Author Archives: mike

Irma Update / Tuesday Sept 19’s Naughty Bus Should Be A Go

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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.

Summer Fun (and then some…)

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We had another great trip to Calder Casino, with a couple of firsts. BJ Odom came along and did a set from his Comedy Magic act (Facebook.com/bjodom). None of us were sure how it would work out – BJ has done his act in a lot of different venues but never before on a moving bus. He couldn’t use the bus sound system (imagine trying to do a magic act while holding a microphone in one hand), but he tried to make it loud enough for everyone to hear and he definitely had everyone laughing. He told us to introduce him as “he’s no David Copperfield…” – that’s true, but it’s also true that David Copperfield is no BJ Odom!

We had another first by having another winner of the grand prize of $500 free play in the Roundup Slot Tournament. We’ve had 5 Wednesday trips, and twice now someone on the bus has taken first place in the tournament. I’d like to see us do that again and again!

Our other first is one that we would rather have not had – the bus broke down on the way home. That’s got to happen to somebody some time, it’s just too bad it had to happen to us this time. Debbie tries to be prepared for everything, so we had an extra water along, extra drawing tickets, & extra prizes. It took a little over an hour to get another bus to us and we passed the time playing games. We would like to thank everyone once again for their patience and understanding, and for helping us to make the best of the situation.

Looking ahead, our “Naughty Bus” on Tuesday September 19 is filling up fast. That’s Over 55 day at Calder – everyone 55 and older get an additional $10 in free play after earning 20 points that day. If you want to go with us you need to make your reservations soon! [239-247-0869]

Summer Fun Special Olympics of Lee County Fundraiser

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If you missed out on yesterday’s Special Olympics Fundraiser then you really missed the bus! We had a great time with lots of great gifts from some great sponsors. Everybody on the bus won something, and the grand prize was a pair of tickets to the Broadway Palm Dinner Theater. Many thanks to all of our sponsors.

I just wrote a check for $1042 to Special Olympics of Florida – Lee County. Thanks to our sponsors, but also thanks to everyone who came on the trip – without your generosity we wouldn’t have had a fundraiser.

This is a quick turnaround for us this time as our “regular” trip is next Wednesday (8/23). We’re trying something new on that trip – BJ Odom will be doing a set from his magic & comedy act on the way to the casino. That’s a first for us, and also the first time that BJ will be doing his act on a moving bus. Hopefully all will go well, but if we hit a bump and the magic doesn’t go quite right it will most likely add to the comedy side of the show!

Back to the Special Olympics trip, thanks again to all of our sponsors. And kudos to Debbie for getting out there and lining them all up.

Grand Prize: Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre Tickets
All About Bagels
Anthony’s on the Boulevard
Applebee’s
Boston Market
Café You
Calder Casino
Chick-fil-A
Dairy Queen
Domino’s Pizza
Downtowner Car Wash
Duffy’s Sports Grill
Englund’s Subs
Fin’s
First Round Draft
Five Guys
Golden Corral
Il Primo Pizza & Wings
Lenny’s Grill & Subs
Mangia Bene
Maria’s Italian Restaurant
Marquee Cinemas, Coralwood 10
Mel’s Diner
The Moorings
Nathan’s Famous
Office Depot / OfficeMax
Outback Steakhouse
Paradise Pizza
Pizza Hut
Super Cuts
Taco Bell
Teriyaki Madness
Thirsty’s Restaurant

Christmas in July

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We had another great trip to Calder Casino yesterday, our Christmas in July trip. Several people were decked out in their Christmas finest, at least the July-in-Florida version of their Christmas finest. Lots of fun and some great prizes, including an electric fireplace as the grand prize and two room heaters as the baby grand prizes – I know, it’s July, but the fireplace looks great year round and the heaters will probably come in handy this winter.

This was our fourth monthly trip, and everything is starting to run pretty smoothly. I guess that means that it’s time to start changing things up a bit. We’ve got two new games to try out on our upcoming August trips, and we’re thinking about trying something different with the drawings too.

Speaking of different, we’ve got two trips in August. We have a Special Olympics Fund Raising trip on Wednesday August 16, and our “regular” trip a week later on Wednesday August 23. The Special Olympics trip costs a bit more, $50 rather than our usual $36. We think you’ll find that it’s well worth the additional money. We’ve got more bigger & better prizes for the bus, local businesses are really coming through. Here’s our current list of sponsors: All About Bagels, Anthony’s on the Boulevard, Boston Market, Café You, Domino’s Pizza. Downtowner Car Wash, Englund’s Subs, Fin’s, First Round Draft, Golden Corral, Il Primo Pizza & Wings, Lenny’s Grill & Subs, Mangia Bene, Maria’s Italian Restaurant, Mel’s Diner, The Moorings, Nathan’s Famous, Pizza Hut, Super Cuts, Taco Bell, and Teriyaki Madness. And as we say on our fliers, it’s not too late to become a sponsor! As for what’s really important, all of the extra ticket price plus more goes to Special Olympics. We’ll also be selling additional BINGO cards for $1, and the 50-50 will of course be for Special Olympics – we’re hoping to raise $1000 for a great cause.

Speaking of 50-50’s and great causes, yesterday’s 50-50 was for Special Olympics, as was the June trip. That’s another $293 that we’ll be presenting on the Special Olympics trip, and that’s in addition to the money we’ll be raising that day!

FunCasinoTrips.com

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As you probably know, Debbie has been after me to get a website started. I’ve been hesitant to do so, but only because I wanted to have some idea of what I was doing before getting started with it. Yes, I worked in IT and computer education for the last 40 years, but none of that was developing websites.

After a little research and a couple of recommendations, I went with WordPress. I don’t want to sound like I regret that decision, but let’s just say that the signup and setup process didn’t go as smoothly as I think it should have. I will fess up some responsibility – I’m not a blogger and I’m not a blog follower, and the default site is built around blogging.

I don’t plan on becoming an avid blogger, but maybe a few posts from time to time about our trips will add to the site. For now though, I’m trying to figure out the rest of it so that I can add the basic info, trip schedule, and things like that.