Comin' home

Here in Biloxi, there are many things to do. Most every one of them costs money... lying on the beach doesn't but the resultant skin cancer does. So, instead of lying on the beach, people tend to gamble. Not the locals so much, I suspect, but the visitors. The locals can't afford to. That's not exactly true, many of them do gamble whether they can actually afford to or not... at least until they lose everything and end up hitchhiking out of town with all of their belongings in a sack.

It's gorgeous here. I must admit that. The Gulf of Mexico always reminded me of a large salt water lake. No waves without a storm, just little ripples running up agains the stark white sand. The vastness of the Gulf gets to me.

A casino makes a great place for observing people and the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino has some of the most observable. Mostly middle-aged or older couples come here to relive their youth (or the youth they would have had if they had had any sense of adventure at the time), You can spot them easily enough; designer jeans made of stretchable denim, sensible shoes, semi-natural hair color. The young people dress weirdly these days. I don't get it. Forget the baggy pants worn so half their underwear shows (the guys) because that doesn't happen as much here. It's the young women that throw me. I spotted one young "lady" wearing skin tight jeans and a t-shirt, sporting a few tattoos and short obviously over-dyed black hair. Actually, I spotted more than one. What is that look? Cheap street walker? Is that chic now?

The women seem to be the most intense steady gamblers, the men move about more. Women sit at one slot machine and play until they lose enough or someone comes to get them. The men move about much more and tend to play at the tables with dealers, not the machines. Except for the fat ones... I suppose they don't want to climb onto those high chairs at the blackjack tables or move around much. Women, if they play table games, lean toward roulette. Men lean toward cards.

The house, of course, comes out ahead... day in, day out. Unlike the vast majority of players.

In Vegas and Reno, food is relatively cheap and abundant. In Biloxi, it's a second source of major income. It's not cheap and it's not all that great. The buffets are ok, price-wise, and the gumbo is just fine, regardless. If you don't mind driving, there are plenty of less expensive places to eat away from whatever hotel you are staying at. Probably with better food.

Speaking of buffets... that's where all the obese people eat. I am serious. I don't know how buffets survive financially. They are filled with obese people carrying two plates at a time, each plate dangerously overloaded. I can handle one meal per trip at these buffets. If I go a second time, I am very careful not to eat very much... Besides, the first time causes me to stretch my waistline to its limit and I never bring "fat" pants on vacation.

I don't gamble much. Frankly, as I have written before, it bores me. I enjoyed gambling much more when I was in my early teens and we played poker with our Christmas money. Instead, I play golf or sit in the room watching TV or playing computer games on my laptop. I am easily amused, I suppose.

Tomorrow (when this is posted), we'll be headed home. We'll be driving straight through, no overnight stays. There's not much point to stopping for the night, a leisurely 8 hour drive gets us within 3 hours of home... may as well continue so we can sleep in our own bed.

Now, that's something to look forward to.