It's the small wins that count

I bought the Honda generator and a few other doo-dads at Camping World, while Harold worked, and headed back to the trailer. By this time, Harold's laptop was running out of power. We realized, sitting out on the road, as we were, we couldn't really start up the generator to charge it back up. First, we figured, we could just head on down the road to the next Walmart, where we could both work for the day. Thinking again, we realized it made more sense to keep going to the next stop, three hours down the road at the Seven Feathers Casino, in Canyonville, OR.

As we drove south, the fog cleared, and the temperature increased. By the time we got to the casino, it was a nice sunny and warm day in the low 20's celcius (high 60's farenheit). We set up quickly, then got to filling the generator with oil and gas. We were overjoyed when the generator started immediately and we could both get a full day of work in.

The great thing about many of the casinos in the US, is that most of them allow free overnight RV parking in their parking lots. Some offer more than others. While some may even have paid RV resorts on site, they often allow you to pull into their designated free areas, and stay there, for absolutely nothing. Why pay $30-70 for an RV park when you don't plan to use any of their amenities? The point of having an RV, in our eyes, is to have absolute freedom, and that includes picking and choosing where you sleep and what you pay for.

RVing and Snowbirding is mostly a retirement sport, something we are both a little young for. The people parked around us are all at least 15 years older than us.

When we first pulled in, we saw an older, weathered motorhome, across from us. The people inside kept looking out at us. As the man came out of his RV, I saw he was wearing camoflauge fleece sweatpants and a big baggy sweatshirt top that had seen better days. He kept circling our trailer, staring at us, and we wondered if he was casing the joint.

His wife came out of the RV with their dog, and she was wearing the exact same outfit he was, same camo fleece pants, same grey and red older sweatshirt. Where his hair was long and grey, her's was long, blonde and crazy, out-of-control curly. It wasn't until I heard them crying out "Nein, Penny, Nein!" as their beagle tried to mount our stairs to get inside our trailer, that I realized we'd almost misjudged them. They weren't some crazy homeless criminal gamblers, they were just normal, run of the mill, German travellers.

I can never resist a dog, especially one so eager for attention, so I came outside to pat her and love on her, while we got to know our neighbours. They had flown to Florida 5 months ago, where they bought the older RV, then cut diagonally across the US, up to BC, Alaska, Yukon, NWT, and then back down the west coast. They are on their way south to L.A. where they will find a place to store the RV, fly home, and then come back to explore some more next year. Ironically, these two were our favorite couple of the casino. They were always so happy and friendly, waving at us, and coming over to chat when we were outside. There's definitely a lesson in this experience.

After dinner, we walked up to the casino. As soon as we walked in, we were enveloped by a cloud of smoke that had my allergies screaming. We pushed through to the other side of the casino, where we signed up for a player's club card. These always come with some perks for newbies. This casino gave us $5 each in free slot play. I went through mine quicker than it took Harold to run back to the trailer and get his glasses.

When Harold returned, we decided to go find the lounge where we could get a drink while he wasted his credits. Before we'd had even a second sip of our drinks, he'd managed to win $40.00. While we do enjoy playing cards, we're blasé about machines. They bore us and have such horrible odds. It was a simplistic decision to cash out and glory in the wonder of not only being given a free RV spot, but then they paid us $40 on top of it. You'd think we'd won a lottery, we were both so overjoyed. I guess that's the secret to being a safe gambler ... to enjoy the small wins, and walk away.