Thursday 10/16/08

Flipping the Coin

This morning is the end of the planned portion of our trip and we need to decide how to begin the trip home. We don’t exactly flip a coin but we do get out the map and kind of throw a dart at it. We had initially hoped to spend a couple days in New York but the Princess of Priceline couldn’t touch anything under $300 a night so we made a new plan.

But, first things first. We grab a quick breakfast at the main house where three kinds of pancakes and the usual cereal selections with fruit are spread out. Mary makes out a list of "tips" for our housekeeper and puts it into her "tips" envelope. We get the car loaded up and pull out of the lot without anyone running out to say good-bye.

Our dart for tonight landed on Atlantic City, NJ so we begin by continuing down Rt.7 through southwestern Mass and into Connecticut. Until now we have had broad sweeping views of mountains and valleys, but now the hills close in on us as do the trees. We follow the Housatonic River valley and the low-slung road is shrouded in a canopy of hardwood trees. A different perspective but still beautiful.

We hit our old hometown of Danbury about noon and begin the long circular swing around NYC by heading west on I84 and then south on I684. After another course correction back west on 287 we stop for lunch in Nyack, NY at a Cheesecake Factory. John has a great Tortilla soup, salad and chicken salad sandwich and Mary has the small cobb salad that must weigh three pounds. As much as we try to avoid chains, there are a few that are really good and this is one of them.

Mary gets us onto the Garden state Parkway through Newark and then down the coast for the last two hours to Atlantic City. We think we will need one more laundry stop before getting home so this is it. We find a Laundromat on the road into town and get everything done in under an hour.

Mary has scored the Trump Plaza tonight for 69-bucks, and John does his job by getting a 14th floor corner ocean-view king room. We haven’t been to Atlantic City for a long long time and everything is bigger and brighter. It certainly has an air of Las Vegas to it and you have to pay attention to look across the boardwalk and see that there is still an ocean here. We grab a bite at EVO, a restaurant in the hotel (John the bisque, Caesar salad, and penne Bolognese; Mary the Gnocchi) and then take a walk along the boardwalk and down to the water.

We can’t put it off forever so we slip into the casino at the hotel for just a few minutes. Mary prowls the slots while John grabs a chair next to a Doug Heffernen type at the Blackjack table. On thing that has changed is that the minimum at the table games is now $15 so the dollar chips are long gone. John plays for a while and quits about $70 ahead so the room is paid for. He tries to find Mary and finally locates her tucked into bed up in the room, which is no longer paid for. Oh well, the market was back up 5% today so another reasonable annual swing in one day.