I am back. After 2.5 days in Nashville, visiting with friends and seeing the sights and gambling a bit, I am home.
Lynne and I left last Friday afternoon at about 5:30 for a trip to Nashville to visit with Anne and Mike (and their daughter H.). The plan was, in order to prepare the newbies for a weekend in Vegas in September, we were to road trip to Evansville, Indiana and make a day visit to Casino Aztar.
Unfortunately on the timing side of things, Anne made the brave decision to stop smoking 2 weeks ago (way to go Anne!!!) and therefore was a bit worried that the noise and clamor of the casino (let alone the smoking and drinking that takes place) and that it might set her on edge so she bowed out of the road trip. So Saturday morning Lynne, Mike and I headed off for the 2.5 hours drive.
The trip was fool of nice scenery and some fun music as I had taken my 3900 song I-Pod along with us. We listened to a random sampling of some of my tunes and only saw a bit of hail as we drove back.
The Casino was fun. Well, it was fun until I began to lose. I went though my stash and part of by “back-up” stash before we headed home. My timing was off for the day as I stepped away from the craps table before it got hot and missed the opportunity that Lynne had and she ended the day up. And as for blackjack I could not catch a break. You know it’s bad when you tip you last 5 dollars as you leave a table and the dealer says something like Thanks but I don’t deserve this. And that was said to me 3 times that day!
Mike was another story though. I don’t know Mike that well (And actually don’t really know Anne that well but hope to further my friendship with them both in the future), but was greatly amused at his reaction to the casino and Lynne and I gambling. He studied the people and watched a lot. He eventually played a bit of blackjack but I would still like to know his assessment of the socio-economic patterns that he saw.
One of the main differences between gambling at a place like Evansville or Detroit is the socio-economic diversity that one sees. In Vegas the majority of people are there to gamble so you don’t often see people who look like they shouldn’t be gambling gambling. Unfortunately, this is not the case in the new crop of casinos that have cropped up in cities that are a bit downtrodden. On more than a few occasions I have wanted to stop people from loosing money that I am almost certain the person gambling could not afford to loose.
I think this lack of having to view people doing something they shouldn’t be doing is another reason I enjoy going to Las Vegas. This may sound selfish and I guess it is but there is a part of me that still cares for the greater good and sometimes you don’t see the good in gambling when those who probably shouldn’t be gambling are doing just that.
Sunday was a lazy day of seeing some sights in Nashville then dinner out and a nice German place across from the new Titan stadium.
But we did practiced our blackjack and craps at Anne and Mike’s and I think have convinced them that Vegas will be fun (I think I will start on a publicity blitz this summer for them.)
Oh and then on Sunday we almost got sucked into attending Duke's Fest (Dukes of Hazzard fans fest) becasue we ended up at the fair grounds and got directed rght into the parking lot... we escaped.
It was a very nice somewhat relaxing weekend that has me re-charged for a bit as I head into a busy time at work.
Lynne and I left last Friday afternoon at about 5:30 for a trip to Nashville to visit with Anne and Mike (and their daughter H.). The plan was, in order to prepare the newbies for a weekend in Vegas in September, we were to road trip to Evansville, Indiana and make a day visit to Casino Aztar.
Unfortunately on the timing side of things, Anne made the brave decision to stop smoking 2 weeks ago (way to go Anne!!!) and therefore was a bit worried that the noise and clamor of the casino (let alone the smoking and drinking that takes place) and that it might set her on edge so she bowed out of the road trip. So Saturday morning Lynne, Mike and I headed off for the 2.5 hours drive.
The trip was fool of nice scenery and some fun music as I had taken my 3900 song I-Pod along with us. We listened to a random sampling of some of my tunes and only saw a bit of hail as we drove back.
The Casino was fun. Well, it was fun until I began to lose. I went though my stash and part of by “back-up” stash before we headed home. My timing was off for the day as I stepped away from the craps table before it got hot and missed the opportunity that Lynne had and she ended the day up. And as for blackjack I could not catch a break. You know it’s bad when you tip you last 5 dollars as you leave a table and the dealer says something like Thanks but I don’t deserve this. And that was said to me 3 times that day!
Mike was another story though. I don’t know Mike that well (And actually don’t really know Anne that well but hope to further my friendship with them both in the future), but was greatly amused at his reaction to the casino and Lynne and I gambling. He studied the people and watched a lot. He eventually played a bit of blackjack but I would still like to know his assessment of the socio-economic patterns that he saw.
One of the main differences between gambling at a place like Evansville or Detroit is the socio-economic diversity that one sees. In Vegas the majority of people are there to gamble so you don’t often see people who look like they shouldn’t be gambling gambling. Unfortunately, this is not the case in the new crop of casinos that have cropped up in cities that are a bit downtrodden. On more than a few occasions I have wanted to stop people from loosing money that I am almost certain the person gambling could not afford to loose.
I think this lack of having to view people doing something they shouldn’t be doing is another reason I enjoy going to Las Vegas. This may sound selfish and I guess it is but there is a part of me that still cares for the greater good and sometimes you don’t see the good in gambling when those who probably shouldn’t be gambling are doing just that.
Sunday was a lazy day of seeing some sights in Nashville then dinner out and a nice German place across from the new Titan stadium.
But we did practiced our blackjack and craps at Anne and Mike’s and I think have convinced them that Vegas will be fun (I think I will start on a publicity blitz this summer for them.)
Oh and then on Sunday we almost got sucked into attending Duke's Fest (Dukes of Hazzard fans fest) becasue we ended up at the fair grounds and got directed rght into the parking lot... we escaped.
It was a very nice somewhat relaxing weekend that has me re-charged for a bit as I head into a busy time at work.
posted by Shannon @ 8:56 PM
1 Comments:
At 7:08 AM,
Mando Mama said…
Whew, Duke's Fest aside, sounds like it was good fun.
Your observation about gambling is interesting. As you know, Wheeling has had the dog races forever, and now Cleveland is angling for position for a big casino on the lake. It's almost certain to happen. It will be interesting to see whether it in fact brings in all that tourism revenue and generates the economic renaissance that the Powers are counting on. Personally, I'm not holding my breath and think it will be more like you describe.
Thank you for allowing my sistah to stay behind and remain SMOBER. I'm so proud of her.
MM
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