Greetings from the Sunshine state!

Ann and I are here till the end of October house sitting for a couple we met at the North Rim. The house is located in Ormond Beach, which is on the Atlantic coast, just north of Daytona Beach. We are about 260 miles north of Miami, FL.

The house is just one block west of the Intercoastal Waterway and about 1.5 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. It is a two bedroom bungalow, which was remodeled to add a Florida Room (sun room) and a 2nd story office. It is heavily landscaped, which gives it a nice secluded feeling and does not have any grass that requires mowing.

Our job entails screening the owner’s mail and the care and feeding of their two cats, Alf & Murphy.

Alf

Murphy

Because Alf and (especially) Murphy would most likely object, we didn’t bring our two cats with us. They are at our house in Cincinnati, bugging our two boys that are (literally) living in our basement. We also had to leave our trailer at Ann’s mother’s home because we aren’t allowed to keep it in the driveway of the house here. I am looking for a place we can store it so we can take weekend trips.

We are starting to settle into a daily routine here:

• Wake up around 7 AM
• Eat Breakfast
• Around 8 AM we head to the beach
• By  lunch time we head back home because it’s damn hot out!
• Eat lunch
• Do chores
• Go exploring, sight seeing, shopping, take a nap, etc.
• Cocktail Hour!
• Dinner

I know, it’s a rough life, isn’t it? Ann is already turning into a bronzed goddess.

While I have been to the Atlantic coast may time, most of my “beach” experience has been at Galveston Island, Texas, where we owned a beach cottage back in the mid 80′s. While there are a lot of similarities, we have noticed several significant differences between the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. On Galveston, there is almost almost always a breeze blowing. Here, there is sometimes a weak breeze, occasionally. The water in the Atlantic is much cooler than the gulf and there is a lot less seaweed and other “junk” on the beaches here.

We almost always start out beach visits with a walk along the beach. We are up to about 3 miles a day now. Afterwords, we take our folding chairs and sit in the surf. This is one of the most relaxing and stress relieving activities I have ever done. We also like to people watch and make snarkey comments (just between us, of course) on the inappropriateness of their swimwear or the bad art tattooed on their bodies. Of course, we assume they are saying the same things about us as well…

Folks "surf sitting", our favorite beach activity

Next week we are planning a trip to Orlando and in the coming weeks take trips to Savannah, GA, the Everglades and other sights in the area.

During our trip through Arizona and New Mexico, I have been playing rock “road tunes” in my head. Lyrics such as :

I’ve been from Tuscon to Tucumcari – Little Feet, “Willin”

Standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona – The Eagles, “Take it easy”

The reason for this is that we have driven through both of those towns in the last few days.

We left the North Rim of the Grand Canyon early Saturday morning. Our goal was to reach the KOA in Holbrook, AZ. We planned to stay there a couple of nights and see the Petrified Forest National Park, the Painted Desert and whatever else there was to see in the area.

Ann was looking at the map and saw that we would be going by a place called the Wupatki National Monument. We had no idea what the place was, so we decided to stop by and check it out.

It turns out that the monument is there to preserve the Wupatki Pueblo. In it’s heyday in the late 1100′s, the pueblo had over 100 rooms and probably had 85-100 inhabitants. As inhospitable as the area was, it was the largest settlement in the area and was within a days walk of over 2000 people. However, 150 years or so later this place was abandoned. No one really knows why.

The Wupatki Pueblo

The park’s trail guide does a very nice job of describing the issues involved in balancing  the need to investigate, preserve and protect sites of historic and archeological significance  while also respecting Native American religions and traditions. There are the attitudes of the turn of the 20th century, where everything possible was dug up or restored (the park’s first ranger restored a room in the pueblo and lived in it with his wife)  to the desires of the Native Americans to not touch anything.

The road to the pueblo continues on, through private land, to the Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. The Sunset Crater Volcano was created rather recently, sometime between 1040 and 1100. There were a series of powerful explosions and lava flows. The land for over 800 square miles around the crater is black with the ash from the explosions.

