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!