Along with some new
guests and a Bona Fide celebrity, it was back to the Prairie for the 2006 spring
Trip.
Hit with a last minute scratch, that would have brought our group down to 11, Billy put a last minute call into fellow Prairie Dunes Member, Actor, Writer and all around great guy
Brian Doyle Murray
to see if he could join us. To our delight he agreed to come down. Don't know if he regretted his decision after he met Petey, but by then it was too late. Picture left is entire group that reads starting in the back row Left with
-
RickyJohn, Marty, Rich, Brian, Tom (Petey's Brother), Roger, Petey, Dennis, Warren
-
Tony (Kneeling From Left) Emon, Billy
The usual hijinx prevailed with Warren almost having
heart failure when Petey's Golf Course Airhorn went off in mid backswing about 2
feet from his ear. A new batch of 
Snakes made their debut on the Dunes and
everyone was checking their Hotel Rooms each night to ensure that the reptiles
were not nestled under their covers.
Billy and I had to plead on our knees with Petey to spare Brian a session with the snakes as we were not sure he was up to that surprise. Luckily Petey witheld.
But for the first time, the pranskters went after Ricky and for this there will be retribution - More on that later...... Sadly we all had to head home a day early as the rain would not relent, but we had a great time while it lasted.
Picture left is of me with Brian, Tony and SARS Victim Roger as we pose by the 1st hole.
Brian's wife is in Veterinary School in Kansas and he splits his time between Kansas and his work in California. After we begged him, he told some stories from Caddyshack, Saturday Night Live, Seinfeld and everything in between. It was fantastic.
Picture lower right is Dennis trying to 
finesse
his way out of a Prairie bunker. Doesn't look easy.
Finally....
I had mentioned that the evil humor of Petey had finally come my way. In our rush to leave, Emon and Petey moved my luggage to a different car. My radar was up as they are usually not this courteous, so I quickly checked my bag for foreign articles before departing the Dunes. I was glad to see there appeared to be no tampering or additions.
However, When I went through security at the Airport, the woman doing the Security screening of my carry-on looked like she was going to start laughing when she viewed the X-ray of my bag. She then called over her 4 co-workers and they all had a look at the same screen. I watched the 5 of them looking at the screen and damn if I didn't think they all looked like they were ready to bust out laughing.
However, none of them said anything to me. Not a word.
Now really suspicious, I pulled my bag off the line and opened it for a second time. This time I went through it more thoroughly- But still found nothing. I told myself I must be getting paranoid.
But when I got home, I nodded to the wife to clear out my bag and do it Pronto. Dutifully, she complied, but soon screamed in horror when she found something she had never seen in our bedroom before.....
Click Here To See what my innocent wife kathy found In my Bag ( caution - not for young eyes...)
A similar artifact was placed in Tony's bag as well. He checked his so he avoided the embarrassment with the TSA folks that I endured. However, when he got home - the instrument was missing..... Wonder where it could be...... Wonder where it will show up next......