Trip to Chukchansi Casino

Photo of Chuckchansi Gold from Wikipedia. 

For someone who's never been to a casino,(as was true for me before going to Chukchansi Gold Resort and Casino in  Coarsegold, California today)  learning to play the machines can take some time, but if you try you'll learn and even if you don't win a lot, you will still have fun.

A group I joined on meetup.com had been planning a trip to Chukchansi for a while and eventually decided on July 1.  It was a bus trip and a five-hour stay.  The bus picked up casino attendees in Santa Clara, San Jose, Gilroy and Los Banos before heading to the casino. I live in Hollister, near Gilroy, so that was where I caught the bus.  It was a fun ride.  Getting to look out the windows and see lots of mountains and country areas,  with houses, fruit stands, gas stations, roadside diners, and such along the way. Going through Los Banos, we could see all sorts of businesses, schools, gas stations, restaurants. Same when we passed through Madera, which is just before the route that leads to the casino.   The trip was worth the bus ride alone.

We were given a $5 voucher for food and $10 e-cash for the machines, and received Players Club cards. For the first hour after we arrived at the casino,  I wandered around checking out the many different machines,  trying to figure out how to work some of them. I made the mistake of not asking at first.  Around 1PM,  we met for lunch.  There are several places to eat, including a buffet restaurant, which is where we met ate.  We'd planned to meet for lunch at one, but I was sure where they'd said to meet, so at 1PM, I began checking all the food places  I  had some chicken and slices of pizza and Dr Pepper, and a brownie for dessert. I then went to the Lucky Seven machines (at least three different ones of this theme). I finally asked for help and soon caught on how to play.  It was fun!  I managed to play a few rounds of this , using the rest of my e-cash and some of my own cash, until it was time to meet outside the front lobby to begin boarding the bus home.

Sorry for a lack of photos, but in all the excitement and madness I forgot! I also saw many machines I would have liked to try, but there's only so much you can do in a five-hour trip.

All, in all, a great first visit to a casino. I would certainly love to do it again!!!  I'd also love to take a trip

to another casino in California. Cache Creek and Table Mountain both sound like fun ones. Table Mountain, incidentally is about 19 miles from Chukchansi, located near Fresno, CA (spotted a road sign for this one on the way).    Even a  return to Chukchansi.  Any would be fun.