Western Road Trip

[FloridaPhil]

My wife and I just returned from a very enjoyable and long anticipated road trip. On January 14th we flew from our home in Orlando to Seattle. We picked up a rental car at the airport and drove to Ellensburg Washington where we spent the first night. Washington State only has Class II machines, so we opted not to play. We had never been in East Washington before. Lots of trees, farms and wind mills. The next day we drove to Coeur D'Alene Idaho. That night we stopped by the local casino. The quarter VP odds were terrible as we expected. Deuces Wild was in the 97% range. The better VP was at the bar. After a nice dinner, we contributed a couple of hundred. Coeur D'Alene is beautiful and we spent part of the day shopping and walking around.

The next day we drove to White Fish Montana. Montana has interesting gambling. The entire state is covered with tiny casinos. They are in gas stations, convenience stores and restaurants. We walked into one of them to check it out and found more Class II machines. After speaking with the owner, we left assured we weren't missing anything. The next day we drove through Glacier National Park.
Glacier is amazing. It's like the Grand Canyon upside down. This completes our tour of US National Parks. Glacier was the best of all.

We then drove to Billings Montana and spent two days with a friend we haven't seen in 20 years. My friend was in the computer business with me at the beginning of the industry. For the last 20 years, he has owned and operated a 35,000 acre cattle ranch. He also has a great collection of Western artwork and sculptures. We talked about old times and had a great time reliving old memories. I'm telling you this so you won't think all we do is gamble.

Two more days of driving and we arrived in Black Hawk Colorado. The Ameristar comped our room for three nights. I've been thinking about switching from Deuces Wild to Bonus Poker. The Ameristar had 8/5 Bonus poker and 98.9% Deuces Wild in quarters. Deuces is a great game, but it can get costly if you don't hit quad deuces or a royal. Bonus Poker turned out to be a good choice. The odds at the Monarch Casino have been downgraded. There are still two NSU machines in the rear.

On day one, I hit three sets of quad aces in about 20 minutes. I played quarters all day and played $20 in dollars after every quad. I hit quad 4s for $200 once and a $200 quad deuce once. On day two we drove to Cripple Creek the back way. With 14,000 foot mountains all along the route, we enjoyed the views.

Cripple Creek is so much fun. It's 9,400 feet in altitude, so you have to take your time walking around. We ate lunch at Maggies and spent the day at the Century Casino. The VP odds are great and the atmosphere is right out of an old Western movie. As my wife played, she watched a guy play $25 a hand going for a big progressive. He played for the three hours we were there and didn't hit anything good. I don't know how much money he lost, but it must have been a bunch. I hit another quarter quad ace and walked out even. The drive back was just as beautiful.

Our last day was spent playing VP at the Ameristar, the Lodge Casino across the street and the Central City Casino. My wife finally hit a quad deuce. At the Ameristar the good VP games are along the wall behind the table games. On our last night, a young guy hit a $105,000 royal flush progressive on a table game right next to us. It was very exciting. He had three to a royal and the other two cards came out of the deck. He called his wife on his cell phone and the whole casino listened to their conversation. That was the biggest jackpot we have seen so far.

The morning we were to fly back I got up early and went down stairs while my wife packed. I had done OK the whole week and decided to test the 8/5 Bonus Poker dollar play. I made a quick $200 bucks and called it quits.

Neither of us hit a royal this time. We stayed three nights at the Ameristar for just the taxes. All total, my wife lost about three hundred all week and I lost about the same. We both had a great time. Can't wait to go back.

[FloridaPhil]

The Ameristar Casino Black Hawk Colorado

[FloridaPhil]

Cripple Creek Colorado

[onemoretry]

Sounds like a great trip. But, you did mean to say July 14 rather than January, did you not?

[FloridaPhil]

Sounds like a great trip. But, you did mean to say July 14 rather than January, did you not?

Yes. Sorry about that. Still a bit groggy from jetlag.

[Eduardo]

Looks like a wonderful road trip. I've been through Black Hawk but never stayed there. How were the rooms?

Sounds like you got a lot of play in for $300!

Glacier sounds like the best part of all.

[OTABILL]

Glad to hear you had a fulfilling trip. On a side note, parts of Eastern Washington south of where you were are arid. The west is like that.

[FloridaPhil]

Looks like a wonderful road trip. I've been through Black Hawk but never stayed there. How were the rooms? Sounds like you got a lot of play in for $300! Glacier sounds like the best part of all.

The rooms at the Ameristar are nice. The hotel is one of the better casino hotels we have stayed at. Coming from Florida, the altitude always takes some time to get used to. This time wasn't as bad, probably because we were significantly above sea level on our trip. Black Hawk, Central City and Cripple Creek are worth a visit. You can find good games if you look around. We only looked at the Bonus Poker and Deuces games.

There are probably a dozen or more casinos in Black Hawk and Central City combined. It would take all day to walk through all of them. The best thing about Colorado is all the casinos in the State are non smoking. Which is really odd as marijuana is legal. I recently bought two tobacco company stocks and some hospital stock to go with them. If I could have bought some funeral home stock, I would have. As far as I am concerned, they can keep smoking.

Sorry for the dark humor. I figure if someone's going to destroy themselves, I might as well make some money off of it.

[olds442jetaway]

Glad you guys had a great trip Phil. Hey, whT kind of car did you guys rent?

[FloridaPhil]

Glad you guys had a great trip Phil. Hey, whT kind of car did you guys rent?

We rented a Nissan Maxima. It was a little hard for us old folks to get in and out of. Other than that it was a great road trip car. It handled the mountain roads like a 4 door sports car with lots of power and 30 MPG on the highway. It was great driving in Montana with 80 mph speed limits.

I've decided to go back to Bonus Poker for now. Deuces is brutal when quad twos don't show. I guess it all depends on how you like your pain, slow and steady or jabs in the eye.