There is a trail that winds around the base of the volcano. However, you can not climb it as you could in the past. Climbing was forbidden when trails in the cinders became 3-4 foot deep ruts, due to water and wind erosion. Thousands of pounds of dirt and ash were put back on the volcano in an attempt  to restore it. However, you can still see where several of the trails used to be.

Sunset Crater Volcano

The National Monument resides in the Coconino National Forest. There is a campground operated by the Forest Service (no hookups) across the street from the National Monument’s Visitor Center.

A week before we left the North Rim, a wildfire was accidentally started (an unattended campfire) in the Coconino National Forest. We could see the smoke from the fire from the Lodge at the North Rim. At one point, the highway you take from Flagstaff to get to Page, AZ and the North Rim was closed due to this fire. While the fire was mostly under control, we could see it burning off in the distance as we left the National Monument.

The Forest Fire in the Coconino National Forest

Then it’s on to Flagstaff, through the aforementioned Winslow, Arizona, to the KOA campground in Holbrook, Arizona. We are staying here because it is close to the Petrified Forest National Park. It’s a nice campground, even with the pool being a bit chilly. While we were preparing dinner, our roof air conditioner (an original Armstrong) starts making funny noises, then dies and trips the circuit breaker. While Ann & I can survive without A/C, we are concerned that our cats may have issues during the heat of the afternoon. So we put dinner on hold and head back to Winslow, which is where the nearest Walmart is and pick up an “inexpensive” window A/C  unit. Back at the campground, I rest a board on the opened window sill, the other end resting on top of the propane cylinder hold down clamp. We then seal the window with some reflective foil-like plastic that we use in our windows to keep heat out during the day and light out when dry camping in parking lots. The setup works like a champ!

The next day we head off to the Petrified Forest National Park. I am not sure what we expected to find there, but it sure wasn’t what we found there: pieces of petrified trees lying around, sometimes in piles, all around the desert.

Petrified Forest National Park

During the Late Triassic period, about 225 million years ago, this part of Arizona was located near the equator. It was a river delta in a tropical rain forest. trees would topple into the rivers and end up piled up here. They eventually sunk and were covered by mud, volcanic ash, silt and silica. Over the years, the silica slowly reacted with the organic material in the trees, turning them slowly into stone. The colors in the petrified wood came from various minerals that were present in the silt.

The park has a huge problem with people taking pieces of petrified wood home with them. However, you can buy petrified wood (from a small piece to a whole log) from various stores. There is privately owned land surrounding the park that also has petrified wood. They contract out the “wood rights” to companies that dig it up and sell it.

Petrified wood for sale

After we left the Petrified Forest, we drove to several vistas of  the Painted Desert (part of which is in the National Park). It is named the Painted Desert because of all the various colors (caused by different minerals) of soil, rock and sand.

The Painted Desert

The next day we head East towards New Mexico. The landscape is still high desert, scrubby growth that somehow manages to feed the occasional cow that we see. We are still above 5000 feet.

We really wanted to explore New Mexico, as there are a lot of places to see there: Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands, lots of Native American sites and, of course, Roswell. However time constraints and the fact that Southern New Mexico is damn hot this time of year makes it necessary to postpone the sightseeing to a cooler time of year when we have more time.

I found a State Park that is a “bit” South of Albuquerque called Manzano Mountains State Park. It was farther away from Albuquerque than we thought it would be, but it turned out to be worth the drive. It is a small campground, with electric at the sites and water available at several different locations. It has restrooms, but no showers. The reserve-able sites are really nice. Many of them have shelters over the picnic tables.

Our campsite at Manzano Mountains State Park

The next day we head to Texas, via Tucumcari, New Mexico, (more songs in my head) to Amarillo. The landscape slowly changes from high desert scrub to dry pasture grasses as we gradually descend in altitude. Instead of seeing one or two cows, or the occasional horse, every 10 miles, we are seeing herds of cows (with lots of calves).

