Trip to Marrianna

Saturday morning Ford and I got up and finished packing and got on the road to Marianna at 7:40 a.m. Terri and AA stayed home, they had a quiet weekend without us. I heard from Terri and she worked on cleaning our garage some more, they had tropical smoothies, and Alyzabeth moved the golf cart out for Terri in the garage to see if she can make more room and better utilize our garage space. Considering all the tubs and boxes we have that I have not gone through, I’m surprised she could make so much progress.

We made two stops driving to Marianna one as a bathroom break and one to get gas in the truck. With the hour we gained, we arrived at 10:30, met by Bill and Joan in the lobby at the Fairfield Inn hotel. We immediately went to a little sandwich/salad pizza place for an early lunch as we are going to have an early dinner before we head to the basketball game at 7 PM tonight. 

Once we got back from lunch, Stephanie and Butch arrived, Ford and I went to our room checked in, got settled for a few minutes. Then happy hour commenced. We were in the lobby telling stories about Bill and Ford and Stephanie‘s childhood. Joan asked how Stephanie met Butch and she told the story, then of course how Ford and I met and I told the story 1985 dating and wedding.  Stephanie and Butch, met while Stephanie was living in Pensacola and decided to drive around and found out about Monroeville, which is where Harper Lee was born and stopped into the town bookstore to see about buying one of the books. When the bookstore mentioned that they’re actually doing the play soon, but all the tickets are sold out she said suggested that Stephanie come back over Mother’s Day weekend to usher and that way she would get the show they needed more ushers for Mother’s Day.  Stephanie did that and after the play Butch came out and saw her and said something like I know everybody in this town, but I don’t know you. He invited her to the party that evening and had a great time and the story continues of them getting to know each other dating, and marriage.  Lots of funny stories about which family but eventually Butch built Stephanie a nice home and they are still together. We were enjoying our beer, red wine and champagne when some people from Michigan came as the power went out. Huge storm went by with thunder and lightning and the power went out in the whole town. Most of the hotel people were in the downstairs breakfast lobby area waiting for the power to return. These Michigan people were in town because a few weeks ago a small tornado went through and they were checking their local property. He brought a huge bottle of vodka, coffee and milk and shared; gave everybody a white Russian if they wanted it. I heard Joan say something about drinking three of them and they were very strong. Bill, Butch, Ford and I did not have their drink. Since the power went out, we had to go to the other end of town that had power and there were several restaurants open like Zaxby McDonald’s, Kentucky, fried chicken, Mexican restaurant, and a Japanese restaurant. We went to the Chinese/Japanese restaurant and enjoyed everything - I had hibachi shrimp, steamed rice, Joan had pepper steak Bill had lo mein, etc. Joan was a bit tipsy after drinking so much but held her own and we all enjoyed dinner. We had a little time back at the hotel before heading to the basketball game so went to our room and that’s when Ford felt very nauseous and got a very severe headache so he laid down. We ended up missing the entire basketball game while Ford was recovering. 

Lane's basketball team won!

Sunday we left Marianna after having breakfast with Bill and Joan. They have over a 10 Hour Dr., so started out early 8 AM central time we got on the road a little after nine Eastern standard time, and we made good time with a one pitstop.

We arrived home after shopping for "build your own" nacho ingredients to have watching the NFL games tonight; about 1:00 p.m. I fed Ford his leftover breakfast hamburger (from Saturday's lunch) and unpacked. Terri had organized the garage, impressive! AA and I gave Ginger at walk, and suddenly, all is about back to normal.

Once home we caught up on the news about Terri and Alyzabeth brunch with Carolyn and Alex and we told them a few stories about our visit with Bill and Joan. Also, we told that Ford did have the nausea migraine episode Saturday night so we missed the basketball game but we were happy to hear that Chipola did win.  After sleeping the entire night Sunday morning and breakfast we got on the road and it was nice to have that visit even though we missed the basketball game. So we did not see Lane. 

Once Alyzabeth and I walked Ginger, AA continued doing homework. Terri, Ford and I went to Cultured Collective to watch the first football game, which was Kansas City Chiefs against Baltimore Ravens but there was no "regular" beer. They do not carry red or brown ale anymore and the Lola was pretty bad, so we went home. It was not the same happy little bar, free water gone, big screen with beer selection gone, boring bartender and they changed L.O.L.A. to a different hop - terrible and no red or brown ale. 

Back home, watched the games, made our nachos for dinner which were delicious. Ford said they were the best ever I think because we had the Velveeta cheese with Rotel as a cheesy topping. The Kansas City Chiefs won, which was who we wanted to win not just because Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift dating but it is a Missouri team. 

Happy with the Chiefs heading to the Super Boal again. We ate our nachos for dinner, right before the Detroit Lions/SF 49ers game. We were sad to have the Lions lose.