If you haven't looked already, check out Ray's great pictures.

Buses By Bill ran right into Dallas' Tremendous Traffic Tie-up. We partied .. and chatted .. and partied .. and chatted .. and still no Billy Bob's. Kristin and I gingerly approached the topic of the Quarterback Who Must Not Be Named, and to our mutual delight we became fast friends. She's my absolute favorite Packer fan, and I'm her absolute favorite Viking fan. How good is THAT??

Meanwhile, the run for the bus bathroom was picking up new participants by the minute. C'mon, Bill, let's get that bus rolling! Finally, Kristin & Greg confirmed we were only a few short minutes away.

We walked into the famed Billy Bobs and headed straight for the bar. Our waitress explained they just didn't have much of a wine selection, so I opted for the cheap white wine. Bert jumped on the bandwagon, choosing the cheap red. The beer selection, no surprise, was extensive and deep. Gary grabbed his current favorite, Blue Moon, and we partied .. and chatted. Then we drank .. and partied .. and chatted some more .. and still no sign of the second Buses By Bill. After a two hour ride, the rest of our gang arrived. The buffet line was officially opened to the appreciation of the hungry crowd.

The brisket lived up to its billing and the ribs were good. The prime rib, on the other hand, needed improvement. Who cares? Go back and get the brisket!! Next thing we knew, bring on the bull riding. It brought back wonderful memories of our weekends at the Bucking Horse Sales with Jim and Jan B. Bull riding lasts about 20 minutes, and we all agreed it's a tough life to work in the rodeo.

Next up, lots of photos from the bull riding booth. Ray captured them perfection. Tom & Marcy also got a really great picture. Ride 'em, cowgirl!!

Time for the line dancing and the dance bands. Yee haw! You couldn't hear yourself think, so many of the faithful hit the bus and headed back to the hotel. A smattering of us (a/k/a the dancing drill team) stayed on for more two steps and twirls. Goodness gracious, we've got a lot of learning curve to climb when we're talking the two step. Mama Sup let us know the last bus would be leaving a little early. I think we were dancing to the Cotton Eye Joe and decided we needed one more run at the dance floor. Mama Sup made a spectacular splash, reviving The Penguin line dance from our ICE trip. Memories of Joel and Louie came flooding back, dancing in their penguin suits. Three of our group were doing the penguin, and next thing we knew about 40 Texans decided to jump into the line. We rushed to join in the fun, when other Texans decided they were taking back the dance floor with their terrific two-step technique. Alas, they were destined to failure, as we just ring fenced 'em with our growing line of penguin dancers. Heh heh heh ..

That seemed like an ideal time to thank our new friends and get the heck out of there before we further ticked off the two steppers. Our bus got us back to the hotel in about an hour, where the gab fests were well underway. Folks were drifting to bed after long days of flying and bus rides took their toll. A few hardy souls stayed up and relived our very pleasant memories of Stelios, the great Greek guide in Athens.

Bedtime came late and the sun came up early. Time to head out, get some exercise, see a close friend for lunch and get ready for POOCH.

Cheers, Anne

Anne, Thanks for starting the HO DOWN mail. Sounds like a great start to the Texas weekend. More when you can!!

I have been looking all over for Anne and haven't seen her yet, maybe I better go to the pooch games one more time!

I am having so much fun meeting people I have "known" for years, in person!!!

Karen,can you find a computer with wireless and webcam to broadcast the Pooch game?

Here are the pooch results for those who missed the webcam prize ceremony:

20 players/9 games/10 game winners (incl a tie.) There were quite a few new inductees to the society.

Grand prizes included pooch winner pins for the top three plus a stylish "Don't Mess with Texas" t-shirt, DMWT hat and a special South Africa card deck.

Highest score - Gary (Mr. Adrenn) (124)

Highest cumulative scores: Al (Mr. Graywolf) and Pat (RPM)

and congrats to the individual game winners:
Al
Gary
Dave
Anne
Mark
Pat
David
Brad
Betty
Russ

aaaahhh, the infamous MUD MAN deck!!!!!

where to begin? The webcam captured the party in all its glory. Maybe the after party ..

We headed back from the mother ship to the temporary mother ship, the Aloft hotel in Plano. Someone had booked the totally hip 40th birthday party, complete with late 80's costume effects and a booming DJ act. We think there was a temporary shortage in fish net stockings, as they were all on display for this party. We took all of 2 nanoseconds to decide it was a double-special LCT surprise. John and Tonya succinctly summarized: We single handedly unhipped the party. From hip to unhip in the blink of an eye.

