It came a few days early, but we had a sea of green on our trip this week. I don’t know that anyone came home with a sea of green in their pockets, but some of us did come home with a little more green than we started with.

Several of us played in the afternoon BINGO session. Don’t know that we had any winners this time, but Debbie needed only one number for the coverall game (missing out on $500 in free play…). I guess that’s what “next time” is for.

If you think this trip was good, just wait for our April trip (Wednesday 4/11). That will be Fun Casino Trip’s first anniversary – we ran our first trip in April of last year. We plan on doing a little something from each of our trips over the past year. If you miss this trip you have literally missed the bus!

Another great trip! Our Valentine’s Day Trip was actually on Valentine’s Day – it was nice of Cupid to put February 14^th on a weekday for us. This was another one of those trips where everyone won something on the bus. Don’t get spoiled, we can’t do that all the time, but Debbie outdid herself in finding great deals to give away on the bus.

There was some confusion as to the buffet, but thankfully it worked out so that if you had the “regular” buffet you could use a coupon (coupons weren’t accepted for the more expensive special Valentine’s buffet). That’s one of the things to watch on the Calder calendar – when they have a special buffet sometimes they also have the “regular” buffet and sometimes they don’t.

We had our first Wednesday afternoon Calder Casino BINGO winner. It was the coverall game, split five ways so each of the BINGO’ers won $100 in free play. I seem to have fallen into the “almost” category, needing one number on one game and two numbers on two games. Oh well, maybe next time I’ll be able to tell you how much free play I won…

St. Patrick wasn’t as cooperative as Cupid, so our St. Patrick’s trip will be on Wednesday March 14^th (wear green if you’ve got it!). Debbie’s got 40 people signed up already, so if you haven’t made your reservations yet you’d better call soon (239-247-0869). We’ve already got a couple of people signed up for our April 11^th trip. That will be our one year anniversary trip as we ran our first trip in April last year.

What a trip! Did you miss out? Local businesses really came through with the donations (thanks to Debbie & Mickey for getting out there and working so hard to make the event a big success. Everyone on the bus won something, ranging from nice to really nice to fantastic. I’m pleased to report that I was able to write a check for $1,358.50 to Special Olympics of Florida – Lee County.

Our new system for getting free play pre-loaded on member’s cards is working pretty good. This time it wasn’t there until about 30 minutes after we arrived, so I guess that means it’s working pretty good but we’re not quite there yet. If you’re on a trip and don’t get the expected free play let Debbie know (text her, don’t spend all your time walking around the casino looking for her) and she’ll figure everything out for you.

Back to the fund raiser, thanks again to all our sponsors – check out this list!

Grand Prize: Wyndham Garden Hotel – Fort Myers Beach
AMC Theatre – North Fort Myers
Arby’s – Pine Island Road
Bianca’s Ristorante – North Fort Myers
Cape Café
Captain Tony’s Fishing Adventures
Carol Brotherton
Chili’s Grill & Bar Restaurant
Costco – Fort Myers
Downtowner Car Wash
Duffy’s Sports Grill
Edison Ford Tickets & Guide Book
Everybody’s Brunch Place – North Fort Myers
First Round Draft – Cape Coral
Five Guy’s Burgers & Fries
Ford’s Garage
Fred Astaire Dance Studio
Frito-Lay
Golden Corral – Cape Coral
Great Clips – Cape Coral (Pine Island)
Habanero’s Mexican Grill
HeadPinz Entertainment Center – Fort Myers
Jet’s Pizza – Cape Coral Parkway
Joe’s Crab Shack – Fort Myers
KJ’s Steakhouse – Fort Myers
Maria’s Italian Restaurant – Cape Coral
Mel’s Diner – Pine Island Road
Nathan’s Famous – Fort Myers
Nervous Nellies – Fort Myers Beach
Olive Garden
Outback Steakhouse – Fort Myers
Pin Street Bowling – Fort Myers
Point 57
Publix
Rib City
Shell Factory – Nature Park
Sonny’s BBQ – Cape Coral
Starbucks
Stevie Tomatoe’s Sports Page – Fort Myers
TGI Fridays
The Café
Three Fisherman
Yucatan Restaurant

Our trip this week was lots of fun! Congratulations to Queen Mary, our Queen for the Day. Heaven only knows what Debbie will think up for our next trip!

