We’re off to the Meat and Potatoes of our Great Race for Rewards, a round-trip drive to the next four locations in three days.
We leave Sunday morning at 5:30 am to The Horseshoe Casino in Tunica, Mississippi. Our plans include spending the night and getting up early to make our checkpoints at Biloxi and then on to New Orleans for two nights in our favorite town. Finally we planned to get up early Monday and stop by the Horseshoe in Bossier City for two more checkpoints before continuing our drive home.
We started off in the darkness of night and continued to I-40 toward Little Rock. We made good time and had wonderful weather on our drive.
About 60 miles East of Little Rock we left I-40 to cross the Mississippi at West Helena, Arkansas. We had never been this way before and it would avoid some traffic and road construction coming into Memphis. We travelled through the country on two-lane highways and really enjoyed it. It was around noon on a Sunday so traffic was at a minimum. As we crossed the bridge from West Helena, AR to Helena, MS we immediately saw the Isle of Capri Casino-Lula. In the next 30 miles we’d pass nine other opportunities to randomly gamble. Since this trip is to participate in the Great Race to Rewards we limited our bankroll wagers to Caesars Entertainment properties. That didn’t limit us too much since CZR has three properties in the area less than a mile from each other. In fact, the Horseshoe Tunica and the Roadhouse Tunica are right next door, both owned by Caesars.
We parked the car at the Horseshoe and did our first “Bag Drag” into the Hotel. In our opinion the Horseshoe is the nicest of the Caesars Entertainment properties in Tunica. Our room was ready so we went upstairs to unpack and switch on the TV. We had been watching the weather and the track of Tropical Storm Isaac on the The Weather Channel and we needed to catch up on the storms progress. Surely it would head due North or turn to the East as most computer models were predicting. They were forecasting a whole lot of undecided as the storm was just sitting still building strength.
We went downstairs and headed to the Total Rewards desk to opt-in for Tunica. After getting a swipe we went to the Video Poker Bar and played $40 in some terrible paytables. We soon moved to the Stage Bar which was better, not decent but better. We both had good enough machines that we covered our Great Race requirements and cashed out. The rooms are very nice at the Horseshoe but the video poker to play is at the Tunica Roadhouse.
The first time I went to Tunica we stayed at what was then called the Sheridan. The hotel was showing quite a bit of wear but it had some of the most unusual features we’d run across.
There was a bedroom with a king-size bed and a Jacuzzi® tub. The wall between the Jacuzzi and the bathroom was etched glass so you could roughly makeout who was in the bathroom. Harrah’s changed the name of the Casino to the Tunica Roadhouse and made some minor changes to the casino, but not to the hotel. So we opted for the Horseshoe for sleeping quarters.
Gambling was totally different, they sponsor some mighty fine video poker paytables. While the Horseshoe floor was really crowded, the Roadhouse casino was all but empty. More machines and drinks for us. For dinner we headed over to the Harrah’s property to try out the Paula Deen Buffet. It was good as always, so with a full stomach we turned in early so we could get on the road to Biloxi.
One last check on the Weather Channel
and the news made us a bit nervous. Isaac was strengthening and heading toward Biloxi and New Orleans along the same track as Katrina. We woke up about 1:30 am and conditions were getting worse. The winds had reached hurricane status and they were talking evacuation. They showed videos of cars packed along the highways heading north evacuating the area.
I thought we could get to Biloxi and run our tier points, then to New Orleans and do the same, but we love staying in New Orleans we would miss our two night vacation there. I got on the Biloxi and New Orleans websites for Harrah’s and they were allowing cancellations, almost asking for cancellations.
By 2 am we had cancelled and decided to get some sleep before heading back home later in the day. We now had eight checkpoints for $250 in comps for each of us, we had an upcoming trip to Atlantic City. We still needed three more Caesars Entertainment properties to complete the full race. We’d wait till we got home to decide to continue or to leave well enough alone. The condition of New Orleans would be the ultimate deciding factor since we were looking for a nice vacation.
Next: Biloxi-New Orleans-Bossier City.