I arrived at the start at 5:15, (on time by the way) and spotted the hares wearing festive red, white and blue headwear. Asking "Estrus" about the hats, he stated that they had all bought the hats in New Orleans while attending the Crescent City Classic run. At that point I knew we were in trouble.

The hash started in a park near the intersection of Memorial and Eldridge on the west side of town. I don’t know what it is about that area, but it always seem hot when we run out there. Today it was only 97 degrees. At 5:30 prompt, the hares sent us off.

The trail headed immediately south along Buffalo Bayou. Crossing a bridge we meandered through some woods, south along Eldridge and then west to a sewage output lake. At that point I lost trail and headed south along the foot trails with a couple of hounds. After finding nothing, we turned around and immediately ran into a new boot gallantly looking for trail on her own. At that point someone yelled on-on and we chased the pack as trail headed north along the bayou back up to Eldridge. I tried to short cut; I swam the bayou only to discover that I would add an extra mile before returning to the pack.

After crossing a pipe that was about 30 feet above the torrential bayou, I found trail again heading up Eldridge. At this point, the heat started getting to the pack and about half the hashers were starting to walk. Of course the hares helped quite a bit by getting us out of the shaded trails and putting us on that nice cool pavement for the remaining 3 miles of trail. They were at least good enough to provide two water checks.

It was damn hot, I was seeing mirages of "Drummer" Bill naked or maybe it was "Puke", I don’t remember. I just kept trudging along as trail headed under I-10 and then the long death march up Old Katy Road to "Estrus" house for the on-on.

The hares did a great job of providing food (burgers and dogs) for the hash and "Estrus’" new swimming pool size hot tub was full of cold water to cool off in after the hot run. Funny how fast it warmed up though. It will take him months to decontaminate that thing. "Wee Willy Wanker" kept claiming that he lost his hot dog in the tub and spent most of the afternoon looking for it, much to the joy of "Blue Balls" and "Licks His Own".

Heading up the levee behind the house, "Schlumbag" called for the circle. About 10 of us headed across and joined her, however the rest of the hash just stayed in the backyard and ignored us. In a rage, "Schlumbag" ran down the hill, stole the beer tap (killing 3 in the process) and returned triumphant. Suddenly, the whole hash came up the levee and joined the circle. It’s amazing what hashers will do to get beer. Down-downs were pretty normal, we had one new boot and several reboots. "Tin Man" claims to be leaving (again) and "Big Orange Balls" returned after recently giving birth.

After down-downs, I left early. The last thing I remember was "Low Profile" standing alone, wiping the tears from his eyes and saying, "If only "Licks His Own" hadn’t beat me, I could have won the hash." From what I hear there was a big turnout at Nikki’s Irish Pub for the On-On-On.