My Return to Casa Bonita

Written on 6-24-25.

      It’s a Tuesday, and I am lying on “our” bed here in the Edgerton’s house.  I was sleeping at our house until it became too unreasonable.  With our kitchen taken over and no doors in our bedroom area, I decided to move completely over here.  I have grabbed multiple items from our house to make our stay over here easier.  Things like my haircut kit, vitamins, and allergy medicine are things apparently I can’t live without.  

Shane and crew are working on the kitchen now, but they are still two/three weeks out from being done.  Sigh.  B and I are tired of living out of our bags.  Every night, we go over to see the progress, and somehow we end up grabbing even more items we need.

Speaking of living out of our bags, we just came home after my...

40th high school reunion weekend.  We stayed at Joe’s and Tammy’s, and they were incredible hosts.  Belinda saw their home for the first time, and it’s so modern and beautiful.

The highlight of the weekend was eating at Casa Bonita.  Joe was the perfect host (Tammy had to work), because he used to work there.  We got some juicy insider info due to that.  This was our first time going since the South Park duo bought and renovated it.  It was fun!  I got a sad feeling going to the gift shop near the exit, because I had memories from when I was a little kid that that signaled we would be leaving.  We weren’t leaving yet on this visit, but the sad nostalgic feeling was real, nonetheless.

After we got back to Joe’s house, we watched the documentary on Paramount Plus that told the story of the difficult renovation.  They bought it for 3.1 million, thought it would cost around 6 million to get it back up to speed, and ended up spending 40.1 million instead.  I am glad they did.  They lamented that any savvy business person would have walked/run away, but they were really doing it for posterity’s sake.  It was sad for me to see Bob’s Pizzeria and the White Fence Farm go away, because I knew nobody would spend that kind of money to bring those back.  Good on them.

The reunion was fine.  I saw two people I hadn’t seen for close to 40 years.  The first was Sally (not her real name).  She reminded me that she had come to watch a basketball game at the School of Mines when Fort Lewis came to town.  I think that was my sophomore year.  Unfortunately, she confided that she was getting a divorce after 20+ years.  She has two kids, and her youngest, her daughter, is going to Yale.

Then I was approached by Darren (not his real name either).  He ran track and cross country back in the day.  If he had not come up to introduce himself, I would not have recognized him.  He has property in Alaska, and I got his business card.  He is starting a VRBO there.  He was completely bald, and that was part of the reason I didn’t recognize him.  

I also invited Coach Lewis, and he came, too.  It is always an honor to see him, and I have so much respect for that man.  I am glad I let him know about it, and I hope he had a good time.  I was introducing him left and right.

I found myself wanting to leave after staying a few hours.  Fred played with his band, and the music was just too loud.  It was not conducive to talking…at all; it never is.  He is very good, but it hurts.  I invited Jessie (once again, not her real name) to come inside just so we could have a bit of a conversation.  It was better in there.  I stayed until 11:00, and then I bolted.  Or, I tried.  While saying goodbye, I had a few more conversations, even one in the parking lot.  Phew!  I was relieved to drive back to Joe’s, and I could see why he and Belinda didn’t want to participate.  I guess after 40 years I am becoming a curmudgeon.  I am still an extrovert, but it takes work.  I really do like to stay in touch and see how people are doing, though.