A whirlwind 48-hour trip to Kansas City and we’re home safely ready to enjoy a day or two away from some of our normal activities. We went to K.C. to attend the Central States Shrine Association event which was made up of Shriners from 7 states. The Shriners from Abou Ben Adhem Shrine in Springfield took over the entire Comfort Suites and as is typical with Shriners, certainly didn’t skimp on hospitality rooms. The drink du jour was the mango margarita – our new favorite!
Yesterday morning, Burl competed with 7 others from his unit in drill team competition riding their mini-cruisers. They started this group as an offshoot of the BIG motorcycles in late spring so have only had a few months to practice together. To say their expectations were low and their anxiety high would be an understatement. Suffice it to say their goal was not to totally disgrace themselves and beyond that they hoped to learn a lot to help them for next year.
The event was held in the parking lot at Arrowhead Stadium and consisted of 4 parts – first they had to undergo a rigorous inspection of their attire and the condition and look of their cruisers, next they did their drill routine for the judges, then they individually did a slow ride course (slowest rider wins – and you lose points if your foot touches the ground!) and finally they had to each ride an obstacle course. They had no idea how well they did because the other units were competing at the same time on other courses or in other events so they had to wait until last evening when two of the members attended the awards banquet. Imagine our delight when they took #1 in the obstacle course and #3 in drill team overall. Best of all, they only used the top 2 scores for the obstacle course and one of them was Burl’s! This morning they participated in a parade in downtown K.C. – the route was short but the number of entries stretched out from beginning to end over 2 hours.
Several of our friends stayed over for another night but after the parade and a celebratory pizza fest we decided to head for home. It looked like most of our buddies were going to head to the casinos tonight and since we lost about $40 there last night, we figured we could save our money and sleep in our own bed.
Happy September and a Happy 8th birthday to great-nephew Sam.
