Hi. Back to bore you again. Here is Part 5---the story about The Casino:
I got up to walk away and the lady on the LORD OF THE RINGS machine said "You're just going to leave?"
I left, of course. I was ever so happy to have won again. We had needed it as we were basically broke again by that point (New Orleans and touristy things are expensive you know...). I went home to tell Erich my news.
But then I had to wait for Erich to get out of the bathroom before we went to eat. So I kept pushing the spin button on the OZ game...and kept losing, losing, losing. Finally, when I was back down to the $400 I had originally started with, I pulled the voucher out. Erich still wasn't back--ho hum. So I thought I'd try the Willy Wonka machine again. I put the voucher in and pushed the button...and it went off again! Jeepers! This time I won another $600...so when I pulled the voucher out, it was for more than $1000!!!!
I'm not sure when we saw it the first time--possibly also on that first, full day which was also my birthday--but there is a Harrah's casino in New Orleans right at the end of Canal Street, right about where it meets the Mississippi River.
In our exploration, we also took a gander through the casino to give it a once over. It was huge but nothing too exciting. It was just a casino. As we walked through, I kept an eye out for a slot machine that called out to me to play. Nothing really did. I'm not much of a gambler (although for some reason people think I am), but I wanted to at least play one game before we left. Right at the door there was a basic slot machine. Nothing special about it at all. I put some money in and pushed the button and ding! ding! ding! It came up with three 7s. I won $300.
I took my money and ran away... No more slots for me. (And thank goodness, because already the funds were drying up...)
The next day, we went to the WWII museum. It was big, impressive, and very well done...but I was bored. Afterwards, we walked back to our hotel in a round about way, trying to see things we hadn't seen before. We walked along the street that parallels the river and came upon the casino again. We could go all of the way around it or we could cut through it, save some time and soak up some air conditioned air at the same time. Of course we cut through.
As we were walking, I stopped because I had stumbled upon a slot machine I had not noticed before. It was a "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" slot, based on the movie in the early 70's. I HAD to play it!
I put my money in and it started going crazy! Apparently I had three Wonkavator symbols show up and that sparked some amazing bonus round that was acted out on the upper screen. Zowie!
When the dust had cleared, I had won more than $600.
Again, I cashed out and left immediately. That money totally helped and with it, I was able to afford to get us tickets on the swamp tours the next day (we stopped at a ticket outlet on the way home. $95 each! OUCH!!! But more about the swamp tours later).
We headed out to celebrate at Tiki Tolteca. The plan was to pick up dinner at the tacqueria downstairs and take it upstairs to the tiki bar. That didn't quite happen (and we ended up dining at Beachbum Berry's Longitude 29 instead) because that is when we ran into this homeless guy named Luigi D'Angelo.
Luigi was standing right outside of the taqueria/tiki bar. He asked me, not for money--but to buy him some food. Having just won $600 and $380 the day before, I couldn't say no or just ignore him. He wanted food--not cash. So, I took him inside and we stood in line to get him some dinner.
The place was very much like Chipotle in that you stood in line and ordered a burrito, bowl, salad, etc with the same basic ingredients they had on hand. Luigi was very thrilled to be allowed to eat. He kept asking if he could have a Coca Cola too and I said yes. He seemed nervous, like I was going to run out on him or something. But finally he got his food and his drink. He thought we would be joining him, but we weren't (that's why our plans for the tiki bar changed. We didn't want Luigi hanging around with us all evening). We did sit with him a little bit and he told us some of his story. He had lost pretty much everything in Hurricane Katrina. After that, he was working in yard maintenance or something like that and was paying a family to live in their living room. One day he came home from a job interview and the family had moved out--taking all of his belongings with them. Since then he had been living under someone's house (without them knowing it) in a crawl space.
He did tell us he had a chance for a job as a general clean up guy at a restaurant called Tujacques. He just needed to have an address first. He wanted our help getting him into a halfway house-like residence so he could get the job. Erich thought he was scamming us, but I wasn't so sure. Anyway, we left him in the tacqueria and told him we'd be back to discuss it further. We just had to "meet some friends first" but we would be back.
We went to dinner at Latitude 29, took our time, but we did stop back to look for Luigi. He wasn't there. But that was not the last we'd see of Luigi (I'll save that story for later. This is the Casino story. I just got a little side tracked...)
