Birthday party and Lawn Mowers

Saturday night, I went to Madison and celebrated Laura's Birthday! She was celebrating "the first anniversary of her 29th birthday!" LOL We had a lot of fun! Here is a picture of "the girls":

Me, Natae, Laura, Dianna, and Steph

Sunday afternoon, I attended my first ever Lawn Mower Poker Run. It was held in Epiphany, SD. They were celebrating the town's 125th anniversary. The Poker Run was the conclusion of the three day event. I don't know how many of you are familiar with the motor cycle poker runs that are pretty common in this area.





This was similar, except that we stayed in town. We started at the Coonhunter (the bar) and got our map. There were nine stops along the route. At each stop you get a signature/stamp (and a beverage if you want one), then you move on to the next stop. Then at the end of the route, you end up back at the bar. You get to draw your poker hand, and whoever has the best hand, wins money. The friend that invited me, won second place! That was exciting, it probably almost paid for all the gas we burned get the mowers there and driving them all over town. (The town is really small though, not even a mile across.) There were about 60 mowers that showed up, most of them were John Deere.

These are some of my friends, Brad and John.
This is what all the streets looked like that day! Good luck trying to get a car through.

This was another part of our group. We had to pull the mowers down in a trailer, so then some people rode in the trailer during the run. It was pulled by a mower though, just in case you are wondering. :) AND I did drive a mower. Just like the big JD in the top picture. I didn't take any pictures of myself though. Too bad...

After it was all over, we came back to Howard and grilled out at another friend's house. It was such a relaxing day. It actually felt like summer "vacation"! I haven't had a day like that yet this year. I really needed that.