The Red Mill Tavern was really a nice place, great ambiance and a beautiful blonde waitress with a great attitude, personality, and above all, an unrivaled competence and understanding of her job. She warned us that the "Fire Rigatoni Chicken" was indeed quite spicy, but that didn't stop four of our party of eight from ordering it. The dish was similar to what you might get at Olive Garden, but nearly double the size, and the creamy Alfredo sauce was almost orange. The pleasant heat built as the meal progressed until we were going through a glass of iced tea every ten minutes towards the end.
It was a very enjoyable hour and a half of great company and great food with plenty of stories and laughter exchanged, but finally it was time to pay the bill...and pay the bill!
When we walked out to get in our cars, we were greeted by the restaurant owner/mayor and his son in the parking lot. The Mayor was manning a hundred foot water hose they had rolled out from a maintenance shed, and his son had his phone out to record the whole affair. All the patrons were crowded up against the near side rail, ready for some action. Boone and the Ruster did his burnout first, then rolled out to the exit and back on course, not wanting to waste any time on his batteries waiting for us. Dale and the Gremlin were next, then Rachael motioned me up in the water as I had explained to her that I wanted to be at the trailing edge of the puddle. I held the 428 at 5800 for about 15 seconds, let go of the line lock, rolled out about ten feet before lifting, then I pulled the Valiant up behind Dale. Rachael stayed back to help Rick and Sharma line the Dart up in the water, and Rick did a crazy, John Force style burnout, where he was still rolling smoke out when he flew by the right of Dale and I.
"That was a pretty wimpy burnout, Dad!" Rachael greeted me when she crawled back in the passenger's side of the Valiant.
"What do you mean?" I shrugged, and gave her a disgusted look, "It felt fine to me".
"Definitely the worst of the four", she shook her head, "almost embarrassing!"
"Now you're just jerking my chain", I shook my head.
"Oh! So my opinion doesn't matter when it differs from yours?" The look, the question, and the voice inflection were all straight out of her mama's playbook. I opened my mouth to speak, but thirty-three years of marriage had taught me a few lessons, so I swallowed the words. Rick and Sharma headed out on the road, but Dale was still talking to the owner's son, so it was a few minutes later before we followed the Gremlin out onto the street.