A.C.

We started our day just relaxing…sharing stories about Tuscola, pileated woodpeckers and calving glaciers…you know, the normal stuff.

Our first stop of the day was Ben’s Chili Bowl.  This place is really just a hole-in-the-wall chili joint, but is famous for its chili and half smokes.  It’s frequented by Bill Cosby, Barak Obama, Russell Crowe and George Bush.  (George W even helped paint the mural on the side of the joint!)  We all tried the chili dogs and they were OMG Wow!  No wonder this place is famous!  Ben’s Chili Bowl is a definite do-over for us!

After saying our good-byes to Margaret and Pete we headed northeast through the D.C. traffic.  Even though it was Sunday, the D.C. streets were jammed.  Traffic settled down once we were on the Beltway, but then about 30 minutes north of Baltimore things came to a complete stop; apparently, there was a bad accident on the bridge just ahead of us.  We parked our car with thousands of others and watched as emergency vehicles passed us on the left and right shoulders and above as helicopters flew over us. We sat there for about 90 minutes.Finally, traffic began moving again…but the oddest thing was, we saw nothing that would indicate there had been an accident…no crashed vehicles, no emergency vehicles…nothing.  All had been cleared away before traffic was allowed to move!

Our target destination for tonight was Atlantic City.  Mona had been there with a girlfriend years ago and she was certain I’d like the city…and, besides, she wanted to look for Jimmy.  While I drove, Mona researched hotels.  She was reading the reviews to me and our sleep night wasn’t looking good as the best she could find was an low-rated hotel for $75.  This hotel’s biggest drawback was the constant coming and going of prostitutes at 3 AM and their arguing in the hallways.  Something to look forward to!

Suddenly, Mona shouted, “Oh, oh…I’ve got our hotel!”  She found a deal on Orbitz where we could stay at the Trump Plaza Hotel for $50. This sounded too good to be true, but she booked it anyway…even though we were sure there must be a catch.  (Would you walk away from a fool and his money?)

We got to the hotel and were on constant guard for the catch.  We self-parked for $5 and then walked through the opulent casino and lobby to the front desk.  Sure enough, they didn’t have our reservations.  But after 5 minutes they found them and we were in!
We got to our ocean-view room and finally found the catch…the room wasn’t clean and the bedsheets hadn’t been changed.  Ugh!  We called the front desk and told them about the situation.  They said to come back down and they’d make it right.  Make it right?!?!  We ended up in an ocean-front suite…huge living room, huge bedroom, both with ocean views…two baths with Jacuzzi tubs…probably the best hotel room we’ve ever had!

We dropped off our bags and headed to the Boardwalk just outside our hotel.  We strolled up and down the Boardwalk, enjoying the sea breeze and the sights and sounds.  I like this place better than Vegas becausethe ocean is just steps away.  Simply beautiful!

We finished our evening with a prix fix dinner at Evo’s and then winning a few dollars from the Donald at his casino.  Finally, we had a drink in our living room and watched the waves rolling in again.Ahh….retirement!!!