Dudes Weekend in Virginia

I had an awesome time this past weekend in Mineral, VA on the banks of Lake Anna with four high school buddies. For the most part, I only get to see them once a year because of the usual suspects, geographic location, family and work. But this has become an annual event because John's wife Paula suggested we all get together for his 40th birthday five years ago to get his ass out of the house!! This was the 2nd straight year we've held it at Dave's awesome vacation/soon to be retirement home in rural VA. After enjoying a lunch with my nine year old son Ryan and my parents/his grandparents at school on Friday, it was time to start the 3 1/2 hour trek slightly northwest to Mineral. I arrived without any problems from the GPS and was greeted by the gang that had already arrived from central PA. I was also told that we'd be a man down because our one buddy, Chris, had to stay back home in NY to attend to his ailing wife and their three kids. It was definitely a good news/bad news situation. Good news = more beer and food for the rest of us. Bad news = missing his snarky comments and humor for the 36 hour weekend!!

Highlights of the weekend include:

• Getting out on Lake Anna on Saturday afternoon on Dave's boat. Despite the cool air temperatures, just an awesome time on the water with the guys taking in all the views.

• Tavern On The Rail restaurant in Fredericks Hall, VA. Don't know how these people do it, but they serve a great seafood dish appropriately named Frederick's Hall Casserole. I say I don't know how they do it because nobody lives near this place and they have great food. Well worth the trip to the place if you're in the area.

• Dave making an outstanding sausage chowder for lunch on Saturday.

• The smells coming from the basement due to the consumption of varying foods and alcohol. This can only be appreciated based on my vast experiences with these guys having known them for just slightly under 30 years to date.

Lowlights of the weekend:

• Waking up on Sunday morning to find two inches of new snow on the ground. In the immortal words of Greg Wallis, currently living in Syracuse, NY, "I came down here this weekend to get away from this shit!!"

• The smells coming from the basement. Some of you need to visit a doctor or two to see what in the hell is wrong with you in your old age!!

All in all, a great time was had by all and hopefully next year we can get the group weekend back up to a six pack.