3 Day Weekend---YES

I guess I'm not the only one who's been busy the past few days. I checked on all my daily reads and no one has updated lately. Unless you want to count the Big Blogger additions. I usually don't even read those. Just skim right over them. They aren't very entertaining, almost like walking in on a private joke and no one ever explaining it to you. Makes you kind of want to lift your chin, look at the ceiling and saunter off whistling under your breath.

So, has everybody gone to the cemetery this weekend? I have never been one to do that. My grandma always has. She puts flowers on her parents' graves, her in laws' graves, her husband's, her sisters', maybe even an aunt and some brothers in law. But never once have I known her to put flowers on the grave of the daughter she lost 60 or so years ago. I use to think her callous and unfeeling toward the daughter who died in a drowning accident at such a tender age. But now that I have a daughter of my own, I think it must be just too painful for her to remember. I heard her tell the whole story one time. Once. She spoke of details such as seeing her go outside with her big sister while she was changing the baby's diaper on her own bed. When she was done changing the diaper she left him asleep on the bed, went outside to check on the girls, and it was too late. She'd already drowned in the pond. She said it with no feeling in her voice. How can she do that? This woman, who couldn't speak her husband's name without crying for nearly 20 years after he'd died. I know that by the time I was born, 30 years had gone by since the accident. But still, my Mom says that she's never known her to ever put flowers on her grave. I should go try to find it some time. How sad it that? A forgotten two year old, in her grave over 60 years.

Enough of the macabre, already, Stace. Let me tell you about my weekend so far. I'll start out with Saturday. I rode 279 miles on the back of Mike's bike. I ended up having to drive Shael to my Mom's house that morning and I met Mike at Gitter Done by 8:45 where we ate breakfast (not very good, btw). By 9:30 we were on our way to Joplin, or Carterville, to be more exact. One guy had to go work on his bike before he could go anywhere with us, so we followed my cousin, Mitchell and his gal, Tereasa, to Carterville because it was her little sister's birthday and she wanted to go wish her a happy birthday before noon so she could see her and her Dad before her Dad got too drunk. Nice. You can see where this story is going. We get there and she gets her family obligations over with and we leave after about 30 minutes or so. From there, they say they want to go to Waffle House because they hadn't wanted to eat at Gitter Done. Now I know why. But that's beside the point. While they went to eat, Mike and I went and got me a new helmet. One that fit and didn't slide to the back of my head like a yarmukle while we were flying down the road. By the time we were finished with that, they were finished at the Waffle House so we all headed off to Saginaw. Yay, ya'll haven't lived until you visit Saginaw. Just kidding. There's this little leather/bike shop there that Mike likes to visit. The dirty old man was gone to his class reunion and that I was happy about. From there, we went to another leather/bike shop over between Joplin and Neosho. It was nice in there but freaking HOT! When we stepped outside, it was actually cooler outside than it was inside. At least outside there was a breeze.

Tereasa had this thing about wanting to take the interstate. The worse thing for riding on a motorcycle is taking the interstate. Not good. I couldn't wait to get back on a normal road. We finally got off the interstate and out of Missouri. Back to good ole Oklahoma where you don't have to wear a helmet. I usually wear one anyway, but for some reason I was having trouble with my helmet, even my new one, and I couldn't wait to get it off my head. The guy who was working on his bike was finished so we went by his house and he rode with us then. Jim. He's my Dad's age. Weird. So, the five of us headed south from Grove on three bikes. We went to Little Kansas and stopped at a biker bar. Fun, fun, fun. Mike ordered a beer and we had a "heated discussion" on his drinking that day. He said he'd only drink two or three. His beer got there and it was in a QUART MASON JAR! 32 oz of Bud Light. I pleaded with him to stop at one, since it was so huge. He finally, reluctantly, agreed. Well, someone ordered him a second round while I was in the bathroom and when I came back, there was a brand new one sitting on the bar in front of him. ??? What was a girl to do? I don't drink, and Mike had promised me he wouldn't drink any more. So, there it sat, sweating and leaving a big water mark on the bar. Everybody finally decided to head on out to the next bar, down by Welling. A place called Kooter Brown's. Yeah. Mitchell called out to Mike to drink up, he'd ordered him another. Mike then starts the process of embarrassing and ultimately humiliating me in front of everyone in the bar. "Nope! Can't do it. I'm cut off. She won't let me drink another drop. Sorry, boys. She has this hang up about me drinking while I'm on the bike." And on, and on, and on. I wanted to cry. Tereasa even looked at me and said "Well, that wasn't very fair of you to make him promise something like that!" I SO wanted to tell her to kiss off, or some other nasty phrase that had the word "off" in it, but I held my tongue, shrugged my shoulders and turned around and walked out of the building. I could feel the tears stinging my eyes, so I pulled my sunglasses down real quick. We pulled in to that bar with three bikes. We pulled out of it with 13. Thirteen bikes and we were right in the middle of them.

