(Note that I flipped the picture so it is correct — see comments.) Gaylord has always been a stopping place on my Great Lake State road map. As a kid, we would stop at the Sugar Bowl restaurant on Friday night trips down to Dee-troit or the Planet Ann Arbor or wherever. Steak sandwich medium rare, fries, and a coke, thank you very much. Later, when I was driving back and forth from the yooperland to college in my rusty old rattle-trap POC Pinto wagon, I used to stop at the uber-friendly Standard station there. Once when I was driving up in freezing rain/sleet/snow/whatever (like last Thursday), zee driverz side veeeendsheeeeld viper blade broke off while I was on the freeway. I limped into Gaylord, stopped at the Standard station and voila! Not only did they *have* a veeeensheeeeld viper blade to fit my stoopid old vee-hickle, they replaced it for me! For free! I just had to pay for the blade. Which was five or seven dollars. I could do that…

In the last few years, stopping at Gaylord has taken on a whole new meaning because the GG’s identical twin, who occasionally comments here as the UU (usually when he thinks I’ve gone off my rocker about something polly-tickal but sometimes for other reasons), now lives in the area. And lemme tell you, the UU and his lovely wife The Beautiful Gay run the best hotel on earth. Spotlessly clean and cocktails at the ready for people who have been traveling through ice storms. In April, no less… And it is a handy place from which to make a morning launch to the yooperland for whatever business may be at hand up there. Only 100 miles to go…

This time around, we were also provided with entertainment in the form of their cute little grandson, who is learning to talk. This weekend, this young boy was also confronted with the fact that there’s some other clown in the universe who looks exactly like his grandpa “Bob Bob” (I think that’s what he calls Grandpa Bob).

Been there, done that… Lizard Breath was confronted with the whole “dad has a doppelganger” thing early on and she “got it”. Well, at least as long as they were both standing there together, she knew which one was which. There was one time… We had spent a day helping the UU and TBG (and their children) move. Late that night, the UU and I went out for a beer, leaving Lizard Breath (a year old or so) alone with her *dad*. Boy howdy, was she MAD!!! My parents are leaving me *alone* with Uncle Bob!!! The GG never did get her to understand that she *was* with her dad until we came back.

I don’t have a picture of that but I do have this picture of the then three-week-old Mouse with the Twinz of Terror. With a gratuitous shot of the moldy old Houghton Lake cabin behind them (long before we tore it down and rebuilt). I can’t quite read Mouse’s face in this photo. You would think that an infant of that age might not recognize people (or their faces maybe) but around this time, our venerable friend Master W visited and as he was holding her, she was staring at his face, apparently scrutinizing whether or not he was worth her time. Well. Either that or she was thinking about The Phantom Tollbooth.

Bob Bob’s young grandson? Of course he figured it out and by the time he and his parents hit the road this morning, he was calling the GG by his name. It sounded a little more like “ball” than “bill” (which was hilarious!) but the kid has got it!

Good night everyone and special thanks to the UU and TBG for putting us up twice this weekend. Always a good time!

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