Depends on your definition of “big”, but we either had some big hits this week or at least a couple of nice ones. I was lucky enough to walk by at just the right time to see $400 on an 80 cent bet. I didn’t hit it big, but I did come home with a little more than I took with me.

Several people took advantage of the free BINGO that Calder now has on Wednesday afternoons. I came close a couple of times, but he just wouldn’t call the right number for me.

As some of you know, we had another trip a week ago. We took a bus full of Old Bridge Villagers to Calder on Wednesday the 10th. That was another good trip, but unfortunately the sound system on the bus wasn’t working correctly. The bus company is working on that issue now, and we had a different bus on the 17th with everything working properly.

BTW, January is a first for Fun Casino Trips LLC – the first time we’ve had three trips in the same month. We’re doing a Special Olympics fund raiser on Wednesday the 31st. The bus is full, but if you’re interested in going check with Debbie – we had a cancellation this morning, and filled that seat in less than an hour.

Looking ahead our next trip is on Wednesday February 14th – Valentine’s Day. I’m pretty sure that you can guess what the theme is for that trip. In March we’re going on Wednesday the 14th, and if you need help guessing that theme look about 3 days later on the March calendar. We’re already looking forward to April – we ran our first trip last April, so this will be Fun Casino Trips LLC’s one year anniversary trip!

I hope everyone’s 2018 has gotten off to a good start. We went to Miami and spent New Year’s Eve at Calder. We played BINGO Friday night – close, but not this time. During the day on Saturday & Sunday we got out and looked around. Checked out a few new things, including our first live horse race in Hallandale Beach. We met a couple there that have owned 30 horses over the years and they told us everything that a beginner needed to know. Following their recommendation Debbie made her first bet on a horse race, turning $2 into $5. She wrote that up to beginner’s luck and quit while she was ahead.

2018 will bring a few changes to Calder. On Wednesdays the Magic Carpet Hot Seat game has ended, and they now have afternoon BINGO sessions (win free play!). That includes sessions at 12:00 & 3:00pm. BINGO cards are free for points earned that day (check the Calder website for details). Earning enough points for a card by noon on our trips could be tough, but if you start out playing real money you might just make it (you don’t earn points while playing free play). I would think that just about everyone that wants to could earn enough points to play at the 3:00 session.

I hate to say that we’ve got some bad news, but the price of the buffet has gone up in 2018 (it’s now $16.99 early bird, $21.99 regular). If you get a free buffet you shouldn’t notice a difference, but if you get a half price buffet it will cost you an additional $1.50 (half of the $3 increase). And of course, depending on the dining deal you get from Calder, Lucky’s Cafe is still a great option too.

January looks like a busy, fun filled month for Fun Casino Trips. A first for us – 3 trips in one month. We’ve got our regular trip on Wednesday 1/17, a Special Olympics Fund Raiser on Wednesday 1/31, and we’re running a trip for Old Bridge Village in North Fort Myers on Wednesday 1/10. All three trips are nearly full, so if you haven’t made your reservations yet you’d better be calling Debbie soon!

Speaking of calling Debbie (239-247-0869), we’ve got new phones so please bear with us while we learn how to use them. If you call Debbie and don’t hear back from her fairly soon you might want to call her again…

One last note – they started replacing our sea wall today! They’re doing three houses on our side of the street and one on the other side. They came in today and took out several trees (to get their tractors in, cheaper than coming in by barge). They also took out most of the old sea wall. They got a few panels in at our neighbor’s today, and should work their way across our backyard tomorrow. It’s been fun watching them out there working, but we did feel bad for the guy in the water – it was cold out there!