Traveling Around - Casinos - Biloxi, MS - Another Bus Trip To Biloxi

We spend January and February each year at a condo in Destin, Florida. Lots of activities take place. Among them is a sponsored bus trip to Biloxi to visit one of the casinos. This year (as in several of the past years) the casino was The IP. Sharon didn't like the idea of the bus trip so she decided to stay in Destin.

The schedule is for the bus to get away from the complex by about 7 AM, spend just over 3 hours on the road, have about 5 hours in the casino, spend just over 3 hours on the road, and get back to Destin by 7 PM. As with most well made plans, this one went awry late in the day.

The condo complex did serve us coffee and cookies as we waited on the bus. It arrived about 6:30 AM and we got loaded and on our way easily by 7. It was a new bus and on its first trip. Apparently untested was the climate control as even though it wasn't warm outside, the vents spewed cold air. The driver couldn't do anything about it.

We played bingo with our gloves on. Prizes were trivial as we didn't contribute anything to the prize pool and the bus company didn't either.

Made a quickee stop at a truck stop and got into Biloxi about 10:15.

Dummy that I can be sometimes, I had brought most of the player's club cards in my possession except the one that was for the Boyd Group (which includes the IP). It took a while to get a replacement card through some snafu that gave me two accounts at Boyd.

Got my card.

Thought I'd best check on the addition of free play from the bus trip since I'd had two accounts and was reassured that everything was worked out and functioning.

It was about 11:00 AM by the time I headed for the casino floor.

Not having been to this casino in a year, it took awhile to get oriented. Favorite machines weren't where I'd left them and it took a while to get them located. I'd looked them up on line before leaving Destin and the web site said they were still there so I figured they must have been moved.

Located them after some searching and sat down to play nickel Quick Quads.

I tried to load in my free play and it wasn't there. Come on, Don, I thought, give them a chance to get this done. There was a lot of people on the bus.

I put a twenty dollar bill in and began playing. My luck ran reasonably good and after about forty five minutes, I had it up to $40. Got a cash out ticket and checked on my free play.

Nada.

I traipsed back down to the Events Counter and inquired about it. I was again assured that it was on its way.

Back to my spot at Quick Quads. By the time I got back to the machine, they'd loaded my free play.

It amounted to $20 and that's almost like a twenty dollar bill in my pocket. Except I left it in the machine and downloaded it to the game.

Was shortly after 12 by this time. I had to stop and eat before the bus left and it was going at 3:30 so probably had a couple hours I could spend there. Nowhere near the 5 hours I'd expected.

I got calmed down and again my luck ran pretty good until this happened.

I was suddenly a very happy camper. Looked around for someone to share it with. No one there so I just enjoyed it privately. It's not a mammoth hit - around $50 on a nickel machine - but it is enough that I knew I wasn't going to go into the red for the trip.

The cocktail waitress came by and I ordered a glass of wine. Unlike some of the publicity I've seen, mine got there quickly.

I settled in, sipping and playing.

Probably 15 minutes later, this happened.

I admit that I thought "That would be quite a hand if this were deuces wild". Then I thought, "Yes, but Don, this hit really makes the day for you".

I played for a while longer but couldn't regenerate the excitement so decided to go eat. Cashed it out and stuffed the ticket in my pocket.

Off to the buffet. IP has perhaps the best buffet in Biloxi and I truly enjoyed it. Wonder of wonders, I did not overeat but exercised restraint in the portion sizes that I took. Tried a bunch of different things and they were all good.

Had miniature cream puffs, a cannoli, and a cup of latte for dessert.

Had a good book with me in case I lost a bunch and wanted to quit playing. I decided that winning a bunch was as good a reason for stopping so I cashed out my tickets and went down to the bus loading area about $100 ahead.

The trip back to Destin started out just fine. We were on time and cruising down the highway. The passengers did begin to notice that while the climate control spewed out cold air before the sun came out and warmed things up, now that the sun was doing its job, the bus machinery was outputting warm air.

When we reached Mobile, traffic came to a virtual standstill. Unbeknownst to us there was a personal injury accident on the multi mile causeway. After waiting for a while and probably diagnosing the traffic problem via radio, the driver took us off the expressway and onto surface streets.

As soon as possible, he pulled over, shut the bus down, and announced "Everything on the bus is computer controlled, so I'm going to shut it down and try to reboot the computers. Hopefully, it'll cure the climate control problem."

When he fired the bus back up, the air emitted was good and everyone applauded his good sense.

We got back on the road and from our viewpoint on the surface street we could see the ambulances on the expressway at the accident site. The driver was able to return to the expressway within a few miles.

And, within a few miles, the air became warm again.

He announced that since the trip took us within a few miles of the bus headquarters, he'd radioed ahead and they would have another bus waiting for us so that we could transfer with minimal loss of time. We did and were again on the road.

Arrived back at the complex at 8:00 PM. We were only an hour late and somewhat tired and out of sorts. I was glad to strip off the sweaty clothes and relax.

Avoided even talking about the trip for an hour or so.

I really enjoyed the IP. It's the second time I've visited via a bus and the time there was fun. Last year I got a nickel royal and this year a couple really nice dealt hands.

The bus trip was the pits.

But, I think I enjoyed the casino enough that next year I'll do it again.

If I veered too far away from the "casino" aspect and some readers don't like it, I apologize.