Good Eats and Dominoes With Our Friends

 

This morning I woke up with Sherri’s alarm going off. It was a work day for her and she had to be up and ready by 7:00. The store she is working at is just down the road from the motel here but leaving early means getting home early. She was in the shower by the time I got the steam up to get out of bed. I had showered the night before so that I would not be in her way. I got my clothes on and sat down at the computer to post on my journal.

Again I would like to thank everyone for the comments on my entries. I enjoy telling ALL in my post and I hope that I can live up to the kind comments that I get each and every week. Today’s post as the title reveals is about our meeting up with the Hatch’s and their wonderful family. Not often are you invited to spend time with a family and be entertained the way we were. This was especially nice being that we are in a place far from our stomping grounds and family and to be with people that treat you as if they had known you all your life!! How great is that!!

John called me about 3:00 Wednesday to see if we had made it OK. He asked me if Sherri and I would like to go out to eat with them and I accepted with the stipulation that I would have to see how Sherri was feeling when she returned from work. I told him that I would call him back as soon as I had the chance to speak with her. Sherri of course was ready to go and so about 4:30 John pulled up in front of the motel in our chariot. I was not sure if it was them…the windows in the van were dark and I could not make out who was inside. I was cautious approaching the vehicle…remembering what John had told me about this neighborhood not being the best in Jackson. I could see masked people jumping out of the van and abducting Sherri and I….and we would miss getting to go out to eat with John and Bridget!
As things would have it….it was them and we climbed in safely. Inside the van was Harold… John’s brother…his wife Sandie…John and Bridget and Sherri and I took the honors of the middle row of seats….did I say it was a van?

The ride to the restaurant was long…I at one point asked John if it was in Mississippi. They assured us that it was just ahead and sure enough shortly we pulled into the parking lot of the “Azteca Mexican Restaurant”. We had a wonderful meal and a real good visit with all. To top it all off John bought all our meals! Thanks John and Bridget for such a fine meal at a unique restaurant.

Unique may not be the correct adjective for the restrooms at this restaurant. At one time…I believe John told us that they were outside but the owner had put a roof over them to combine them with the rest of the building. Now that would have been a first for us…going outside to potty at a restaurant. I am glad that they had corrected that before we arrived You still had to part the Mexican blankets in the doorway and then step over the lower half of a wall to go to the hallway that led to the restrooms. They were located on the left of the hall about two steps up in height and upon entering them you found one potty and a sink. Far be it for much of a line to form outside…it could be trouble. The food was good and that is all that counted.

On the way home someone mentioned dominoes and asked if Sherri and I would like to play. They were all headed over to Bridget’s Mom and Dad’s house to play Mexican Train and wanted us to go with them. I asked Sherri if she would like to do that and she agreed it would be fun as long as I got her home in time for bed…being that she had to work the next day. John dropped us by our Motel to get our truck and then we followed them. It was just a short drive to the house and we were greeted by Bob and Marcy….who by the way are the greatest people you would ever want to meet. They welcomed us into their home with open arms and then whipped the fire out of us at dominoes. We had a ball…learning how to play this new game and laughing at all the goings on around the table. We had to set up two tables to accommodate all the players. We had dominoes scattered all over both tables and trains coming off at all angles…WOW I was having trouble keeping up with who had played last. Marcy and Bob would hand there domino to John to lay down for them…seeing as how they could not reach the train…John would play the domino and then I would play thinking it was John’s domino….and my turn. I must have played out of turn 20 plus times before I got the hang of it. Sherri got mad cause I kept laying doubles down and she could not play…then she could not get a train going and then well you get the picture. To top it all off Sandie put me down as “Stinky” on the score pad. She said she had misunderstood what they were calling me…maybe she did or maybe they were all calling me that??? I didn’t care…we were having so much fun that it really didn’t matter what anyone called me. Later I think she changed it to Joe Stinky Speedy…which really made me feel better….HE HE.

What a night it was! We had to excuse ourselves after they whipped up on us…it was about 9:45 when we started our good-byes and about 10:00 when the truck pulled out of the driveway.

On the drive home Sherri …once again commented on how nice it is to have friends all over the USA…that are so much like family. Our dreamer friends are so special to us and we can’t wait to meet up with more of them….

Somewhere in Time.