Cooters

Cooters are turtles
You can count their rings like trees
If you need their age.

Bad Haiku #136

One of the coolest things I have ever seen is at the gangplank to Harrah's casino in Tunica, Mississippi. 

I rarely gamble. Most often in the past if I was going to a casino, it was to eat there.  Paula Deen has a buffet at Harrah's that is drool inducing.  Maybe I'd drop $20 in the slots, but that's it.  I can't stand to lose, and that's what I do at casinos, is lose. 

I went there at Thanksgiving, since they have turkey dinner and all the trimmings at the buffet.  Before getting to the buffet, a trip down the gangplank is required.  I noticed bubblegum dispensers placed about every 10 feet or so all the way down the gangplank.  I looked closer and noticed that inside the dispensers the "bubblegum" is brown...I walked over to one and it read across the front, "Turtle Food 25 cents."

I walked about 2 or 3 feet closer to the fence which is the side of the gangplank and looked over the edge.  I saw hundreds and HUNDREDS of turtles, all of them looking back at me, most of them with open mouths!  I could tell they were open mouths since I could see pink diamond shapes amid a sea of brown river water, and various turtle-colored turtles. Clearly it was a stroke of genius for Harrah's to put Turtle Food dispensers here. *eyeroll*

I quickly felt around the bottom of my purse for quarters so I could feed the panhandling, begging turtles because that was clearly what they wanted --poor starved little things!  There was everything from little red eared sliders, to big old snappers, some terrapins, and odd looking soft shelled turtles with their snorkely noses.  It was a friggin turtle party with all sizes  represented from little coin-sized things all the way up to man-hole-cover-sized monstrosity turtles!  I can't wait to go back.  Next time, I'm taking a camera.