What an Afternoon

As many of your know, Florida is in a drought and we have had very little rain this winter so we are always praying for more. However, yesterday afternoon our boat club planned it's annual boat poker run so we were not wanting rain during that as we had a number of pontoon boats loaded with passengers out on our 16,000 acre lake! As we were going around to the different check points to draw the envelopes out for our poker hands, the sky kept getting darker and darker. As we rounded an area called Bird Point, it got really black and the lightning stated flashing across the sky and it opened up-we were at least 15 minutes from our home dock and probably 20-25 minutes from the restaurant where we were to meet for lunch and to find out who had the best poker hands. Since the rain was coming from the direction of our docks, we headed down the river towards the restaurant. We could not outrun the storm and there was not enough cover under the cover for all of us so 5 folks huddled under there but they still got soaked! I was up front and held my beach towel over me but it was quickly soaked. We were on our friends' Vicky & Sonny's pontoon. Sonny was driving and I am not sure how he could see with the rain pelting him but he kept going as fast as conditions would allow. When the water got too shallow, we would have to shift around in the boat to keep from getting the motor hung up-what a time. Vicky had on white shorts and we all know what happens when white gets wet-her daughter was horrified when she stood up-she quickly tied her jacket around herself! I am glad we could all laugh about it. When we got to the restaurant, we looked like a bunch of dripping rats. We personally know the owners and they had planned on seating us outside but they had to move us inside and as there were 73 of us and the restaurant is small, they ended up having to close to any other customers! They had to turn off the a/c as it was freezing all of us. If we stood up after sitting in a chair, there was water in the chair. What a day to remember-we will be talking about this one for a long time. We are thankful all of us arrived safely and now if no one gets pneumonia we will be fine and looking forward to next year.
To top the day off, DH & I got a ride back home with our neighbors who drove there (several people were smarter than the rest of us)! When we got home, our golf cart was missing and our spare key was on it. Our 1st thought was someone is messing with us and took it and hid it. Then we were expecting my brother so thought maybe he and his wife had gone around the park on it (wasn't raining now). I called him and he wasn't here yet so......DH decided to crawl inside thru our front window! I had called another friend to take DH around to see if they could locate our cart. Another neighbor came by on his bike and said he thought he saw it down by the clubhouse. Still didn't ring a bell. Then suddenly it dawned on us-DUH, we drove it down to the dock for the ride on the boat! How silly-we laughed until we cried. Boyd took DH down to get the cart. We have been teased about what we were drinking on the poker run! Just a diet coke, but I guess that cold rain washed away our memory! This truly was quite an afternoon to remember and then in the evening the social club held a beautiful memorial service for all of our residents who had passed away in the past year. What a touching service-it ended with a slide show of those who we lost (including my dad). I don't believe there was a dry eye in the house and I was glad my brother and his wife were able to attend this with us.
Memories-the stuff that we cherish when all else fades away.