Yes, I will be heading to my 20th consecutive Convention in June. I will also have a dealer's table at the Convention for the 20th straight year !!!

This will also be the 12th cosecutive year since I retired in 2001 that I have driven cross country to the Convention. This may also be the most expensive year on record for GASOLINE - I hope it does not reach $5.00 per gallon (I might be walking for several 100s of miles and those chip cases are heavy !!)

Shown below are the places I will be staying on my 31 day cross country excursion. I have all the motel/hotel rooms booked and by using my Harrah's Diamond card and other casino offers I will be comped for 21 of the 30 days of hotel stays - this sure helps to hold down my total hotel bill and make this trip possible.

Also, I have a few hundred dollars of comps for meals, free play and show coupons to use along the way at the various casinos I will be visiting.

Nothing is better than spending 3 days fully comped in Lake Tahoe in the Summer - what a great place to visit.

I will be stoppping at casinos in Western Pennsylvania, Northern West Virginia, Ohio (if they are open), Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Northern Nevada, California, Las Vegas, Laughlin, New Mexico, Louisianna, Mississippi and finally Southern West Virginia.

I will also be traveling thru a few non- casino states along the way - Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Texas, Tennessee and Virginia (these states have got to get their acts together and open some casinos !!!).

I will also be in San Fransisco for a couple of days to see the final 2 rounds of the US Golf Open.

Shown below is my schedule.

I look forward to seeing everyone at this milestone Convention and also during my travels as I criss cross the "the fruited plain", from "sea to shining sea", "where the buffalo roams", etc, etc, etc.

Someone asked me last year - "Why do you travel across country every year?" - I smiled and answered - "Some day I won't be able to." Luckily that day has not yet arrived.

Take care,
Jerry "on the road again" Birl

PS: If anybody wants to go on a 31 day trip and visit 100s of casinos and pay for half of the gas and the room costs - give me a shout before I get out of the door on June 2nd.
Even better - buy a lot of "stuff" from my Leap Year Mega Sale on Wednesday !!!