Saturday, April 26, 2014

Cashing In At The Casino

Isle of Capri Casino, Waterloo, IA – April 26, 2014

After leaving Seward Bluffs our direction for the next several hundred miles was going to be decidedly West. After all, that (and a little North) is the direction Alaska is in. Jeff and Debbie had recommended we stop in Galena, Illinois to get a little “river city” ambiance.

We had scoped out two places to park Big Guy before hand, the Chamber of Commerce parking lot and a river front parking lot. But when we got to Galena, a full blown Civil War reenactment and Scout encampment was underway.

Galena Reenactment (12Galena Reenactment (1)

And all this was taking place near the Galena River.

Galena River

Even though we wanted to spend some time here exploring Galena and that the reenactment looked like fun, we couldn’t find anywhere to park Big Guy and the Element. Too bad because it looks like a really interesting town. Instead we head on west.

Hiway to Galena

Pretty soon we start to see signs that we’re approaching some big water. First, there’s yachts.

Mississippi Yachts

Then we see a riverboat pulled to the waters edge.

Mississippi Side Riverboat

Which all led to the Mighty Mississippi.

Mighty Mississippi

Crossing the Mississippi we spy the Dubuque Iowa Courthouse.

Dubuque Courthouse

Having gotten nipped pretty severely last night, paying $21 to dry camp, we were in search of some decidedly low cost camping tonight to help offset the cost. We zero in on a Casino in Waterloo, Iowa.

Isle of Capri Casino

We check it out. Overnight parking is OK. It’s reasonably level. And, it’s close to the casino entrance. And best of all, it’s free. Next door is a waterpark that looks like it would be loads of fun in the summer.

Waterloo Waterpark

After we got Big Guy settled in, we walked over to the casino to see if they had any free money they were giving away. It wasn’t quite as good as Michigan where some of the casino gave you cold hard cash. But Isle of Capri Casino did end up giving us a total $30 dollars of play money. Frank turned his play money over to EJ and went back out to BG to set up the TV for some recordings we wanted to make later in the evening.

There are several TV shows we enjoy that we record so we can watch them without commercials. Last year it was so convenient because we had All American Direct TV which supplied the major networks nationwide. That meant I could set the recording timers once and forget it no matter where we went. Well they went out of business. Now to get the network channels every time we stop we have to call Dish, tell them where we are and get them to change our service address. Often we have to contact them at least twice to get it set up correctly. Then we have to search the new stations to find the shows we want to record and set up the timers. What a PITA.

After that was completed, Frank went back into the casino for an adult beverage while he waited for EJ to bring home the bacon. You see, Frank’s opinion of gambling is that you may as well just throw your money on the floor and walk away. Or spend it on something useful, like a beer. I opted for the beer. About 9PM EJ finds me in the bar and waves cold hard cash in my face as she does a little victory dance. With our future finances thus secured (ha,ha) we retired to BG for the evening.

The wind blew and Big Guy rocked and rolled all night long. It was blowing so hard we put the Dish down and brought the slides in for fear of the awnings over the slides ripping and tearing. In the morning we were awakened by a sound no car owner ever wants to hear. And that goes for RV owners too.

Hail at Isle of Capri Casino

Yep! That’s hail. It was a little bit bigger than pea size, but not quite marble size. What a racket it made! And it happened not only once, but three different times this morning. Fortunately there were no new dents and the solar panels survived.

Big Guy says he’s had enough of this place, it’s time to go.

After the Hail at Isle of Capri Casino

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