Update: We left Massachusetts on Monday, arriving at Hollywood Casino in Pennsylvania about 2:30 PM and had a member meet with some facebook keno people. I really liked the casino, only had about 15 keno/poker combo machines, and some other VP machines, all bad pays 7/5 JOB. But we had never been there, so it was fine. Spent the night in Pennsylvania, found a decent comfort inn room. $100 dollars total spent on gasoline in our 4 cyl truck with the slide on camper in the rear (I wanted to leave camper at home, as I knew it would be too hot to use it). the mountains are beautiful, but it causes alot of wear and tear on a vehicle that has additional weight on it.
Tuesday, hit a locals diner for breakfast - first time EVER that neither John nor I could eat the sausage patties. All grissle (sp?) and little meat, very odd. So we headed for wheeling West Virginia to the casino there. Found it easily with GPS, and oddly enough it is sitting sort of in the middle of a suburban area?? Anyway, founds lots of our keno machines, bad pay poker machines but everyone was playing them, they didn't care about expected value. Spent several hours here, got slot cards, had lunch at a cafe, good food, cheap prices. Left the place, expecting to find a motel, and came out to the blaring heat, over 100 degrees. Took a while for the truck to cool off, as we drove back to highway to find a motel. Got off on an exit, went to motel, too many seedy looking people hanging around, so off we went again. The next motel - Best Western, had a room available, 3rd floor only, no elevator.........nope, not for us. Got back on the highway and drove forever till we found another place, this one had one room left, #95.00 a night, first floor, we grabbed it. As we were checking in, a woman came in looking for a room, had been looking for a while, as all hotels were full in the near area! Got into the room, and checked the weather - high high high heat expected for the next week, and we are heading south right into it.
that pretty much nixed our being able to see any sights along the way. We talked about our options..........do we continue to drive, spending $100 a day in gas, simply to go casino to casino for bad pay video poker and some don't have keno at all? Or do we cut our losses and drive to Atlantic City where we know we will have a good time? Or do we continue on?
Off to Atlantic City we went the following morning. Took us pretty much all day to drive there, but at least we knew we would have no issue with rooms at the Tropicana, and there is always playable games.
We need to plan this type of trip during the fall or spring, not in the summer, when heat will be an issue for my husband.
So now I will do more planning for the next trip. I heard southwest is having a sale, and I thought, hmmmm Vegas is always an option.........in the fall.
Gas prices: yes New Jersey is the cheapest, the rest are pretty much similar to what we pay here in Massachusetts.
Our vehicle: 2004 Toyotal Tacoma pick up truck, extended cab, 6 foot bed, with a slide on pop up camper on the back, sleeps 4 people. I wanted to leave camper at home, hubby said no, let's take it - mistake!!!!
We are not gonna give up the dream, just want to wait and do it in better weather.
