Wyatt's Poker Run = Success!

All the work and worry and anticipation and then- poof! So quickly, it's over. But what a glorious day it was! A recap-
Friday night I quit working about 6 pm. Ginger was already here, having flown in on Wed. night. A very good help she was on Thursday but Friday was a sunny day and even demi-goddesses have to be tan, so I lost her to the beach towel and tanning lotion. No matter as we were winding down. Friday night was to be a relaxed evening on the patio, renewing old friendhips, and so it was. Kyla and Lauren got in about dark from Mnpls, Bobbi, Josh and friends from southern MO, Will from WI, Ali from CO, Laura from Mnpls, many more friends and family. We grilled and ate and laughed, it was great.
Sat. morning dawned kinda cloudy but the forecast was for a hot, sunny day. We loaded up t-shirts and registration forms and headed to Sioux Falls about 10 am. It started to rain on me on the way down and I had a couple bad thoughts for a second but then it quit. Once we got down there, I found out the first disturbing fact of the day- there was ANOTHER POKER RUN LEAVING FROM THE SAME PLACE! No wonder the owner had not been staying in touch with me. Whether or not by accident or design, we had a local ABATE chapter set up right next to us in the parking lot. The (very literally) big guy from ABATE was whining and crying like a baby as soon as we got there, he couldn't believe we'd scheduled our run on the same day, they'd had the first weekend in June for 16 years, blah, blah, blah. He was really starting to get annoying and I was on the verge of telling him he didn't own June 3rd, no matter how much he liked to think he did, when he gave it up and went back to his table to sulk. So we're set up by 10:30 am and in the next hour we'd registered maybe, oh, 10 people. I was starting to get nervous. It was so bad we had to forge an alliance with the ABATE folks that we would ask anybody that came to our table which run they were actually there for, so we wouldn't steal each others people. About 11:45 things got busy in a hurry. Suddenly we couldn't keep up and there were lines. It felt so great to ask someone I'd never met before which ride he was there for and have him reply, "I'm here for Wyatt". There was a group of friends from Dell Rapids that actually chartered a bus, filled it and came to the run. It was awesome and overwhelming. From then on, the day was a piece of cake, riding to each spot, spending some time on the bike with my daughters, visiting with all our friends and making new ones. Too soon, it was almost 6 pm and we had to be back to the Old Dutch Inn for the drawing for best hand. All the winners graciously donated the money back to the fund. We all ate great food donated by Tom & Jamie of the Old Dutch, then danced and sang the night away with karaoke. I haven't tallied final numbers yet, but between 175-200 poker hands were sold. Special thanks to Jack at the Sidewinder, Mark & Elizabeth from Baltic Corner, Trisha & Matt from the Prarieview, Kathy & Chris from the Colton Bar, Steve from Steve's Bar in Trent, Susan & Smith Publishing for the flyers, Chris Hintz and Pinnacle Entertainment for karaoke, and last but certainly not least, Tom & Jamie from the Old Dutch Inn. I know I'm forgetting someone, forgive me, it wasn't intentional. Thanks to all of Wyatt's friends and family who traveled long distances to be with us. What a tremendous tribute to our son. Thank you all from the bottom of our heart.