I once again headed over the Ohio River into Indiana and followed my GPS heading towards a casino in Anderson. I followed the I-74 towards Indianapolis and turned right before getting there. Heading north I passed through the town of Greenfield, which is your typical country city with a central area of older buildings that then sprawls outwards with larger industrial areas around it. Coming from the direction I did you still actually drive through the center of the town. There I stopped at a Walmart to get a USA plug adaptor for the power socket as I have left mine at home. I also got a car adaptor for my phone charger. Whilst I was there I stopped at Subway and had a turkey breast 6 inch sub for breakfast (note it was the healthiest item on the menu).
Travelling on to Anderson I arrived at the Hoosier Park Racing & Casino. A lot US States have only recently in the past 5 years granted casino licences and some of the Race Tracks were in a good position to get a casino licence and build a casino next to the race track on land they already owned. 3 of the casinos I visited last year in Pennsylvania were also at race tracks.
I entered the casino and went and got a players card for my collection and then went to the gaming tables to get some $5 chips. To my horror the tables are called E-tables and all the betting in done on individual computer screens built into the table felt. You do not get dealt real cards and you do not get casino chips to play with. I can tell you I was not happy.
I had read of another casino in Indiana had these tables and had left it off my list to visit because of that same reason. So to find out this one was the same actually added about 2 hours of my time for the day as I would have gone a different route to travel north if I had known that there were no chips to be obtained.
Leaving there I headed north up I-69 motorway and crossed the Michigan border up to the I-94 which heads east – west across lower section of Michigan.
I turned left at the interchange and went firstly to the Firekeepers Casino. It is a Native American run casino. The Firekeeper is an historical figure in Indian folk law. I went to the information area and received my player’s card and then picked up three different $5 chips whilst losing the rest of the money I had put on the table to play with.
Travelling about 20 minutes west I arrived at my hotel for the night in the town of Kalamazoo. It was just on dark as I arrived and I rang one of my US collecting friends Mike Beam to confirm it was still o.k. to visit him tomorrow. I have not met Mike but have corresponded many times on the Internet and when he heard I was going to be in the area he lives he graciously invited me to visit his home and his collection. This sorted, I then rang home to check in and spoke with my sister who had just arrived down from Cairns to visit and see our Mother for 10 days.
Following that I drove to Gun Lake Casino which is approx. 40 minutes from the hotel and again got the players card and sat at a table to get my $5 chips. The place was packed being a Friday night and I was only able to get onto a $25 minimum bet Blackjack table. This means all the chips were $25 denomination and the only way I could get $5 chips was to get a Blackjack which pays 3 to 2. I managed to get one of them early and get my chips and then played for quite a while and managed to walk away from the table doubling my money plus the two $5 chips.
I went to the cafe and had a very late dinner by this stage and headed back to my accommodation. It was almost 3am by the time I arrived back.
I had travelled just over 400 miles (640 km) driving for the day. It can be best summed up by the following photos I took.
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