazine section to see if we could snag any BTS magazines. We were actually able to find the Best Businesses HYBE Edition of Time Magazine (the one with Bang PD on the cover). We grabbed some snacks and went to check out. The lady working there looked at our lanyards that my dad had made with BTS’s logo on them. She asked where we were going and we told her we were going for the concert. She then told us about her daughter’s friends that like BTS and she started singing Butter! I was so surprised by this interaction, but little did I know, this was only the beginning of the ARMY sightings…

After the convenience store, we headed to our gate where we waited for boarding. We boarded our first plane of the day by 2:20pm and finally took off at 2:40pm EST. This flight was our longest flight of the whole trip and it was our first flying experience in over two years, so I was initially a bit nervous. However, after taking off, I felt more comfortable and I tried to make the time pass as quickly as I could. My mom and I watched the first episode of Business Proposal, then I started drawing Taehyung and Jungkook from the first two Vegas concerts. We landed in Vancouver at 4pm PST. It was our first time in Vancouver, but we lacked the time to sightsee. We had to quickly make our way through security once again and to our next flight that would be taking us to Sin City. After speeding through security and customs, we made it to the gate and tried to find something to eat. We stopped at another convenience store to see if they had anything we wanted. However, instead of food, we were greeted by something else… A mom ARMY sent my mom a finger heart and my mom sent a finger heart back. Both her daughter and I hadn’t even noticed our moms’ signal until both were laughing. We actually ended up being on the same flight too! They weren’t the only ARMY’s on our flight… More than half of our plane was ARMY. Between the purple masks, BT21 headbands and other merchandise, it was easy to tell that everyone was going for BTS. Even the girl that sat beside us on the plane was ARMY. It was the coolest thing ever and it reminded me of BTS’s impact.

For this much shorter flight, I decided to just continue my Jungkook drawing. However, as we came closer to Vegas, I started to get extremely excited. I put my iPad away and started taking everything in as I looked on to the sea of darkness from the plane window. Everything was setting in now… I was seeing BTS… TOMORROW. This was really happening. After everything, we were here…

As we finally got closer, I could see the strip from my window. I saw Allegiant stadium and I had the most magical feeling. BTS was performing there right now. Tomorrow, I would be there, seeing them. It gave me the most euphoric yet emotional sensation–my eyes were even tearing up a bit. The dazzling hotels were beautifully lit in purple lights, all for BTS. It was years since I had been to Vegas and I had a much greater appreciation for it this time, especially because of the concert. We finally landed in Vegas. After a tiring trip, we got off the plane and set foot on Vegas ground. However… I left my jacket on the plane…

After retrieving my jacket thanks to the help of a flight attendant, we made our way through the airport. The Las Vegas airport was so nice and definitely displayed the overall vibe of the city. We took quite a few pictures to mark the beginning of our adventure before heading to the rideshare area. As we walked towards the rideshare garage, we could see the brightly lit Vegas strip close up. Our Uber arrived shortly and we were greeted by a really nice driver. We talked to him about how we were seeing BTS and he gave us some advice on how to navigate the area.

Within a few minutes, we were dropped off at our hotel. We stayed at Virgin Hotels, which was a new resort somewhat off the strip, but close to the stadium. We checked in and looked around in awe as no one was wearing masks, which was initially absurd to us. In Canada, we still had a lot of restrictions and despite the removal of the mask mandate, many people were still cautious. But in America, it was a completely different atmosphere. Personally, I wasn’t too bothered. I put aside the pandemic and accepted the risk we were taking by travelling and honestly, it was so relieving to just forget about it all for a weekend. This weekend wasn’t about the pandemic or the virus–it was all about BTS.

After getting our keys, we grabbed a pizza from a restaurant within the hotel and headed up to our room. The hotel was huge and we were walking through this one hallway for eternity. We finally reached our room and opened the door…

The room was so nice. There was a couch, a table and they even had this big door separating the bedroom from the entrance area. However, as I walked towards the desk to put down my bag, I saw something even more shocking… A BTS Las Vegas magazine was sitting on the table, just waiting for us. It was a magazine to tell tourists about what was going on in the city and I assume they were given in all hotel rooms. But what made it special was that it was BTS. Even though we hadn’t gotten one of the BTS themed rooms, our room had that slight touch of BTS all because of the magazine.

We practically swallowed the pizza and got ready for bed. I accidentally picked up a box of almonds for two seconds without knowing that they were metered, meaning if you picked it up for longer than a few seconds, they would charge you for it. I quickly put it down after discovering this and we luckily weren’t charged. After that little scare, I was somewhat suspicious of everything in the room and was extra cautious when picking things up. Besides that, BTS went live and I was watching it thinking, “they’re in this city right now, and I’m seeing them tomorrow.”

After our long journey, we finally got into our bed. Our first night in Las Vegas was coming to a close and our adventure was just beginning. I fell asleep with adrenaline rushing through my veins. I don’t recall any dreams from that night, but I assume that is because I knew that when I woke up, all my dreams would finally become reality.