The Best Plans are Spontaneous

When I hung out with Paul last weekend, he had mentioned that he wanted to do a road trip this weeekend. I was hoping to just chill out this weekend, so I told him I would think about it. He wanted to do something that was close enough to drive to and spend a day or two. He was thinking about going to Montreal or Atlantic City. Then I received the bad news about my Ipod during the week, so I told him no because I was going to have buy a new Ipod.

I went over his place for a little party that they were throwing a party for a friend of his from Grand Rapids. They invited me to come over for that. At this point, Paul had made the decision to go to AC with his friend Johnny Nap and he was trying to convince me to go. I told him he could try to convince me at the party.

Well...it didn't take much convincing and after he told me the hotel rooms were pretty cheap, I figured it would be that much and I told him why not!

I stayed over their place and we headed out in the morning. I did not have a change of clothes, so this was totally a spur of the moment.

Johnny showed up in the morning and we headed out to AC. Paul has a set of fuzzy dice hanging and we were hitting as if to roll the dice and the combo of five kept coming up. So five was the number of the day. After grabbing a bagel and Bergen bagels we were on our way to AC.

As soon as we left the BK, the sun started to shine. I thought this was a good sign.

About 2/3 of the way down there there was huge accident that kept us stagnant for about 30 minutes. It gave us time to practice what I thought would be my game of choice - blackjack. After we went past the accident, it was smooth sailing.

We arrived at AC around 2. The plan was to check out the boardwalk, go to the Hilton to check on room availablility and then starting checking out the casinos.

As you arrive AC you notice the tall, at times gawdy buildings, so many billboards advertising the acts that were playing and the special deals with the restaurants/casinos. To name a few, Whoopi Goldberg, Joe Piscipo, and Frank Valli were all playing this weekend. That should bring and interesting mix of people.

We headed to the north part of AC to walk around the beach, but then we headed that way we definitely saw the regression of the city. It began to look much more like inner city Detroit than a place that you would want to visit - lots of vacant lots, old building, boarded building (but no pheasants). We decided it was best not to leave the car and headed back to the center of the city. We passed the Taj Mahal, then Bally's, then the Tropicana, then Cesear's, etc. There was a lot of people walking around. In between these was a mix of pawn shops, one level hotels, outlet shops so people can spend their winnings.

We headed to the Hilton to see if there was any rooms. Paul headed in and when he came back the news wasn't good. They were sold out, but they gave him a number that was a 800 number that let's you gives you rates of a majority of chain hotels. That news wasn't good because all they had available was the Econolodge for $300!!! So we were either staying up all night and partying up, leaving early, or sleeping on a bench.

We parked the car at Ceasar's and headed inside. We decided to go out the boardwalk first before we would start gambling. It was a really nice day, mid 50s, sunny, a little windy. It is quite similar to Coney Island without the amusement rides. It has the usual suspects, candy stores, skeeball games, Hard Rock, etc.

We headed to our first casino, the Resorts Atlantic City, but we didn't really feel the vibe there. We watched several games. I was thinking of playing Texas Hold 'Em, but I would have been sucked for hours. I watched blackjack a little bit and tried to count the cards, but that didn't work (plus I couldn' t remember if face cards were good or bad). Paul went and checked out the craps table, but decided against it. After about a half hour we headed out and decided that we were hungry.

We had heard about this Irish pub called the Irish Pub and Inn that had $3 burgers and even cheaper beers. This was about 3 pm and there was about a 30 minute wait. We decided we were not very hungry. Next stop, the Taj Mahal.

We were feeling a better a vibe at this place. Johnny was eyeing the wheel of money that spins around. You basically get the same odds as the amount of currency that would come up (for dollar bills 1 to 1 odds, five dollars 5 to 1 odds, etc.). I decided to spend $5 on the poker slots. After about 20 minutes, I lost it. I went to find Johnny and Paul. There were at a roulette table. Between the time I had left them and when I caught up with them, they both won on the wheel of money and they were up $65 each and started with $12 total! I was a bit jealous.

Now Paul was ready to play craps. I decided to watch yet and relearn the game. I don't play that often and I hadn't played in a while. I just enjoyed the free drinks and watched. After about 30 minutes Paul was in the positive. I took the plunge gave the casino worker $100 in exchange for some chips. The worker next to us was very helpful and was giving us tips as we went along. For example, if you back up your bet on the pass line, it gives you the best odds (see diagram). We played for about an hour and I ended up breaking even.

We remained in the casino and it was now about 5 and we weren't feeling extremely hungry so we walked around, checked out the blackjack tables again and headed back towards the craps tables. We got sucked in again. This time it didn't start good. The closest worker to us was giving us a bad vibe. I even had to pull out an additional $40 to get myself out of a hole. I was now down to $30. Then Jesus showed up (not Jesus Christ, but He-Zeus). Things started going our way. I was able to start playing more loose and the dollars were rolling in a little smoother. I had definitley made my money back and then some. This round we probably played for about 2 1/2 hours nonstop, the drinks were flowing. At one point, I had to use the bathroom, but I was on such a hot streak I had to hold it. I couldn't leave at that point. When I wasn't winning, Johnny was winning, when Johnny wasn't winning, Paul was winning. We finally hit our limit and we left the table.

And the icing on the cake, Paul decided to play the money wheel. He put $5 on 5 and won! Then he let it ride on $5 and won again. Nice return! Okay, now we were done. It was now 9 pm and we had completed our hunger strike, cashed out, and headed back to the Irish pub and Inn. No line this time. I was craving the roast beef, but unfortunately their weekend menu leaves much choices. I had the hamburger that was worth what I paid for it. The waitress had some attitude, but nonetheless should have let 'em breathe.

Now our trek down south was done. We all won some money and had a great time! Good chats all day and good memories!