FireKeepers Casino Trip March 22, 2011

At 7:00am on Tuesday, March 22nd, the first of 51 hopeful winners boarded the bus to the casino. As they boarded, they were offered juice and rolls by my wife, Anne. We departed the parking lot at 8:00am heading west on I-94 towards Battle Creek. It’s customary to honor all those with birthdays in March with a song and we had 9 this year. They were Roland Deprez, Dick Huyghe, Karen Baron, Lucy Deckers, Marilyn Monahan, Marge DeMulemeeister, Connie Sorgeloos, John Roelandt and Joan Hessel. After getting through a few traffic slowdowns, we had a raffle where everyone receives one ticket. Roland Deprez helped me with that; the lucky winners were Dick Huyghe, Mike Huyghe and Frank Baecke. Our bus driver, Walter, made very good time as we arrived at the casino at 9:55am; I decided that we would leave for home at 4:30pm instead of 5:00pm since the weather forecast was not very good. We were greeted by a representative from the casino and she explained everything to us and answered all questions. Everyone then went their separate ways to hopefully “break the bank”, but I believe most were “Indian Givers”. There are 6 restaurants in the casino, but nearly all ate at the buffet which was very good. We began loading up at 4:15pm and it was already raining. Arsene VanVooren and Dale Verhaeghe passed out chips and liquid refreshments as we left for the trip home. We made good time again until we reach Ann Arbor, where traffic slowed to a crawl. We arrived back at the Barrister Gardens parking lot at 6:35pm, which was good considering the weather conditions, since it was snowing there. All in all, it was a very good trip. I want to thank my wife Anne, Roland Deprez, Arsene VanVooren and Dale Verhaeghe for all of their help.

P.S. There were 3 new travelers on this trip; they were Arsene’s sister, Cathy Junga with her husband Tom, and Sharon Staigell, a friend of Arsene’s wife Pam.

Respectfully Submitted,

Bob Putrycus
Recording Secretary