In the last chapter, I talked about running from Hurricane Frances. Who thought that 3 weeks later, we'd be running again? This time it was from Jeanne and we left home so rapidly that I forgot my camera! So, no photos this chapter.
We drove over to Tampa on Friday. Evacuation orders weren't expected until Saturday, but we decided to leave early. Good idea! Not much traffic, although we did have to pay tolls. My underlying plan was to spend some time at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, a "Seminole Indian Cultural Center" in Tampa. I had visited the casino briefly on an earlier trip and had learned that they had $1-$2 Hold'Em Poker -- the lowest limits I ever heard at a casino. Great way to wait out the hurricane, right? WRONG! Joyce and I were both very disappointed with the casino. I recently spoke to a lady that went to the Seminole casino in Miami and guess what? Same problems there as in Tampa, only worse in some cases. Guess the only good casinos in Florida are the cruise ships. Even though their games aren't as "player-friendly" as in most casinos, at least they're not complete rip-offs. Why rip-off? Read on ...
First stop was the buffet. If you've ever been to Vegas, you know buffets generally run from about $6-$10 there. In Biloxi, they run around $10-$15. In Tampa, $20! But that's not the rip-off. We asked if there was a snack bar or someplace else in the casino where we could get a sandwich. The ladies at the buffet pointed us to the Sports Bar, a dark place with a bunch of TVs showing horse races and ballgames. Joyce nixed that immediately, so we went back to the buffet. Much later, I learned that there was a very nice, well-lit food court on the other side of the casino -- Mexican, Pizza, Chinese, and a couple of others. Why they sent us to the Sports Bar, I certainly don't know. But that's not the rip-off, either. We ate our buffet, each had a diet coke, then got the bill for $53! I paid it, but stopped on the way out to find out how we got from $20 each to $53. Oh, they said, it's $20 only if you have a Player's Club Card. Hey! I do! So, I went back, found the waiter, and went to get the charges changed. While the cashier was doing that, the waiter came back and mentioned that if we went this way, they automatically puts on a 15% gratuity -- on a buffet! That would put it to $20 for me, $24 for Joyce, plus 15% = $50.60 If I took my initial $3 tip back, I'd come out $5 ahead. Not worth the trouble -- I told them to leave it as it was. That's the rip-off!
Next came the slots. Now, it's not the Seminoles' fault, but I guess the state of Florida only allows them to play Bingo. As a result, the slot machines at first look like ordinary slots, but if you look closer, you see a tiny (about 3 inches square) Bingo card at the top center. There's a button to push that says Play/Daub. hmmm ... Joyce put in $5 and pushed some buttons and it appeared to work, but we never knew when she had a winner and when not and what to do to actually "play". So she cashed in after losing $1.50 and we went to find out how they worked. Asked three different employees, two of which were the purple-shirted "hosts" intended to provide this kind of help, but never really got a straight story. At least they spoke English, which I hear isn't the case at the Miami casino. What we understood was that if you got an apparent winner, like three 7's, you still didn't win unless you had a line on your Bingo card. You pushed the Play/Daub button twice, once to spin the dials and once to shake up the Bingo numbers. You were supposed to "occasionally" touch the Bingo card to change the numbers if you didn't like the current numbers. Wierd! There were quite a number of people who either understood the machines or simply had nowhere else to play, but we decided not to join them. We went back to the RV to watch the Hurricane news.
On Saturday, I decided to go try out the Hold'Em. When I went this time, I left the car with the valet. Now, every valet I've EVER been to, in Vegas, Reno, Biloxi, Gulfport, Kinder, etc., the valet is free and you're expected to tip. This one (as I found out about 15 minutes later) cost $5 minimum. Another rip-off!
So why was I back in 15 minutes? Well, I went on in and went to the Hold'Em area. This was about 10:00 in the morning, yet all tables (probably about 20-30 of them) were full. There was a line of about 15 people, waiting to get on the signup sheet. Once on the sheet, you went outside the area and watched some TV screens for your name to come up. Before signing up, I went and looked over the games. Wow! 10% rake after pot hit $1, up to $5 maximum! I don't know what Vegas casinos rake, but the online is 5% starting when the pot hits $5. Big difference when you're playing $1-$2. If I understood correctly, the blinds were 1+2=$3, so they start the rake immediately. If you simply win the blinds, which is frequent, you would get $2.70, of which $2 would be your own if you were on the Big Blind. Well, I didn't like that so much, I didn't like waiting 30 minutes to an hour to get into a game, and I didn't look forward to the smoke and the crowd. One of the main reasons I wanted to get in was to try to figure out why anyone plays in a casino instead of online. I asked one guy in line and he said he never played online. hmmm ... Maybe I'll research that later, when I get somewhere not quite so crowded and more reasonable on rakes, etc.
