Minnesota July 4th weekend.

[Tedlark]

  Me and my girlfriend went up to Minnesota for the Fourth of July weekend and it was a good trip for me but not so good for her. We stayed at Treasure Island in Welch, MN and this would be in the south end of the state. Shadowman knows better than me but gaming in Minnesota, in a word is: S   P   R   E   A   D   O   U   T   !!!  Alot of time will elapse between when you leave one casino for another so make sure you have: 1) comfortable shoes, 2) plenty of gas in the tank, 3) time to stop for several potty breaks and 4) patience.
 
  This was the second trip we made to the land of 10,000 lakes and we saw no boat launch mishaps so I couldn't lend a helping hand.
 
  Getting back to Treasure Island. It is a big casino that concentrates on low denomination slots but I managed to play more video poker than anything. After checking in to the hotel and eating we went down to the casino and I sat down at a triple play machine and started playing. I hit a royal pretty quickly which put me immediately into a happy mood, getitng that $1,000.00 slip and putting it into my pocket. I got a couple of quad 4's without kickers and a few small quads so after about 2 hours I left the machine in search of another conquest. I found a couple .10 denomination All Star machines and was switching between 10 play and Super Times Pay. Before long while playing 10 play DDB I pressed deal and soon was staring down at 4AAAA dealt to me. I held all 5 cards and pressed draw, Call Attendant, hand pay jackpot. But before that it asked me if I wanted to: Double Up? I DON'T THINK SO. After getting paid I played for a few more minutes and went back to thetriple play machine I hit the royal on. After playing for about 45 minutes I got aces with a kicker. I then said enoough video poker and spent the rest of the evening playing a video slot machine. I sank about two hundred into the machine before calling it a night. 
 
  Saturday morning after breakfast we drove out to the Grand Casino Mille Lacs. After the 2 hour and 15 minute drive we played for about 1 1/2 hours before heading back to Treasure Island. We didn't do much here and I played all video slots. If you like the game called "Treasures of Troy" then Minnesota is the place to go, each casino has a minimum of probably 20 of this game which was cool because here in Illinois the max is 3 at Hollywood in Aurora.
 
  Saturday night after dinner we played for a while and I didn't hit much. Hit aces a couple times without kickers, played some more video slots and then it was off to bed becauise of the 7 hour drive I was looking at for our Sunday return. Sure, she can nap here and there during the drive but I catch holy hell when I close my eyes for "just a second." So what I was driving, the car's got airbags I calmly explain.
 
  The bottom line on Treasure Island in Minnesota is that it is a very nice place and big. Their buffet was well above average, the prime rib was excellent. The hotel rooms are nice and comfortable but the valet parking was a bit slow so if you do stay in the hotel call the valet before you leave your room otherwise you will wait 15 to 20 minutes for your car.  

[marie meijer]

NICE trip report, Ted, and congrats on hits! 

[Tedlark]

Thanks very much Marie.

[Eduardo]

Congrats on that quick royal!

[cddenver]

I'm glad you had a nice trip and made it back to us, safe and sound. 

[shadowman]

Ok, now I'm going to have to ban Ted from going to TI ever again. I've had total on two RFs over the last two summers there and he pops in and steals one right away.

 
Just kidding of course, congrats Ted and I hope you enjoyed the trip. I do wonder why you went to Grand Casino Mille Lacs when the Grand at Hinckley is about 30 minutes closer when coming from TI. It's also a little bigger.
 

[Nancy J.]

Ted...well done!

[royal flush]

nice

[BOOPSAHOY]

Good Job Ted!  I owe everyone a trip report myself-Hopefully I will get to it tomorrow.

[Tedlark]

  Thanks everyone. Keep trying for that royal yourself Eduardo. Shadow, we went to Mille Lacs because we went to Hinkley on the last trip up so we wanted to check out their other casino.