Weekend Past

Well, this past weekend was quite a trip! First off my birthday was Friday and the goal for Friday was to be in Wichita, KS. watching a play at the Crown Uptown Theatre which my son Billy was performing. Shelley and I had decided to both take the day off so we could get an early start for KS. and have some time to spend with Billy before he had to be at the theatre. Well, we left at 0930 hrs, so much for early. I'm one of those guys that likes to get on the road between 4 and 6 in the morning, (thanks mom). Mom used to like to do that as well, of course she would also want to drive until dark. There was one trip we made driving straight through from Electra to Phoenix AZ.. The trip was being funded by an Uncle of mine and she didn't want to use his credit card for anything but gas, Uncle Mel was very upset, anyway I digress. The trip took us about 7 hours with the rain and storms that we had to pass through, but we made it. Billy decided that he would just meet us at the motel and visit with us until he had to leave for the theatre. On this trip we also did something that we have never done before and that was bring our family pet, which meant staying at a pet friendly motel, our selection was Motel 6. We had a pretty good visit before it was time to go and off we went to the show.



The show was the same show that he performed in Branson and he was in the same role that he played in Branson, the only difference were the actors around him. Well, that made a BIG difference in the quality of the show. You could tell by the way the show went that this was a group of professionals that truly enjoyed working with each other. All of the cast members played a musical instrument and most of them played three or more instruments including Billy who played the stand up base, mandolin and guitar. Oh BTW the leading actress was played by Ms Kim Dugan, former Ms KS. and she was brilliant! Anyway, after the shows each evening the cast set around and visited with each other and we were invited to join them Friday night which made my birthday a long long day but a very memorable one. You know that no matter how old your children get you still worry about them and want them to have positive experiences in life. After this visit we can rest assured that this is going to be a good experience for Billy. Finally, Shelley and I got back to the motel around midnight and settled in for a good snooze. Now this is where things turned sour.

At about 0230 hrs our phone rang, I picked it up worried that is was Billy with bad news but instead it was Cindy who said she thought she was calling Stacy! Not too bad right? Well Cindy decided to start getting friendly over the phone with me. What's you name? What are you doing? Do you have to work tomorrow? What do you do for a living? I played along for a bit and then I advised my new best friend that I was not interested and that I was going back to bed with my wife! She sounded hurt and was trying to say something else when I hung the phone up. Then back to sleep I fell until around 0430 hrs. when the party outside in the court yard arrived and that went on for about 30 minutes until someone from the motel staff finally arrived on the scene and broke the party up. Motel 6, they kept the light on all night and have friendly folks calling your room in case you get lonely being so far from home!

Saturday went much better, we had a brunch with Billy and then off to the Wichita Zoo we went! It was a pretty nice zoo and showed evidence of expanding and making things even better. The weather cooperated and besides the wind it was a good day for all. We went to the show again and headed for home around noon on Sunday. Anyway, if you are around Wichita between now and June 7th, stop by the Crown Uptown in Wichita, KS and see "Smoke on the Mountain" , I guarantee that it will be a positive experience for you too and as far as Motel 6 is concerned, we just unplugged our phone and had a good night sleep on Saturday night!