Day Seven (Friday, August 8)
Enough boating, we spend the day doing touristy things. First we called the cab (there is
only one in the Soo, a husband and wife team run it, her during the day, him at night) to take us
downtown.
We did the Tower of History, the Valley Camp museum ship, and even went to K-Mart (I ran
out of certain unmentionable clothing items). A new municipal marina is being built
just to the left of the landlocked museum ship Valley Camp in the picture above. (In the
muddy area on the left that's boomed off from the rest of the St. Mary's River) That
will put the boaters right downtown, rather than 4-5 miles downstream. (Downstream is
towards the right in the picture)
We then hit an ATM and went downtown to have dinner and a couple of beers. We even watched
the locals cruising Ashmun Street. Then about 11:30 PM, with good intentions,
(and after a bunch of beers) we decided to go back
to the marina. We called for the cab, and the driver showed up with three folks
already in the cab. Two Chinese fellows and an American Indian. (A very large
American Indian) (This sounds like the beginning of a bad joke; two Chinese, a Colombian,
an Indian, and an American get into a cab...) Anyway, I squeeze in the back seat
with the Chinese fellows. Juan, very literally, squeezes into the front seat with the
Indian and the driver. The first passengers in the cab were going to the Kewadin
Casino, so that's where the cab went. The temptation was too great for Juan who
really wanted to improve the Indian lifestyle by contributing to their cause at the
blackjack table. I learned three things that night.
If you play very conservative at blackjack you CAN break even.
The Kewadin shuttle bus will take you anywhere in the Soo, so the only people that take
cabs are tourists and large Indians that know the cabdriver.
The best service is sitting at the bar playing $0.25 video poker. The bartender
will keep
GIVING you drinks as long as you keep playing,
and you're right in front of him, so he can tell when you're empty.
Juan tried to run the Kewadin Casino out of scotch; I tried to run them out of
Yukon Jack. I don't know when we got back to the marina, after 2:00 AM I
think, maybe 3:00 AM? By the way, we took the Kewadin shuttle back to the marina, we
learned the lesson about the one cab.
