casino
Haha, it was terrible, but I knew it was coming so I approached it with the proper mindset and actually had a pretty good time.
Mostly, I just enjoyed the ride down. Alternated between reading an Italo Calvino novel (excellent literary goose chase, just what I needed) and staring out the window at all the glorious coal-country squalor. (Thought of you the whole way down, @acetone_kitten, you would have lovehated it.)
casino, pee
Stopped in a 7-11 on the way down, and "got" to accidentally see my stepdad pee in an employees-only room sink when the men's room turned out to be out of order. (In his defense, at his age... not much choice.) We booked it out of there fast while I chuckled like a loon.
Speaking of urine, the whole casino reeked of stale tobacco and retiree pee, a potent and noxious concoction if there ever was one. Made most of my Will rolls, walked out with $60 of the $100 stake my folks gave me.
casino
That weirdly seems to be the norm with all antiqve barns near casinos... the closer they are, the more you can find that trend.
casino
@JulieSqveakaroo I mean, the demographics sure as hell work out. I think I, at 43, was the youngest non-employee by far, at either the casino or the antiques mall. Scary place.
casino
Then we stopped in at a huge antiques mall near the casino. It was right up my parents' alley and my stepdad got to expand his collection of neat little antique toy trains. But I got too much of an "hostile political allegiance" vibe out of what was quite clearly Trump and Reagan territory and mostly just killed time wandering, keeping my snarky opinions down to the occasional whisper to my mom.
If nothing else, I enjoyed the reminder there are far worse places than Seattle.