At 10:30 I made my way out of the campsite and headed down the street towards the casino with a fresh mind, but that wouldn't be enough. I lost $320 at Player's Island (soon to be Harrah's) even though I had broke back even. I've lost over $600 on this roadtrip. This time, I didn't make another false promise of not play again this year, just one more chance with another $300 to win some money back. And yet, I even broke that promise. No, I am not an addict.
Nothing of interest happened at the casino, but a 30-40ish guy with beard sat next to me for a couple of hours. He said to me that his girlfriend is ready for marriage, but he wasn't sure he was. So I asked him: "Are you ready to lose her?" and he quickly became silent never answering the question, probably took him by suprise by how I approached the situation. I may have to think about that question myself. The other person of intest was the female substitute dealer- amazingly she is remarrying the same person she divorced. We don't hear that too often in our society. From what I understand, he made some mistakes in the original marriage. They have one young child.
Gambling is never a good idea, even if a player knows what's he is doing. Blackjack is the only game of chance where the players can turn the odds against the house by card-counting, but that doesn't guarantee success. I would highly suggest NOT to play, especially with living money. In the long run, most players will lose because of the built-in house odds on most games.
I drove to the Subway and used one of my card with enough collected stamps from work for a free 6 inch sub. Around town, there was 2 noticable statues- one was Big John holding a grocery sack in each arm in front of Big John supermarket, and the other, of course, was the Superman statue in front of the museum, after all this was Metropolis. One of the dealers at the casino said this grocery store was expensive. She was probably right since Illinois had some of the higheset gas prices I've seen so far.
At the edge of Metropolis, there were signs welcoming drivers to the home of Superman. One of the sign has a famous comic book artwork by Neal Adams, one of the best comic artist ever. The city is a nice tribute to Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster- the 2 young kids who created the Man of Steel and one of them died broke because DC Comics, not the creators, owned all the rights to Superman. The other creator eventually got some compensation.
Speaking of Superman, he is 1 of 7 best know fictional characters in the world. I can't recall all the others, but Mickey Mouse, Tarzan, and Sherlock Holmes made the list. Any guess who the other 3 may be?
There were no plans to drive northward through Illinois, so I headed east towards Indiana. As I headed east, there was house with giving away free "rubbish" (as the sign was labeled), but I didn't see anything I liked. Similiar to the 1998 roadtrip, I didn't want to bog myself down with unecessary stuff. I thought I saw some old porn tapes.
At 7:30 pm I crossed into Indiana via a 50 cent toll bridge. I ended up driving all night and slept in the parking lot of a church and then later on at a State Park beach in Indiana. At one camp site, McNeal State Park, they wanted $11 for a primitive camp site, but I told the lady that was kinda expensive just for a tent site, plus it was around 11:00 pm. (Amazingly, I didn't think anyone would be available at the entrance booth as I drove in that late; however, I don't think it was just an entrance, it looked like it might have been a small 2 story home.)
In Evansville, Indiana, I stopped at casino near downtown, but the boarding to the riverboad was not for another hour and half, so I drove on. Then it started raining heavyly in east Evansville. I remember the last time I was here in 1994: I went to the small university on the west side of town and entered the recreational center to take a shower. I just walked right by the person on-duty who thought I was another student- I just made it look like I just came out and left something behind so she wouldn't id me. After the shower, I took a tour of the school but can't remember much of it. Back then, I wasn't into camping and went to the unversities to use the bathrooms and get something to eat. Now, like then, I can still easily pass myself off as a student.
After choosing to not stat at McNill State Park, I drove back to the city and rested in the parking lot of a Pybesterian church. Two hours later, at 3:00 am, a black cat came up to my car and jumped on top of the trunk. I got out and made a new friend- the cat really wanted to be pet as she purred, and so I obliged. Hopefully, the cat was not abandoned; there were some houses in the vicinity of the church, so the cat probably belonged to one of them. After hanging around for another 30 minutes with the cat and thinking about life, I headed on out in the darkness.
After driving a couple more hours, I stopped at the parking lot of another State Park with a beach and went to bed until sunrise. Man, I was tired.
Casino journal: Rules at Player's Island is hit soft 17, split up to 4 hands total, double on any first 2 cards, double after splitting. The only good thing is my dealer would show the table the throw away card, even when the pit boss was right there. And he also cut away only one deck, which is pretty good for a 6 deck game. He actually knew the game, and knew the 5 and 6 cards are the players' enemy, and he knew the player should hit on 12 and 13 against the dealer's face up 2 card. Personally, I think he knew how to count, at least casually, but he did understand the game and plays it himself at other casinos. He was a good dealer and maybe one day we'll cross paths again, and I'll play a bit smarter.
Most of the time, the table was a disaster. The dealer would make 21's and 20's with a breaking hand such as 15 and beating my high pat hand. And most noticably, I very rarely pulled a 10 when doubling down on 10/11- it was an incredible bad streak. What made it worst is I did get the ace when doubling down with 11 a few times. And sometimes when I did make 20 and 21, the dealer would somehow pull out a tie. I lost most of my double down hands because I generally ended up with a breaking hand and needed the dealer to bust to win.
Even with all the bad luck, I was able to come back and break even. Again, if I was brave enough to increase my bet spread and bet more than $25 a hand, I probably would have left the casino with a profit when the cards were good, but instead left broke again, losing all $320.
