Traveling Domestic

Made it back to the farm in decent shape on Saturday. Took the quick one from Malta to Munich, then only the most aggressive armrest bully I’ve ever faced in airline travel battle made the long flight back from Germany to the states less than ideal.

Was very glad to get home to the farm and be with Vera Valmore and our four-legged friends. I hated being away that long, and am not crazy about picking up again right away for another trip this week. But I’ll being staying put for a while after that.

I did follow the start of the World Series of Poker Main Event final table last night for a short while, although to be honest I didn’t want to spend my brief time at home between poker trips watching still more poker, so I only dipped in briefly to keep tabs on who was still in the sucker.

Today I’m heading back out to Atlantic City where I’ll be on hand to help cover the first PokerStars Festival, the newly-named tournament series that along with the PokerStars Championships will be replacing the regional tours starting next year. I’m actually writing from the airport, and since it is Halloween there are people wandering about dressed like Oompa Loompas among other things (see above).

It’s also the first time PokerStars has hosted a tournament in the United States since pre-Black Friday -- like just before Black Friday as the last North American Poker Tour event ended at the Mohegan Sun on April 14, 2011.

Am looking forward to this one both for the sake of curiosity and to be able to reunite with a lot of friends and colleagues, some of whom I haven’t seen in a while. Was realizing getting ready for the trip that I haven’t covered a tournament inside the U.S. or taken a domestic flight in about two years -- other than as a first leg of a trip out of the country, that is. Meanwhile I’ve gone on more than a dozen trips since then all over Central and South America and Europe.

No passport needed, then. Or adapters. Weird. Am I able to check a bag for free or what?

Talk more tomorrow from the Boardwalk.