Good Times...Good Friends

Our time in St. Louis has come to an end for this year, and we spent the past week visiting with friends and family plus getting some service work done on the RV. We’ve had a slow leak in one of the suspension system air valves, and since the warranty expires soon, we were determined to get it fixed while in town. We’ve made appointments in the past but the part was always backordered. The place here in St. Louis got the part but didn’t make specific appt. times. Instead we were told to bring it in Tues. morning at 6:30 a.m. and they’d get to it as quickly as possible. This meant we needed to leave the campground at 5:30 in the morning since the place was on the other side of town. I followed in the car loaded with the dogs and cat so we could tool around for a few hours while they worked on the rig. My dad's parents had lived not far from away so we drove by their house and were pleasantly surprised that the house and neighborhood were in better condition than we had anticipated. Funny thing is that it was another one of those moments of “that house sure seemed a lot bigger when I was a kid!” From there we drove to nearby Calvary Cemetery to visit the graves of my mom's parents, grandparents, brother, aunt, and several other relatives. Then since it was close, we headed to Memorial Park Cemetery to visit the graves of Russ’ dad, uncle, two cousins, and grandparents. After grabbing a quick bite, it was time to pick up the RV and head back “home”. Sure makes for a long day getting up that early!

Gloria was on vacation this week, and Wed. we had a great time spending the day together. After visiting with Diane and her mom, Diane was able to join us for lunch at Macaroni Grill, and I introduced Gloria to the yummy Leaning Bellini. It’s a frozen drink made with rum, peach nectar, white wine, and topped with a splash of champagne…I think she’s hooked! Gloria and I stopped by Ellen’s work so I could tell her goodbye, and then on the spur of the moment we visited the grave of our high school friend, Mary Beth, who died 6 years ago, and we discovered that she’s buried not far from Gloria’s sister. I had been unable to attend Mary Beth’s memorial service back then and wanted to pay my respects.

On occasion I’ve had the need for a sewing machine, and Thurs. afternoon I ventured over to Patty’s house with my bag of mending to use her machine and her expertise. When I was in town last year, Patty visited a couple of the Sweet Adeline choruses with me and eventually joined the City Voices Chorus (www.cityvoiceschorus.org ). After a quick dinner at her house, I accompanied her to their rehearsal (can you find me on the 3rd row?) They are a mid-size chorus of about 60 members who won their Regional competition this year and will compete at next year’s International contest in Nashville. Master director, Jerilee Inghram, is at the helm with over 30 years experience in Sweet Adelines and for 17 years served as an International Judge in the Showmanship category. Jerilee is energetic and works as hard as her chorus striving for perfection but definitely knows how to have fun along the way. She remembered me from last year and made sure I felt right at home by allowing me on the risers for the entire rehearsal. Soon after we arrived they ran through It’s Raining Men, complete with choreo. Then it was time to work on their two newest songs…a beautiful ballad called It’s My Song, and the fun, fun, FUN song You Can’t Stop the Beat from Hairspray! Wow! They are learning it at tempo, which can be quite challenging, but everyone seems to be up to it and enjoying it. One of the gals gave me a lot of credit for even attempting it, but I had a blast! Would love to see the choreo they put with it! We finished the evening by working on two holiday songs, one of which is a very challenging Chanukah song. It’s more the words that are challenging than the music!

Russ and I paid a visit to his Aunt Dori on Fri., and while we were there, her daughter Karen stopped by. Don’t think we’ve seen Karen since our wedding so we had a good time catching up. Since Fri. was Scott’s birthday, we invited him over for a spaghetti dinner to celebrate complete with a bottle of Merlot.

Sat. was Russ’ birthday….yay!!! Though he didn’t want any big party, we had a small cookout at our place inviting Steve & Patty, John & Deborah, Rick & Alyce, and Scott. Unfortunately Alyce couldn’t make it and Rick could only stay a couple hours because he had to work, but a good time was had by all. Russ had told everyone absolutely no gifts or cards, but Steve & Patty gave him the funniest card that they said they couldn’t resist getting! And Rick gave him the DVD movie RV with Robin Williams…how appropriate! Especially since on Fri. I had a moment reminiscent of the one in the movie where he’s emptying the black water tank!

