Wait! Wasn’t Cherry going to spend her waking hours in the casino? Maybe that was just a rumor, but at least we aren’t going to spend the rest of the week watching the Trail Family run around the hotel getting into more trouble.

And it looks like the Grungey Boys aren’t the only contenders to sport team uniforms. Are you surprised at how quickly these uniforms were put together, or how Mark wound up with a jacket displaying his signature red-and-black checked Mackinaw pattern? (My wife knows this pattern by a different name…) With those pearly gray hats and zipper jackets, we might mistake Mark and Cliff for male performance artists. Perhaps we are not supposed to worry about the actual logistics of all this, or who is footing the bill. The only millionaire Mark has had any contact with is Cricket Bro, who pops up more than any other Trail rival. I guess I wouldn’t be all that surprised if he showed up once again as the secret benefactor. I wouldn’t be surprised if Cliff was friendly with him, as well. But it would be great to see a new character appear.

As far as I’m concerned, the last two panels are pointless throwaways for one of Rivera’s frequent “humor strip” endings, where she usually includes a narration box that acts as a kind of self-congratulation for the joke. If Jules Rivera ever leaves this strip, she could probably get a job writing for Hi and Lois, Hägar the Horrible, or Garfield.