Location Big Dick's Halfway Inn part 2 of 2
From part 1 at Big Dick’s Halfway Inn, Brad and I are looking at this bartender like we know her from somewhere. We cannot figure out where. This takes me back to a memory when I moved from California to Illinois. I was in the garden section of Walmart early in the morning. I was pushing my shopping cart around the garden supplies for my new yard. I had just completed my first week at a new job and was introduced to what seemed like hundreds of people. So here I am in the garden section pushing my shopping cart when a guy is staring at me like he knows me. It seems like he wanted to say something. After the second encounter, I begin to think that I am rude and maybe this guy recognizes me from my new job. This stranger did look a little familiar, but I wasn’t positive if I met him at my new job. So on the third time our shopping carts pass, the guy continues to look at me. He does look familiar, so I approach the man and begin to form my words. I am interrupted by this excited couple asking if the man was Mark Ruffalo, the actor. This was during his romantic comedy era with the movie “13 Going on 30” starring opposite Jennifer Garner. The guy confirmed he was the actor visiting the area to check up on some property. The couple was excited to meet the actor. I immediately continued my shopping. I guess it would have been a totally different conversation if I were to ask if he and I worked together. Anyway, back to the Ozarks.
I finally tell the bartender that she looks familiar to me, but I cannot place where I might know her from. She quickly responds that she remembers the two of us from Rocky Top Sports Bar and Grill a few days prior. She was our bartender there. Yes! Brad and I remembered. That was the place we stopped on accident. It was an invasion of the old folks! The old folks came into the bar staring us down with their laser eyes. This woman confirmed they were nice folks; we, the out-of-town folks, were sitting in their seats.
Our bartender tells us how she moved to the Ozarks from Austin, Texas. Her attire with a Texas pennant and something referencing Texas on her shirt made sense now. She proceeded to tell us that she indeed went from being a bar owner in Texas to bartending at two separate bars at the Lake of the Ozarks. She needed a change of scenery. Then her husband arrived at the bar. He sat beside us and joined in the conversations. He is a chiropractor. He talked about owning a bar in Austin. He told us that the show, Bar Rescue, featured their bar! He talked a little about the show and told us they sold the bar shortly after the show aired and moved to the Ozarks. Brad found a short clip from the show. We saw our bartender giving away drinks to her friends in Austin when the star Jon Taffer confronted her to tears. Neat experience hearing about the challenges of bar ownership, the show, and the bar owners of the Ozarks.
