ISSUES TR SNIPPET

 

To put this trip in perspective, let me explain that health and vision issues have made driving difficult for me. At home I rarely drive, even to the grocery. On trips with my wife, she does all the driving. She does not gamble and dislikes casinos, so if I go to Turning Stone, I drive.

It really is not very bad. I stay in the right hand lane, and this stretch of the Thruway has very few folks merging, so lane changes are few. Left hand lane changes are the hardest bit of the driving for me.

Then I am on country roads.

This was the first time for me on the thruway with only electronic toll collectors. It was very nice. Certainly it cuts down on the lines.

I try to limit night driving, so I usually leave in time to be home before dark. It is not a bad time as usually the table breaks up around supper time anyway.

There is a cheap bus a half hour from here, but one day seems too short a trip to spend 5 hours traveling for just a few hours at the poker table, and an early departure with no chance to go to the Savoy.

The hotels are pricey these days. But I can sleep in the van for just $30 and fish bass in the morning if I like. That seems more reasonable.

I usually plug my little old boom box into the cigarette lighter and listen to old cassettes, but I forgot it. I have a CD player, but this trip it decided to jam with a CD of Bill Staines stuck in it. So, I made do with NPR. At first the CD would not either play or eject, but after a stop and start it decided it would play, so I listened to Bill Staines, and I listened to him a lot on the way home.

Most ironic lyrics:

“Show me the road that leads to my home.”

I do have to drive about twenty minutes from the casino to the campsite, but it is easy roads, mostly deserted, through farms and along the tourist town of Sylvan Lake. I like it.

I do want to see if I can arrange the site next time by mail and skip the drive from the casino to the campground just to check in and get my site and then drive back.

However, to do that I have to be better planned.

This time I thought I'd go on Friday, but decided not to, and went on Saturday. I would not have that flexibility were I to reserve a site by mail.