Trip 4 part III - Rocky's Royal 50th

I was pleasantly surprised that the country folk know how to put on a good party. The theme was "Royal" so everyone dressed up in costume. There was the King of Rock n Roll (Elvis), Dame Edna, Prince Charles, and Princess Diana, Gypsy Kings, a corgy, a guy in a british flag, The King of Scotland, Indian princesses, and a variety of other Kings, Queens and Royals. Paul and I decided to be a Royal Flush and pinned cards to our outfits. We mingled with friends and family, ate lasagne and then the real party started. Rocky and his wife and kids and friends are all musicians so we had great entertainment all night. The best was when Paul decided to play drums. Back in the 80s he was in a successful band called JFK and the Cuban Crisis, but gave it up to pursue other interests. He said it had been years since he played but he had a big grin on his face most of the time so must have loved it. He played so hard his hands were bruised the next day and he bent his ring. It reminded me of my younger days too, following bands and band guys around. :) An old friend he hadn't seen in 25 years was agast. She stood beside me snapping her camera saying how this brought back so many memories. She told me how she and Paul were in the city band together and that's how she met this crowd. She also talked about how drop dead gorgeous he was as a younger man. "So I've heard" I replied. "Still has that great bone structure" she said as she wandered off.

The music was great, a bit of jazzy bluesy work, and some classic songs. We had a great time. When we left the party we had to de-ice the windows it was so chilly outside. Again we cuddled up in our freezing cold motel room and slept poorly. In the morning we had a giant breakfast with Paul's father, his wife and her kids and grandkids. Eggs, massive amounts of bacon, tomatoes, croissants, bread, cakes, several juices, pineapple, grapes, bananas, coffee, I am sure I'm missing other things too. Lou kindly gave us a deck of cards from Trieste, the Northern Italian city he hails from and sent us on our way with full bellies. We stopped by his brother's house, Paul's Uncle Mario on the way out of town. I really enjoyed his English wife. They too fed us cakes and tea and coffee. We finally rolled out of Orange just before midday.