A shower and the Iron Horse...

Well, the prospect of not being able to take a hot shower in the RV until I got back to San Diego in a few weeks “dampened” (pun intended) even my big win.

When I got back to the RV I started to consider my options. I decided I would move on from Muckleshoot Casino, start driving, and look for an RV repair shop. Maybe I could a repair shop to get that wire soldered back on.

Within a few miles I came across Auburn RV. What a great place. I met Don the service manager and told him my plight. He said I would have to wait awhile.

No problem, I would wait here all day if he could take care of it. Within a few minutes he sent a man out, than he came out himself to supervise. The part that the lead went into had to be replaced as well as the main circuit board for the electronic ignition system. The total came to $260 including the parts that had to be replaced. I also watched them tune-it up, adjust the air/gas mixture and put in a new sensor. It starts first time every time now. It doesn’t hiss as much as it used to either.

While they were working on it, the young cashier fell in love with Pokey. He warmed up to her after awhile and even the parts counter man got involved in playing with Pokey. I bought a new power inverter and took it out of the plastic and plugged it into my lighter socket. (No go, nothing happened) They have a policy against taking back electronic parts, but they made an exception for me and pokey.

After I left I realized maybe they could replace the lighter socket. Don told me it was probably just a blown fuse. I looked under the dash and found the fuse box. There had to be about 50 fuses and I couldn’t make any sense of it. I went back in and appealed to Don and he came out with a fuse tester, located and replaced the right one. When I asked him how much? He said “no charge”. I handed him $20 and said thank you, please have lunch on me.

That kind of service and caring about other’s situation made this country great. I think greed and selfish is ruining our country’s value system and our quality of life. I find people much more available to help in smaller towns and cities then the large urban areas

Well, since I hadn’t got very far I went back to Muckleshoot. I made dinner for Pokey and me. He took a walk and then I went in to play some more. Between 6-11 p.m. I was able to triple up my $200 buy-in and walked away with another $400 gain.

We spent another night in the Muckleshoot parking lot and I went in at 10:30 a.m. to play the morning tournament. I did enjoy a nice “hot shower” in the RV and a fresh set of clothes. Pokey was sniffing me more then usual, so I tried not to get too close to humans until after the hot water heater got fixed. (grin)

I already talked about this tournament where I went out on the first hand. So I decided to go ahead and start driving to the Iron Horse Casino I heard wasn’t far from here. It turns out to only be a few blocks past Auburn RV.

We parked in the country owned Park-Ride facility, by a private airport with a grassy park area between the Airport fence and the parking facility. Pokey and I ran, and played on the grass. We watched the little airplanes takeoff and land just over our heads. Then it was in to the Iron Horse for some poker for me.

The Iron Horse was a friendly little combination restaurant, lounge, casino, and pool room. The poker area had two tables. One table had a 3/6 game going with one seat open. The staff was real friendly and quickly had me with chips in my seat and playing.

The table players were mainly guys older then me with two exceptions, and it was a lot of “old guy” humor. I took a couple of breaks to run Pokey in the park and played limit from until about 5:30 p.m. When I cashed out I was up $7.

A couple blocks away I located a “Comfort Inn” Motel that had open Internet Access and I was able to upload some more blogs I had written.

I had about an hour before the evening Tournament back at Muckleshoot, so I stopped at Albertsons and loaded up with groceries for the next week. Then it was back the four miles to my now very familiar parking area. A walk for Pokey and me, and then I headed in for the evening tournament while pokey napped in the RV.

I lasted a little longer in the evening tournament then the morning one. I went all in with KQ suited against JJ. I flopped a Q and then the turn was a Jack and I was out. The tournament was $50 with a $40 add-on.

I was first up for the 5-500 spread limit game and it took well over an hour before somebody left. There were 25 names behind me and they never would start another table. Who cares what the customer wants, we will offer what we offer! They seemed so afraid of losing another table if they opened this new game. This spread limit game is a new game for them. They have only been playing it here since I arrived on Sunday. So between the fear of the new, and the excuse of “we have never done it that way before” a lot of their customers were very frustrated.

I was very glad for the game. I was able to cash out about $300 up for the night. ($200 net after deducting my tournament entry money) And, I enjoyed the game and very much talk and banter at the table last night. The fellow that told me “I had given him a “wupping” sat to my left and he was the best player on the table. I can see why he got a little frustrated when I sat down Monday morning and beat him 4 hands in an hour without a loss. He is a pretty good player and we both tried to stay out of each other’s way the rest of the night.

Tonight, is much more mild and the sky seems to be clearing a little. I could see the light of a hazy moon through the dark gray skies. I may have to rethink whether I could live here or not. I thrive on clear skies.

If it is clear tomorrow I will probably take a day off poker and do sightseeing while I travel a little bit more north into Seattle.

Good night reader, good night Pokey, Good night Pokey, Good night…..

P.S. One of the only problems with Pokey is he sleeps from 7-midnight while I am playing poker. Then I come in to go to sleep and he wants to play and pounces on me and chews on me while I am trying to go to sleep. I take him for a walk when I come back to go to sleep and play for a while with him, but he is like child that wants to play rather then go to bed. It is really enjoyable to have him travel with me. Now, if I could just teach him to play poker……..