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Sunday, December 29, 2013

Good bye ol' Friend, Hello, New Year.

With the new year approaching it is time to acknowledge the passing of 2013.  It was a great year, in a way, and kind of rough in other ways, it was a little like life in general.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you
lose, and sometimes you do both.
In the early part of the year we went to see the Nebraska football spring game, which was so exciting, our team won, but it was terrible because our team lost.  The weather was fantastic, which was nice, because we tried to go the year before and the game was cancelled because of violent electric storms, torrential rain and potential, impending tornados.  During the game, which was a back and forth battle of evenly matched teams, the Red Team unveiled a secret weapon in the form of Team Jack, a child with an inoperable brain tumor, who rambled 69 yards for the touchdown that sealed the victory.

See Jack Run, and Score

It may have been the greatest touchdown run of all time.

Later in the year we went to the Lawn Mower Races in Pukwana, SD at the world famous Puk U. Bar
 The fastest lawn crew in the world.
and Grille, (it may not be world famous, but it is owned by a family member so it is World Famous every where our family is).  Lawn Mower races are fast paced, energy filled extravaganzas where people speed around a oval track on riding lawn mowers that have been beefed up, with and really move.  Of course, there are extra points for trimming the lawn in a checkerboard, golf green fashion.



This is is only the beginning.
No trip to South Dakota is complete without a trip to the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore, and no trip to Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills is complete without a trip to Wall Drug, and Keystone.  Wall Drug is a tourist trap, unvarnished, unashamed, and wonderful.  It is crowded, hectic, and filled with fantastic trinkets, that serve no purpose and cost too much, and it is fun, from one end to the other.  Keystone is a small town, a very short drive from Mount Rushmore, with a boardwalk, with little restaurants, and shops, and tourists, and taffy and fudge, and little bars, and it is crowded and fun, and we stay there every time we go.
Wow, That is Big Time!

Of course the best part of Keystone may be Big Time Pizza, where we had our first Baltika beer.  The help is friendly, the pizza is extraordinary and the beer is first class.  A trip to Keystone is not complete with a Big Time pizza, a Baltika beer and trio to Rattlesnake Jake's for a new knife bottle opener combination.

In the fall we headed to Louisville to see the defending National Champion Louisville Cardinals play the season opener. I have been a Cardinal fan for a long time, and my sons and wife are converts.   We watched them raise the Championship banner, and Coach Pitino thanked me publicly and over the PA for helping them win the title.  He had to include all of the Louisville fans, just to be polite, they buy tickets and stuff, too, but we all knew who he was talking to.  Then we watched the game and had a good time.


Plus we got to stay at the Embassy Suites with the Morehead State football team, a polite group of young men, some of whom were very large.  The Embassy Suites is another wonderful item from last year.  The Embassy Suites has free cocktails in the evening, and they are pretty generous, no tickets, no limits, and no hassles.  Plus, they have the biggest, best free breakfast we have ever found.  Giant breakfasts, with huge omelets, biscuits and gravy, pancakes, so big it takes several men to carry it to the table, and coffee, oh my the coffee is so good it might be illegal.


I can't wait to see what next year brings.

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