Four Winds in the Fall 2025

Fall in the Midwest is something magical. The leaves change colors, everyone seems to be hosting a Fall fest. And its your last time to hit the vineyards for a tasting, before everything becomes frost. 

A long weekend getaway for the girls and I. We pack up the Family Truckster and head over to Michigan. 

We like Four Winds, but more so their casino in South Bend. But South Bend Indiana doesn't have nearly the same Fall charm as Southeastern Michigan. So New Buffalo it is.

Junior suite, good enough. I have my folks joining us and they have two beds in their room. So they will take the kids off our hands for at least one night. 

7PM on a Friday, and the place is already filling up. They have some Rocky Horror stage show going on tonight. My folks are going, as is my brother, his wife and one of my sisters. We briefly thought about taking the kids. As I had free tickets. But that was a quick no, as we watched some of it at home prior to the trip.

I remembered it being saucy, but not so much titty and dick filled. But yeah, this is not for preteens.  I don't need to explain anal sex to them. At least not yet. 

Free buffets, and the line was out the door. It took a good 45MINs to get in. We wanted to sit with my brother and his bride. But they wanted to charge us 20% to seat 6 people. VS zero percent to seat us on our own. Even though the buffets were comped, they wanted 20% on the value of each. $250 in buffets. Either $0.00 or $50. Naturally, we sat on our own. 

$50 for what? To clear my plates? I tip anyway. But not $50 for that. Its a buffet, you serve yourself. 12 people, and I get it. 6? Fuck them! 

2 hour drive, since we left after work on a Friday. The wife was wiped, and she took the kids up to the room. The rest of my crew was now in line for Rocky. Well, my money isn't going to lose itself! 

It started off well. Got a great bonus for $395 on Twice the Money. I stayed on, and caught another quick bonus for $211 more. My $100 seed money was up to $740.

Played way too long on Eureka. And was down to $385 before I hit a $200 bonus, bringing me back to $585. Still $155 off my high water mark. But not bad!

Ainsworth slots were the only thing I could win on here so far. $123 bonus on a $2.50 max bet was solid below. Then I was excited to see they had the new Skeeball slots. But man, were they tough! I was one away from the Minor, Major and Grand with 3 balls left. Instead, I won $30 on a $5 bet.

By the time I got this $112.50 Whammy bonus. I was down to my original $100.

They carved out a bunch of slots in the back, and made a little lounge type area. Useful, if you wanted to catch a game by the bar. Or like me, sit and rethink the recent gambling choices you just made. 

But I will get it all back. I can just feel it! Off to the High Limit Room. 

Fast bonus for $140 on Rhino Rumble 2. Which was shit, for a $10 bet. Dont worry, I lost that Tito and another $500 behind it in here. 

A solid $250 bonus on Money Party. And $110 on Cash Wheel. But I kept bleeding out. 

I was down a grand, before taking this $100 offer out of desperation. 

Some fleeting luck below. I thought for sure all those buffaloes on a $5.00 bet would have paid more. But I guess they are watered down in this version. It was only good for $152.

Dont worry, I pissed that away as well. Day one ends, with me down $1,000. And that $1,000 only got me $5K of coin in. Which is just pathetic. 

8AM on a Saturday, and I have the place to myself. Sadly, the losing last night was par for the course here. I cant think of the last time I had a bonafide winning trip in New Buffalo. But you cant win, if you don't try!

I text my brother to come play with me. We have brunch plans later with the wives. By the time he shows up, I was down a few hundred more. And to boot, he is done gambling. As he lost all his money last night. Fuck the Four Winds!

I manage four $100ish wins. But none of that helped much. By the time the rest of the crew showed up, I dropped another $800 or so. Man, its tough here!

Quick snacks in the cafe for the kids. Grandma and Grandpa are taking them to a pumpkin patch in Three Oaks. The big goon in black is my kid brother. He used to pop up in these reports all the time. Back in the day, he was my Plus One for gambling trips. Then he started getting laid. And they became fewer and fewer. And now that he is married, I pretty much lost him. What a dick!

Kid free, my brother, his stuff and my stuff head to a restaurant in downtown New Buffalo called Beer Church. This placed used to be an antique store before selling beer. And I assume a church sometime prior to that. It was fine. Pricey for what it was. $100 for some waffles and eggs. 