We spent Sunday doing laundry and preparing to leave Mon. for Odessa, MO, about 30 miles outside of Kansas City, where we’ll spend 3 nights before heading to Lincoln, NE, for Saturday’s Missouri/Nebraska football game.

So until next year when we return to St. Louis, we’ll have great memories of good times and good friends.

Another Busy Week

It was another busy week in St. Louis even with a “down day” on Mon. With weeks like this, there’s never really a down day since there’s always stuff to do around the rig. Laundry alone can take hours since you can only wash about 5 shirts at a time in our washer/dryer and it takes about 2 hours to complete a cycle. But I can piddle around doing other stuff while it’s doing its thing, saving time and money that would otherwise be spent at the camp laundromat.

My plan was to visit St. Louis Harmony Chorus on Tues., and Gloria was interested in seeing them, too. She and Pam (you may remember that she was my high school “big sister”) came over early afternoon so they could check out my “home” since they had never seen it. Dana showed up, too, and we hung out chatting, munching, and viewing some of the photos on my laptop that I’ve taken along our journey that aren’t on the blog (can only post so many!) We ate dinner at El Nopal Mexican Restaurant, sharing a half pitcher of margaritas, and then headed to the rehearsal (all except Dana who had a prior commitment). St. Louis Harmony Chorus (http://www.stlharmony.org/) has nearly 80 members, placed 1st at last year’s Regional contest, and will compete in the International Competition in Hawaii this Nov. They are directed by the very talented Master Director, Sandi Wright, who has directed them since 1982 (that's her in the black slacks center in the photo at right). She is a chorus and quartet coach, specializing in presentation skills and vocal production, a certified judge in the showmanship category, a two-time Queen of Harmony (International quartet champion) with Tetrachords and Ambiance, and a member of the Region’s educational faculty. Sandi has a great rapport with her chorus and was very gracious in wanting to include me in their entire rehearsal. But they were preparing for a performance the following week and the Intl. contest, so I confined myself to only participating in the physical and vocal warm-ups. They have been perfecting several Bob Fosse numbers complete with Fosse choreo….wow! After seeing this front row perform, auditioning for it might be a little intimidating even for me! But it was very entertaining, and they have a wonderful sound. Gloria and Pam enjoyed it from an audience perspective even though the repetitiveness of rehearsal can become a bit tedious at times. But that’s all part of the process and how champions are made! Though I missed out visiting them last year, I’m really glad I did this time around, and wish them all the best in Hawaii.

Wed. morning I met Rosemarie for breakfast at a little place called First Watch (http://www.firstwatch.com/). Rosemarie worked with my mom and was one of her best friends. I think the last time we saw each other was 24 years ago when Russ and I had come back home for a visit though I keep thinking I visited at her house when we returned for a high school reunion 15 years ago. We didn’t get to connect last year, but I was determined to not to let that happen again this year. We had a great visit and tied up the table for a little over 3 hours. Had she not had an appt. at 1pm, we probably would have been there even longer! She’ll be in Florida next March, and we’re hoping to be able to catch up again. That night we met Michelle and Randy at Rich and Charlie’s Italian Restaurant not from far the campground as we did last year. After dinner we sat outside so the three of them could smoke and chatted until the restaurant was ready to close. We’ve had a strange noise coming from the car, and they walked over to it so Randy could listen and see if he could determine its origin (he’s in that line of work). Then we proceeded to stand in the parking lot and chat for another hour! It’s amazing how time flies when you’re having fun!
As planned for a couple weeks, I met Gloria at DuBowl Lanes where she bowls every Thurs. I know all the gals on the team, and this year Mary Ann was also there and we kept trying to determine just how many years it had been since we last saw each other! (L to R - Mary, Gloria, Pam, me, Mary Ann, Lynne) As I watched them bowl, we caught up on each other’s lives, and they had lots of questions about our travels and where we've been (obviously they haven't all been reading the blog!) Gloria’s son manages one of the local Cecil Whitaker’s Pizzerias and that’s where we went for lunch. This place has some of the neatest and prettiest murals on the walls, all St. Louis scenes, so we had our picture taken in front of one of them. Pam couldn’t make it since she had to go to work, but another friend of theirs, Gina, joined us. I always seem to have such a great time with this group of gals!

