Tailgate in Belize!

Just a few more days until we head off to our next adventure, and woke today to an absolutely beautiful morning – mostly because the thunder and lightning storms of the past few days have ushered in what must be the lowest humidity we’ve seen since we first arrived in March! Ahhh….a little nip in the air, just the thing for football watching in Belize.

But wait – it got better. We headed for Orange Walk on our last grocery and re-stock run for the lagoon house and rolled up to People’s Store to find a party going on. Oh yeah, we’re tailgating the grocery store!

It was breezy and some of the balloon arch was popping, but no matter. The Mennonite ladies were in a hurry to join in, appropriately dressed as usual for a party.

But what really made it a tailgate was this setup. They started a new song just as I stepped up to take this picture and the bass line almost took me off my feet. Felt like we were back in San Ignacio listening to club music all night long.

All that was lacking was Adrian and Andy and a karaoke mic to get the party really started. Although the homeless guy we usually hand over all our spare change to when we go shopping was getting down all by himself on the sidewalk in front of the store, and I was actually tempted to join him. Good stuff!

Inside, all the employees were decked out in 53rd Anniversary shirts and a few shoppers (I mean, besides me) were jamming in the aisles to the music blasting from outside. At the checkout, I’m not sure what triggered it (we were X customer or spent X dollars?) but the cashier called over a manager and they yelled at Ray that he was a prize winner.

So we followed the manager to Prize Patrol – a table stacked with lots of cellophaned collections of items (see? it’s just like a Buffett tailgate) where a young man with a camera asked Ray if he would pose for a Winner Snapshot. Sure, though we have no idea where that photo is going to end up (I checked to see if People’s had a Facebook page and they do but it doesn’t include photos). Maybe Ray’s smiling face will be displayed on the shop windows for all of Orange Walk to enjoy. Too bad we won’t be around to find out.

Anyway, here was his prize:

Not only a backpack, but also tiny colored pencils and a squishy cow keychain. And just in time for his birthday on Monday – yay!