Rising Star (And Family Reunion)
July 26th, 2015 at 3:40:10 AM
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Although it made for a very long day on Saturday we decided to get up at 4:30 AM and get on the road by 6 AM to get to the reunion in Cincinnati (driving from central Michigan) by 1:30. We actually made it by about 1 PM. Large group - small house. Lots of food and conversation. Lots of conviviality. Several militant non-drinkers so very little alcohol. Hung on till about 6 and then made our way (adding my sister to our twosome) to a motel in Harrison for the overnight.
Up on Sunday and got ourselves going. Intended to go to church in Aurora, IN, but when we got there they had cancelled the normal service and were having a combined service in a nearby town in the city park. Not wanting to spend time with southern Indiana bugs in an outdoor environment, we went to Walmart instead. After shopping for a bit we drove on down to Rising Sun.
It was only about 11:30 so Sharon and sis went to find out about checking in and I found a spot for the car. We couldn't get checked in that early so all of us HAD to go to the casino. We scattered and I searched for my favorite bonus deuces that offered nearly 100% return but, alas, they were long gone. No place to be found. I had to settle in for a session on a lesser paying model. My first six or seven hands didn't even result in 3 of a kind and on the next hand, I was dealt a deuce and and ace. Like a good boy I held them and the machine acted properly and gave me another wild card and two aces. On that game/machine, that's a $100 win.
Since in more recent years I'm not especially interested in winning a lot of money (while it's fun, it's not necessary when I go to the casino - I'd rather contain my losses), I moved from 25 cent video poker to 5 cent video poker and eventually to 2 cent spin poker where I played a lot of 3 (30 cent investment) hands and only occasionally would I play 9 (90 cent investment) hands.
Two unusual hands occurred. On the nickel machine, I once held a deuce by itself and got the other 3 deuces for a $50 payoff. On the two cent machines, playing 3 lines, I was dealt 3 deuces, held them and the machine filled it up with another deuce for the 1,000 coin win (actually $20). With those wins I gambled our entire trip on winnings. As I said I'm only really interested in losing myself in the games. My sister-in-law (arriving somewhat later) did hit a $1,000 royal and my brother (her husband) hit some silly penny slot machine for $500++.
I did play quite a bit of multiplayer blackjack at $3 a hand. When space was available, I'd play two hands at a time because I think that evens out the variance of the game (which is really comparatively low to start with). I think that overall I did win at blackjack while except for the bigger hands I lost at video poker but then that's the way it is supposed to be.
Two brothers and a sister-in-law arrived in early afternoon on Sunday. Still recovering from the gorging of the reunion, we ate at Vic's Pub on Sunday evening. For some reason, Sharon and I had never had to opportunity to eat there (probably hadn't been to Rising Star except on Monday and Tuesday evenings when Vic's is closed) so we enjoyed the experience. Monday AM we got up and the group went to town and had breakfast at Jack's Place. We try to get there at least once each trip. Then on Monday night we ate the buffet at the casino. Buffet was very crowded and was just okay. Desserts were good.
Sharon and I had decided that we'd stay at the new building. "New" was a couple years ago. It's completely non-smoking (I have a suspicion that all new hotels that aren't attached to the casino must be non-smoking) and the rooms are still bright and clean. They're a little smaller than rooms in the main hotel and because of that don't have a sofa but rather have a chair to augment to table, vanity, tv, bed, etc. The bathroom has a walk in shower - no tub. We were close to the elevator and on the second floor and usually the shuttle to the casino was only a minute or two away when we wanted to go to or from the casino. Because it had always been a pretty long trek from the elevators in the old hotel to the casino, I was curious and stepped over the route in the old building and found that the elevators are 170 steps from the main atrium. Then I walked from the new lodge to the same spot in the atrium and it's about 400 steps. It makes it twice as far but except in inclement weather isn't a problem. Usually there's several people walking. And, parking at the new building is a lot easier than parking at the old.
Overall I won about $70 so while I said I wasn't interested in making a bunch, it was pleasant to come out of the experience with more than I went in.
When we got home, we found that harvest season is occurring in our garden so we're going to be busy for a couple months harvesting and freezing and that kind of thing. Won't be any more trips to casinos for more than a couple hours at Soaring Eagle until we get through that experience. Then, it'll be almost time to get ready to go to Florida for the winter.
