We drove in Friday night for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal dinner had a luau theme, and we had a great time! During the dinner, Nathan and Lydia were given sun visors that were shaped like a shark and a parrot. Remember that, because it will be important in the later part of this story! We spent the night in a local motel. The wedding was not until 3:00 the next afternoon, and since checkout at the hotel was at 11:00, we had to find something to fill the few hours in between.
On the drive down, we passed the Pinson Mounds Archeological Area. We had no idea what that was, but it wasn't too far away and it sounded both historical and educational, so of course we had to go! What a fascinating trip! We enjoyed it so much that we're already planning a second trip when Lily's a little older and we have better shoes on. (It's hard to climb mounds in flip-flops.) While we were prohibited from climbing the museum, one of the mounds had stairs built up the side so that we could climb to the top. This mound is the second highest mound in the Untited States. It's a ceremonial mound and not a burial site, so we weren't being disrespectful by climbing it.
After we left the mounds, it was time for lunch. We had heard that there was a little diner in Henderson that offered the "best burger in West Tennessee," so we decided to check it out. After all, we could eat at McDonald's anytime, but how often would we have an opportunity like this? When we found the diner, the first thing I noticed was that there weren't many cars. There were, however, lots of Harley-Davidson motorcycles. I looked at Matt. Suddenly, the best burger in West Tennessee didn't seem like such a good idea.
"It's a burger joint," he said. "They'll clear out quickly." We went in. Sure enough, the diner was packed with bikers. But they weren't your average bikers. Take a moment and imagine the sweetest little old lady that you know. Now imagine her in tight jeans with a Harley-Davidson doo-rag on her head. These bikers were all senior citizens!
The highlight of my dining experience came at the end, when Matt and Lydia had gone to pay for our meal. Nathan had swapped the shark hat he was wearing at the park for Lydia's parrot hat. He was so enjoying wearing the hat that he refused to take it off. As we were waiting on Matt and Lydia, a very large and scruffy biker approached our table. He was huge. He was hairy. He was a little bit scary. He walked up to Nathan and said, "Hey, buddy, I'll trade my hat for yours." He held out a plain black baseball cap. Nathan wasn't intimidated in the least. He looked at the cap. He looked at the biker. And without a second thought, he replied, "No. I like my hat. I'm gonna keep it!"
Fortunately for us, this man was much nicer than he looked!
We had a great time at the wedding and enjoyed catching up with friends that we hadn't seen for some time. It is, as always, good to be home for a little while!
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