Once inside the restruant, I was feelng the last 100 mile beating in my hips and lower back, so when the waiter asked how we were doing I told him!
"We'll see if we can take of that", he said with a comforting tone. He had our drink order quickly, and then Rachael asked for a Long Island Iced Tea, "You have ID?"
She headed out to get it and I explained to him that this was her 23rd birthday. Eddie was a tall black man, in his early 50's if I had to guess, and he was easily the most engaging, efficient waiter I've ever been around. He seemed to anticipate our needs without being intrusive, and made the meal an absolute delight. We all refused dessert as we loaded up our leftovers, but he brought out an excellent bread pudding, with 5 spoons and set it in front of Rachael, "Compliments of the house, for your Birthday". It was the perfect ending to a perfect meal, a perfect day actually.
Rachael's B-day, being the second weekend of Sept. when the Monster Mopar Weekend was traditionally held...was spent sans Dad quite often in her childhood, I hoped in some small way, this day made up for that.
We drove to the motel, and decided to put Dale and Darryl in the same room, figuring Mr. lets get there 30 minutes before the gates open, and Mr. lets get there 30 minutes before they cut off the back of the lanes, would be a perfect foil against each other! It felt good to actually get in bed before midnight for a change.

The Birthday girl trying to do the exact pose on the sheet at checkpoint #1