We cheerfully invaded the dance floor, much to the shock and chagrin of the invited guests. Are you RICH? Are you a BITCH? was blaring as we mixed, mingled and everything in between with the birthday girl and her increasingly unhip friends. the invited guests could only do one thing: grab us as dance partners so as to take back the floor.

We exercised a modicum of self-restraint; we left the birthday cake to the invited (and, in some cases, inverted) guests. Bedtime called, so I slid between the sheets around 11:59 pm. The last of the LCTers (Kristin, Greg, Carla, Frank and Susan) closed up the festivities closer to 2 am.

You can take us out of Bucks County, but you can't take us Bucks County out of us. 5:55 am and it was time to get going. I elected myself unanimously as the bon voyage representative. I proudly wore my bucking horse sales t-shirt. My arm, however, was covering up the "b". This lead to considerable study and surprise amongst the company. Too, too funny!!

Slowly over the next 6 hours, several of our company headed first for breakfast and then for DFW or home.

The really good news is Arlene got her wallet back (a collective WHEW has been heard as far away as Billy Bob's, Ft. Worth) and today's extra special event, OAG (orphaned alcohol guzzling) is a GO. Lars got the ball rolling with a bottle of Menage a Trois, complete with cork screw. Tony will lead the group in soaking up all the unused alcohol from our homebound companions. It's all about recycling, no?

Dinner at the Keg will kick off in one short hour. Nap time is over; back to serious socializing. What more could an LCTer want?

About all we missed was (a) the non-posting, long suffering spouse or partner meeting, where they would find lots of company in "why on earth are they spending all that time on this chatboard and internet thing?" lament and (b) the obedience training camp cruise for recalcitrant spouses. It will be on Regent and will be all-inclusive. Details may or may not follow, depending on my memory and inspiration.

Thanks for virtually (and visually) coming along for our weekend. I would not have missed this for anything. Thanks so much to Ngaire, Ken, the entire B&K staff, the Aloft folks and everyone who made the trek. We've truly got the top travel agent team around. They have knocked themselves out for us.

Cheers, Anne

Couldn't have said it better myself Anne, you did a great job of the day by day of our three day LCT "cruise". It was a total blast and soooo much fun. Seeing everyone we knew again, meething those I "knew" but hadn't met, and meeting many other new friends. The staff at BK did an amazing job with everything, and especially shutteling us all back and forth.

Unfortunately I missed most of last night, Debbie had to bring me home early from the Keg, so I missed most of the fun. Was really feeling weird and strange. Seem to have recovered this morning, we are now at the Adrmirals club waiting for our flight home.

Lots of fun memories though and Frank said this morning "thanks for deciding to do this, it was a great time". We felt like we were just on a little mini cruise, too short, but so fun.

Gotta ask: How and where did Arlene's wallet turn up? It must have been an unbelievable relief. I give Arlene tremendous credit for her composure while it was lost.

------------

Eugene

What a relief for Arlene! As usual, Anne has done a stellar job distilling the Ho Down experience (I thought that was an apt choice of verbiage)into a succinct nugget. Everyone had a wonderful time and had a chance to reconnect with old friends and meet new ones we are anxious to travel with in the future. The only problem was that the cruise was too short! Thanks above all to Ngaire, Ken and the entire B & K staff for making us all feel so welcome and taking care of every last detail (was there any doubt?).

We just got home after picking up our dogs...cats haven't been seen yet, they're sulking but will show up when their tummies start growling.

We had such a great time with everyone. Lots of fun times at the Aloft "after hours" and the planned events (Billy Bobs, the Ho-Down party at Ngaire and Ken's, the office tour and dinner at the Keg last night were FANTASTIC. Thanks so much to B&K for all they did....BTW, I asked Debbie and Russ if they could pick us up at DFW Friday for the party next weekend...I sure hope they know I was just kidding!

GREAT WEEKEND !

OK Eugene - I take it all back, you DO look like your picture. Sorry :o must have mixed you up with somebody else. Great meeting you and Gail.

Eugene is much more handsome in person than those tiny little pictures that we all use!

I am finally home too. From touch down to my apartment was only about 45 minutes.... what a breeze the airport was this morning.

I slept most of the way, or at least I think I did... it's 9AM Tuesday here and I feel like it is only about 2PM Monday so it was a very easy trip. Now on to unpacking all those groceries!

