Seven days, 23 casinos, 95 different chips and tokens and only one survivor (Cindy got food poisoning on Tuesday nite and is still recovering). We even stopped at almost every Antique Mall and yard sale we could find and were just in time for the Holland, MI Tulip Festival. Oh yeah, we also attended my nieces wedding in Appleton, Wi. which was the original purpose of the trip. I even purchased a much needed 18" black light at a yard sale for $.25. Now how to get it home on the airplane without breaking the bulb???

We left Nashville very early last Thursday morning only to find that our plane from Atlanta to Chicago had been cancelled. Not a good start but we got in only 1 1/2 hours late. We drove to Potawatomi in Milwaukee and then to our base in Appleton for the next 3 days. The Milwaukee casino is mainly TITO now and they opened a new poker room on April 26th.

On Friday we drove to the Menominee casino at Keshena which also has a poker room and one roulette table with 7 colors. Then it was on to Mohegan North Star in Bowler where they have the same old beat up Chipcos. We then went to Shawano to visit my parents gravesite and to Antigo to have lunch with former neighbors from when we lived in Milwaukee. From there it was on to Northern Lights in Carter and Oneida in Green Bay which both have one roulette table with 6 colors.

Saturday was reserved for picking up our daughters at the airport and antiquing. I managed to get a few nice chips from local fraternal lodges and some slot tokens. And then enduring the longest wedding ever - 1 hour 20 minutes. Oh well - just keep thinking about all of the casinos you will see tomorrow.

Sunday we dropped off the daughters at the airport so they could get home and headed north. Way north! First stop was at Island casino in Harris where they have 2 roulette tables with 7 colors each, craps table and new(to me) slot cards. Then it was west to Lac Vieux which has the same old chips but has a roulette table with 7 colors. We are really surprised at the size of some of these out of the way casinos. We were expecting Slots A Fun and they actually were more like Hard Rock for size and all were very nicely kept up. Last stop for the night was at Ojibwa at Baraga which has one roulette with generic chips and was the smallest casino of the day.

Monday we went to Ojibwa II at Marquette which also has a generic roulette table and old chips. After a long drive thru a snow shower (this is on May 2nd!) to Brimley we went to Bay Mills casino where I discovered both US and Canadian denominated chips. Only problem is that they don't do currency conversion anywhere on the property so I had to run to a local bank to get Canadian dollars. It is very strange that I did not bring back any US $.50 or $1 chips from there. I don't remember if they were not being used or if I just forgot them. Bay Mills also had one roulette with generic chips. On down the road 2 miles to Kings Club which is still slots only. I did give my business card to one person who said that they had some of the original chips from the Kings Club when it had tables. REALLY hope they call. Headed back down the road to Sault Ste. Marie to see Vegas Kewadin. This place also has Canadian denominated chips but I was prepared this time with a fist full of Canadian dollars. They had one roulette with 7 colors. Whew - long day so far and still 2 stops to make yet. An hour or so later we pull in to Kewadin Hessel only to find out that they are now slots only and the chips are obsolete. I think they are building a new casino which may have table games again. Smallest casino so far. Final stop for the day is at Kewadin Shores at St. Ignace. Since we were staying at their hotel we got $30 in special free play tokens. Cindy didn't hit hardly anything but I got $16 back for my tokens. The slots seemed to be set pretty loose which I guess is to make the sucker, errrr customer, play the real money slots once the tokens are gone. They had 2 roulette tables with generic(?) HHR chips. The $.50 and $1 chips from there are obsolete since they use the ones from Sault Ste. Marie.

Tuesday was my birthday and the first stop was at Victories in Petosky which had a roulette table with 6 colors. Same old chips. Traverse Bay casino was next. Greg had asked me to see if the $2.50 or $10 chips were ever used. I talked to several people and at least one dealer remembers $2.50 chips being used on the tables. No one remembers the $10 or $1 chip with the yellow. They may have been samples only. There is one roulette with 7 colors. Little river Casino was next and it is a big place. Has 3 roulette tables with 8 colors and new plain mold roulette chips. Also has a nice poker room. Like most of the casinos in the area the $2.50 chips are obsolete.

Heading into the final day Cindy is not feeling well after being sick all night with apparent food poisoning. We still managed to stop at Holland for the Tulip festival but she didn't feel good enough to see the quilt show which means she felt REALLY bad. We moseyed on to Blue Chip in Michigan City, IN where they had 4 roulettes and new $2.50 chips (See my variation post) We stayed the night at Harrahs East Chicago which has a very nice hotel although it was the most expensive place during the whole trip. Greg wanted some roulettes from Harrahs but I don't play at tables with $15 minimums. I did go over to Trump and Majestic Star but they didn't have anything new.

Thursday was the day to head home and we almost drove to Grand Victoria in Elgin but trafic was very bad and we didn't want to miss our flight. It was a long trip but we saw lots of territory that we had never seen before. I did pick up a few slot cards where ever I could on this trip but I have no idea which ones are new. Most of them look new to me. I mentioned a lot of roulette table but unfortunately most of the tables were closed or empty so I got almost no roulettes. A final note - there were no silver strike machines at any of the casinos we were in. I will have another post on some possible variations of chips I found and one offering trades for the chips I picked up on the trip. Sorry about the long post but I hope you enjoyed the report.