The Road Less Traveled

Well not really but since the opening of the Central City Parkway, travel to and from Black Hawk and Central City, Colorado is faster and in my opinion safer than ever before.

Opening in Spring 2005, this 4 lane 8.4 mile highway from I-70 has drawn over 750,000 cars (which explains why there is a car counting cord draped across the road at its highest point) What used to take you a hour on a two line stretch of road which bordered a canyon wall and a large drop off on the other side, now takes about 40 minutes. (for me)

Though the CC Parkway may not be as picturesque as highway 6 to route 119, with the streams and mountain side areas. (once saw a mountain goat just hanging out), it makes the journey allot more pleasant. CC Parkway does have a great view of the open mountains though as its appears to be just carved out of the side of one itself.

With this passing season of record amounts of snow fall we reflect on how well traffic and safety have held up over this amazing season. As far as local media goes there was no reported accidents on CC Parkway verses 2 major accidents on the old route 6, one of which involved two elderly patrons driving off an embankment into the stream. With the extra lanes and lighting for a large section of CC Parkway, it seems to have held up better during the season.

I once rode the old route during a "minor snow storm" in a Geo Metro. As my then girlfriend (now wife, luckily) clasp my leg, yelling at me for making her go out in this weather, and her friends doing everything they could to keep the car on the road, It makes me really appreciate the new road choose to the casino towns. Less yelling from the wife and more time to spend on the machines, which then again causes yelling from the wife on time spent on the machines, um mm, guess its just a different kind of trade off.

J

Trip Report for Sunday March 25^th, 2007

Planning and the Drive

An scheduled trip up the mountain was just what the doctor ordered. The day started at 6:15 am with some computer work and finding my Players Card binder.

Bankroll for this trip was a total of $60. There wasn’t much in our reserve as we are saving like crazy for our cruise and I didn’t want to dip into my St. Maarten fund that deeply. Only 31 more days until we leave. I was only budgeting $20 apiece, until I received a generous contribution from someone because I helped them with their cell phone. I love being technologically savvy. $30 apiece for penny players should get us a few of hours of fun.

After my wife returned from church we left around 8:15am for Blackhawk, CO. It was a nice day in comparison to the day before, when it had rained all day. The sky was blue and there was a nice white dusting of snow on the Rockies, which makes the trip up I-70 very beautiful.

As you’re driving up I-70, you pass a Bison reserve (exit at Genesee). We have seen them only one time previously, when they were near the side of the road. Sunday was the first time that we had seen them and had our camera with us.

Not much traffic for a Sunday morning so the drive took about 40 minutes from Lakewood.

Casinos

We started the day at Ameristar. When we first arrived, I stopped at the Players Club Desk to see if I had any credits on my card, and also to update my address. I had a whopping 91¢ of available comps. Wow, I’m so close to that new car, I can feel it.

The action at Ameristar was slow this early in the morning. We played on a few new machines but none of them were hitting.

Next we walked over to The Lodge. I wanted to play the new Monopoly Big Event® game. I had heard from someone who had played it that it was a lot of fun. Jen and I sat next to each other and there was one other lady on the far end. The total chairs set up are for six people to play at once. Unfortunately, nothing was won by any of us. I’m still not quite sure why the actual games are not Monopoly® themed, only the bonus rounds are. I did read on WMS Gaming last week (they have since redesigned their site, and I can no longer find the link that I am referring too), that they will be releasing another version of the old Money Grab Monopoly game here soon. This was one of my favorite incarnations of the game, so I am very excited to see it back again soon.

Not much going on at The Lodge either. I did see a new AVP® (Alien vs. Predator) game, but wasn’t feeling up to playing it.

My wife loves to play at Colorado Central Station so we made the journey down the hill. There are 3 floors to CCS, and most people never make it to the basement since it is not very well marked. We like it because it is always quiet with more open machines there.

At this point I’ve got $10 bucks left and I think Jen had $15, so we know the day is almost over for us. She finds her current favorite machine, Keepin’ up with the Joneses®

I’m playing the Ring Quest® game right next to her. We are both up and down again as I go out. Down to my last $5. I move on to my old stand-by Risqué Business, its still a 9-line machine so I know it will keep me running for a little while. Didn’t last long and I was out.

By now Jen has moved on to Texas Tea, she cashed out of Joneses up enough to give me another $5. I sat down next to her at a Used Car Lot Machine

I like this machine with the character having a heavy accent and you can change the setting to speak and display in Spanish, which I think is cool even though I wouldn’t have a clue what he’s saying.

I was up and down again but cashed out with my/her $5 and Jen is ready to go, so we made our way back to our car at Ameristar.

Now as any gambler knows that $5 is burning a hole is my pocket, walking through the casino floors with machines going off all around me. Calling me, saying sit here and you will win, Liars! But of course I’m going to spend that last $5, have too. It’s the law, isn’t it?

I’m walking around Ameristar aimlessly looking for that machine that going to hit, I finally sit down at Diamond Ridge game. Jen’s just watching as she is walking out with her $10 for Scrapbooking stuff. Spin 3, bonus round. Finally, been a slow day on the bonus rounds. There are 3 rows of Diamonds, Sapphires and something else to pick from. You pick a row and then get 3 picks from that row. You get either a number of credits or the Crazy Miner, which awards you all of the credits for that row. I got 2 crazy miners and 3 credit units from the last row. Cashed out at $15.

Stop now, I don’t think so. I cash in the $15 ticket and bribe my wife by giving her $5 for Lucky Lemmings. It works; she sits down and starts playing. I head over to Whales of Cash, just behind where she sat down. She’s winning and going to bonus rounds every spin so she’s have a good time. I’m down to my last 14 credits or so, all lines selected except for the top and bottom far corners and of course, money bag, money bag, Whale 2X, Bonus Round. I’m mad of course not having all lines but hey I’m in. 2^nd spin, money bag, money bag, money bag, more spins. Something must have matched up as the credits hit $50 bucks. I’m calling Jen and hand gesturing the amount to her and she get all excited. It finished out with $65 dollars. COLLECT

We both waste time and money on other machines but nothing else hits. We walk out the door with $70, $10 up and 3 hours of up and down playing time.

All and all a great trip with the last second come back.

Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed playing and recounting my steps. Lets hope my trip report from St. Maarten ends the same way, with us leaving with more money then we went in with.

J

A working map

Just as I post the link to Flickr, I find a site to post my map to this page. At the bottom of my page is a new map with direct access to my photos.

I used trippermap.com it was very easy to set up and gives you the HTML coding to post directly. This is the free map but for a small fee there is a more advance map with better markers and mapping.

To access each of my photos just click the black icon on the map and it will bring them up.

Also, you can still go to my Flickr account for a more interactive view,

Enjoy,
J

Casinos that I have been to on Flickr Map

Ive been trying to place my Flickr map on this site for two days now and its not working for me. So for the time being, here is the Link to my Flickr site. I have placed photos of all my casino chips on their geographical locations. Make sure you have the map extended out far enough to see south America as there are 7 pictures from Aruba on this map.

Enjoy,
J

Click Here For MAP