Day 4,063 —2 Runs until the Huron 100: Memories of my RV Trip with my Grandparents: Casino Night and Jumping over the Grand Canyon—

 

I made it up a little after 5 this morning, which continued progression after yesterday. I didn’t run right away because it was raining, so I drank decaf coffee and thought about the day.

When I went to the Grand Canyon with my grandparents, we took a shuttle around the rim, but I got tired of sitting in the shuttle. I asked my grandparents if I could get out and walk.

I remember getting on one path, but I couldn’t see into the canyon from the path, so I ventured closer until I was on a dirt path that was close. I remember that in one section, there was a gap that I had to jump. It couldn’t have been more than a couple of feet, but I remember being scared jumping across a part of the canyon, so from that point, I went back to the main path and found my grandparents waiting for me at the shuttle.

Early in the trip, we went to an RV convention that had a casino night. I wanted to play. It was all fake money, anyway, and the next day there would be an auction. You could use the fake money to bid on items. The older people immediately said no, but then they thought, “Why not?” I was the only kid there, and it was only fake money, so what would be the harm? I played craps mostly, and although I was making money progressively, I didn’t make close to the amount that my grandfather made playing blackjack. No one in my family gambled, but I loved games as a kid. I also loved the attention and learning something new. I didn’t know how to play craps, so the other grandparents spent their time teaching me as the game continued. In the end, a lot of people who didn’t do as well gave me their money, and I remember playing evens and colors mostly, learning the hard way that rolling a 7 isn’t necessarily good for all the players. To this day I have never gambled at a casino. 

I don’t know what I got with the money, but I made a lot of people smile, and my grandparents thought it was just the kind of thing "Daniel" would do. My grandfather always thought I was one of the luckiest kids he had ever met. Often contending when he lost when we played backgammon that, “He rolled doubles three times in a row. I can’t beat that kind of luck.”