Here’s hoping that everyone fared as well as can be hoped for during Hurricane Irma. We had about 30 feet of seawall buckle, other than that it’s mostly cleaning up branches around the yard. We evacuated twice – once from Zone A to Zone B, then from Zone B up to some friends in Englewood. All we saw from there was a lot of wind and rain.

It sounds kind of funny to talk about a casino trip during the hurricane cleanup but if you’re like us you probably need a day away from all this, something of a return to normalcy. We’ve heard from several of you that you would still like to go, and we’ve heard from a couple that won’t be able to go.

We are currently planning on going. The bus company is good to go, and according to fl511.com I-75 is be good to go too. Calder Casino, however, is still closed. They plan on reopening as soon as travel in the Miami/Lauderdale area is deemed to be safe. Their 9/13 1pm update says that over 50% of the traffic lights in the surrounding area are still out (visit www.CalderCasino.com for the latest info).

This weekend Debbie will be trying to check with everyone that she hasn’t heard from. We will be very liberal with refunds and transfers to another trip, so if you’ve evacuated up north and can’t return yet, or just too busy with rebuilding & relief efforts just let us know. Keep in mind that this is a Tuesday trip – Tuesday September 19th.