Mr. Rodney is in rare form today.
Wearing sunglasses, a baseball cap pulled backwards that says "I (heart) Jesus" and a loud green-and-blue tie, he's at the wheel of a Hunt Valley Motor Coach bus cruising north on Interstate 95 through Harford County, bound for the glittering casinos of Atlantic City.
"How y'all doin' this morning?" he bellows over the intercom. "Hey! We're not going to a funeral!"
To many, the funeral reference is apt, since much of Atlantic City seems enveloped in gloom these days. The casino industry has been hit hard by the recession, as well as by competing slots parlors in nearby Pennsylvania.
Revenue was down a whopping 19.4 percent last month, the New Jersey Casino Control Commission reported this week. That was the biggest monthly drop in the 31 years of legalized gambling there and surpassed a 19.2 percent drop in February.
Seven straight months of declining casino revenues have affected everyone from blackjack dealers to shopkeepers to the men who push sightseers up and down the famous boardwalk in three-wheeled "rolling chairs."
Predictably, the industry's woes have affected tour bus lines like Hunt Valley Motor Coach, which used to run buses seven days a week to Atlantic City and is now down to four a week.
"Business is down about 30 percent," says Ed Royston, who has owned the company since 1985. "Rather than carrying 20 people seven days a week, we're carrying 30 people four days a week."
Nevertheless, at a little after 10 on this sunny Wednesday, the passengers on Mr. Rodney's bus seem in relatively good spirits.
Many are regulars who banter back and forth with each other. Art Miksinski, a retired math teacher from Towson, and his friends Sidney Finglass of Monkton and George Weinberg of Harford County ride the bus once a week to try their luck at the blackjack tables.
"There are way fewer people riding the bus ... fewer people at the casinos, too," says Miksinski as a movie plays on the monitors. "But for us, it's a day of relaxation.
"We all know what the situation is with the recession," he continues. "But you can't dwell on it. Otherwise you run yourself into a frazzle."
Recession or no, the passengers say they feel the ride to Atlantic City is a pretty good deal.
The bus leaves from three sites in the Baltimore area: Pikesville, Cromwell Bridge Road in Towson and Mountain Road in Joppa.
