Laurie asked how Blackhawk went.... so here's how it went. Several of us won $$--ranging from $80-$150. It was fun to actually come home with all the money I started with! At the end of the night I found a machine that kept me winning and let me play for nearly an hour on the $10 I put into it. It was a 3 and 5 cent machine (we're such big spenders), and I'd always play the max number of lines and credits. For awhile every three or four spins I'd win at least 20 credits, sometimes 100. The fun part was that at least four times I won upward of 1200, and a couple of times I won more than 2000 credits (but remember--it's a three-cent machine) at once. The last time I won about $75 and decided to cash out. When we got on the bus later, CP's brother told us he had won $$ too--and had gone to that machine I'd been playing on! I guess it was a lucky machine.

It was disappointing not to hear the clinking of all your coins dropping in the tray when you win. Now they print you a claim ticket with a UPC bar code on it. You can actually use that ticket as cash in any of the machines as well-- just put it in the dollar bill slot and it reads it. Pretty anticlimatic.