Eugene, I finally found my wallet behind my suitcase lodged between the wall and that bench between the windows. It must have fallen out of my purse when I tossed it there when I got back from Billy Bobs and then each time I opened the suitcase it pushed it further down. Only found it when I moved the suitcase to start to pack. I feel so stupid, but I am after all a blond and many times I live up to the "blond reputation" as Marc will attest. Many, many thanks to all of those who were so comforting and helpful to me. I truly don't know what I would have done without you all.

Wasn't that a fantastic weekend? Definitely 5 days I will remember forever. We are indeed a lucky bunch to be part of something so special. :lct:

I too, pass along my sincere thanks to the B&K staff and Ngaire and Ken for hosting such a fantastic, memorable, fun filled weekend. What a blast it was to meet so many I had known online for years.

We should consider making this an annual event. Though not as the responsibility / expense of Ngaire and Ken and B&K) Something to think about....Comments anyone?

Arlene: I apologise. I didn't look at the colour of your hair when you scored 30 at pooch!

Oh David you are SO funny! Am I ever, ever going to live that down? Please cut me some slack it had been a tramatic day until that point! I wish we would have had more time to talk. You left before I even got to say good bye

Gee, Karen, you made my day. And we all look much younger in person than our little pictures, too! Right!?

--------------

Eugene

It was terrific to spend such a fun filled weekend with old and new met friends and finally put names & faces together. It was incredibly generous of Brown and Keene and Regent to host the weekend - - Truly Fantastic !!
We especially thank Ngaire and Ken for opening their beautiful home to this crazy group. We thank also the entire B & K staff for their support and making us feel like one big family.
We wish everyone a Happy Holiday Season and A Merry Christmas. We look forward to cruising with many of you soon. Cheers!!

Rod and Cynthia

Believe me, I am happy to leave the pic posting to those with REAL cameras and expertise, but I thought these two were worth the share to put a visual to Anne's terrific description on the night.



Do check the roller skates on the girl in the center behind Margo & Lars!



And our own Pat with her friend in the tophat!

Pictures tell the story, Betty, and those two are winners - It was an incredible weekend from start to finish. I had great expectations but trip exceeded them all - always great to reconnect with cruise pals but this was so special as we met many of our internet only pals in person - such fun! B&K are the hosts with the most NO DOUBT about that - the Aloft was perfect for our gatherings and price was so nice! We loved it all and for those using Kodak my pixs are up I think you just find my name on list of friends to view? Anyone have problem send me email and I will link you - Joanna

I think that guy in the top hat is supposed to be Slash from Guns and Roses. I guess it was supposed to be an 80's birthday party for someone there. I also so Bret Michaels from Poison ;)

All I can say is "OMG"....sooooo young!! But what a blast.

Joanna,could you send me a link, would love to see your photos.

Just sent you PM Pat -

Sunday morning before breakfast , Alice was talking about the how much fun she had at the party and mentioned something about the 80s costume party for a 40th birthday that we all crashed at the hotel. I said "there were people in costume?" Thanks for the visuals! I do remember Slash now!

That "Slash" guy in the top hat was my favorite! When I came in and saw Pat dancing with him, I tried so hard to get just the picture BettyK posted! Those are maybe moments you only get at a suburban hotel just by chance!

"Slash" asked Ray M to dance before he asked Pat, Ray declined DARN......now that would have been a screensaver PIX!!!!!!

Now that's a story that only Joanna could tell!

Right from God's lips (Ray) to my ears - well Ray told me at the bar Sunday night and he is one reliable guy - :hug: :hug: :pass: :pass:

I must say, that guy did a really good job of dressing up as Slash! For those of you who don't know what he looks like, here he is:

Sorry to have missed such a fun weekend. But your photos and reports made me feel like I was a part of the party. Thanks!

It was fantastic seeing everyone, dancing & laughing for hours on end. MANY THANKS to Ngaire & Ken & the BK ladies (oh so terrific) for a most OUTSTANDING weekend!! Their work of organizing these events was truly incredible. Thank Ya'll for your great hospitality!!

Michele & Don

Oh how i love reading about this weekend! Anne, your synopsis is perfect.......I laughed out loud. I am SO sorry to have missed this!!

I have to say it was truly a special weekend in many many ways, but the BK ladies did a tremendous job in putting it all together. :app: :app:

As so many have said, the Ho-Down weekend was incredibly special. We had a wonderful time seeing old friends and meeting so many more LCTers -- and for me, learning to play Pooch. Happy memories for a long time. A big thank you to Ngaire, Ken, Susan and all the other wonderful BK staff.

Finally chiming in...

What a fabulous weekend!

A HUGE thank you and "well done ladies (and gents)"! We had a blast and arrived home (relatively) unscathed.

What next???