Aruba Trip Part Five

While in Aruba, each evening was spent socializing, feasting on the abundant assorted foods, more socializing,..........and then finding my way to the hotel casino. It was very convenient to have a casino on the premises of the hotel. Even though the casino was not huge in size......way smaller than what you would find in Charlestown, WVA.....but much larger than what you would find on a cruise ship. Along with slot machines, there was poker, craps, and roulette. In the casino there is a bar and each night a three-piece band would perform. They were pretty good actually............except I got tired of hearing "Sweet Caroline" every night. It seems that "Sweet Caroline" is very popular in Aruba......I do not know why that is........for all I know it could be their national anthem.......hehehe.

For some reason I did pretty good on the slot machines. Ordinarily, one would hope to maintain.....or at least be able to spend alot of time enjoying the games with only spending a minimal amount of money. If you only intend to spend 40 dollars per night and you can win enough to play for 4 or 5 hours before you ultimately lose that 40 bucks....well.....you did pretty good. Think of it as reasonable entertainment costs. The slot machines at this particular casino, though, seemed to be a bit looser than at other places that I have been. Not all of the machines were loose, but it appeared that I was fortunate enough to sit at the few that were.

It has been said to look for the slot machines located nearest to the entrances or stairs or elevators. Those are alleged to be looser so that passersby might be lured into spending some time in the casino themselves...........if they see somebody winning they will want join in. If they hear a machine making alot of noise, that does the trick as well. Obviously there is a science to the operation of a casino.....they have it all figured out. Ultimately, the odds will be that the house is hard to beat............they will get every dime that you bring and they will get every dime that you have won.........unless, of course, you are very lucky or at least are able to find a strategy that works for you. I am not so stupid that I cannot figure out that these slot machines are computerized and computers are PROGRAMMED to function in certain ways. I keep that in mind whenever I play a slot machine. While I would love to rake in a lot of cash every time I play, I am realistic and know full well that the likelihood of anyone getting rich participating in gambling of any kind is the equivalent of getting hit by a bus while selecting ground beef inside your local grocery store.

But I can safely say that I was fully entertained each night in the casino. If I lost any money, I would win it back. For some reason I was calculatingly lucky. I DID sit at the machines nearest the entrance of the casino. It was those particular machines that I was able to "maintain" and then some.

Here was one where I ended up hitting for $118.75.......not bad for a penny machine.

And there was the one slot machine that I nailed for $332.00!

This machine paid out in nickels. The machine only holds $120 worth of nickels at a time. I went way over that and could not cash out unless an attendant came and handed me the cash.

I really enjoyed the casino at the Occidental Grand hotel in Aruba :)

It was a great vacation and this was icing on the cake.

Stay tuned........more to come.

Caribbean Cruise - Part 9

One thing for sure while on a cruise ship..............there is no time for boredom. If you have nothing else to do, there was always the casino to hang out in. For the most part, I simply watched others lose their money..........but there were winners.........not me this time. I hit a jackpot on a slot machine on a previous cruise. It was nickel slots for me this time. Most of this stuff is too rich for my blood.

And there was always the Schooner Bar where it seemed this performer was always doing his thing. This dude was tireless......and he kept punching out tune after tune after tune from his apparently unlimited repertoire. Think Dean Martin, Frank, Joel, Elton meets Buffet. I probably enjoyed this the most.

And there was always a big stage show every night. Very well done and extremely professional.

A nice touch was that some of the performers would be there for a photo op at the end of the shows.

My grandson had his eye on this one performer at every show. He would take notice if she was not up on stage at any time. He had an obvious crush on her..............so what should any good PopPop do but go speak to that woman and tell her about my grandson and his admiration for her. That I did........and I arranged for her to pose for a few pictures with him. I am gonna have to teach that boy to put his arm around gals like that one.......hehehe.

Monsterchild and two of the performers.................without hesitation, they were willing to stoop down to her territory......hehehe.

This is the same woman that was in the previous photo.

They really did a great job..........and I cannot understand how some of them are able to keep their balance on stage considering how the ship would sway occasionally.

And then there was Knight Magic..........a magician and his wife. Very, very good. Vegas caliber.

She's a contortionist, and he cuts her in half..............nice relationship, eh?

