What's Your Game?

We dropped Amanda off at the CSP academy for her course Sunday morning. It's about 40 minutes from our house to Golden; it didn't seem worth the drive back home only to turn around in four hours to pick her up.

In Golden, on a Sunday morning when you aren't (find a delicate way to say this, Christy....) inclined to attend services at a house of worship? There isn't a lot to do.

What to do.. what to do.... As we meandered the road led, as many in that part of town do, towards the mountains, towards.... Black Hawk and Central City. There might be something to do there on a Sunday morning, just maybe. Up the hill we went.

Beautiful Sunday morning drive; through a deep canyon, rushing water just below, mountain goats and big horn sheep above, through four tunnels shooting straight through the mountain and into these tiny towns located side by side.

Keep in mind, Cowboy and I are not big gamblers, which is to say, we don't. The last time I gambled was probably 1998, when I put $5.00 into a nickel slot machine in Vegas and made that five last three days. When I finally cashed it out, on our way home, it was $8.00 and I counted myself pretty darn lucky. Unlike the miners of old, we weren't going up the hill to strike it rich.

There are lots of places to park up there; most major hotels have big parking garages. We cruised both tiny towns, seeing the sights. It's sad but fairly obvious that the big outfits have put the little guy out of business: we saw a ton of empty store fronts. I'm sure it's hard to make it in that sort of town.

We were starting, so we found a spot in one of the mammoth structures and walked through the Mardi Gras casino in search of food. Good things about casinos: generally you can find food that won't cost you an arm and a leg. We found a huge breakfast for $3.99, coffee included! So huge was the breakfast, though, that we had to walk.

Eventually, we found ourselves at Colorado Central Station where we decided it was time to gamble. We weren't feeling as reckless as when in Vegas (besides, Central Station doesn't have nickel slots), so opted to conserve our resources by playing penny slots. The good thing about slots: they're sort of like video games: pretty colors and fun music. Bad thing: they're sort of like video games: they take your money. Correction here: they took Cowboy's money.

We played two hours. I lost $0.22, Cowboy lost $30.00. Completely satisfied for another nine years, we were back in Golden in time to grab lunch and the girl.

I really don't see myself taking the trip up that road again for a while. I'm already taking enough chances: I have three teenagers!