Fri. it was time for another visit to the American Legion Fish Fry. Scott joined us, and we all agreed that for some reason it tasted even better this week than it had at our visit a few weeks ago! Afterwards we headed to the SanBar Tavern again to pay Bob a visit. Kenny, another high school friend of Russ’, was there, and while we watched the Cardinals game on TV, the guys reminisced and talked sports.

We met John and Deborah for breakfast at Denny’s on Sat., and then John came over to listen to the Mizzou game on the radio since it wasn’t on TV today. Sat. night it was Girl’s Night Out! Six of us went to That One Place Bar & Grill, where we went last year that's only 15 min. from the campground for dinner, drinks, and dancing. Diane couldn’t stay long, but Gloria’s daughter, Jeannette, and her friend, Jennifer, joined Gloria, Mary, and me for a night of dancing to the music of Macks Creek (and to the DJ between sets!).

It's hard to believe we only have another week here before moving on. Time has flown by, and we've so enjoyed spending time with friends and family.

Ike Comes to Missouri!

Instead of beginning this post with how our week started, I decided to start with how the week ended since it was way more exciting! You know that little hurricane called Ike? Well, he found his way to Missouri. There’s a small creek at the back of the campground, and the staff came around Sat. to those of us in the lower areas to warn of the impending rain and possible rising of the creek. The concern was that if the Meramec River floods, it will back up here. Evidently this has happened in the past. Two of the rigs behind us (and slightly closer to the creek) moved to higher ground, but we decided to stay put and see what happened. We unhooked the sewer and the water Sat. afternoon so we could move the rig quickly if need be. We heard the rain start about 2:30 a.m. and by 6:30 the creek was starting to rise. Normally we can’t see it from our rig, but we saw it real good Sat.! The creek began rising very quickly so we made preparations to pull out and move to higher ground. We anchored things down, pulled in the slides, disconnected the electric, and waited. But soon the rain slowed, and the water actually started to recede. We were amazed at how fast this “little creek” was flowing as it carried huge logs away. Below are pictures of the Pet Area sign during the flood and after to give you an idea how high the water came. Of course we realize how lucky we are because we have many friends who were in Ike's path down in Houston and have prayed for their safety and minimal damage.









Now back to the beginning of our very busy week. It started last Sat. with Scott and me going to Eureka Days, an annual event that this year celebrated Eureka’s 150th anniversary. The event was complete with a parade, carnival rides, beer garden, miniature train rides, dozens of vendors, and so much more. It was to begin at 11am, but when we arrived about 5 min. after the hour, we found the place packed. We didn’t realize the parade had begun at 10, but finally found a parking spot. We watched the end of the parade, checked out the vendors (even entering a couple drawings for gas cards!), got something to eat, and just enjoyed the festive atmosphere. Later that evening Russ, Scott, and I drove to Hot Shots Sports Bar & Grill to watch the pay-per-view Mizzou game against Southeast Missouri State. Mizzou was up 42-0 at the half so we headed home.

The next day was the scheduled “Birthday BBQ” at Dana’s house. We’ve been friends since high school, and we had talked last year about how we never get to celebrate our birthdays together. I’m always teasing them by reminding them that they could all get together since they all live in the same city, but seems it takes me coming to town for that to happen. (Gloria calls me the long distance coordinator.) So I found out everyone’s schedule to pick the best day, coordinated plans with Dana, and suggested a potluck. I brought Mardi Gras beads for everyone, and though gifts were not on the agenda, as you can guess, there were some. Dana has a beautiful home, and we had such a great time opening presents, eating, talking, sharing, and before we knew it 5 hours had passed!


