My bridge club enjoyed the field trip to my husband’s cabin.

(I spoke about this in one of my previous columns, and it was well attended.) I didn’t have to get any substitutes for the occasion, either. One member said she was going to be late because she had to carry her husband to the airport. But when she discovered we were going to the cabin, she took her husband early and dumped him at the airport. We later found out his flight was delayed until 10 p.m.

My husband was to cook his barbecue and Brunswick stew at the cabin. I had already carried bottled water down there.
But still left to bring to the cabin were two bottles of wine, a bowl of coleslaw, a bowl of fruit, a box of crackers and some homemade pimento cheese which I had placed in an old margarine tub for easy carrying. The pimento cheese and crackers were the hors d’oeuvre.

Just as everyone arrived at my house, a thunder storm began threatening. We each hurried to grab something to carry and get into two cars. We had not gotten more than a block from my house when the storm hit. We were reduced to driving about 30 miles an hour for roughly 10 minutes in a driving rain. But just as we approached the turn off to the cabin the rain let up and then stopped.

The usual 30-minute drive turned into 35 minutes. My husband wanted to know why we were late. It was the rain, but that was fortuitous as the rain-cooled air was pleasant.

I opened the wine and got out what I thought was pimento cheese, only to find that I had actually gotten the tub full of margarine.

Oh, well. The best laid plans and all that.

It’s not easy to coordinate food for two different places. Luckily my husband had provided some salted peanuts.
When everyone had a glass of wine, my husband began the tour. The ladies followed him around and asked questions when they were curious about something. They took a lot of pictures.

We all sat on or stood around the bath tub made into a sofa and my husband took our picture so everyone had a memory of the occasion to share. One intrepid member of the club sat in the footed bath tub (which is hooked up to hot and cold running water if anyone should like an al fresco bath) and had her picture taken. The tub has a large yellow rubber ducky, compliments of my husband’s brother.

Then we ate. My menu was enhanced by my husband. He cannot stand not to add his touches to a dinner. He also had potato salad and small pieces of fried pork steak paired with small waffles (his version of chicken and waffles). The pork steak was a big hit as well as the barbecue. None was left of either or of the coleslaw when we had finished eating.
After everyone had finished eating and complimenting my husband on his food, we lingered a while longer enjoying the ambience.

Then we got back into our cars to return to my house to play bridge and eat dessert (see what I mean about coordinating food in two places?). That meant that everyone had to gather up the bowls and wine bottles that they had carried down to the cabin so we could return them to my house.

We got back to my house, I made coffee and someone got the margarine tub that really had pimento cheese out of the refrigerator. We snacked on the pimento cheese, and everyone got coffee or a soft drink.

We sat down and played four hands of bridge and then stopped to eat dessert.

By that time it was time to go home. I have never hosted a bridge party where we only played four hands of bridge. But we did that night.

My husband enjoys being a host and, I think, had as good a time as everyone else.

A friend of one of my daughters has asked to visit the cabin. My daughter told her she would get the key and take her anytime she wanted. Her friend replied, “No, I want to go when your father is there.”

Paula Travis is a retired teacher from the Newton County School System. She can be contacted at pnbtravis@att.net.