Could this be one of my trademark "action photos"?

She could really belt out a tune...............you have to wonder why she is not famous.

Before and after every show, the cruise director, Simeon, would communicate with the audience. He was British.....maybe Welsh.....and had quite a sense of humor.....he could have been a comedian.

All in all, as far as entertainment goes, there was something for everyone throughout each day and evening. We skipped the show that featured the pianist dressed in sequins with sequin shoes. We saw him on the previous cruise.........don't get me wrong.........he is very entertaining......but I find it difficult to subject myself to a second helping of what looks like an extremely gay offspring of Liberace and his boyfriend........heehehe. Seriously though, he does have entertainment value............the old folks find him charming.

Stay tuned, there was something I realized that I have yet to show you.........Part 10 coming soon.

Alot Of Stuff Can Happen In A Month's Time

Okay....okay......so it has been almost a month since my last entry to this thing called a blog. No....I haven't run out of things to say...........and No.......we haven't run out of morons or bogosity to write about. Let's just say I have been busy doing other stuff...........a little travel, a few special occasions, and a good dosage of unexpected good fortune.

Speaking of good fortune............that's me holding a decent array of one hundred dollar bills.

I recently took a trip to Tennessee to visit relatives. Everything was great and a good time was had by all. This trip was extra-special in that I got to visit there at the same time a long lost cousin was visiting from Newfoundland. I had not seen her since I was a little kid. I also met her husband, a retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer. As I stated.....everything was great and the weather was fantastic.

Now that I am no longer a young guy, driving twelve or thirteen hours straight is way too draining. On this trip, we broke up the drive and stayed overnight in Knoxville, on the way there. Coming back, we stopped in Salem, Virginia and had a good sleep and headed on up I-81 in the morning. As I approached the exit for Baltimore/Washington...........I got an idea in my head to keep going straight towards Winchester instead of turning off of the Interstate. I had gone this way once before....many moons ago......I figured I would cut on over Rt 7 to 340 and head thru Harper's Ferry WV...up into Frederick MD, hop on I-70 and go right into Baltimore. No problem........and at one point, as we were approaching Charles Town / Harper's Ferry, I need to stretch my legs a bit.......I told the wife, Supernurse, that I wanted to stop for a bit and she responded with......... "Stop at Charles Town and play the slots for a while".............Imagine that!

As it happened, we did stop. We entered the casino, I put a twenty dollar bill into a slot machine, sat there for a while....took my time......Supernurse grabbed a bite to eat.........and in a very short period of time, I had racked up about two hundred dollars worth of credits on the slot machine..........and it was a NICKEL SLOT! The wife sits down next to me and starts yakking on her cellphone and she hints that we ought to hit the road. I agreed........and I thought for a moment and figured I would keep playing until she used a different tone of voice.....hehehe.

All of a sudden, lights were flashing, the machine froze up and a big message was on the screen for me to "See Attendant". I thought I broke it....hehehe......so I got Supernurse's attention and asked her to look at the screen........her eyes got big when she saw that I had just hit for some sixteen thousand credits or so. I forget the exact amount it was. I asked her how much that worked out to be............she didn't know.......neither did I......and then some lady walks over to me and looks at the machine and tells me I just nailed that machine big time. You can imagine how I began to feel.............I looked at the wife and said "we should be jumping up and down and screaming, shouldn't we?" Well.......we didn't. We acted like it was a normal routine thing....hehehe......didn't want too much attention brought our way. The attendant shows up, gets some pertinent information from me and comes back with a shitload of cash and counts it out, hands me a t-shirt, and congratulates me. It was $1,600 dollars! and she tells me to try the machine again before she walks away so she can make sure it functions properly. I say "OK" and notice I still have more than 200 dollars worth of credits on the machine!

Not a bad chunk fo change for an hour's rest.

I plan on visiting Charles Town again.....real soon!

Before our trip to Tennessee, I got a visit from a friend of mine that I had not seen in twenty years. Man........where does time go? Paul........I love ya man and you are in my prayers.

Global Warming?...............hehehehehehe, you got to be kidding me.

I am glad Spring is here......Baseball has begun......flowers are blooming........now if we can just get the weather to cooperate.

I have much more to write but I shall save it for another day..........

'til next time.