Rose and Doc met Dough Boy and his lovely wife in New Mexico. If you have been to this great state, the climate is excellent, New Mexican food wonderful, and a lot of fun activities—and yes they do have casinos. We have been there on several occasions in the past–maybe 6 or 7 years ago–and found several places where it was great to play craps. Our plane arrived very early in the morning on a Sunday and since it had been several years since we had been there we decided to make a survey of what was available. All casinos are all Indian casinos. Checked the first 4 which were situated somewhat close together. Found that none–as in absolutely none–of these casinos had tables that were playable. They were as long as an aircraft carrier–probably 14 to 14 1/2 feet long, with a microfiber cover and bouncy like crazy.

After Dough Boy and his bride arrived, we had some lunch and decided to head about 40 miles north and unfortunately found the same results at the one casino in that location—very long, micro fiber, and bouncy. Advantage simply wasn’t available. So a big decision was made by all four of us. No casino play would be played. Doc was ready to cut the trip short, call it a day and head home. Thankfully his opinion did not prevail. We made the decision to simply become regular tourists—see the sights, eat some excellent food, do some shopping. A great decision. There was simply no play for an advantage player and we did not want to risk any $$$.

The first thing Monday morning we did hop in the car and head to Los Alamos, to tour where the atomic bombs that were to be dropped on Japan were developed. The museum there was fascinating and the drive was absolutely breath taking. We also went to a couple of publeos which are very small settlements and the residents sell their homemade clay pots, small rugs, etc. As good luck would have it, we also stumbled onto an outstanding restaurant out in the middle of no where and had a great lunch. We had pink–and I mean pink–prickly pear pink lemonade that was made much like a slushee you might get at a local 7/11—it was really good! We were taking in the local customs. That would take care of most of the day.

Doc and Dough Boy decided the next day that we would take a guided rubber raft float ride down the mighty Rio Grande River—this was not whitewater rafting as you might expect but took place in a rather peaceful section of the river. The gorge we went down was gorgeous and what a grand time we had. The girls made the "supreme sacrifice" and went into the city with credit cards in hand to do some serious shopping. Just what everyone wanted and they were of course very pleased with their purchases. The best of all worlds—the boys did not have to go shopping and the girls did not have to spend several hours in a rubber raft. 😀 😆

We continued a very peaceful and restful time for the rest of the trip. With casino play not to our liking, we simply went to plan B which in many ways was a lot of fun and relaxing. Remember every Indian tribe is eligible to have its own casino. Dough Boy and Doc did discover a couple of additional casinos to tour, but they were all "slot only casinos" so of no interest to us. The one disappointing item was that on Monday we found an additional casino that did have one 12 foot table that looked like one we would want to play–but (that’s a big but) we were there on Monday and were departing on Thursday. The craps table was only open on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday and did not open until well after noon and we would be on a plane headed back home.

We talked about the good decision to not risk any money where we would be playing like any other random roller at a craps table.

We only hope that everyone one will take a lesson–if the situation is not to your liking go to plan "B." 🙂

Rose and Doc

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