So much to do, so little time to do it in. Isn’t that always my major complaint with life? I can never find enough hours in the day to do everything I want to accomplish…and yet I’m so hard headed that I just keep competing with myself to beat the clock. D-A-M-N! It sure is exhausting. So…let me back track to Monday. All of us ‘Turtles’ were off because we supposedly worked late on Sunday night. Most certainly a few of us did. I was NOT in the ‘few’ of us grouping. I really was on HOLIDAYS.

Monday was our free day. Me and The Kids Across the Hall set out to stroll down the beachside to all the hotels that had a casino because Wayne is a chip collector and had some chips to turn in for someone else and chips to buy for himself. It was an adventure…possibly on how much money we could spend buying beer all the way down and back. We stopped for breakfast where the iguanas hang out every day for their handout – the same place we had eaten the day before.

They seriously look like they are waiting for something to happen…maybe for the stupid humans to wake up and start feeding them.

The Marriott is over a mile from the Wyndham, on the beach side. If you walk the highway side it’s much further. And which side would you think we took? We took beer with us, downed it, and stopped at the Excelsior Casino (inside the Holiday) for chip/cash exchange. Their casino and poker room were pretty quiet. The poker room was worse than quiet. It was downright damn empty, except for the dealer that sold Wayne a rack of chips. Wayne and Jim sorted through the rack, looking for the best of crop – and the Excelsior has three different styles of $1 chips.

We hit a small store in the Holiday for brew to take with us, buying two at a time because it was cheaper…believe it or not.

We made it to the Marriott and exchanged money/chips there. We sat down in the foyer, allowing the breeze to cool us down slightly, and visited. While we were talking, Layne Flack waltzed by with ‘to go’ bags in his hands. I said something like, “Hey, Cowboy, where you going?”

He laughed and made a comment that sounded like he was a food runner – and went on by. We headed back out into the sun and the sand.

We stopped in another hotel/casino (can’t even remember which one right now) and the whole place was jamming. Bingo was on! All the slot machine seats and pit tables were full of people playing bingo. And the worst of it is they all had markers and paper bingo sheets. Nothing sophisticated like push slots or electronic boards…these people were dedicated to their bingo. I don’t think there was one slot machine that didn’t have a bingo player’s butt in the seat.

We hit the beach again and headed for our home away from home. I saw this delightful bird. The zoom is to the max on my camera and I thought the picture turned out great considering how far away the bird was.

The Kids Across the Hall really liked this bird and demanded that I take a picture…so I zoomed her too.

We seemed to be collected and cool as we drank our way back down the beach. I don’t know how or why but even though Jim was halfway behaved before dinner, he turned into a totally ‘chatty Cathy’ as the evening progressed. He said absolutely nothing that mattered and jumped from thread to thread in an incessant run of conversation that would drive a drunk to sobriety. I’m wondering if this had anything to do with his ass being so damn drunk. And this was his first venture into the ocean…wading.

Dinner time found us at the Sunset Grille at the Radisson…our second meal there. We had such great service and the food was damn good…and it was one of our $20 designated meal places. Jim never slowed down, talking nonstop throughout the meal and we, of course, had more to drink as we listened, and listened, and listened. Jim tipped the guitar player. Wayne and me are still teasing him about that. Sorry, it’s one of those ‘you would have to be there’ things.

Although it’s only been a few days ago, I really can’t even remember the full events of the night. That was my first early a.m. beach walk, and not a lot of sleep before The Kids Across the hall called and woke me up for breakfast. So all in all, it was a long day and memory escapes me. *edit* I got it straight from the horse’s mouth…Jim’s that is. We had all planned to go swimming. After I changed and rapped on their door, Jim was planning on watching football for a little bit with his eyes closed and snores escaping from his lips. Wayne and I hit the pool. Even though it was a little more than c-o-o-o-ol, and almost uncomfortable after 20 minutes or so, we stayed. Finally we gave up and headed for the ocean. It was like bath water…perfect. Soon after that, I was toast…sleeping like a baby on the 10th floor.*end edit*

In the meantime, the first flight of Day One of the Ultimate Poker Classic Tournament Championship had finished. The first flight left 79 players in action…impatiently awaiting Day Two which wouldn’t happen until the 29th.

Tomorrow we would be dealing the second flight of Day One. Time to sleep – or try to. My average of sleep hasn’t been very good since I hit the island. But tomorrow I really do have to burn and turn. Kee-rist! They really did bring me here to deal.

*****

Play poker with all the stars on Ultimate Bet and win a tournament so you can join me here next year!