Hailing Port Quantico spotted in Lake of the Ozarks! Part 2 of 2

 Part 2 of 2 The Yellow Brick Road

From last week, Brad and I are at Tap and Grill Lakeside Brew Haus talking to the bartender. We noticed the fit young woman in the pool with an older couple.  They are about to join us at the bar…

After our second iced tea, the trio from the pool joined us at the bar. The older woman introduced herself and her husband. The young woman was on the heels of the older woman and inserted herself too. I think she was from Indiana or somewhere in that general area. The more the young woman spoke, the more we realized she had a couple of drinks too. She was entertaining with her knowledge of the government, listening to our phones.  She declared the Faraday cases were essential to public privacy.  This woman was a hoot!  Although off duty, she was making sure everyone had fresh drinks.  I think she almost had a stroke when Brad told her we were drinking iced teas.  I saved her from an ER visit by convincing her our drinks were Long Island Iced Teas.  My white lie worked, and the woman refocused on the older woman’s drink.  By this time, we had three voices at once.  The man was talking about his boat.  The wife was asking Brad questions about our travels.  The young woman had just informed me about how the government is listening and watching.  I couldn’t resist telling her about George Orwell and 1984!  With all the voices filling the space, I heard the older woman say loudly, “Get that thing out of my face!” That got my attention.  It was a straw.  The young woman was insisting that the older woman try her mixed drink.  Perhaps the older lady released a little frustration that was building from their time in the pool? Who knows. The bartender made things right and called his other roommates to give the woman a ride home. 

The man from the pool owned the boat that hailed from Quantico!  He said he used to work on Quantico and he decided to designate that his boat came from Quantico.  He told us stories from when he worked with the FBI and Marines at Quantico.  Brad and I only spoke about our motorcycle adventures over the years.  Consider that Brad and I met while training at Quantico maybe twenty-three years prior; this guy’s stories were getting our close attention.  One story of particular interest is when this guy worked with the FBI and trained with the Marines on the “Yellow Brick Road.”  He proudly stated that he completed the grueling course through the woods with the Marines.  At the end, a Marine dug up a yellow brick and presented it to him.  Brad and I ran the course through the woods.  So we are looking at each other like this guy’s details make his story less credible.    

Brad breaks the news.  He tells the man that we have been to Quantico and that I spent the most time there, so I knew the area very well.  The man couldn’t answer the basic questions about the surrounding area despite declaring that he lived just outside the gate for a few years.  We kinda sorta agreed that the area has grown since he was there.  This man didn’t know the names of the surrounding towns.  So who knows?  Perhaps he was focused on academics and didn’t venture out too far.  The details that a Marine dug up a yellow brick and presented it to this guy as a finisher didn’t sound correct.  There is no real yellow brick road as he described with detail.  There are rocks on the course that are painted yellow to guide runners through the woods.  The FBI National Academy has leadership and management classes for employees.  It does award freshly painted yellow brick mementos to student finishers who elect to run the physical course, but they don’t dig anything up!

Hailing Port Quantico spotted in Lake of the Ozarks! Part 1 of 2

Part 1 of 2 Tap and Grill Lakeside Brew Haus

There we were, sitting on barstools along the shores of Lake of the Ozarks.  It is an outside bar.  We can see the Millstone Marina to our backs and a pool to the side.  There are three people in the pool.  At the center of attention is a man who appears to be in his mid-sixties and confident with his slightly round torso.  There is a pretty woman who is in a red bikini and appears to be about the same age as the man. There is another woman who is fit, energetic, and playfully swimming around in a bikini.  I guess her age is barely twenty-one. She is the closest of the two women to the older, confident man.  It was easy to assume the three of them knew each other.  Then there was the boat in the marina that listed the hailing port as Quantico!  

Our barstools are at the Tap and Grill Lakeside Brew Haus.  It felt like a classy place from the moment we got off our motorcycles and entered through the gate.  We were greeted by a pleasant hostess.  The tables inside the restaurant were modern with a nice open space.  We walked through the outdoor area that has soft chairs and couches that looked charming for lounging. Then the space led to a traditional outdoor metal tables with umbrellas.  Brad and I noticed the activity in the pool just beyond the bar. The outside bar had about six to eight barstools, all of which were empty.  Our bartender greeted us as we continued to observe our new surroundings.

We’ll get to the folks in the pool later. Right now, we are chatting with a lad from the Chicago area who spends his summers bartending at the Lake of the Ozarks. He tells stories of how he shares an apartment with three to four others who are at the lake to make some quick cash before returning to school in the fall.  This is our bartender’s second or third year bartending at the lake. He really likes the abundant summer money he adds to his bank.  He shares that once he became a bartender, the money was so much better.  Brad and I are on our motorcycles, so you guessed it, we are drinking iced teas.  

It is the middle of the day.  A weekday and, according to the bartender, a lull in business.  The weather is sunny and warm.  The pool looks inviting.  Brad and I were analyzing the situation in the pool, filling in the unknowns with our imagination.  Our conversations with the bartender began to echo a theme we’ve heard about rich customers traveling from Kansas City who spend obscene money charming their paramour.  We broached the topic of the current situation in the pool.  It turns out the young woman in the pool is a roommate and coworker of our bartender!  This was her off-schedule day, and she was enjoying the pool.  The older couple were regulars and were just being friendly. 

Stay tuned for part 2 when the pool trio joins us at the bar. One is the owner of the boat hailing from Quantico and he talks about the Yellow Brick Road!