We headed south from Little Kansas to Welling, which is near Talequah. Beautiful drive. We lost about four of the bikes along the way, they turned around and went back for some reason. We finally made it to Kooter Brown's and the place was empty! We filled it up when we got there. Mike and I played darts and we drank Dr. Pepper, how's that? Just as the band got there and were setting up, everyone decided to move on. So, we headed out. I wouldn't have minded staying and listening to the band for a while, but I was outvoted.

Off we went to Stillwell. What use to be a hole in the wall town now has grown to have it's very own McDonald's. Stillwell has arrived! Between Kooter's and Stillwell was another beautiful drive. I saw a field with a herd (yes, an actual herd!) of light gray donkeys. There were about 20 of them grazing around. I saw them and instantly thought of Leon and the tears started smarting at my eyes again. I leaned over and said to Mike "There's always something that reminds me of Leon and I start crying all over again". He kind of laughed and said he'd thought of Leon, too. Leon loved his donkeys.

Coming around a corner, there was a truck over the double yellow. Yikes! The only scary thing of the whole day. But, of course, we were fine. Thank God. I'd been praying all day, anyway, on the back of that bike.

At Stillwell, we all got fuel and went on from there for a bar called Dirty Birds in West Silome Springs. Another beautiful drive. By then, the sun was starting to go down and it was getting a little cooler. We got to Dirty Birds and they had a band there and were already charging a cover charge. No one wanted to pay the cover charge so people kind of scattered. Some of us went to the Cherokee Casino for some food. Mike and I hadn't eaten anything since Gitter Done. By then, the hunger was completely gone and I was just tired. But, we went to the casino to eat. It took FOREVER to get our food, but it was pretty good once we finally got it. They had a band, too, and they didn't even charge a cover. The band was tight, playing dance music from the 70's, 80's and 90's. We ate then had to gamble some. I mean, why not, we were already there! Mike and I walked around looking for two machines together. Two .25 cent machines, we're not big enough gamblers to pay $1 a spin. We finally found two machines together and Mike grudingly handed me over a $20 bill as he grudingly put in his own $20 bill. I played mine down to $10 but Mike. Mike spun once, nothing, spun twice, won $80. He cashed out, after I looked at him and said "You'd better cash that out, baby, because if you don't, I'll do it for you!" He put in another $5 but didn't win anything. I tried to put in a $5 in the machine on the other side of him but it wouldn't take it. I tried and tried but finally quit, deciding it was probably trying to tell me something. The band was still rockin' the place and we found some nickel machines that I sat down at. Mike said he was done for the night so he just stood there and watched me. Watched me win! I always win at those nickel or penny machines. I only put in a $5 but I had it up to $13 at one time. When I had it played down to $10, Mitchell and Tereasa came by and said they were ready to leave. I wasn't ready yet, but Mike wanted to stick with the pack, so I cashed out and we left. Bummer, the band was good.

From there, we went to yet another bar, named Pete's Place. Just down the road a spell. We walked in, cover charge of $4 a person and the band was so loud, and COUNTRY. I wanted to turn right around and walk out. No thanks, I'll wait outside. But, noooo. We walked in, I turned and looked at Mike, willing him to read my mind and for him to say "Hey, we're going to go on, see you guys later". But, nooooo, (once again). Mike paid the $8 and in we went. We only stayed about 15 minutes, and the entire time was spent standing over by the smelly bathrooms, with our arms crossed. Mike looked down at me after about 5 minutes and said "This place is a dive. This just ain't my kind of crowd". Let me tell you, it wasn't any more of a dive than any of the other places we'd visited that day. I don't know why he thought it was. When we left, Mike tried to get his money back. Ha! Like that was going to happen. I think he was only half joking, but he was still half serious.

Finally, we were on our way home. It was after midnight when we made it home. It felt so good to stretch out in that bed. After all that, we even had the energy for a few minutes of TKAOOTHLS. Yeah, baby. Notice I said a few minutes. LOL!