One Cold Winter Night

King Mountain Lodge is a quaint little bar with a real big parking lot just off the Glenn Highway. Right out the back door of the lodge stands King Mountain, in silhouette, like a colossal black pyramid.

It was Thursday night. It was clear and cold and the northern lights were streaming across the entire sky. It was so freakin' cold we couldn't turn our car off for fear it would freeze up and never start again. And if that happened we'd be stuck in Chickaloon for the next five months waiting for breakup.

So what were we doing at King Mountain Lodge on a crystal cold Thursday night? Playing darts, of course, steel tip darts for the Palmer Dart Association. Geeze.

It was their turn to play at home, which of course, meant that Alpine 2 (that was my team) had to travel. My husband and I started out from Big Lake, about 60 miles away, and while driving through Palmer, we picked up two more teammates, and met the last two teammates (six in all - two ladies and four men) at the lodge in Chickaloon. The drive up the mountain had taken its toll on bladders all around, so you can imagine our dismay when, after dashing for the restrooms, we learned that the plumbing in the ladies' room was totally frozen and out of commission. Dang!

But chivalry isn't totally dead- at least not in Chickaloon! The manager of the place temporarily posted the "Men's Room" as the "Ladies Room". Phew!

Peee-youuu!! But hey, it was better than what the men had to do all night long right outside the back door. On the bright side, at least they could gaze at the aurora borealis and the mountain and hear the melodic tinkle of yellow droplets of ice hit the ground!

Inside, the wood stove was blazing hot, and so were our darts, and we knocked back more Bailey's and Coffee and Duck Farts (you know - Bailey's, Kahlua, and Crown Royal layered in a shot glass) than was probably wise. But the most memorable part of that night was how each manly man did his "bizness" in record time just outside the back door while admiring the mountain and sky, and without too many complaints of frostbite!