Tonight we are staying at another park I just picked off of the Internet: Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Like the park by Albuquerque, it turns out to be a pleasant surprise.

Texas claims that Palo Duro Canyon is the 2nd largest in the USA. After living at THE largest canyon in the WORLD, it wasn’t that impressive, size wise. However, it is very pretty, and you actually drive down 800 feet from the rim into the bottom of the canyon (where else but Texas?). They have an open air amphitheater that has a musical they run every evening called “Texas!”, complete with people on horseback .

The campground was lovely. With lots of trees, vegetation and wildlife, the sites have water and electric, and there are shower houses. They also have several styles of cabins. Several on the rim and a half dozen or so down in the canyon that you can rent. We definitely plan on returning here to explore the Amarillo area (but we probably won’t be trying to eat a 72 oz steak in an hour).

Our campsite at Palo Duro State Park

From Amarillo we will be spending a few days outside of Fort Worth, then it’s on to Ann’s Mother’s house in Montgomery, TX.

Photos from this, and all of our other trips can be seen in our Photo Album.

After six weeks of trying to make it work, Ann & I decided that working at the North Rim wasn’t such a great idea (for us) after all.

There are lots of little reasons things didn’t work out. We never adjusted well to the high altitude. As a matter of fact, Ann seemed to be suffering more as the weeks went on. Since we were working a lot, we didn’t have as much time for sightseeing as we would like, and what sightseeing we did do was very rushed. Add to that the fact that living in a 24 foot trailer is a lot of work! You are constantly doing dishes, washing clothes or cooking. Taking a shower is also a chore because the cat box lives in the shower, so it and everything else we store in the shower has to come out, and is in the way till we are done and the shower has dried out.

We also had a few issues with Forever Resorts, the company we worked for. In our humble opinions, they did not place a high priority on keeping their employees happy. Most of the times, half the employee washer & dryers were not working. We didn’t have internet access in the employee area for more that two weeks (they told us to either pay for our own DSL line or to use the Wi-Fi at the General Store, which required us to spend time waiting for the employee shuttle to get there and back).

It was not a horrible experience, however. We both really liked our jobs. And the best part of the whole thing were all of the new friends we have made there. Leaving them was really hard for us.

So, what’s next? Well, we are currently en-route to Ann’s Mother’s home in Montgomery, TX, with stops along the way in the Petrified Forest National Park, Albuquerque, Amarillo and Ft. Worth. We will spend the 4th of July there, then head back home to Cincinnati for a few days. After that, we are driving to Ormond Beach, FL to house sit for some North Rim friends till the end of October. Living a mile from the beach sounds like a good idea to us

We plan to take weekend trips to various locations in the area, so we will be keeping you updated!

If you havn’t looked lately, we now have Grand Canyon photos in our photo gallery (link on the right), so check them out an be on the lookout for more!

Due to the lack of a reliable Internet connection, I have not been keeping the Blog updated in a timely manner. I apologize for this and will attempt to get caught up over the next week or so, now that they have fixed the Wi-Fi (for now…)

Meanwhile, we will skip ahead in our travels to our arrival at the North Rim.

There are two major areas in the Grand Canyon National Park: the South Rim and the North Rim. The South Rim is where most people go, do to it’s relative closeness to Interstate 40 and Flagstaff, AZ. This is where you will find the famous Grand Canyon Sky Walk, a glass bottom platform that hangs out over the canyon’s rim.

The North Rim is isolated and much less commercialized. It is located on the Kaibab Plateau, and is over 1200 feet higher in elevation than the South Rim. Where the South Rim is a more arid and desert like, the North Rim is covered with towering Ponderosa Pine and Quaking Aspen trees. The normal August high temperature is in the low 80′s.

