Joe's getting married in September. Andrew just turned 21. Those two "factors" combined into one trip to Las Vegas. But first, everyone had to get there…
Dave, Andrew and Frank left Kansas City on a Friday. Joe took a different flight out of KCI that day, and he was flying alone because everyone else was scared to take the same plane had conflicts with his schedule.
Here's where "the Factor" struck.
As Joe's plane approached the Denver airport and attempted to land, a microburst hit. And you thought microbursts were made-up weather occurrences that only hit Lawrence! This one apparently hit the plane, because Joe said people were tossed around and getting sick and everything.
The plane was diverted to Colorado Springs because the FAA issued a ground stop at the Denver airport. The plane was almost out of fuel and couldn't go to another airport or continue on to Vegas. Joe said they were stuck waiting in the plane for four hours before refueling and flying back to Denver.
Of course, as Joe's luck would have it, there weren't any more flights to Vegas Friday night. And the wonderful airline didn't offer to put him up in a hotel room, so the poor bachelor spent part of his bachelor party weekend sleeping in the Denver airport. (Trust me, that's not a party. I've been there. Literally.)
Joe finally made it to Vegas on Saturday, where he happily celebrated with Dave, Andrew, Frank and twenty of his closest friends.
We love you, Joe, and we're glad you're home safe now.
Dave and I were at the Sandbar early today before it opened, trying to get a few things done so we could search Lawrence for $5 bills, since we didn't make it to the bank before they closed.
Shortly after the Coleen, the afternoon bartender, arrived, a group of young guys piled in the door.
"Are you open yet?" they asked. To which we all replied, "Of course!"
In a flurry of activity- much like a hurricane- the group ordered Shark Attacks, requested an indoor hurricane, inquired about t-shirts for sale, and exponentially raised the energy level in the bar.
Turns out, the boys are scattered around the country, and last month they booked plane tickets and made plans to be in Lawrence this weekend- assuming that KU would be playing in the Final Four and then the National Championship game. And they wanted to be in Lawrence when KU won it all.
Lucky for us and the town of Lawrence, they continued with their plans even though KU didn't deliver.
We ran a hurricane, and a couple of the guys put on the mermaid costumes, hopped on the bar, and read the poem. They all danced and drank and even broke a glass. (They were very apologetic.)
After the hurricane was over, we played the other popular dance-along songs- Car Wash and Shake Your Tailfeathers. And then, Dave leaned over and whispered to me:
"Should I play Party in the USA?"
"Yes! Do it! Let's see what they do!" I responded.
And holy cow, you should have seen it. After just a few beats of the song, the boys all cheered like sorority girls and threw their hands in the air and danced around the bar.
What a super fun, and unexpected, treat on a Saturday afternoon. Guys, if you're reading this, thanks for coming in. You're the kind of customers we love to see- the ones who have fun, embrace the cheesy atmosphere, and are just plain nice.
I even managed to get a short video clip of the boys doing the Car Wash.
Once upon a time, we had a lionfish in our big fish tank. It was a beautiful fish named….well, I don't remember its name, but ask Coleen. The lionfish had bold dark red and white stripes and large fan-like fins. It's an extremely venomous fish native to the Pacific ocean region.
The lionfish didn't live at The Sandbar for very long. It was a voracious predator that ate too many of our other fish, so Dave finally found another home for him.
Recently, I found an article in Reader's Digest about lionfish and how they've somehow migrated to the Atlantic Ocean. Very few other fish prey on lionfish, so in addition to threatening the supply of native fish and coral, they've also rapidly multiplied.
The article had several theories about why lionfish have appeared in the Atlantic- one theory was that when Hurricane Andrew hit Florida, it destroyed numerous indoor saltwater fish tanks and released lionfish who were washed into the ocean. Maybe, maybe not.
Lionfish aren't deadly to humans, but their sting is very painful. Probably also part of the reason our lionfish had to go- Dave didn't want to risk contact with it.
We're very proud of our beautiful fish tank and its inhabitants. Which ones would you like to know more about? Leave us a comment and we'll tell more stories about the fish.
On March 12, 2006, a strange weather occurrence hit our fair city- the Great Microburst of 2006. It was like a tornado (and many people today still swear it actually was)- in fact, according that knower-of-all-things Wikipedia, the main difference between the two is that microbursts produce divergent winds, while tornadoes generally have convergent damage. Whatever. It’s still freaky-scary.