Mon. was chore day around the coach, but that night I visited River Blenders Chorus, and Dana and Gloria decided to meet me at the rehearsal site. I don’t believe they really had any idea what Sweet Adelines was all about, and I was delighted to share with them the organization I’ve been involved with for nearly 13 years. In case you don’t remember from last year’s post, the River Blenders are a large chorus of nearly 100 women, who placed 2nd at last year’s Regional contest, and scored high enough to receive wildcard status to compete in the 2008 International Competition in Hawaii this Nov. They are directed by the fabulous Master Director, Diane Huber. Diane has been a Sweet Adeline for over 30 years, a chorus and quartet coach, a Queen of Harmony (quartet champion) with Ambiance, and Past President of Sweet Adelines Intl. She is bubbly, vivacious, fun, and extremely gracious. I participated in the physical and vocal warm-ups (that’s me in the dark blue shirt on the first row riser in photo at right), and then I sat back down to watch. About 15 min. into rehearsal, everyone was asked to come off the risers, and I figured they were going to practice coming onstage or something. Obviously we missed the first part of what was said because what they wanted everyone to do was head downstairs because there was a tornado warning!! Sweet Adelines are nothing if not flexible, and rehearsal continued in the basement until the warning passed. They did a beautiful, moving rendition of You Are My Sunshine, and when they broke into the theme from Fame, Gloria and Dana looked at me in amazement. I don’t think they had any idea modern music was performed by Sweet Adelines! Once we were able to move back upstairs, they began learning the choreo for Fame and worked on their contest songs. It was such a joy to see Diane and the chorus again, and I wish them all the best in Hawaii.

Tues. found us heading to Russ’ brother’s farm in Wentzville. We took the dogs with us, and they got to play with their “cousin” Dakota for a bit before being put in one of the outdoor kennels. We toured part of the farm with Ron and Jackie starting at their pond where Ron fishes from his docked pontoon boat that he named after his fishing buddy who passed away last year. This spot is very peaceful, and Ron says that’s what he loves about it. He can get away from everything and has everything he needs. As Russ and Jackie walked around the grounds, Ron took me onboard and cast the line for me. After a few attempts I actually caught a fish! He released it back, recast the line, and I caught another one! At least I don’t think it was the same fish. :-) Our tour continued over to see the cows and their newest calf shown here with his mother. He’s only a month old and weighed 95 lbs. when born! Back at the house, Jackie showed me her beautiful garden where she enjoys spending lots of time. She has dozens of rose bushes, a couple tomato plants, a gorgeous bed of mums, and some lovely dahlias. After visiting for awhile, we went to dinner at Rizzo’s Italian Restaurant, then came back to the house and chatted some more. It was a long but very pleasant day.










Since last year we had been telling Scott about Lombardo’s Restaurant (http://www.lombardosrestaurants.com/) and promised to take him while in town, and that’s where we journeyed on Wed. As usual we sat in the bar and after ordering a couple drinks, started with the calzone, followed by the toasted ravioli. Scott seemed to enjoy both, and took Russ’ recommendation to try the turtle soup, which he thought was pretty yummy. We topped the meal by sharing one of their famous and delicious pizzas. (For more on the restaurant and food, you can check our blog post dated Aug. 23, 2007.) Owners Carmen and Angelo were both working and we enjoyed visiting with them again. As the conversation progressed, the topic came around to the St. Louis Rams. Carmen mentioned that he had a couple extra tickets for Sunday’s game and asked if we’d like to have them. Neither of us have ever attended a Rams game, and since our calendar was open that day, we gladly accepted!

The next day Denise and Karen picked me up for lunch. As you may recall from last year, Denise has been my sister's best friend since they were in grade school. Karen, and her husband Mark, have also been friends of hers since the same time so I've known all of them for years and consider them my friends, too. I hadn’t seen Mark and Karen in about 10 years and was looking forward to catching up, but Mark had to work at the last minute so couldn’t make it. We ate lunch at the Blue Water Grill located in Kirkwood, MO, sharing a carafe of sangria, and then walked around checking out all the quaint little shops and the farmer’s market surrounding the old Amtrak station. The time flew by and soon it was time to head home, but it was so good to spend time with them. Hopefully Mark can make it next time.

Steve’s wife, Patty, and I decided to go to the movies Fri. to see Mamma Mia! What a great, fun movie! We both have wanted to see it and seems neither of us has anyone to really go see those types of movies with. We had a blast and decided next time we needed to see the sing-along version! Then on Sat. we drove to Steve and Patty’s house to watch the Mizzou/Nevada game on TV. John showed up, too, so it was a great excuse for the Mizzou roomies to visit some more. Lots of munchies, drinks, and good game…Tigers won 69-17…what better way to end the week!

