Today is a cross road- at some point, I will have to turn around and head back home to Houston, even though I dread the thought.
It was very, very cold last night. The Marmot Pinnacle sleeping bag didn't keep me warm enough even though it is rated down to 15 degrees. I believe the temperature last night in the state park must have been the high 30's at lowest.
I didn't really care what the check-out time was, I was leaving late since I set up camp and went to sleep at around 2:00 am in the blistering cold, especially cold since I was wet from coming out of the shower. It was nice and almost quiet in the area since most of the other campers camped closer to the lake with their RVs and/or boats. After deciding to wake up, using the compass and the sun, I was able to make out it was about 1:00 pm to fairly some accuracy by double checking with the clock in the Rodeo.
It was about 2:00 pm by the time I left the park heading back east towards Farmington, New Mexico. Nothing much in Farmington except a casino on the western edge of town, which I stopped in, but did not play since they do not have table games. I've been struggling with my conscience and better half about gambling, and it seems the good side finally prevailed because I decided to turn back going east at Shiprock, New Mexico; therefore, giving up my small dream of burning the house at blackjack. It was a small consolation for this mental victory because I would eventually lose the war on the way back.
The Four Corners was nearby, but I no longer cared for going to tourist attractions. I just wanted to drive and be free, at least free for the next couple of days since work and civilization were waiting around the corner soon. Either drive fast or I drive slow because they constantly passed me at high speeds on Highway 160/666. I probably too slow, but I'm no rush to be anywhere. I've read other people's road trip journals and some of them do seem to drive fast, but that's their method.
Somewhere south of Cortez, there was an Indian casino which I intially passed up thinking it was too small to have table games. But as I passed it up, there was a sign stating they had table games so I turned around to check. They did indeed have table games, but only a very very few tables. Only one 4-deck blackjack table with a maximum bet of $4 was open, but I knew better than to play since there is no way to use a good bet spread unless the minimum was 25 or 50 cents.
The casino was strange to me. All I saw were mostly native Americans playing there while expecting otherwise; I thought it was a way for the native Americans to make money for their people, not take money from their people. That's 2 casinos and no action, which was a good sign of saving money.
At a Burger King in Cortez, Colorado, I was the only one in line waiting to order. No one acknowledged me except for a guy wiping the trays. The manager was standing there after giving an order to the drive-thru. A lady had come up to the register, who I thought would take my order, but instead pull the register out and took it to the back without acknowleding I was standing there waiting in line. Unbelievably, after about 2 minutes, I asked the manager if they were still taking orders. I was able to order.
Durango doesn't seem to be all that great of a city. I know outdoor enthusiasts such as mountain bikers worship thi city, but I saw nothing here. Maybe it was just too dark and cold. It seemed to be an upscale city.
Finally making back to New Mexico very late in the evening and driving through some snowy regions, I stopped at a casino off a main Highway. I almost passed it up, but that pull, that foolish notion of being able to conquer the big, bad casino locked on. I went around to the tables and was not very impress by the 6-deck standard game I saw and was about to leave. Then I asked the pit boss if this was the only table they had, and he pointed out 2 other tables- a one deck $10 minimum game and a double deck $5 minimum game. I was totally shocked: I had passed up those table thinking they were a different card game seing only one deck, and this was a small casino. The rules were decent and some of the dealers gave very good penetration, some down to only about 15 cards before dealing in the single deck game.
After playing until daylight, about 8 hours, I made a comeback and lost $170 in the end. I was very suprised how the good the game was, but how poored I played by not going for a larger spread. Generally, I did 1-5 and sometime 1-8 spread. I don't think the pit crew had a clue about who was counting and who wasn't. Why should they when everyone lost including me, not that I am a great player, at least not yet. In retrospect, if I couldn't win playing 8 hours when the conditions
The most memorable thing was the 2 hours I spent playing at the single deck game. One guy at third base had been there for about 24 hours going back and forth with the house. Another guy, in his late 20's or so sat down at first base and asked the pit bosses what the rules were. While playing, he even mentioned how they shuffled at a certain point so the players don't see too many cards. Thanks. He was somewhat of an amateaur (not like I'm any professional) and was making huge bet spreads, from one hand of $10 to two hands of $200 (table maximum), and no one in the pit said a word or cared to check the play. It was almost so obvious he was attempting to count because he would bet big late in the deck on positive counts even though I don't think he should have gone with 1-40 spread on small counts. I recall one hand, the deck was sky high, and he spreaded to two hands, the dealer looked at his cards, and decided to shuffle. (I know he decided to shuffle because of the number of cards left because he was cool to us all with great penetration and not because preferrential shuffling.) I looked at the other player who has been there all night, and he kind of looked like he may have been counting amaterishly. I showed him my hands during the time we played and he always looked.)
The first baseman was back and forth with the house, but after a losing streak of $600, he lost control and bet two hands of $200 off the top of the shoe, which was bad since the house has an advantage off the top. He lost $400 on the round, and $1000 for that session. I could see that his hands was shaking when he looked at his cards on the prevoius round before the deck was shuffled.
Sometimes, I think gamble too much, but at least I show control and know when to draw the line when losing. One time I played at a 6-deck game with a guy who brought $15000 and played hundreds per hand while everyone was playing $10, the table minimum. I felt bad for the first baseman, who initially a couple of hundred dollars when he first sat down. This is a prime example of learning from the mistakes of others, but I just had to make one more small mistake later today before I trully learned.
It was a cool sunny morning outside- about 9:00 am. I drove a littler further south and headed up towards a mountain on a whim by taking an arbitrary exit. I struck gold, as I made my way up a Santa Fe National Forest mountain with a beautiful view of the surrounding low lands. There were other cars nearby, and I cozily went to sleep in a pull-out after brushing my teeth and storing my contacts.