Take the Highway

So Wifey and I fetched a bottle of Vieuve, that had been sitting in the frig since I got it as a Xmas gift, and headed over to pick up Mike and Loni, in the normal sized Lexus SUV... Mike greeted us with tall glasses of a punch he had made, complete with led lit ice cubes -- red and yellow. They sipped while I drove up the Palmetto, and exited at North River Drive -- in Medley. We drove past trailers that nearly hit the roadway -- smack next to industrial sites. Traffic Circles led us to Miami Shores, and a 50s era strip center (shopping, not the other kind, though I joked with Loni that the surprise was we were dropping Mike and her off at one of the sex hotels on Okechobbee Road, across the canal... We shared the bottle of bubbly, and then entered the Hurricane Grill -- a place out of the 60s, maybe updated in the mid 80s with the then new UM logos. The place was buzzing with locals -- and was entirely GRINGO and GRINGA. It was a very weird thing -- surrounded by Hialeah were all these people speaking English -- some old style, "MiamUH" English... Mike and I ordered a couple of G and Ts, and the tatooed young waitress took our order. Our mutual friend Julie P found the place, somehow. The walls are covered with UM (and a few FSU) pictures -- mostly older gringo guys in Canes gear. The steak special is $20 -- served weekend nights, with a salad and potato. Wifey -- that maverick -- ordered fish. The steaks weren't great, as advertised, but were serviceable...And the bill for the 4 of us, with Mike and I getting G and T refills, was just over $100... Sober Wifey took the controls, and we talked her through the Springs, to Miami Jai Alai. Mike and I had been there about 5 years ago, when the Canes Club had an event, and the place was tired looking...But now it's all spruced up, with the magic of cash that slots bring in. We decided to be big shots and valet the car -- for $5. We went inside and found the box office -- and told the eye rollng Cuban lady the secret word -- "Marshall Tucker" and she gave us the free tickets. I fortified Mike and myself with another pair of G and Ts, which were $4.50 each, and we entered the fronton. The only Jai Alai being played was at Dania -- you could bet on it -- but the fronton was a stage set up for a concert. We sat, and drank, and watched a strange thing: Marshall Tucker fans -- mostly like the folks I remember from the late 70s -- but somehow different: wrinkled and thicker -- except in the hair department. Mike and I played a game "She was HOT during the Carter administration." Then the music started. They were awesome. Really. It wasn't just the alcohol. Wifey danced to some of the songs, and the band JAMMED to "Take the Highway." The young flute player was wonderful. This being Miami -- there had to be a strange component, and there was: 2 large black ladies in front of us -- getting down to the music, but having to annoyingly wave away the weed vapors of the guy smoking in front of them. Apparently the band had friends who were ex Carolina residents, as the lead singer, who looked like a 60 year old Willie Nelson, kept making reference to the fact that they had been in Miami long enough, and needed to come home to Carolina... We all sang along to "Can't You See," and they encored with "Heard it in a Love Song." We strolled out of the fronton, and into the huge casino they had built (the Hecht family, not MTB). We got on line, and Wifey, Mike, and I each got a $50 game credit card. Next to me in line was a tall, dark haired attractive woman. I told Wifey we knew her -- she was one of D2's friend's Moms. "You always think you recognize people, and they're not people you know," she sneered. Ha. Wrong again, Ms. Know it All! Indeed she and her friend were who I had thought, and we caught up about her kids -- her boy dropped out of college, needing some growing up, but is now at UF... We played with the house's money, and WON --$100! We cashed out, and gave Loni the money -- to be used, maybe on another night to see the Grass Roots, or .38 Special. We've found a new place!