I worked from home this morning, and did a load of laundry.
I left the house around 12:30, and got to Robert’s at about 1:15. We got on the road by 1:30.
We hit the most incredible traffic jam at about mile marker 62 on I-85, and spent the next hour getting to exit 65. The road went from 3 lanes down to 2 lanes down to one. When we finally hit the one lane area, it was about 150 yards long, with those concrete barriers cordoning off the lane, and nothing was happening there, no one was working. Absolutely fucking infuriating. Not to mention the waste of gas with cars lined up for miles and mile going, literally 5-10 miles an hour. Redamndiculous.
We were in touch with Joe the whole way who was about 30 miles behind us. We gave him enough warning, and he had a map, so ended up taking an alternate route to save himself some time and aggravation.
We arrived at the hotel close to four o’clock, checked in, and unloaded the car. They had changed our room from the suite with two queens to one King. Fortunately, we didn’t have plans for anyone to be in the other bed, or would have had to have gone into “Missy” mode. I love these suites here with a fridge and microwave in a little kitchen area, and the living room separate from the bedroom.
We checked in at the hoedown registration desk in the hotel lobby, and received our name tags, Queen City Stomp 2005 t-shirts, and a little bag of goodies, which contained some coupons, admission tickets, a lollipop, a gum ball, and a piece of double-bubble gum. Oh yeah, and a condom. How thoughtful.
We went down to the Hospitality Suite for the reception, which ran from 5-6 according to the schedule, but it was almost 5:30, and we were the only two people in there besides the organizers. They had some pretty good snacks, along with an open bar. I had three, or was it four by the end, cocktails. Actually, I think it was 5.
We went to a combination KFC/Pizza Hut for a light dinner, where I got a little personal pan pepperoni pizza, and proceeded to spill my entire glass of bourbon and diet all over my shorts. Looking back, I’m not quite sure what I was thinking bringing a mixed drink in there to begin with. Bless my mess.
We returned to the hotel, and caught the complimentary van service to Liaisons for the cocktail party from 6-8. It was a nice bar, one which Joe’s friend Richard frequents a lot, so Joe had been to a couple of times. I had on my “Eye Bee M” t-shirt, and an IBMer there, who actually reads the EAGLE database, introduced himself. Dang it. I can’t remember his name now.
We got in the van to come back to the hotel, and then someone noticed the other van there, which had the same driver we had coming over, so most of us got out and went into that one. Joe stayed behind in the other one.
We walked over to the EAGLE by about 10:00, I guess, and had a fun night of dancing. I only had one drink, the complimentary one that came as part of our “package.” They didn’t do as many of the line dances that we know that I would have liked them to, but did do Boot Scootin’ Boogie, Georgia Winder, Midnight Waltz, and Bayou City Twister.
Joe and I left, probably around 1:00, and went to the IHOP for breakfast. I ate two of my four “Pigs in a Blanket,” and Joe had some kind of Chicken Sandwich.
We stopped in at the “After Hours Party,” which was billed from 1:00AM — 4:00AM, and what did they have there but pizza, which Joe and I could have eaten free. Oh well. I passed on it, and had a drink. We caught up with Robert and the rest of the boys, but I was exhausted, and not too long after that went up to bed.