Here is what I mean when I say the North Rim is isolated. The nearest town with a commercial airport is St. George, Utah, a three hour drive from the Lodge at the National Park. The nearest Walmart is two hours away in Page, AZ. Las Vegas is four and a half hours away.

When we arrived here on May 10th. there was still a lot of snow on the ground in the Kaibab National Forest, which lies outside the National Park. As a matter of fact, the road to the park, Highway 67, had been plowed of the winter snows less than a month before. Highs were in the 40′s and lows were often below freezing. None of the Aspen trees had any leaves.

Most of the people who work here live in dorms, with two or three to a room. They all eat in a common employee dining room, that serves cafeteria style meals. They pay $12 a day for room and board. They also have a RV “park”, which is where Ann & I are. We pay $6.50 a day for full hookups, free propane and free laundry facilities (the National Park campground here has no hookups and you have to pay $2.00 for a shower).

Many of the employees here have no car. Forever Resorts (the people we work for) picks them up in St.George, Utah and brings them here. They usually have a van that goes to St. George or Page, AZ for shopping trips once a week or so. They also make impromptu trips to take back folks that have either quit or have been fired.

They also run different sight seeing trips for employees to local sights, such as Zion or Bryce Canyon National Parks, rafting trips on the Colorado River or to places in the Grand Canyon & National Forest. There is a nominal charge for some of these trips.

The people here vary widely. We have house keepers and kitchen help from local native American reservations, as well as St. George and Las Vegas. We have a lot more of us “mature” workers here than I expected. I would hazard a guess that 30% or more are over 30 years old.

Most of the people that I have spoken to are hear for one reason: they can’t find a job elsewhere. However, there is a group that work the seasonal park job circuit year round. After they leave here in mid October, they will eather go south, to parks such as Big Bend in Texas or go to work at the ski resorts up north for the winter.

Enough for now. Next up will be our work experiences, so far….

When you exit I-90 to head to Badlands National Park, you find the Minuteman National Historic Site. We didn’t know anything about this place, so we stopped to see what it was all about.

During the Cold War era, the US built 150 Minuteman missile silos and 15 control centers in South Dakota. These facilities remained on alert for almost 30 years until 1991 when the US and the USSR signed the START treaty, which required that the US decommission and destroy the silos.

One silo was preserved (with a glass cover so that satellites could verify that it was empty) along with one control center, and placed under the care of the National Park Service. Thus our newest National Historic Site was created.

There is a visitor’s center, where you can view a video and various displays on how the silos were built, how the control centers operated and what life was like working there.

It is possible to tour the control center and silo. However, they were still on their Winter schedule, so we missed the tour for that day. Maybe next time…

A few more miles down the road we see the Badlands. One minute you were driving through rolling prairie then the next it was as if we were on the Moon.

The Badlands were formed by water and wind erosion. They say that the formations loose one inch a year of soil.

In spite of the barrenness, humans have lived in the area for 11,000 years. Native Americans hunted the plains and homesteaders attempted to eke out a living farming the plains.

Today, the Badlands National Park contains the largest expanse of natural prairie in the US, over 64,000 acres. It is home to the endangered black footed ferret, prairie dogs and buffalo.

A Buffalo standing in the rain

Like most National Parks, the campground has no water or electrical hookups. However, being early in the season, we had the place almost to ourselves.

Our campsite at the Badlands National Park

Just about every tourist destination has some sort of large statue of an item or character that people stand in front of to get their pictures taken. We have countless photos of our boys, who are often not very pleased to be doing it, posing in front of giant boots, shovels, animals, you name it.

Well, now that Ann & I aren’t traveling with our kids, guess who gets to stand in front of the giant item?

When Lewis & Clark came through South Dakota on their journey of discovery, they wrote that the place was unfit for farming of any kind. Years later, the business men of Mitchell South Dakota wanted to prove to the world that Lewis & Clark were wrong. So in 1892 they built the “The Corn Belt Exposition” and covered the entire outside of it with mosaics and designs made from local corn and other grass crops. It was an instant hit, with people coming from all over the country to view it.