Enough whining about the casino -- back to the Hurricane. By Saturday afternoon, it was looking like it might not take that expected Northward turn that would pull it away from Tampa. I woke up off and on during the night and, about 2 AM, decided it was coming straight for us with little sign of letting up. So, I (with difficulty) convinced Joyce that we needed to hit the road again! We were up, car hooked up, connections disconnected, and driving out within about 15 minutes! Love those Class A's!
We drove on up I-75 to Lake City, which is right near the intersection of I-75 (North-South) and I-10 (East-West), with the thought that we'd decide in the morning on which way to go next. By about noon the next day, Jeanne looked like she was coming to visit Lake City, In fact, the eye of the storm went right over Lake City after we left. We started toward Pensacola, recently hit by Hurricane Ivan, with the thought of staying there for 2-3 days until the storm had moved on up into Georgia. As we were driving West, I phoned some neighbors near our home. They were watching the Weather Channel and it looked like we could make it across to Jacksonville, then South on I-95 to home. They said the wind was still blowing a little, but no rain and the power/phone were on. So, we u-turned and started East.
Well, that u-turn got us home about 2-3 days earlier, but it sure was a hair-raising ride. Although the winds didn't feel very strong to someone sitting still in their front yard, they felt VERY strong driving down the interstate. That was about the most traumatic few hours that I ever recall spending. The gusts threw us from one side of the lane to the other, occasionally even tossing us to the next lane. We were lucky the traffic was somewhat light and I tried to make sure we didn't have anyone next to us unless completely unavoidable. And the radio telling everyone to stay off the highways was a little disconcerting also. It was never really clear, however, if the radio was talking about the portion of I-95 that we were on or not. We pulled off the interstate three different times and discussed stopping for a few hours, but Joyce really wanted to try to get home before dark, so we kept on coming. Each time, we'd turn on the generator and watch the TV for awhile to see what we were in for. Ultimately, it always looked like things were better ahead of us than behind us, so on we went. We made it, no damage, and were glad to be home, but I don't think I'd do the same thing again if presented with a similar situation.
So that, hopefully, is the end of our hurricane stories. It looks like Lisa went on North without hitting the coast and I think Matthew is going to dissipate before it gets really close. Of course, the hurricane season isn't really over until the end of November, so who knows? Maybe the fun isn't over yet!
I'm hoping my next chapter will be a little more upbeat. We're talking about a trip to the mountains in North Georgia in a few weeks, so maybe we'll have some pleasant experiences, with photos, to show you then.
Wait! Don't leave yet! How about a couple of really great hurricane jokes? There are a bunch floating around the internet, but I especially liked these two.
First, heard from Florida "We're fed up with these storms and we're moving to the NorthWest!"
You might be a Floridian if:
You exhibit a slight twitch when introduced to anyone with the first names of Charley, Frances, Ivan, or Jeanne.
Your freezer never has more than $20 worth of food in it any given time.
You're looking at paint swatches for the plywood on your windows, to accent the house color.
You think of your hall closet as "cozy".
Your pool is more accurately described as "framed in" than "screened in".
Your freezer in the garage now only has homemade ice in it.
You no longer worry about relatives visiting during the summer months.
You, too, haven't heard back from the insurance adjuster.
You now understand what that little "2% hurricane deductible" phrase really means.
You're putting a collage together on your driveway of roof shingles from your neighborhood.
You are thinking about upgrading your 12 inch Chainsaw to one with a 20-inch chain bar.
You know what "Bar chain oil" is.
Your Street has more than 3 "NO WAKE" signs.
You own 5 large ice chests
Your parrot can now say" hammered", "pounded", and "hunker down".
You recognize people in line at the free ice, gas and plywood locations.
You stop what you're doing and clap and wave when you see a convoy of power company trucks come down your street.
You're depressed when they don't stop.
You have the personal cell phone numbers of the managers for: plywood, roofing supplies and generators at Home Depot and Lowes.
You've spent more than $20 on "Tall white kitchen bags" to make your own sand bags.
You're thinking of getting your wife the hardhat with the ear protector and face shield for Christmas.
You now think the $6000 whole house generator seems reasonable.
You look forward to discussions about the merits of "cubed, block and dry ice".
Your therapist refers to your condition as "generator envy".
You fight the urge to put on your winter coat and wool cap and parade around in front of your picture window, when you finally get power, and your neighbor across the street, with the noisy generator, doesn't.
You find your children cooking hot dogs over candlelight.
And finally, you might be a Floridian if:
You ask your sister up north to start saving the Sunday Real Estate classifieds.
My Travel Log
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61. Frances, Jeanne, is it over yet?
