Here comes a free book. Enjoy.
We go on vacationing Florida when we can. We like Destin, but the 30A area is just about our favorite mainland destination. We are most likely to go 75 south to Cordele, GA, then we usually end up on the Georgia Florida Parkway and 300. Also HWY 98 and 30A. If we go to Destin, we usually go down75 South to 85 to 185 to 231 and 331, west on I-10, a little bit of HWY 20 then finally across the toll bridge to 98, but our favorite destination is a small sparsely populated barrier island that shall remain nameless.
I am also an out of work car hauler, and we did a lot of GA/FL runs down 75 to 16 to 95 and the Port at Jacksonville, sometimes across I-10 to Lake City, and for the really good runs we went from Jacksonville down 95 to I-4 to get to Orlando, up the Florida turnpike back to 75 if I was lucky, or if I was unlucky I continued down I-4 and usually spent the night in Polk City, then across to Tampa, and back up 75 to come home. We went other places in between, but that just about sums it up.
I even went to the beach at St. Augustine once waiting on a load and got my feet in the water. There really isn't allot of tractor trailer parking in that area, but I finally found a large enough mostly empty parking lot. I love Florida. My little island and the North GA mountains are my favorite places on earth. If I ever win big, I will have a house in both places. There is nothing wrong with Tampa, it is just that I got paid the same if I went from Marietta (just a little north of Atlanta) to Jacksonville and picked up a load and came back, as if I were to go down I-4 and five places to load cars, and make my way back from Tampa. Another day away from home, another 400 miles without any mileage pay, and no extra pay at all.
Back then I did not play the lotto, but I can't wait to get a chance to go back to Florida. I will buy a load of tickets. I have looked at your states lotto website, and your scratch tickets really do have better odds, overall, and more winners. Fantasy 5 is 5/39 here with odds of 1 in 575,757 for the top prize. In Florida, Fantasy 5 is 5/36 with odds of 1 in 376,992. That means that you have a 50% greater chance of winning Fantasy 5 in Florida, than in Georgia. The only tradeoff is that we often get bigger jackpots, but in Florida they have a whole lot more people sharing the top prize than here in GA. More winners, less money in general. I would rather have the better odds, and a little less money than none at all.
It doesn't seem like I will get another job in car hauling any time soon, but a trip to paradise may be possible this year, only time will tell. Do you or skeptic have any ideas in common? I am looking for advice for when I come back down there. Do you have an exact favorite retailer where you are always successful, or ones that you avoid. Actually the chain of stores or the single locations would be fine. I am looking for the best odds out there. I prefer $20, $5 and $10 scratch offs, in that order, but $20 tickets are my favorite. What tickets are best, and which should be avoided. Do any retailers stand out over others? Do you have better luck from machines or clerks? I will give you a few examples from Georgia that would be the type of information you might want if you came here.
It seems to me that the $10 tickets are a waste of time, but it is probably because they have not come out with any new ones recently. I did however win $100 multiple times on the $10 game Jingle Jumbo Bucks. It has great odds of 1 in 2.74. I like tickets with second chance drawings, but now Georgia is not making as much in the lottery as they need to, so they are starting to rip us off. The overall odds of winning are going up on most tickets, especially the larger ones, which makes the least sense. A $20 ticket should not have odds of less than 1 in 3 period.
The first $20 ticket is Millionaire Jumbo Bucks, with overall odds of 1:3.01. The second oldest $20 ticket is Maximum Green, with overall odds of 1:3.03, and you can enter your losing tickets for monthly second chance drawings, and they pick ten $10,000 winners each month. The next one is $3,000,000 Taxes Paid with odds of 1:3.17. In that game, they pick one winner each week for $20,000. I like both of those ideas. They keep on raising the odds.
The absolute worst new game is Super Millions, with overall odds of 1:3.15, so at least the overall odds did not keep going up like its predecessors. There are top prizes of $1 Million, $2 Million, $3 Million, $4 Million, and $5 Million It also has a second chance drawing, but it sucks because those odds are terrible. ONE person will win $1,000,000, at the conclusion of the game. I think the odds of winning $10,000 or $20,000 weekly or monthly are much greater and obtainable than the ONE SINGLE SHOT at a cool million. Seems like a bust to me.
As far as $10 tickets go, Georgia Lottery Black is the worst ticket I have ever played. It has a top prize of $1,000,000, and fair odds of winning $500, I think it is like 1 in 200, or somewhere else in that range. I never ever won more than $25 in that game, and most either lost, or won a free ticket or $15, and I played it like hell when it came out. That is the worst $10 ticket out there unless you happen to be the lucky one who wins $500.
I would check lotto hideout.net, but their website seems to be down. It is a very good information source. If anyone knows what happened to it, let me know. I have a very powerful web server, and will host the site for a very reasonable fee, cheaper than anyone out there, just because I love the site. Please PM me if you have any information.
The $10 game $1,000,000 cash blast is not too great of a game. I think I won $50 once, so that is ok. I love the Jeep game, and it is a $5 game, and the first time I bought 4 tickets, the first one was a free ticket, and the second was $50, so I started playing like mad, but $25 or maybe $40. It is a decent game. I have played the Falcons $5 game, and I usually break even or close to it.
Phillips 66 stations are the worst, followed by Shell. They both suck and I usually avoid them like the plague, but some shells are OK. QT sucks overall, but I must admit I won $100 on a $1 scratch off ticket there, so you never know, but ultimately I do not fare as well there. By far and above my favorite is Exxon Gas Stations, and Publix and Kroger machines. They are all a toss-up.
If you have any pointers for Florida, let me know. Where to and where not to shop, and the best and worst $20 tickets, and maybe $10 and $5 tickets. I usually go for the newer tickets, but I occasionally like to buy an older ticket. Eufaula is the half way mark for the trip to Florida if we go to Destin, and we usually find something to eat there. Anyone in Alabama have any suggestions as well down from 85 South in Columbus to 185 and down 431 and 231. Thanks a million. If you middle and South Georgia folks know of a good place, let me know.