The original 'Corn Belt Exposition" (Later named the "Corn Palace"

118 years, two buildings, and a new name later, they are still at it. Every year, the Corn Palace murals are redone to a new theme. This year’s theme is transportation through the years. The murals are constructed with twelve varieties of corn, each providing a different color for the murals. This corn is all grown in the Mitchell area.

One of the Corn Palace murals

The mural artist first creates a small painting of the desired design. The painting is then divided in to a grid. Each square in the grid will be a 1 foot square in the finished mural. The artist then transfers the grid section designs to sheets of tar paper. These sheets are attached to the building, then cobs of the appropriate colored corn are trimmed to the appropriate size and nailed to the mural, using the designs on the tar paper as a guide. Local grass crops are used to create the designs that fill in the areas between and around the murals.

A partially completed mural

The completed mural

Birds and other creatures do eat some of the corn in the murals, which is one reason why they redo it every year, at a cost of $30,000. There are also murals on the inside of the building (which is an arena) that are more permanent.

Murals inside the Corn Palace

This evening we are staying in the parking lot of a Cabela’s store just outside of Mitchell. The have an area of the parking lot reserved for RV parking, complete with a dump station and it’s OK to spend the night there. This is the first time we have boondocked at a Cabela’s, and it worked out well. It was a lot quieter than a Walmart parking lot. We now plan to use their facilities more often when we travel..

You can see more Corn Palace photos in the Photo Gallery on our Web Site.

Thursday, April 22 – Saturday,April 24

Today we depart for our six month adventure. Almost everything is packed, except for the refrigerated stuff, and the items we remember at the last minute (like pillows, spare glasses, etc.). Our previous six week “shakedown” trip really helped us figure out what was needed and where it was supposed to be stored. While far from perfect, we seem to have had less last minute panic this time.

After last minute instructions to our boys (who STILL live in our basement), we head North to Xenia, Ohio, where we will be attending our local Airstream Club’s annual Soup Rally.

The Rally is held at the Green County Fairgrounds, just outside of Xenia. We had over thirty units (trailers, Motor homes and van campers) in attendance, which is pretty good for a rally these days (the club’s membership has been steadily declining). Thursday evening we attend a social, and have a great time meeting and greeting members we haven’t seen for over a year (we did not attend any local rallies last year).

Friday morning we caravan to the Wright Patterson Air Force Base (outside of Dayton, OH) to tour the Fisher House, a home that people can stay in for no charge while they or a family member are receiving treatment at the base’s hospital (much like a Ronald McDonald House). They do this with no money from the government, other than the land for the building. All funds to build and operate the houses come from corporate sponsors, fund raisers and donations by individuals. They run this 9 room facility (soon to be increased to 22) with only one paid full time manager, two part time employees and a lot of volunteers.

Saturday morning they start to cook the soup. It is cooked in a huge pot over a wood fire. It is made from scratch, with all fresh vegetables. It will slowly simmer over the fire all day, until it is served for dinner. After dinner we hold our club’s annual fundraiser auction. Everyone brings “treasures” that they no longer need, and we all bid on them. We have our own auctioneer, Don Kendig, who can be extremely funny with the way he tries to cajole bids from the audience. Seeing as how we were not going to be returning home for six months, Ann & I only picked up a few small items (with emphasis on the “small” .

Lot's of advice on how to cook the soup

Sunday, April 25

After a pot luck lunch of left over soup and other delicious items, we pack up and head to Franklin, Indiana (outside of Indianapolis). Our friends Dallas & Pam Peak are letting us stay in their driveway for the evening. We met Dallas & Pam at the 2004 International Rally in Lansing Michigan. They, like us, own a vintage Airstream trailer. Both Dallas & Pam are Emergency Room Physicians and unfortunately, Pam had to work this evening. However we had a great time with Dallas, who showed us how he roasts his own coffee beans.

