We were recently reminded of one of those weekends you do early in life but often cannot find time for later. The recent passing of Bernie Herman, husband of Becky (former student and our best friend couple), and Bruce Bigatelle, husband of a teaching colleague, Martha, at the University of Delaware, two of the group, made it obvious that I need to record this story for posterity.

Jill and I were sitting in Chi-Chi's, our then-favorite Mexican restaurant. It would still be if it were still in business. Something in our conversation got around to red-eye flights. I told Jill, "Wouldn't it be fun if we just bought 8 tickets to Houston for the weekend and paid for everyone's food, eating at our favorite Houston places." Jill was always up for fun. We got home that night and looked up red-eye flights in August to Houston for a 2-day weekend. $108 buck apiece, and I ordered 8.

A few days later, we got the tickets and put them in pairs in envelopes with the following explanation: You need to take the unopened envelope to a Mexican restaurant where you've ordered but have not received your food. You are to open the envelope and read the opening page. You'll have 30 seconds to accept or reject the offer.

Our offer: Fly with us to Houston, Texas, all expenses paid, where we will be housed at the Hacienda of Amelia and Cheryl. We'll eat dinner (you can order what you want from the menu) at places of Ray's choice: Fuddruckers, Tila's, Good Company, and Dirty's. After that, you are to never make a future negative comment about the way or what Ray eats.

When we got to Houston, we had T-shirts made for everyone to wear during lunch and dinner. We would always shoot a group portrait with a big cheese at the restaurant.

Do we have any of that photo? Nope. There was just one folded-up T-shirt to mark the day. And it was a couple of good days with the best of friends, doing what Ray likes about the best in the world: Eatin' Texas.