"STAMPEDE"

I like cows, I have always liked cows, I don't know why. When I am driving through the country side the first thing I notice are the beautiful rolling hills, and then, yes, the cows. There are always cows. On many trips back east, especially in and around Charlottesville, Va., there are beautiful pastures, thick luscious trees, and yes, cows. Big, strong, gorgeous cows. OK, the point?

Is it any wonder, that on one of our outings to one of our new found interests, an Indian Casino, I find ...yes COWS! They like me, they really do..cool. They call to me everytime I go into the place. My daughters could confirm that I have an uncanny gift of locating "the perfect" slot machine. So it was no real surprise when I was "called" by one that had cows.

There are several of the machines, but only a couple are truly your "friends". For 25 cents you can play FOREVER! You put in 20 bucks, 80 credits..ching, ching, ching ( music to my ears). You hit spin and the cutest cows in one bar, two bars, or three bars, spin and spin by, and Lucky Horse Shoes..tooooooo cute. Then you spin again and the best thing of all happens....the cowboy ( I do love a cowboy!) yells " STAMPEDE" and the machine begins to shake and vibrate, and he yells , "hit the spin button", you must always obey the cowboy. The bars start spinning and the cows are everywhere, and as long as they are SOMEWHERE, you get to corral them, and my FAVORITE, is when my cowboy says, CASH COW!!

During one such setting, my wheels went on a spinning spree that lasted 4 minutes, CASH COW,CASH COW, CASH COW, it was getting embarrassing, people were standing around in droves. You can corral only so many, so they play a song reminiscent of a scene from a funny John Wayne movie, and say, "NEW CORRAL". The best part is when they count your cows, and the "CASH COW" gets branded. Yep, that "CASH COW" can be branded with lots of numbers, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 up to 100. 600 credits later, after all the laughter, my big spin was over, and I hit 2 credits hit spin, 2 credits, spin, then my cowboy began again "STAMPEDE", "CASH COW".

I have never left this place without at least getting everyone in our party $200 bucks to take home, and more giggles, belly laughs and show stopping moments than one can count. They use to laugh at me when I said that I thought cows were really pretty, they don't anymore.