Monday, April 26

I am awoken by the crowing of Pam’s roosters (she keeps several dozen chickens, for their eggs) and their dogs barking because Pam has returned from work. We get to spend some time chatting with her before we head off for our next destination, the Par-A-Dice Casino in East Peoria, Illinois.

Leaving Dallas & Pam's house

As you can read elsewhere in this Blog, we are fond of staying at casinos. Unfortunately, we didn’t win anything at this one. We boondock overnight in their parking lot.

Tuesday, April 27

The first part of today’s trip takes us through Northwestern Illinois (on Interstate 74). This is farm country, with little else to see but gently rolling landscapes of freshly tilled fields. This is an area where you have to plan your gas stops, because the majority of the infrequent exits do not have any gas stations. This is something I have always associated with the sparsely populated Southwestern states, not Illinois. But it is the case here as well. We see quite a few Red Winged Blackbirds darting back and forth across the Interstate. I notice them because we don’t see them very often  where we live, we have mostly Robins, Blue Jays, Crows and Sparrows.

We cross into Iowa when we hit Interstate 80 and start heading West. More of the same here, lots of farms. The hills are starting to flatten out a bit, and we are starting to get what Ann & I call “Big Sky”. This is where you have more sky than land, trees, buildings, etc. in your view. I believe that Montana calls themselves “Big Sky Country”, but our version is reserved for the Western/Southwestern “flat” states.

Outside of Iowa City we pick up Interstate 380 and start heading North again towards our next overnight stop, a Walmart in Waterloo, Iowa. As I have mentioned before, we like to boondock at Walmarts because it gives us the opportunity to pick up any items we forgot or need to replenish. The place was really busy, but we managed to find some seclusion in the parking lot past the garden canter. Learning where to park when boondocking in a Walmart is an art. You don’t want to be by the main road or any of the entrances/exits, as you will have traffic going by you all night. You also have to take the terrain into consideration (who likes to sleep with their head lower than their feet?). Sometimes things like parking next to high hedges isn’t a good idea because you get woken up at 5:30 AM when the birds start singing (something we learned the hard way). You also want to avoid having a light pole shining directly into your windows.

Wednesday, April 28

We start the day out by making what will probably be our last visit to an Aldi store. Aldi hasn’t expanded that far West yet, so we won’t see one till we return home the end of October. I could write a whole Blog section on Aldi, but for now all I will say is if you have them in your area, and you haven’t been to one yet, you should check them out as soon as possible. Just remember to bring your own shopping bags and a quarter for the shopping cart (you get it back once you return the cart) and remember that they only take cash or debit cards, no credit cards or checks.

We are now heading West again, on US-20, a nice limited access highway. After a while we pick up Interstate 35 and climb North again. Along the way we pass several huge Wind Farms. There are wind turbines, each with three gigantic propellers attached to a huge generator. The wind has started to pick up and all of the turbines are going at full speed. They are all in farm fields, with crops planted all around them. I suspect that the power company, or whomever it is that owns the generators, leases the land from the farmer.

An Iowa Wind Farm

We hit Interstate 90 and head West to tonight’s stop, the “Welcome Campground” in Welcome, MN. It’s a small “Mom & Pop” campground in an even smaller town. The place is a bit “cluttered”, but the rates are cheap and they have full hookups, free Wi-Fi and laundry facilities.

The "Welcome Campground" in Welcome, MN

The winds are picking up. We are supposed to got 40-50 Mph gusts tonight. The campground owner stops by and says that if things get too bad, they will evacuate us to the nearest shelter, which is a church. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that….

Here is our route, so far:

Photos from this trip can be viewed in our Photo Gallery.

Today we start out for the North Rim of the Grand Canyon to work for the 2010 season. We don’t have to be there till May 10th, so we plan to do some sight seeing along the way.

We are starting out by attending a rally being held by our local WBCCI Unit in Xenia Ohio. This is called the “Soup Rally” because all day Saturday they cook a huge pot of vegetable soup over an open fire.

