TUNICA, MISSISSIPPI

As I begin to compose this latest posting on my Blog, I do so with mixed emotions. The fun began on Sunday as my girlfriend, Geneva, and I boarded the bus, along with 45 other hopefuls of "hitting a jackpot", enroute to Tunica, MS. This trip had been planned since February and it finally had arrived. There was a gray cloud over us from the time we left Sunday (pouring down rain) until we arrived back home Tuesday night (tired and broke). The two nights and three days we were gone were very enjoyable, even if we didn't come back to reality (home) with our pockets and purses heavy with winnings. Well, at least I made it home with 25 cents.

Geneva is a great traveling companion and roommate. One night we laughed until we cried over something that now neither one of us can remember what we were laughing about. The TV show Dancing With The Stars was on Monday night when we returned to our room, and the dancers were doing a "cha cha cha" when Geneva started dancing and shaking her hips with more rhythm than the dancers on the show. What a sight for my tired eyes!! I am laughing as I am writing this just thinking about it. I won't tell everything because "what happens in Tunica, stays in Tunica". Since both of us became widows, we have become fast friends and have spent many enjoyable moments together, either traveling or gabbing on the telephone. It doesn't take a lot to entertain either of us.

On this trip we stayed at the Gold Strike Casino Resort. We always use Pat Walker Travels for our gambling trips. She is very organized and likeable. Pat had Geneva and me sitting in the seats directly behind her and the three of us had some tall tales to tell. The three of us would like to ride the Heartland Flyer train to Ft. Worth and shop if we can ever work it out where we are all free at the same time. We met a lot of nice people on the bus and even exchanged e-mail addresses with a couple of them. We had homemade fried pies, homemade cookies and an assortment of candies to eat on the bus. What nice people to make these homemade items to share with the whole bus. I had not had a homemade fried pie since my mother used to make them. The pies brought back good memories of my deceased mother.

We went to four casinos and each casino gave us a buffet or playing money. In the two nights and three days we were there, we ate five delicious buffets. Geneva and I had a margarita and mixed drink on a couple of occasions. Need I say that I returned packing an extra five pounds. I will have to eat less and walk more for several days.

Our next gambling trip is not until June 2-3. We signed to go to the Cherokee (Tulsa) and Firelake (Shawnee) Casinos on an overnight trip. We stay the night at the Cherokee Casino. Neither Geneva nor I have stayed overnight at the Cherokee Hotel and Casino. It will be something new and different for us to do.

My neighbor, Sandy, and I walked in the neighborhood this morning. My son and his fiancee fertilized my yard while I was gone to Tunica and since it had not rained since they fertilized, I had to water down the yard this morning. This took a big part of my morning. An antique dealer came to see about an item I had agreed to sell, and numerous telephone calls have kept me busy today.

It was good to go and good to get back home. THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME!!!