Thursday, November 5, the Tavern hosted a BBQ lunch for 140 Ft. Lewis Rangers after they finished a 20 mile hike over the mountains from the Delazene Rd, southwest of Oakville, they came out at Vesta, then on to the Tavern.

The Tavern provided 160 pounds of chicken hindquarters which Warren and a VFW volunteer cooked over a fire pit on our friend's apparatus. As soon as it came off the grill, it went in foil lined coolers, which kept it steaming hot until we needed it. Ladies from the VFW donated salads, ladies from North River donated cookies and cupcakes and my friend Vicki made 300 chocolate chip cookies. Other friends brought a huge pot of beans, and gallons of oysters, which he deep fried under the pole building. We had three EZ ups next to the pole building set up with chairs and tables we borrowed from the Montesano firehalI; which was good, because it was DUMPING rain most of the day.

Several people from the Monte VFW came up to help, as did more friends, and thank goodness, because I used all of them to tackle my "to-do" list, and everything was all ready to go when the troops started arriving.

It all started when the captain for the Regiment was out four wheeling nearby and ended up at the Tavern about a month ago. He asked us about the possibility of doing a lunch for 100 soldiers, and I said "Bring it on"!; Then every time I spoke with him, the number of soldiers expected kept increasing, and ended at 150, so I planned for 175. Originally we were going to charge $10.00 a plate, then I decided I wanted to give them the meal free as a "Thank You for Your Service". We collected about $150.00 in donations to help defray the costs with the Tavern picking up the slack. The troops weren't allowed to drink, so I had two ladies tape Tavern chips onto business cards, so they can come back and have a beer on us. It will be interesting to see how many show up! One guy came up to Warren and me at the chicken fire and said "Excuse me, but where am I?"

It was a great thing to be able to do this for the guys and they gave the VFW and the Ray and I two beautiful plaques.

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