Day 2 - Covington - Indiana - Covington

After a good sleep I was ready at 11.30am to go via shuttle back to the airport terminal to get my hire car. The shuttle driver told me he would take me straight to the Dollar Rent A Car Office which is a short way from the airport. Getting there only took 5 minutes.

Once at the counter I explained that I had mixed up my bookings to start the day after I arrived and had made a second booking for today only as trying to add it to the original booking would have cost nearly $300. The original rate I got months ago was very low and when I tried to add a day it wanted to charge the whole lot at a higher rate.

My one day booking was also free as I had a one day free rental voucher from all the car hire I had used in the past year.

The ladies at the counter managed to combine the two bookings so I do not need to return tomorrow and swap cars. That will simplify things somewhat.

I did not take the option of a GPS system as it is $11 per day additional fee. For the 18 days I have the car that would be $198 and buying one is only from $80 upwards depending on which one you get.

I left the rental car facility and headed straight to the nearest Walmart store, which I had written down directions from Google maps. Unfortunately the directions were from the airport not the rental facility and I was one road out in my navigation. It was soon sorted and I only took about an extra 5 minutes to get there.

Once there I had a set shopping list, firstly the GPS, which I decided on a Garman unit similar to what I use at home. Then some camping gear for my trip to Bristol Tennessee for the Nascar weekend. I am camping at the track with 40,000 other people for 4 nights. So a tent, tarp, foam ground roll, sleeping bag, torch and a cooler were added to the trolley. I also forgot my car charger double adapter plug so I got a new one of them and then picked up a long sleeve shirt and finally into the grocery area to get some food. I bought some cereal, bowl and spoon, a 24 pack of water and some Pringles, for those of you that don't know I collect empty Pringles containers, I have over 500 different ones and these two are new ones for the collection.

Through the check-out I stopped at Subway for some lunch then packed the car and started up the GPS.

Today I have set a loop into Indiana to visit three casinos to get $5 chips for my collection. Kentucky does not have any casinos but right across the Ohio River in Indiana there is the Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg, it is only 15 minutes from the bridge crossing the river near Covington.

The casino is quite large the building is 6 storeys high with a large hotel included. I signed up for the players card (also to add to my collection of Casino Players Cards) and received a sports bag for signing up.

Most of the table games were fairly full of people so I slid into a Let It Ride game, a variation of Poker where you are dealt three cards and use the two dealers cards to make a five card hand. I bought some chips and was able to get two different $5 chips for the collection. The standard $5 chip the casino issues and a $5 Grand Opening chip dated July 2009.

I played for about 15 minutes loosing my original stake minus the chips I kept and left for the next casino down the river. Along the way I drove through the town of Aurora and stopped at the Great Crescent Brewery, a craft brewery which cans its own beer. I was able to pick up three different brews in cans. They use one can with there brewery design on it and put a sticker label across the bottom of the front of the can with the beer style on the label. The do not have any coasters but I picked up some stickers and business cards.

From there I drove along side the river on a fairly scenic route too the Grand Victoria Casino & Resort on the outskirts of the town of Rising Sun. The casino has a golf course attached to it. I was able to get a players card (no free gift though) and played some Blackjack, Let it Ride and Caribbean Stud, picking up the only chip available their own standard $5 chip.

It was 5.30pm by now so on the way out I went to the Casino's Buffet and had dinner. It was a good spread of roasts, seafood, Italian food and salads plus plenty of deserts to chose from and free soda to go with it. 

Leaving there I continued south via a windy road following the river passing through many small communities and a lot of farms with fields of sugarcane growing. Along the river on the Kentucky side were a couple of large coal generated power stations and on the river were boats with many connected floats containing coal for the power stations to use.

I also travelled through a lot more small communities along the rivers edge including the aptly named Patriot, which is completely decorated with USA flags and the county of Switzerland which claims to be the Birthplace of America's Comercial Wine Growing.

Finally I got to the third casino the Belterra, it also has a well set out golf course and a a large day spa attached to the buildings. I signed up for the players card (no gift) and again most of the tables were full of people. I got onto a Let It Ride table and picked up two chips, the Belterra $5 general issue chip and a commemorative Tenth Anniversary chip for the casino.

By the time I left it was now dark and before driving off I rang to offer a Happy 50th !!! Birthday to Jan from Wagga but only spoke to Dave as she was out, so Happy Birthday Jan hope the night at the Farrah was a great night out (Did Dave run a raffle?)

Right next to the Belterra was river crossing back into Kentucky and I  was soon on my way back towards Covington. My trusty GPS took me on a 5 minute detour by taking me to the second freeway on ramp not the first one.

40 minutes later about 10.30pm, I was back in Covington at the Country Inn & Suites, my hotel for the night. I was in room number 314 which was a suite with a separate lounge area and a King sized bed. The room had a fridge and a microwave oven.

Unlike in Australia most of the hotel rooms do not have fridges in them and you are supplied an ice bucket and each floor has an ice machine to supply the bucket. Most people you see carry a cooler with them to fill with ice to keep drinks etc chilled whilst in the room and also for travelling in the car. 

Sorry for the lack of photos, I went to take some today and the camera's battery was flat. I took some with my cell phones camera but could not work the adapter properly to load them up. I will try again to load them up when I get to my next hotel.