Taking a break

Road Trip


I'll be taking a break from working on the house.


I'm going with my Dad on a mini vacation, not in the coach. The coach is set up for one person only.


He has 3 free nights at a casino hotel.  I'm not a big fan of casinos, but I like to travel - so I will take him on this trip. He does not drive, he has never had a drivers license.


The casino website states that they have a walking/jogging path with exercise stations along the path - I am curious to see what this is about, as I usually go walking while my Dad is in the casino.


Any suggestions for places to stop along the way? I'm sure we will need to stop a few times to stretch our legs.  It's a 5 hour drive straight through on the Interstate, but I figure with taking a few side roads and stopping for lunch it may take as long as 8 hours. 


We are going from Chicago to Elizabeth, IN and will take some day trips into Louisville, KY. We will be leaving Tuesday morning and returning on Friday afternoon. 

Casinos in Black Hawk, Colorado

Elevation: 8,537          Sunny and mild temp's

Black Hawk, Colorado is an Historic Mining Settlement that was reinvented as a destination for gambling, not much else to do here.

My Dad enjoys going to the Casinos, so this is where we are for the weekend. Today, Saturday, we left the hotel room at 6:30am and did not return until 8:30pm. The majority of this time was spent in the casinos. We also were in the casinos for several hours Friday.

2 photos borrowed from the internet

I took some photos with my cell phone and emailed them to myself, but Blogger does not like the format of them.  I should have gone back to the hotel room to get the camera.
I had taken pictures of the creek, my Dad sitting at the slots, and of an old train.

I snuck out of the casinos a few times to walk around town or to go sit out on the patios of the casinos. The casinos in this town have "smoking patios", they are actually very nice as the casinos border a creek. The patios are not too crowded, so I have been able to avoid being too near the smokers.

The casinos provided us with some meals when we signed up for their "players cards". They also gave us some "freebies": a tire gauge, a keychain, a deck of cards, chapstick, hand sanitizer, air freshener and $10 cash.

Tomorrow morning, more free casino food, some Mother's Day giveaways, a few hours of gambling and then the drive back to Denver to visit with Diane and Karl.

Wish me luck, so I break even for the weekend.

Visiting in Colorado

I am currently in Colorado to visit my daughter and her husband.

My Dad and I traveled to Denver via Amtrak yesterday. A new railroad bridge is being built over the Mississippi. There was no one working on it because of the high levels of the river.

     Photos taken through the window of a moving train.

We saw my daughter for a little while this morning when we picked up a rental car near her house.

Diane & Karl still have to work while we are here, so we are planning our trip around their work schedules. My Dad likes to go to the casinos, so we are staying 2 nights in Black Hawk, CO. We will go to Diane & Karl's house on Sunday, just in time for Mother's Day. We will stay with them until Thursday and then return to Chicago on Amtrak.

Diane & Karl bought tickets to take my Dad to a baseball game on Wednesday and we will do some other sightseeing and will be going to a community recreation center to use the pool and whirlpool.

I miss traveling in the coach, I am planning my trip to Texas. I have been checking maps, brochures and Microsoft Trips and Streets for different routes, I want to stay off the Interstate as much as possible. Going to take the slow roads.