Last month, my wife Jess and I were invited to go on a road trip by two close friends of ours, Barb and Joe. Jessie met Barb through work and the four of us have become close friends for the past seven or so years.
Joe is a huge whisky advocate and his favorite variety is Kentucky Bourbon and since he wanted to tour the distilleries bordering Tennessee down through Kentucky, he planned a road trip and they asked us along.
It was an off season extended weekend for us and since we weren't pressed for time, we took a leisurely drive and enjoyed the scenery and friendly conversation. Joe had booked us reservations in two nice Hotels with connecting rooms, one for the way down and of course the other for our return trip home.
After a brief lunch stop and about six hours of travel under our belts, we pulled into our first lodging accommodation, went to our rooms and got cleaned up and rested for the short drive to our first distillery tour. When the four of us met back at the car, the two girls decided to sit in the back to chat and I rode shotgun with Joe at the wheel.
It was a beautiful afternoon, the girls sat in the back, continuously chatting about massages and masseurs, vacations and travels and how they would love to go on a high end cruise. Joe and I talked about the various bourbon mashes, distilling processes and how much we were going to take home for our personal bars.
A couple of gravel roads and some split rail and barbed wire fencing later, the girls feared we were lost and though I didn't say anything, I was beginning to wonder myself. The more reassurances that we tried to give them the more verbally concerned they got and the more agitated Joe became.
When he turned down this one desolate looking dirt road, Barb Said, "Joe, there's no way in hell that a business is at the end of this damn road, now just turn around and head back" and Jess concurred.
Joe stopped the car and out of the blue said, "I'll make you girls a deal, I'll drive down here another few hundred yards and if there's no distillery, I'll book us all a 'ladies choice' cruise at my expense. In the event that there is one, you two have to get naked together and let us give you both full body, totally nude massages tonight. Is it a deal?"
Surprised, Jessie asked, "what exactly do you mean by that?
Joe answered, " just what I said, if you're right, river cruise, ocean cruise, ladies choice of when and where. You two seem to like the idea from your chatter, but if we're right, you girls have to get naked and let us give you a full body, no holds barred massage, in the same room together and Ill rent the tables."
Jess said, "no way!"
Barb responded, "no way there's a distillery down this God forsaken road, just look at it Jessie, he's wrong and we can get a cruise of a lifetime. What do you say, are you in?"
Jess looked at me and I looked at Barb, and I said "your call, but we all have to agree to keep our ends of the bargain in the event of a loss, agreed?"
Jessie looked kind of shocked and concerned but both girls surprisingly agreed and Joe said, "Now there's no backing out and I mean absolutely no backing out, right?"
When they both responded together, "on your end either," Joe said he would put his end in writing if he had to and started driving and the girls started poking fun at him over the condition of the road that we were on.
At the crest of the next hill, not seventy five yards from where he had stopped to place that wager was a rear entrance to Jim Beam Distillery No 2 and we could actually see a highway on the other side of it.