So, this is how my Friday morning started:

My stepdad woke me up around 1 a.m. — not on purpose, but you know that thing where people who are trying to be quiet are actually louder than they would be if they weren’t trying to be quiet? Well, Daddy Deke is a bull in a china shop on his best day. One of his fishing buddies tipped him off that folks from out of town were already starting to line up at the Daingerfield State Park gates, so it was either lay in bed and listen to him cuss and moan getting the camper out of the back garage or help him while he cussed and moaned getting the camper out of the back garage.

He hasn’t missed a Rudy Rally in years — a fact he shares with anyone who will listen, and many who have already heard it a thousand times, yours truly included — and wasn’t going to miss what would presumably be the last one. I rode with him over to the park (the aforementioned fishing buddy was not kidding about the late-night line) and then hitched a ride to town to get in another line, this time outside New Life Church, where President Ruiz’s funeral was scheduled for mid-afternoon Friday.