a river (almost) ran through (the picnic)

I must not get out much. Somehow, I missed the news that Fargo is, once again, flooding. Well, it’s different now than back in April, perhaps, but if you were to drive by on I-94 and witness the Red River right now, you might wonder if you’re looking at old footage.

Here was the scene tonight at our Area Voices bloggers picnic at Lindenwood:

Even with the river nearly lapping at our toes, the night was stunning — bright and warm and alive. And, speaking on behalf of everyone else, and as Prairie Woman assumed in a recent post might be the case, “a good time was had by all.” Far Side of Fifty kindly set up most of this, including booking the shelter and creating these nifty name tags:

Abra La Mente received a “verbal award” for having driven the furthest — three and a half hours. She received a second, unawarded award for her multitasking abilities. Yes indeed, she used those hours on the road wisely, plugging her Crockpot into her car outlet and cooking up some delicious picnic sausages coated with onions, mustard and brown sugar (if I remember correctly). Yes, you heard right! While she was driving and cooking (there’s no law against it that I know of), several of us were in our kitchens apparently dancing on a similar energy wave. We dessert providers proved the old adage right — great minds do think alike:

Those who don’t care for rhubarb dessert were out of luck tonight. Thankfully, I LOVE it and enjoyed each of the three versions. Other offerings included homemade potato salad, ham and turkey sandwiches, homemade beer bread/butter and potato chips.

Thanks, Area Voices bloggers, for a fun evening. It was so fun to finally meet Chance the dog and Buffalo Gal and to see East Side Professor again, as well as the others I’ve mentioned already (not to mention a few husbands and Ready-Whip-loving kids). Great food, conversation and connections of the IRL (in real life) kind.