Next, we plan to visit our friends Dallas & Pam Peak, who live near Indianaoplis. Dallas is curently 1st Vice President of the Vintage Airstream Club.

After that we will head Northwest to South Dakota to see the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, etc. We wanted to also go through Yellowstone, but time and weather dictate that will happen some other time.

After South Dakota, we head south into Utah where we will stock up on supplies in St. George for our stay at the North Rim.

Stay tuned to these pages for updates and photos!

Dave

One type of place that Ann & I camp at are casinos. While neither of us are big gamblers, casinos often have RV parks or allow us to park overnight for free. They often have great food and drink specials. Plus, we are both avid people watchers, and casinos offer up plenty of interesting people to watch. On top of all of that, we sometimes actually win money!

Our first stop after leaving New Orleans was the Cypress Bayou Casino, an American Indian casino located near Baldwin, LA. This casino has a RV park that offer full hookups, paved sites, with many being pull through, and cable TV for only $10 a night. They do not have a shower house, pool or laundry facilities. In addition to the low price per night, the casino comps each of us $10 in free slot machine plays.

The “casino” is actually two casinos, Cypress Bayou and Shorty’s. They are in two different buildings with an enclosed walkway between them. I am not sure why they did it that way, probably for legal reasons. But if you go there, be sure you check out both (we didn’t know the second casino was there till our second visit). There is no hotel at this casino, although one is now being built about 1/2 mile away.

Their Mexican restaurant had great Happy Hour deals while we were there: $1 Margaritas and 1/2 priced appetizers. We definitely took advantage of those deals!

While we were heading home from Texas, we stayed the night in Shreveport, LA, just across the Texas border on I-20. Here we stayed the night in the Sam’s Town Casino’s parking lot. Right next door to Sam’s Town is the Eldorado Casino. Both of these casinos have hotels attached to them. When we signed up for player’s cards, Sam’s Town gave each of us $5 in free slot plays, while the Eldorado didn’t comp us anything.

The Eldorado is decorated nicely, although Ann will tell you that their huge central light fixture needed cleaning. I won $30 playing slots there so we treated ourselves to the Sam’s Town all you can eat buffet. They discount the buffet 50% for those of us who are over 50 years old, so the price was only $8.00 each. This turned out to be about what we thought the buffet was worth. The seafood was good (crab legs, fried shrimp), but the beef was over done and there was a lack of vegetable dishes. However, they had plenty of tasty deserts.

The next night we stayed in Vicksburg, MS at the Ameristar Casino’s RV Park. For $22.50 a night you get full hook ups, cable TV, a shower house, coin-op laundry facilities and a small swimming pool (unheated, so we didn’t try it out). We also received vouchers for a free breakfast buffet for both of us at the casino.

The Vicksburg casinos all used to be riverboats. However, the riverboats are all now sitting on dry land. The Ameristar has a hotel, however it is not attached to the casino. You have to ride a shuttle to go between them.

Up the street from the Ameristar is Diamond Jack’s. This is a bit of a hike, if you are walking, as you have to climb a large hill from the casinos to reach the main road. There is a fence between the two properties so you cant just walk along the river. It’s easiest if you go down the drive to the park that is between the Ameristar and Diamond Jacks.

Diamond Jacks gave each of us $10 in free slot play and they had a promo game going where Ann won another $5 in slot play and I won $5 in cash. Diamond Jacks has a hotel right next door to the casino.

This evening we didn’t win quite as much, so we went back to the trailer and made Cincinnati Chili.  Yum!

One thing we don’t like about casinos is the cigarette smoke. We have found that the later it gets in the evening, the heavier the smoke gets. If you go to the casinos in the morning or early afternoon, the smoke is not as bad.

As far as the gambling goes, we set a budget on how much we want to spend, then try not to go over that. And when we are significantly ahead, we quit (or at least try to .