A night or two in St. George, Utah

Shucks! I missed posting last Sunday morning, but there was not a thing I could do about it. I don't have a lap top, I-phone, or other thing-a-ma-jig that would post something from out of town. I had a little trip to take to a family reunion in a small town in Utah over the weekend and was ensconced in Motel Helluva Night in St. George for two nights. The accommodations were all right, but it was the noisest damn place I've been to for awhile and didn't get much sleep.

Friday night wasn't too bad, just noisy kids staying up late and running up and down the sidewalk outside the rooms and laughing and yelling and carrying on. And you add that to a fish sandwich made of the oldest fish in the world and half a banana split with chocolate ice cream and whipping cream and a few nuts and whatever else they put on it, the night was restless to say the least. I know it was the oldest fish ever, since nobody knew what kind it was.

It was colder than Hades in the small town with wind and rain, and snow up in the mountains, but the turnout was fair and everyone was stuffing chicken and baked beans and potato salad and talking a mile a minute. I think they were talking or their teeth were chattering from the cold and the wind blowing threw the ears causing a whistling sound as it exited the other side. My cousin showed up in a t-shirt and said the weather didn't bother him since he used to work in a turkey plant where the temperature was alway kept below 40 degrees. Lucky feller that day! I couldn't find a big enough coat to keep the cold out of my bones and only ate one chicken leg, some beans, potato salad, fresh cherries, grapes, potato chips, cookies, etc., to fight off the chilly wind.

Saturday night at Motel Helluva Night was a riot, trying to sleep. I was aroused around 11:30 P.M. by someone pounding on a door across the courtyard parking lot and yelling like he was madder'n a grizzly bear with cubs. Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang, Fauna! Fauna! Fauna! Let me in! (it sound like he was yelling). Rat-atat-tat rat-a-tat-tat on the door again and again and Fauna! Fauna! Let me in! Bang-bang-bang-a-bang-bang! More knocking, and it went on for about forty-five minutes or so before the guy passed out or something. And the damn telephone in the room didn't work (classy joint, huh) so I couldn't call anybody, and of course I couldn't get back to sleep for a long time. And it didn't help any that I pigged out at the Olive Garden before tumbling into bed with a package of Tums. I wonder if Fauna had a boyfriend or someone else in the room that the guy was so mad about. Hmm-m, that would make a good story if only I had time to write it.

Anyway, my brother-in-law said the reunion was a big success and he enjoyed it more than any he had been to, and I agreed with him, amost, if I hadn't a had to drive 400 miles on Sunday. I gave away three or four copies of The Stranger from the Valley and told everybody there that they could buy my next book that would be coming out in a month or two from Amazon. com, etc., and to please do so, they will enjoy The Upamona Gold Claim Wrangle.