I arrived at the bend in the road with the grill, Sunday at 5:00. When
Jon and Nancy showed up I first heard about John Beckett's crash. Tom
Shannon and his wife were the course workers closest to the site and
were the first on the scene. They can report what they want on the
incident. Needless to say it put a damper on the evening in a way.
Scott Guthrie gave a nice tribute to John and a rousing cheer to let
John know we loved and cared about him.
The crowd for the "donation only" food was HUGE. Jon brought 100
pasties and they, with everything else on the table and grill,
disappeared. Lots of people there, new faces, old faces, everyone
welcome and lots of bench racing, sadness and joy. I'm guessing the
attendees at well over 200 just by the food consumption. The number is
hard to peg because it was not a come early and stay late crowd. Many
ate and left and the course workers and racers filtered in after many
of the early arrivees had headed to bed and showers. I think everyone
had a great time. Jon and Nancy were tireless as they made sure there
was food available as promptly as possible. With the grill being a 55
gallon barrel cut in half you can imagine the cooking surface was huge
and it always seemed full of cooking food. I took a bunch of digital
photos and will find a place to post them so everyone can get an idea
of the attendance.
There were still some tee shirts remaining as of yesterday. They're
good looking ... I was asked where I got the one I was wearing
yesterday by four people. That's high praise for a shirt on the salt.
I'd suggest your contacting Jon and Nancy when they get back to
Marquette for your shirt. Send a $20 check and they'd probably send
one to you.
The grill is back on the neighbor's patio. I'm mostly awake as I'm
ready to send this. I'll comment to the racing next.
Wes
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