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Published: September 11th 2005
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Trump casino
The casino. The boat NEVER goes anywhere. Sunday, 11 September 2005
Trump Hotel and Casino
Gary, Indiana
Day Two. Time 2000. Janet and I had another volatile misunderstanding. She IS not feeling well, not at all, and it all works on her mind and emotions, as well as her physical strength. And I get in a snit, and don’t help. But we finally got on the road.
Today, all we have done is drive. From Chillicothe, Ohio, to here. Gary, Indiana is at the absolute bottom of Lake Michigan, and really, Gary, Hammond, Indiana, and Chicago are all one big megalopolis. You go from one to another without realizing it unless you actually see the signs. We got in here about 1900.
Tomorrow the plan is to visit the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, which has the former German U-505, the one captured in WW-II on the high seas by a U.S. Navy anti-submarine task force. And the museum also has a large HO scale model railroad, depicting a railroad from Seattle to Chicago. Then, tomorrow evening we’re going to catch the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. They’re hosting Cincinnati. And then, on Tuesday, we’ll head off to Cereal City, otherwise known as Battle Creek, Michigan.
So, for two days, it’s just been the road. Saturday, and West Virginia and its tortuous twists, turns, and ups and downs. And today, Ohio and Indiana, which is like driving across the top of a table. Corn fields to the horizon. Occasional barn and farm house. Beautiful days, both of them. Balmy blue skies with fluffy white clouds, moderate temperatures, and really, easy driving. Traffic has not been particularly heavy. Right now Janet wants to go over to the casino. They have penny slot machines.
Time 0045
Yep. The penny slots. The casino is walking distance from the hotel; even so, we rode the shuttle over there. The casino is not “first class.” The clientele that frequents it, or that is catered to, I guess, is very definitely not of the upper class. Or even upper-middle class. They mostly look like, well… Janet’s father. Old, broken-down people, rough and hard looking, heavy smokers, all seemingly bored to death, poorly dressed (not rags, but— jeans, cut-offs, sweat shirts, t-shirts, flip-flops,) bad hair, obese, or rail-thin skinny, shuffling around, from one slot machine to another. All very definitely with the appearance of “working class.” And did I mention that they smoked? The place was heavy with cigarette smoke. On upper floors they had card games; black jack, and craps. I didn’t see any young folks. Janet quickly assumed the pose of bored nonchalance herself, when she finally got her hands on a penny machine, and figured out how to go about it. The slots have handles to pull, but you don’t drop in coins each time; you put in a quantity of money, a dollar, and a number representing “credits” appears on the machine. One credit equals one penny, so, one dollar is 100 credits. Each time you pull the handle, the credits decrease until you “hit,” then it adjusts your total up to include what you have won, then you continue. All you have to do is pull the handle and then wait for the wheels to stop spinning. No feeding of coins each time. So you take on this air of insouciance, where you pull, wait for the wheels to stop, look to see if you’ve won, pull again, wait, look, … When she had it down, she was slouched on her stool, right hand resting near to the handle while the wheels spun, and when they stopped, she reached and pulled again. There are several degrees of bets you can make, playing just one “line” straight across the wheels, or as many as nine “lines,” on various diagonals on the wheels. I too, played. I plugged in one dollar, and began pulling. Finally I increased my betting from one line to five, and started to win! That one dollar started going up. I’d win 50 credits, then 35, then 115! Then 75, etc. I got up to 400-plus, and said, “When I hit five dollars (500 credits) I’ll cash out.” And then… I started losing. Slowly but steadily, my credits began to decrease, until I was back down to 100; then, they decreased even more, until—gone! So I gave up my machine and checked with Janet. She was going strong. But… it was getting late, midnight, so I suggested she cut it off. We had a day to do the next day. So, she too cashed out. At seven dollars to the good! Actually, overall I think we broke about even. She had put money into the machine more than once, and so, as a result, I think, overall, we were about even. So, we left. This time, we actually walked back to the room. It was a nice easy walk, through a covered walk-way. When we got bock to the room, we noticed… our clothes reeked of cigarette smoke!
The Casino.
The boat never goes anywhere.
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