Anyway, several days later, it was early evening. I don't know what we had done that day, but Erich didn't want to go out and do anything. He just wanted to stay in the hotel and watch TV. Huh? Here we were in New Orleans and we only had limited time left (I believe this was the night we had moved into the 2nd hotel room, so we only had one more full day in New Orleans to go) and he wanted to just sit and watch TV? Not me. I decided to go out and have some sort of adventure.
As I got out on the streets, I wondered what I could possibly do alone. We had eaten, so I wasn't hungry. I don't like to drink alone--so going to a bar was out. What could I possibly do? I wandered around for a while, before I remembered the casino. Hmm. The Willy Wonka machine was calling to me. I wanted to play it, just for a little bit, to see what else it might do. After all, I had only seen it go that one time. Might there be other facets to the game I wasn't aware of?
I went to the casino and found the Wonka machine. There were 4 machines back to back...but they were all occupied. Swell... I wandered around some more and discovered 2 other Wonka games that were DIFFERENT games than the one I had played. I wanted to try one of those. But both were full. Drat. I looked around again and nothing caught my eye. I went back to the new Wonka games, but they were still full. Then, just as I was turning to leave, a lady that was playing on one got up and moved to a Lord of the Rings game next to it. I sat down and plopped my money in.
"You'd better not win on that machine," the lady on the Rings machine said. "I've been priming that machine all afternoon."
"I only want to play one time," I said. "Just to see what this Willy Wonka game is like."
I pushed the button and...it started to go off! Kowabunga! The other machine featured the Wonkavator, but this one was triggered by Golden Tickets. When three of them popped up on my screen, I won a great adventure where all of these different free games were triggered and automatically went off. I won another $300!
I got up to walk away and the lady on the LORD OF THE RINGS machine said "You're just going to leave?"
I said "Yes."
"You're just going to walk away?"
I said "Yes."
I told her I wanted to get a photo of the machine before I left. She said to go ahead, but she had her arm stretched across it with her cash voucher ready to insert into the machine.
I told her I wanted to take a picture...she just said to go ahead. She would NOT move her arm or her chance to play the game. Ha!
I left, of course. I was ever so happy to have won again. We had needed it as we were basically broke again by that point (New Orleans and touristy things are expensive you know...). I went home to tell Erich my news.
The next day, we had finally ventured over to Cafe Du Monde, the famous and popular (with tourists--not locals) place for beignets. We waited in line with a zillion other people, sat and ordered (all they have on the menu is beignets and coffee) and did the beignet thing. Snore.
Ultra-sweet donut things do not make for a very filling breakfast. So, we headed over to the casino to have brunch in the buffet there. I also wanted to show Erich the Wonka machine I had won on. Luckily, when we walked into the casino, the machine was unoccupied. I put in some money to show him, pushed the button...and it went off again!!! Oh my STARS!!!! This time, I pulled out $400! Golly!
I cashed out of the machine ready to go to breakfast, but Erich needed to go to the bathroom. There was a Wizard of Oz machine nearby and I wanted to play that. He said okay, but to not waste more than $20. He walked off and I put the voucher in, pushed the spin button...and it started to go off! I called to Erich, but he was already gone. Wow! I won another $95.
But then I had to wait for Erich to get out of the bathroom before we went to eat. So I kept pushing the spin button on the OZ game...and kept losing, losing, losing. Finally, when I was back down to the $400 I had originally started with, I pulled the voucher out. Erich still wasn't back--ho hum. So I thought I'd try the Willy Wonka machine again. I put the voucher in and pushed the button...and it went off again! Jeepers! This time I won another $600...so when I pulled the voucher out, it was for more than $1000!!!!
By then, Erich was back and we went to brunch. No more slots for me.
Altogether, I won about $2,000. That's how I paid for the trip for the most part. Aside from the airfare and hotels and whatever little amounts I might have charged as the funds dried up along the way -- and whatever Erich spent (birthday dinner was hopefully his biggest expense?), I still came home with $800 in my pocket--which is about the amount I left with. Hooray! Thank you New Orleans...and thank you Mr. Wonka!
Coming up---getting stuck in the swamp, a ghost tour, cemeteries and the return of Luigi the homeless man!
CHEERS!
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