Athens, Georgia Trip, January 2016

Posted on January 31, 2016 by Rick Freeman

Athens is one of my favorite little metropolitan cities and home to R.E.M., B-52â€™s and the Georgia Bulldogs. One must stay in the downtown area where the streets are filled with college dive bars, cool clubs and of course lots of great restaurants. It seems the night-life in Athens is always active with live music, drink specials and numerous college folks walking around. Maybe itâ€™s why the Georgia Bulldogs ranked number two in the nation for best partying schools. Make sure you have your driver license on you, they card everybody…even people like me in my fifties.

One of my preferred places to wine and dine is the Five and Ten fiveandten.com, this place is actually a couple of miles south of downtown so you will probably need to drive; there is plenty parking behind the restaurant. Owner and Chef Hugh Acheson is famous for his cotemporary Southern cooking and was named one of Food and Wine’s 10 best new chefs.

This trip I was very fortunate to meet up with some longtime friends, AJ Hudjins and his wife Colleen. I first met AJ in the winter of 1979 in Cozad, Nebraska and slowly we became best of friends and roommates at times. AJ and Colleen are now living in Hartwell, Georgia…a small city about 45 minutes Northeast of Athens.

: Rick, Colleen & AJ

: Hudjins & Freeman

: Five and Ten

Nebraska Trip, April 2011

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Rick Freeman

I haven’t been back to my hometown (Cozad, Nebraska) since my class reunion in September 2009.Â The main purpose was to spend Easter with my sister Nova Walker, she was diagnosed with cancer 6 months ago.Â Linna and I flew direct from Seattle to Denver on Alaska Airlines, just a little over 2 hours.Â Cozad is located on Interstate 80 halfway between Denver and Omaha; taking a direct flight from Seattle is much easier than flying into Omaha with a connection and still driving 4 hours.Â The Eastern side of Colorado is not much to look at and all it does is encourages you to drive as fast as you can through it.Â Speed limit is 75 and I usually drive 85 to 95 to make sure I get to Cozad for dinner…..well this time I had Mr. State Trooper stop me to say hi.Â

After we settled in with my good friend AJ Hudgins and his girlfriend of 27 years, Colleen Favinger in Cozad we headed out toÂ Bella Italia for dinner.Â There isn’t much in Cozad, but I have to admit I am totallyÂ impressed with this Italian restaurant located in my small hometown.Â After dinner, AJ and I sat up until 4 a.m. gossiping about the 4,000 residents in Cozad.Â The next two days AJ and I spent driving around Cozad seeing old friends and neighbors.Â We stopped in to visit with Mark McKeone, Scott Diehl, Eric Seaman, Marty Munster, Verna Story, Ardi Wilcher, Heidi Bazata, John Dorsey, Scott Hergenrader, Sherry Armagost and even dropped off a dozen tulips to Ardi Wilcher.

Linna and I spent Easter Sunday with my sisters Nova and Alicia and their families.Â We started the day off with church service at the Nazarene; I haven’t been to a church service for 9 years or so…..and it might be another 9 before I go back.Â After church we drove over to Gothenburg, ten miles west of Cozad for brunch at Walker’s Steakhouse.Â After munching down the Midwest buffet, we headed back to Nova’s house for pictures and an Easter egg hunt for the kids.Â

Most all small towns in the Midwest, especially Nebraska….the towns are pretty much closed down on Sundays….which means there is no place to dine.Â The nearest town for a decent dinnerÂ on a Sunday is Kearney, a college town 50 miles East of Cozad.Â We first stopped at Hunan’s, a Chinese restaurant that Linna rejected after taking one look at the menu.Â After another late night, we got up Monday morning and headed back to Denver.Â I took a small detour to Sidney, NebraskaÂ and stopped in at Cabelas to pick up a new shotgun case for my over/under Browning Citori 12 guage shotgun that I wasÂ flying back to Seattle with me.