North America

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The Longest Month Ever

Yay, it was quiet last night! It’s a little cold this morning, but definitely warmer than yesterday.

I feel like April has been interminable. No matter what way I do the math, I have more month than I do money, especially with having to adjust the gas budget upwards. It’s going to cost me almost double what I had calculated to get from Dallas to Wichita (the first time in five years that my estimates are wildly off). That combined with the vet visit has made me feel like I’m swimming in a rip tide.

I don’t know how many nights I’ll be able to stay at L’s, but I won’t be able to leave the Wichita area until a couple of days into May, when some money will be coming in.

April has been really brutal. I’ve had a number of unexpected expenses that have thrown me completely off kilter even though I had low expenses in Dallas. That’s the way it’s been all winter: I started off in great shape and was able to handle the  the unexpected expenses at first, but then they snowballed into each other and have been way more than I would have estimated.

Moreover, I’m going to be going through more propane on this last leg of the journey and I won’t be able to land in Canada the way I had expected because of this interminable winter so I suspected my May expenses are going to be much higher than anticipated.

Does anyone have a money tree seed, by any chance? 🙂

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I Have Failed Once Again…

… to pay a casino for its hospitality. Not as dramatically as in Alabama, but definitely humourously.

I went in around 6:00 to play my free game of Keno. That won me $1. I then put that $1 in a slot machine and that won me $10. I played that $10 down to absolutely $0, and that won me $10 in match play for signing up for the player’s club, plus another bonus $10 (please don’t ask me to explain why, these machines mystify me).

To be able to cash out, I had to play the free $20 completely and by the time I did, I was $8.63 up. I cashed that out, went to the buffet, and discovered that the price on the website was wrong and the real price, less the Wednesday night female discount was… $8.63.

Not being a cheapskate, I left a $1 tip to the lady who brought my lemonade and cleared my plates. 😀 So that was my grand expense for the night, a whole dollar!

The buffet was meh. I over estimated how busy it would be on a Wednesday night, so when I got there, a lot of the food had been sitting for a while. I grabbed what looked fresh, which did not involve many vegetables. 🙁

Everything was quite tasty, though. I liked their pork sticky buns and BBQ pork ribs the best. The mashed potatoes were tasty and so was the white gravy to put on them. Yes, white gravy. I had no idea what it was the first time I tried it, so on the next round, I asked a man pouring it all over his plate what it was. I even tried their sushi and it was surprisingly palatable. Oh, and I can’t forget their potato soup. Now that was really yummy!

There was a bunch of other tasty goodies, too, but nothing that totaled up to the $15 they were asking full price (my discount was definitely more than the $5 state on the website!) since the steak and baked potatoes didn’t appeal to me. But I’m not going to complain about a free meal!

The desserts were good; high quality ice cream and assorted pastries. I got one bite each of two kinds of ice cream and one bite of a surprisingly fabulous caramel cheesecake. There was also a guy impressively setting rum-soaked bananas on fire (bananas Foster, I imagine).

I’m off to Google white gravy. My mine is blown by the deliciousness of it. I can just imagine crumbled sausage swimming in it and soaking into my fabulous biscuits.

Post edited to add: white gravy is just a really thick béchamel sauce using pan drippings instead of butter!

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Loss

This has been the first day that I’ve really had a chance to realise how huge is the hole in my life now that my precious girl is gone. I’ve caught myself calling for her many times, from waking up alone to inviting her to join Neelix and me in a sunbeam. I keenly miss her comforting presence on my lap when I type. Neelix asked for my lap once today, but when he does that, he wants petting and is not content to lie still.

My sweet boy is such a comfort. He’s been increasingly affectionate in this past week. My favourite new thing he does is that he doesn’t just show me his belly to rub it, but rather puts both paws around my arm to hold it in place until he’s had enough! Too cute!

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I’ve been taking it easy today and working on some projects. The day started off cool, so I wrapped my electric blanket around me in the morning, but I’m now in full sun and enjoying the contrast to yesterday’s gloomy tone. Later this evening, after the dinner rush passes, I will go try the buffet, which is $5 off for ladies on Wednesdays (so $7.95), and also play the free keno. I don’t intend to give them the $10 to get the free slot play, however.

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Good Thing This Place Is Free

Well, it was another crappy night since the RV area is right next to the truck area and it was cold, so rather than a quiet night next to a creek, I got serenaded by reefers up until about 8:30 this morning. I am cranky.

I have no intention of staying beyond my two other free nights, but if a reason to do so came up, I would definitely argue for another freebie. This place is NOT worth $25, especially not to a customer!

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Tuesday Night Social

This evening, I went back to Firelake Casino to pick up Linda in my toad. Yay for driving Moya! Not so yay for Moya losing a wiper blade down the interstate! This is the same driver’s side lost and found wiper blade from the last time that happened. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be enslaved to a vehicle. Go, wiper blade! Be free! Have a good life!

Linda was supposed to come here for dinner with some friends of hers, Carol and Steve, who is a casual reader of TWM. But the pair were running late, so the plan changed to my picking up Linda, coming back here to the Grand Casino for dinner at the sports bar, and us getting our food orders in while waiting for Steve and Carol who would join us belatedly for food then drive Linda home. It wasn’t as convoluted as that sounds. 🙂

I had what felt like a whole pig for dinner: a bacon, ham, and pulled pork sandwich! I brought half home for lunch tomorrow! It had just a little kick to it and was yummy.

While Linda and I were waiting, we were invited to play some free keno and were taught the game, which has to be the stupidest game of chance on the planet. I won $0.80! 😀 I still have my other free keno game from signing up for the player’s club, so I’ll try my luck again tomorrow.

I’m so glad I had a chance to meet up with Linda at very long last and it was a pleasure to be introduced to Steve and Carol.

I’ve met so many wonderful people this winter and I have at least two more social stops ahead of me (Wichita and Omaha) before I hit the border.