Hello from Ardmore Oklahoma!!!!!

Here I sit at the Holiday Inn located in sunny Ardmore, Oklahoma. It's an older hotel, where you enter the rooms from the outside. Ardmore is a small town relatively speaking. The people are very hospitable, and the sweet tea is flowing. My mom was born in the south, Nashville to be exact. Growing up we took many trips down south to spend time with my mom's side of the family. That family consisted of her mother, or my Granny and her 4 brothers. My uncles are a strange lot...typical rednecks I guess you could say. Some of the things I had heard them say can't be mentioned here as they would most definitely offend someone. Let's just say they are rednecks...true rednecks with every sense of the word. Good people...just rednecks. Did I mention that they were rednecks?

Anyway...what I really wanted to talk about was something that you just can't get anywhere else but the south...nectar of the gods....SWEET TEA. Sweet tea is available anywhere you go. McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, Wendy's...anywhere that they serve refreshments...there is sweet tea. If you sit down to order something at a restaurant the first thing you hear isn't, "Can I get you something to drink?" it's "Can I get y'all some sweet tea?" Amazing....I live for the day that I hear that in Minnesota. Now..the source of this obsession with sweet tea is the fault of my granny. She used to make tea, sweet tea in a big jar that she would let sit in the sun after filling it 1/3 full with sugar. I learned to drink tea that way....it reminds me of the trips we took down to Nashville, what a great town.

Good people of the south. There is a marked difference down here from up north. People move at a slower pace down here...not that they're stupid or slow...they just don't get all whipped up about stuff. They help each other out, all the ladies call ya darlin, it's just very down home where they know you by name and treat you like family.

A buddy of mine will soon call the south his home along with his lovely rocket scientist wife. I think they will like it...once you get past the scorching heat, armadillos that will attack, rattlers, and fire ants. Good luck to you my friend...I'll look ya'll up when I down next time, until then ya'll take care now ya hear?