One of these years I'm going to slow down.
Up on Sunday and got ourselves going. Intended to go to church in Aurora, IN, but when we got there they had cancelled the normal service and were having a combined service in a nearby town in the city park. Not wanting to spend time with southern Indiana bugs in an outdoor environment, we went to Walmart instead. After shopping for a bit we drove on down to Rising Sun.
It was only about 11:30 so Sharon and sis went to find out about checking in and I found a spot for the car. We couldn't get checked in that early so all of us HAD to go to the casino. We scattered and I searched for my favorite bonus deuces that offered nearly 100% return but, alas, they were long gone. No place to be found. I had to settle in for a session on a lesser paying model. My first six or seven hands didn't even result in 3 of a kind and on the next hand, I was dealt a deuce and and ace. Like a good boy I held them and the machine acted properly and gave me another wild card and two aces. On that game/machine, that's a $100 win.
Since in more recent years I'm not especially interested in winning a lot of money (while it's fun, it's not necessary when I go to the casino - I'd rather contain my losses), I moved from 25 cent video poker to 5 cent video poker and eventually to 2 cent spin poker where I played a lot of 3 (30 cent investment) hands and only occasionally would I play 9 (90 cent investment) hands.
Two unusual hands occurred. On the nickel machine, I once held a deuce by itself and got the other 3 deuces for a $50 payoff. On the two cent machines, playing 3 lines, I was dealt 3 deuces, held them and the machine filled it up with another deuce for the 1,000 coin win (actually $20). With those wins I gambled our entire trip on winnings. As I said I'm only really interested in losing myself in the games. My sister-in-law (arriving somewhat later) did hit a $1,000 royal and my brother (her husband) hit some silly penny slot machine for $500++.
I did play quite a bit of multiplayer blackjack at $3 a hand. When space was available, I'd play two hands at a time because I think that evens out the variance of the game (which is really comparatively low to start with). I think that overall I did win at blackjack while except for the bigger hands I lost at video poker but then that's the way it is supposed to be.
Two brothers and a sister-in-law arrived in early afternoon on Sunday. Still recovering from the gorging of the reunion, we ate at Vic's Pub on Sunday evening. For some reason, Sharon and I had never had to opportunity to eat there (probably hadn't been to Rising Star except on Monday and Tuesday evenings when Vic's is closed) so we enjoyed the experience. Monday AM we got up and the group went to town and had breakfast at Jack's Place. We try to get there at least once each trip. Then on Monday night we ate the buffet at the casino. Buffet was very crowded and was just okay. Desserts were good.
Sharon and I had decided that we'd stay at the new building. "New" was a couple years ago. It's completely non-smoking (I have a suspicion that all new hotels that aren't attached to the casino must be non-smoking) and the rooms are still bright and clean. They're a little smaller than rooms in the main hotel and because of that don't have a sofa but rather have a chair to augment to table, vanity, tv, bed, etc. The bathroom has a walk in shower - no tub. We were close to the elevator and on the second floor and usually the shuttle to the casino was only a minute or two away when we wanted to go to or from the casino. Because it had always been a pretty long trek from the elevators in the old hotel to the casino, I was curious and stepped over the route in the old building and found that the elevators are 170 steps from the main atrium. Then I walked from the new lodge to the same spot in the atrium and it's about 400 steps. It makes it twice as far but except in inclement weather isn't a problem. Usually there's several people walking. And, parking at the new building is a lot easier than parking at the old.
Overall I won about $70 so while I said I wasn't interested in making a bunch, it was pleasant to come out of the experience with more than I went in.
When we got home, we found that harvest season is occurring in our garden so we're going to be busy for a couple months harvesting and freezing and that kind of thing. Won't be any more trips to casinos for more than a couple hours at Soaring Eagle until we get through that experience. Then, it'll be almost time to get ready to go to Florida for the winter.
One of these years I'm going to slow down.
July 26th, 2015 at 7:01:00 AM
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Nice post. Rising Star is my favorite Indiana casino. Great dealers and service. Always makes me feel young to go there because the average customer age is probably around 75 years old.
