Happy 4th of July!  Independence Day! Wait, we are becoming totally dependent on the government! What are we independent from?  lol

Drove all day yesterday and ended up at the casino truckstop. It was late, I didn't feel like gambling but I did feel like eating so I went in there to grab a bite.  Well, Chili's was closed and the other restaurant was cram packed full of people, plus a live band, plus a bunch of drunken revelry going on. It was very loud in there.  I skipped eating and got the bug, so I went to the ATM, got out $140 and sat down at a blackjack table.

Fun to watch people getting so upset about a game where they know there is a good chance they are going to lose money.  Especially people saying that money was supposed to be use for whichever bill they now can't pay.  I was there for the fun of it, not because I think a casino is some sort of bank.  That's desperation and you can't effectively gamble if you are desperate. 

But I did have a lot of fun!  I went up and down in terms of winnings, but near the end of my table play, I had gone up to $675.  I placed a final bet of $75 and lost it, decided to walk before I went all the way back down again.  I was there 5 hours until 3:30 am lolol.  It did feel good tho to actually have some fun and walk out with a lot more money than I walked in with : )

Woke up 4-1/2 hours later after going to sleep in the truck and drove the rest of the route home.  I figure it's about time to take a nap, since we have all been invited over to a 4th of July BBQ at one of Jame's friend's house.  I dunno when they intend on going, but they took off after putting the kids to bed - I didn't want to go buy fireworks, I've been out enough thanks, time to rest a bit. 

Anyway, my Bank of America card showed up in the mail while I was gone - I'm not the biggest fan of BOA but they gave me a card with a $7,500 line of credit - none of which I intend on using.  It's a travel rewards card and you earn points for every time you use it, or so it claims.  I'm still reading through the fine print trying to find out how many points it takes to actually do anything with it, ie: go somewhere via airplane.  Now that I have this card, I suspect I will be getting a lot more offers for the "good" cards.  I have the mediocre ones now, but not the ones that really give you good rewards returns.  Well, Capital One gives me some decent rewards, I have a couple of hundred in cash that I have earned with them. 

I suppose I should clarify, I intend on using the card but I do not intend on having any balances on it. Pay it up at the end of the month, no interest and rack up the rewards.  That's my goal anyway.

Well, I'm really worn out from all the driving.  I mean, I got back from Mapleton the last trip and was sent right back out yesterday on this trip I just finished.  I need at least a full day off. Whether I get it or not remains to be seen, but since I worked today, I get the holiday pay bonus.  I think it's $170 for working on a holiday. Not really that much - many  holidays I'd rather be home and skip the bonus pay, but couple that with my winnings last night and that's a nice chunk of extra change I wouldn't have been getting otherwise.  The gambling winnings and the extra pay are going into my travel fund.

Specifically, for our upcoming adventure at the beach.  But, now I have so much cash saved up, I do not intend on using all of it for just 4 days at the beach.  Some of I'm going to save for the next trip.  I am still fully intending on at least trying to get my @$$ across the ocean this year, even if I have to go it alone.  But, to start off using my new card, I'm going to charge the entire bill to to it which will be $1,150 or something like that - half of it is my hotel room the other half is theirs which they will pay me back - and get a good jump on points. 

Reeeeeeaaaaaalllllyyyy want to go to Ireland, there are so many interesting points of interest in old structures and cliffs and water views.  London, too, but I think I"ll pass for the time being considering all the Trump hate going on over there and an incompetent mayor that hasn't got a clue what he's doing. 

Just did a search, random dates in September, the lowest fare available was $704 round trip. Not bad? I dunno, really don't know what is a good deal for international traveling . I'm more concerned about leg room and sitting cramped for hours in a giant sardine can where they cram as many people in those things as they possibly can.  I don't blame them for wanting to get the most profit, but that is a long flight to be crammed up.  I have long legs and they start hurting if there is minimal leg room. 

Justfly has an even better deal at $526 round trip - but it's got 2 layovers.  31 hours, sounds like a longer than normal time to get to Ireland from DFW.  Depends on where the layovers are an if there is enough time to investigate the surrounding areas.  Great price, I think. 

Okay, enough of that. At some point I'm going to pull the trigger, buy the tickets - and insurance just in case - and just do it.  But I"m going to wait until after this month's journey to Galveston beach.  I'm in fairly decent shape now for beach going.  I'm in size 34 jeans but they are falling off of me the same as 35's were a few months ago.  I have a pair of 33's in there somewhere, I'm going to try them on again and see if they fit now. 

And for that, the end of this post.  Time to get ready to go light off fireworks!