17Aug12 - Big lake swim prep with small town racism

Even though I didn't swim this day, it's still worth typing about.
I left for Bear Lake to meet up with Chad and his crew at 1500.  The drive was real nice heading to Randolph, UT.  When I got there, I arrived well ahead of Chad and the rooms weren't ready so I had some time to kill.  This place Randolph is a SMALL town.  I asked if there was anything to do or anything exciting to see there.  The woman that ran the register, and was the cook at the local grease spoon AND reserved the cabins said with enthusiasm, "The 4H awards and displays are right down the road".  Why not!  I went and checked it out.  Killed as much time as I could then drove 20 min to get closer to Bear Lake and got a raspberry milkshake.  It was amazing.  Got back and the rooms were ready.  I stepped inside the "cabin" and realized that I have been in hotel bathrooms bigger than this place.  I actually went to see if they HAD a bathroom and fortunately they did.  VERY simple place to stay.  One double bed with about 1 foot on each side until it touched the wall.  One TV with 4 channels and the screen was about 12" attached to a VCR....yes a VCR! (found out later they only carry ONE VHS tape there.....pass!)  The wallpaper was of wolves and the clock was made out of a bear trap.  NICE!
Chad and his crew arrived.  I was hungry so we all went to the place called Gators right there.  It's bad enough that this place has SOOOOOO many small time stereotypes with it but they decided to put the cherry on top!
One of Chad's buddies is Xavier Lang.  He's a really great guy and a good paddler.  I've swam with him before as he's paddled and he knows his stuff.  He's also black which unfortunately in this case DOES mean something.
We were all sitting there eating and relaxing and not even a few minutes had passed when 2 police officers "randomly" showed up, got a soda then STOOD 2 FEET AWAY FROM LANG.  They stood there talking and acting casual for at least 5 minutes.  Lang is a former cop and so am I so it was extremely obvious what they were doing.  It was pathetic.  When they left, Lang just said he loves how small town cops act so tough and we then all joked about how obvious it was what they were doing.  I just asked (in a slightly higher volume so the whole restaurant could hear but could pretend that it was just for our table), "Gee, I wonder who got scared because they've never seen a black guy and felt the need to call the cops"!  We honestly all got a good laugh out of it but to be completely honest, I was embarrassed for those people and that town.  What a disgrace.  It's one thing to be a small town full of ignorant inbred hillbillies but it's another to hoist a flag as high as you can so everyone can see it too.
Anyhow.....we all got done then Chad was able to secure the last 2 "rooms" since the rest of the people in the world are wise enough to never stay there.  We stayed up a bit chatting but I got tired quickly and was off to bed for a long night of crappy sleep.