The Significance of May 18th

May 18^th is historically a good day in the life of Joleen and Brian Durham.

On May 18^th in 1996 we college sweethearts married.  We have spent all of our anniversaries together, and many times we have spent them doing some sort of fun outdoor activity.  (Which is WAAAY more fun than an actual wedding—what were we thinking back then?!)

May 18, 2011, our 15^th year in the great adventure of marriage, was spent on the Big Piney River.  This is not a first, but it was the first time we had craft beer in a can in the boat.  No, it was not craft beer from Piney River Brewing Company, it was Fat Tire from New Belgium and Buffalo Sweat from Tallgrass.  There will be Piney River Brew in cans on the Piney later this summer…but more about that later.

A float on a river anywhere is great.  This particular float also involved dozens of smallmouth bass, goggle-eye, long eared sunfish and pumpkinseed tugging our lines which takes an ordinarily great river float to a new level of greatness.  Add canned craft beer shared with your best friend, and the fun becomes priceless!  (It’s pretty funny, too, when the conservation agent checked our fishing licenses before we took off, and after looking at them, he asked when the brewery was open.)

Brian with a goggle-eye

Joleen with a long-eared sunfish

Our float was from the Dog’s Bluff river access (which is just downstream from the brewery for those of you that don’t live in Texas County) to the Mineral Springs river access.  About halfway through that float we passed right through McKinney Eddy on the McKinney farm.  Here are some views from McKinney Eddy.

You may wonder why I’m spending the evening of my 15^th anniversary blogging.  Well, May 18, 2011 will also hold special significance in our lives because it was early this morning that we received a call from our banker, Sandy Howard at Progressive Ozark Bank in Houston.  She called to let us know that our SBA loan for Piney River Brewing Company was approved!

All of the things we’ve been working toward in the past few months will finally come about thanks to this loan.  And, as far as we’re concerned, Sandy is the rock star of the banking world.  Sandy had never done an SBA loan before, but we were able to do it with her.  When the SBA called her with the news, they were cheering her in the background of the phone call.

We have banked with Progressive for almost as many years as we’ve been married; they gave us our first home loan.  Truly, there is not enough we can say about Sandy and everyone at Progressive.  It’s great to bank with a place that believes in their local community (and some of them like craft beer, too!).

After 15 years of marriage adventures, I think the fun is just beginning.  Insane?  Heck no!  We’re having the time of our lives.