It had been a long time since we'd been to Biloxi, the only air packages still available (Beau Rivage) are inordinately expensive (nothing playable at the Beau anyway) and other flight options are lousy. So, we decided to do a road trip, a leisurely one, breaking up the drive into two days each way. We stayed at Treasure Bay for three nights, it's a few miles west of town but has been our favorite Biloxi property (and currently the only one with halfway playable games). It was a fun trip overall, hell of a long drive, though. Lots of good food, nice hotel with a balcony overlooking the Gulf. Gambling could have been better, Linda was down only $16 for the trip but I got beaten up (underquadded, and no premium quads), finished down $964. Total action was about $27.3K, for a loss of 3.6%, not good. Also annoying that the TB hosts can't comp anything at all, the only comps available come from mailers.
SUNDAY
Easy and somewhat boring, long (I think about 3200 bottles of beer on the wall) drive up I-75 and across I-10. Lots of gnats along the way, oddly enough. We stayed overnight in Marianna, about 50mi west of Tallahassee. It's surprising, there are far fewer independent restaurants in the small rural towns than there were years ago, it's almost all chain restaurants and fast food and the occasional taco truck. The only dinner option in town for us was Jim's Buffet and Grill, a friendly place with adequate but greasy food.
MONDAY
We finished the last 250mi and checked in at Treasure Bay, kind of a slow process. One problem was that we had emailed a host before the trip, who naturally couldn't do anything with our room rate up front since we hadn't played here in about 8 years but said that a host could review our play at the end of the trip. A supervisor at the front desk, however, said that we'd need to pay for the room up front and that nothing could be comped after the fact no matter how much we played. Pissed me off, but not a lot of options. Anyway, got a nice room with a great Gulf view. Played mostly 50¢ and $1 8/5 BP with some Illinois Deuces mixed in. Did pretty poorly today. Dinner was good, though, we went to Felix's in Gulfport, an outpost of the venerable oyster bar in New Orleans. Nice ambience and very good food overall, terrific big Louisiana oysters. We had some raw, some Rockefeller (terrific), some Bienville (pretty good), also great seafood gumbo, some fried alligator, stuffed redfish. Not as good as the NOLA store but still a great dinner for anywhere else. Back to TB, had a few more shit sessions then bedtime.
TUESDAY
Had to take a marker this morning, which took almost a half hour since someone screwed up processing my credit application. First session was a roller coaster, lost quickly and was bailed out close to zero with a quad and some FHs. Took a walk down to the beach, saw some Canada geese, that was a surprise. Had a couple of good sessions before lunch, which was at the Half Shell Oyster House back in town (I really wanted to get my fill of Gulf Coast food this trip). Pretty similar to last night's dinner, had raw and grilled oysters, gumbo, a catfish po’ boy. All excellent, really happy with this restaurant. Back to TB, not a great afternoon in the casino. Dinner was at one of my favorites, Mary Mahoney's, a real classic and the quintessential Gulf Coast restaurant, been there since 1964 (in a beautifully preserved home built in the 1730s). So much history here. Had grilled oysters, some gumbo (yeah, getting repetitious), seafood-stuffed tripletail, a twice-baked potato, all top quality and perfectly prepared. Back to TB, had an ultimately losing roller-coaster session (Linda got a SF, she did better than I), then bedtime.
WEDNESDAY
Quick walk on the beach, and the morning started with a winning BP session, but unfortunately went downhill from there. We played some blackjack, it's been years for me and I'm pretty out of practice but they have a good $5 shoe game (6 decks with good penetration, S17, DAS, RSA; they also have a $15 DD game with the same rules) which seemed like a good opportunity to start getting back up to speed. Lots of fun, and the first shoe was plenty juicy, but I wound up losing anyway. Linda did better, broke even. Next two VP sessions (BP, then Illinois Deuces) were awful, but at least Linda got the quad aces for $200. So, time to drown my sorrows in TB's previously excellent buffet, featuring good Gulf Coast food and Dungeness crab legs. Had to pay retail, unfortunately, I was again told that the hosts can't comp anything at all and if you want anything you need to pay with points (or maybe there will be mailers; we'll see). So, retail it was. And a great buffet it was as well: good quality Dungeness and snow crab legs, lots of good Southern and Creole food. Back to the casino, and a few more losing sessions but ultimately had a breakeven deuces session and a last winner on DB.
THURSDAY
It took a half hour to pay off my markers this morning, the cashier and the cage supervisor both said that they had never had anyone pay markers with a check, that people always paid with cash (which seems to defeat the purpose of a line of credit). Anyway, we got that sorted out. Quick walk down to the beach, then got packed, played off our FP, got on the road. Lunch was at the Magnolia Blossom Cafe, about 7 miles off the highway in Robertsdale AL, an unassuming country restaurant in farm country. They had a lunch buffet with a lot of Southern staples, everything was perfectly prepared, some of the best Southern food I've ever had, hell of a pleasant surprise. Back on the road, long drive to Madison FL, stayed at the Best Western. Linda wanted to watch the hockey game and Google Maps listed two alleged sports bars. One was a gas station that sold beer, the other was a bar in the middle of nowhere, about 5 miles south of town, Rockin’ Wheels. Very locals’ place, right down to the Joe Biden sticker in the urinal, but super friendly and welcoming. One smart TV, one of the customers was able to sign in to a streaming account and get the game. The owner was a real estate developer from Connecticut, said he was involved with some big deals in south Florida, including a sale of the Fontainebleau, wanted to get away from city life. Who would have figured? They had some food, pretty much whatever the owner wants to cook that day; today it was ribs, and they were excellent. Back to the motel, last long drive tomorrow.
FRIDAY
Uneventful drive home, more traffic than before but nothing terrible.
It was a fun and interesting trip overall, in spite of the losses and the lack of comps. Hell of a long drive, though. We'll see what sort of mailers we get from TB, if any, and maybe we'll revisit air options for next time. Road trips are always an eye opener, though, maybe we'll do it again, maybe via the coast road or the old US routes instead of interstate. Thanks for reading!
