For me, day one of the 2026 Dee-Va Las Vegas was October 12, 2026 (borrowing style notes from Miss Kandi). I had a mid-afternoon non-stop flight from St. Louis to Las Vegas, a little over three hours.
I flew pretty to DLV the previous two times I went (2023, 2025) and this year was not going to deviate from the prior precedent. Originally, I planned to travel business professional; dress, heels, hose. However, I took the advice from Miss Dee-ism and dressed down a bit; jeans, top, my Red Keds. It’s slightly easier to lug around two suitcases–one large, one carryon–in a more casual outfit.
Packing for DLV is never easy. It’s not a question of what to take, because I want to take most everything. It’s a question of what NOT to take, and sometimes leaving stuff behind is a matter of suitcase size and weight restrictions. I always take far too many clothes. Fortunately, my wife was out of the house the Sun-Dee night before (she has started to attend a Sun-Dee night contra dance class), so I hurriedly tried to pack before she returned home. I did not succeed. Her comment was I was taking too much (which was absolutely true).
Mon-Dee morning I had some free time before I needed to get ready, so I went biking for a couple of hours (part of the “get thinner for Vegas” plan). My six weeks–from around September 1 to October 12–of exercising and eating less had worked out pretty well. I more or less had lost about 10 pounds, and a couple of inches around my waist. The scale said 171.5 pounds that morning, as low as it had been for a long while.
Once again, my wife was out after my ride (pickleball this time) and I tried to shower and dress and leave before she got home (I try not to dress in front of her; she is tolerant but I don’t like to push it). Like packing the night before, I did not finish before she returned home. I told her she could close her eyes as I walked out (and I didn’t look back to see if she did).
Of course, the best laid plans of mice and (wo)men did not turn out as planned. After about five minutes of driving, I realized I had left the charging cords for my watch on the nightstand next to our bed. I did a U-turn, drove back into our garage (my neighbor was out doing yard work when I left, but had gone inside on my return), warned my wife I was coming through, got my cords, and warned her again. I was off again and made my planned train to the airport.
The train, however, threw a bit of a wrench into my timing. One stop before the airport, they emptied the train and said we needed to take a bus shuttle. Then, walking out the exit, another train staff said we (there were other passengers too) had to wait for another train–and that train was scheduled in twenty minutes. That train came–and it wasn’t going to the airport either. Fortunately, about another five minutes, a train appeared on the other line, and I finally made it to the airport. As I had left some extra time to get to the airport early, and the plane was delayed a bit, I wasn’t really freaking out because of the train delay.
I made it to bag check-in and through security with no issues. I had decided to wear my forms, because the choice was to either wear them or carry them in my suitcase. I figured the better choice was to wear them, and avoid having them detected in my luggage, and getting my luggage inspected. I made it through the scanner/TSA check without a problem, so another fly pretty success.
To carry my laptop for the week, I borrowed a more stylish backpack from Miss Dee-ism. She is happy to lend it to me, and it adds a certain panache to my presentation, far more than my regular travel backpack.
The picture I took while waiting for the train for the final stop kind of shows that my profile is a bit skinnier these days. Again, I lose weight to better my health, for faster race times–AND to look cuter in cute clothes (I am vain).
Part of the DLV experience is wearing as many outfits as possible (if you pack them, you want to wear them). I chose a cute dress I bought about a year ago, suitable for summer wear. However, Vegas was actually having a cold spell, and the temperatures were in the 60’s, definitely chilly for mid-October. But I had bought a jeans jacket to cope with the cold, and I figured that was sufficient (plus a couple of sweaters).
The plane itself was uneventful. The addition of free Wi-fi these days, plus having one of the baseball playoff games available to watch, made the flight go quicker. I also used the time in the air to paint my nails, for which I did my normal not great job, but I generally figure most people aren’t going to get close enough to notice the imperfections.
The plane arrived about an hour later than planned, but I got my luggage and got a taxi for the reasonably short trip to the Tuscany, my hotel for the week. I managed to get the only non-taxative cab driver in America, which I really didn’t mind (my voice does not match my appearance). The hotel room was of good size. I took a “before” picture for my wife; this would be the only time all week, until I left on Fri-dee, that it would be uncluttered.
At my arrival at the hotel, I saw my friend Joyce Anne waiting for a ride to that evening’s event, a dinner/drinks get together at a LGBT bar called Dust. We said hi (I knew she was planning to attend, as we had swapped texts in advance). I let her know I would be coming to Dust once I got changed.
I changed, put on my Red Keds again (my choice for walking in Vegas), and walked about the half hour to Dust. I walk a lot (I average 17,000 steps daily, per my Garmin watch), so walking for me isn’t unusual–I just usually don’t walk in a dress.
There were around 40 to 50 at the meet and greet (I never heard an official number of attendees, but I heard later in the week something like sixty attended). As best as I can remember, there were about one hundred back in 2023. It’s hard to know exactly why the numbers are down, but certainly the lack of Canadian guests (go figure) and Vegas being more expensive these days probably contributes (and, all the noise from certain groups aside, it’s easier to go out dressed these days than ever before, so people don’t need to escape to Vegas to get out dressed).
I saw Terri Lynn, in addition to Joyce Anne, at Dust. We are kind of Three Musketeers and hang together at Dee-LV. Terri Lynn is from Detroit, and this is her one week of dressing for the year. She’s one of the organizers (she volunteers so DLV doesn’t disappear), and rents a car to Uber people (like me) around. I’m grateful for the rides and the company, and that she works to make sure it happens from year-to-year.
Joyce Anne is from San Antonio, and although Joyce Anne does go out to another Texas town occasionally, DLV is also an oasis of opportunity for her to get a chance to dress and relieve some stress from every day life.