I take my stuff for a tour down the Red Arrow Highway. First stop, St Julian winery. Neither of us have ever done a vineyard before. Let alone a tasting. I mean, I have tasted wine before. But not in shot glasses. 

Pricing was reasonable. But to be fair, I have nothing to base that assumption on. They were $12 per flight, tax included. She picked the wine flight, I had the whiskey one. The wine I could tell tasted different from one another. The whiskey? Not so much. Maybe with her weighing 100 pounds and standing 5 foot nothing. She got a little tipsy. She tried playing it off, but after being together for 25 years I know when she is a bit drunk. 

They did have a store, bar and gift shop as well. And we could have sampled some cheeses or breads too. But we were just here for the experience. 

Next stop down the Red Arrow, we did some antiquing. We don't collect antiques. But that's not the point. We are trying to act like middle aged adults here. And it seemed like the thing we should be doing in our 40's.

The shit inside these stores was of very little interest to me. We did play a game of "Remember This" She would hold up a toy from the 80s and say "Remember This" ? I'd hold up a TV guide from the 70's with a picture of Archie Bunker and ask "Remember This guy"?

Just shows we are old, when stuff from our youth are now antiques. 

We bought nothing. But the stores themselves were cool. An old barn. A diner from the 1930's. Or a gas station from the 1950's

It started to rain, so we headed back to base. I had the wife do the walk of shame for me. And I took out another $500. 

That $500 was a disaster. I dropped that, and the few hundred I had left from my original bankroll. And below was the only hit I had for $100. A slap in the face for sure. 2 days of gambling, $11,000 coin in. Which is half of my normal production. And a loss of $2,200. Just pathetic. 

Normally I wouldn't be this pissed. But I am heading to Vegas in a couple weeks. And that's gambling money much better spent there. I drop $2K here, and I get a free room. Some piddly free play like $150. And maybe, just maybe a couple buffets. I grind that money in Vegas, and its suites, show tickets, gourmet meals and free limos. 

My old man, who was just about broke as well. Hit for $5K! So not everyone got destroyed here. 

Time to get the hell out of Michigan, and back home to Illinois. No gambling in this last part. So if you degens want to end it here, no hard feelings. This blog has evolved from just my gambling trip reports. To more of a family scrap book for me. 

I totally get most of you don't care about amusement parks and seeing my kids. But I want to keep a log of it all. One day I will be dead. And my kids might stumble onto my site, which surely will outlive me. And see all the fun stuff their addict dad did with them! As well as figure out why their inheritance was so low. 

I present to you, Bengston Farms in Homer Glen IL. Homer Glen is in the Southwestern Burbs of Chicago. Its in the middle of nowhere. Which is the only reason this works. 

Bengston is a full blown amusement park, that is only open for 3 months out of the year. They do a summerfest in August. And roll that right through Halloween. Once October is done, so are they. 

I assume taxes have to be cheap. As they converted a 200 acre farm into a pumpkin patch on steroids. 3/4 of the year, it just sits there doing nothing. But that other 1/4, it must be printing money. 

Today, it is $24 each to get in, That includes all rides, shows and whatnot. A tremendous deal for sure! 

Sure, its a farm. And has farm stuff. Tractor rides, petting zoo and normal hillbilly shit. 

But its also full of actual rides. Not shitty little carnival rides. But actual ride rides, like roller coasters, dark rides and a ton of animatronics throughout the park. This place is legit. 

Above was me taking pictures of them riding bunnies and chickens. And below is them taking my picture at the unloading station. Its not every day you see a 270 pound beefcake riding a bunny. 

Drop rides, spinning rides and everything in between. They do it well, and their theming is on point. 

Everyone loves this place. But it does get crowded fast. And being 2 weeks before Halloween. We are right in the thick of busy season here. 

The kids went on this swinging ride a bunch. It was fun. The tractor ride below it? Not so much. 

They have play places as well. Like this giant corn pit. Shooting galleries, which are also free to use. And endless photo-ops. 

For the $100 we spent to get all four of us in here. We could have done it 2 dozen times, with the money I pissed away gambling. Also true, there was zero chance I could have won any money here. So there is that!