It was loud, it was windy, and trees and shingles and signs went flying all over town. According to KU Info, the University of Kansas campus lost 100 trees that day- but fortunately 29,425 trees remain.
We asked some of our Twitter followers what they remembered most about that day. Here’s what they had to say:
“It sounded like a train outside my house. I seriously thought I was in a tornado and going to die.”
“I was a freshman but had left for the weekend. Ended up getting caught in an even worse storm in Missouri: 2 tornadoes met right where I was.”
“Woke me up from a dead sleep. Lost part of my roof. Best part: no one was hurt, went outside, and found my house had the least damage around.”
“My boyfriend lived in Templin. His car window got broken out. I think some sort of heating/AC unit fell off the room of the dorm.”
“My boyfriend at the time was in town for our anniversary. The alarms went off in Ellsworth and we had to sit in the dorm basement.”
“All I could see was gray out the window. It sounded like a train.”
“I was a freshman and my pledge brother was driving a random shacker home and all of his windows instantly shattered as if a sign from God.” (OK, I laughed out loud at the random shacker part!)
“Worst memory: Being woken up by shingles being ripped off. Best memory: Getting a brand new roof.”
“Waking up to an uprooted tree hitting my window- and I lived on the 10th floor of Ellsworth Hall so that was definitely not normal!”
“Classes were cancelled the next day and it was like an all-campus party!”
“Lots of broken car windows and Weavers’ awning sitting in front of Liberty Hall.”
“Lived on the 4th floor above Pepperjax; looking down at New Hampshire street and seeing trees bent over to the ground.”
“Living in Corbin and I had to drive around for hours to charge my phone. Fast food lines were so long. No hot water for a week.”
“Seeing the clouds circling the McDonald’s on 6th Street when I lived a block from there.”
“Seeing part of a street sign off 6th from a place closer to Iowa than Mass lying in front of City Hall.”
“Waking up to violently shaking windows and our chimney being ripped off. Best part was joking about the apocalypse with my mom.”
“We lost two giant windows in our living room- they’re still not quite fixed!”
Lots of memories from this storm!
The Sandbar was fortunate to not have much damage. It seems like the downtown businesses on the east-west streets fared better than those on the north-south streets.
We were in the middle of construction on our annual St. Patrick’s Day float, and it lived in the vacant lot next to Dave’s house. Amazingly, the float had absolutely no damage- not even from the wind!
But about thirty feet away, a huge old tree right next to the house was completely uprooted and fell alongside the house. It took out a few shingles on the way down, but nothing major. If it had fallen at any more of a northern angle, it would have smashed into our bedroom (and probably taken me out!). We did get a new roof out of the deal.
Three guys were hanging out in the bar on Saturday night. Dave noticed they had a framed picture with them, so he struck up a conversation and asked where they were from and what brought them to Lawrence. And why they were carting around a picture in a frame. (Apparently one gentleman went to school at Syracuse. We won't talk about that.)
"What's the picture for?" Dave asked.
"Well, my mom's had this picture around for a long time, and she told me that one of these guys is my dad, but she won't tell me which one. And he's from Lawrence, so that's why we're here."
Dave thought that was kind of crazy and grabbed the picture to take a look. He busted out laughing.
"Well, that's Ken (better known as Count, to some of you long term Lawrencians), and that's one of his friends (Lenny maybe?)…so you better hope your dad's the third guy. I don't know him!" Dave told him.
Dave started telling stories about the guys in the pictures. After awhile, the customer said that it wasn't really his unknown father in the picture, but just a picture from his house that he liked. (Still not true.)
The guys stuck around the bar all night and, according to Dave, they took pictures of nearly everyone in the bar- with their framed picture. Turns out, they pilfered it from the wall of another bar in town, but we're not sure which one. Apparently they made a night out of telling tall tales to anyone who would listen.
Here's the picture:
We also found out the next day that one of the guys had so much fun, he left his (nice) jacket here. Fortunately we have a mostly honest crowd and a lost & found box, and Dave will be shipping his jacket home to California.
(Hey guys, if you read this, thanks for coming in! Thoroughly entertained by your shenanigans!)
