Casino & Waterfall in Cherokee, NC

I was fortunate enough to get invited to come speak at a newly formed Trino User Group meeting in Charlotte, NC. I realized it was only a 4.5 hour drive so decided to drive up for this one. I invited my son to come along on a little “guys trip” with the lure of a casino nearby! He took the bait!

Casino

We made it to Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort on Thursday night and Connor headed straight to the poker room. I watched him cash in $100 for some chips and find his table. As for me… I’m not much of a gambler so I found myself a one-armed bandit (aka slot machine) and settled in for a bit.

My BIG bets ranged from 25 - 75 cents on my chosen vice. I ALMOST hit two decent wins; $250 and $37.50 as shown below.

$40 lighter, I wandered around the casino a bit and the posted up outside the poker room where we agreed to meet for dinner after 90 minutes. I figured Connor would have done about like me (i.e. lose money), but I was so happy for him when he came back with $230. He made a 130% return in 90 minutes. I suggested he stopped playing poker right then and there and enjoy the win!

After dinner, we wandered around the GIGANTIC casino a bit more and then settled up on both gambling another $40 on some silly electronic thingy that I had no idea (I still have no idea) what identified a win, much less how much, but had some fun nonetheless before heading back to the hotel.

If YOU know what any of this means, let me know! I just know that my CREDIT amount kept going down and I rarely saw anything in the WIN bucket.

Waterfall

We visited Mingo Falls in the Great Smoky Mountains NP and this 120 footer was just amazing.

Even more amazing than seeing it was seeing it with my son. He hasn’t been on one of my waterfall hikes in years and I cherish any time alone with him – that much better when enjoying nature that I love so much.