And now we’re back to where I started….Sun....and time for some Rams football. After being sure the RV was not going to be flooded or washed away, we headed downtown to watch the Eli Manning and World Champion NY Giants run over the Rams. Yeah, we got clobbered 41-13, but it was fun to see a pro game in person. When we told Carmen where our seats had been for the Mizzou game, he said his were towards the endzone, too, but a few rows lower. Little did we know they were only 5 rows from the field! I’ll say that was lower! It was the home opener, and the fans were definitely ready for some football. Rams baseball hats were distributed to everyone in attendance, Ozzie Smith announced the starting lineup as fireworks exploded, and cheerleaders waved Rams flags. Tributes were done throughout the game to honor Georgia Frontiere who passed away in Jan. and who brought football back to St. Louis by moving her Rams team from L.A. to here. Carmen and his wife, Ruth, arrived about game time, and I enjoyed meeting Ruth and chatting with her as she was fascinated by our new lifestyle. Even though our team lost and they've got lots of work to be done, we enjoyed the experience. Of course, we would have enjoyed it even more had things not fallen apart in the 4th quarter. Oh, well, there’s always next week.

Are You Ready For Some Football?

Another year, another tailgate, another game, another win!! There’s nothing like college football! The big event last week was the annual Missouri/Illinois football game Sat. at the Edwards Jones Dome. Once again we committed to taking the RV downtown to tailgate before kickoff, which was 5 hours later this year at 7:30pm. We spent most of the week preparing for the party with several trips to Wal-Mart and Schnuck’s deciding on a menu of bratwurst, Italian sausage, homemade gumbo, and pork rib tips with all the usual sides and plenty of beer, wine, and soda.

Russ wanted to get there early enough to pick his spot and park the way he thought best, in other words facing north/south instead of east/west to best maximize afternoon shade. So at 6:30AM (yes, you read that right…Am) with Scott, his dog and ours, and the cat loaded on board we pulled out of the campground, making a stop for diesel and ice before heading downtown, and arriving about an hour later. We got the RV situated, got the ribs started on the slow cooker BBQ pit Scott loaned us, got the regular BBQ pit set up, put out the awning and all the chairs, so that when the parking attendant arrived about an hour after we did, it was going to make it very inconvenient for us to move and turn the RV to face the opposite direction. He and Russ had quite a discussion about it, but in the end the guy let us stay put.

Since we arrived so early, I cooked breakfast for the 3 of us, and we had plenty of time to organize everything for the party. Our first guests arrived shortly after noon, and the festivities began in full force. Russ plan worked out great, and we had plenty of shade all afternoon. Steve assigned himself as assistant cook, and in spite of our initial reservations in serving it, the gumbo was a huge hit, and everyone seemed to have a great time.

As 6pm rolled around, we started putting stuff away and getting ready to head over to the stadium…along with thousands of others! Scott was going to stay with the rig and the dogs watching the game on our outside TV, and he said that from time to time others who hadn’t gone to the game came by and watched with him. Russ and I changed into our specially ordered Mizzou Gold Rush t-shirts and off we went. The streets were packed with folks walking from several parking lots with Mizzou and Illini chants filling the air. Once we got to the entrance, everything slowed down with the masses of people waiting to get through the turnstiles.

As we entered, the atmosphere was electrifying! People going up the escalators and standing along the balconies were leading cheers of M-I-Z to which we below responded Z-O-U, and the sound reverberated throughout. The Illinois fans would occasionally try to break in with their own cheer but generally it didn’t last very long, even though there were plenty of them as well. Our seats were about ¾ the way up towards the end zone, but there really doesn’t seem to be a bad seat in the place. Attendance actually exceeded last year’s by over 4,000 for a total of 66,441.

The game was great (though there were some who griped about the Mizzou defense), and we won 52-42! After the game several folks headed back to the RV to drink, eat, and socialize some more while waiting for enough vehicles to leave so we could get the coach out. We finally got back to the campground around 2AM. What a great but long day!

A short time ago we finally made the decision to follow the Missouri football team around to some of their games this fall. We secured tickets through a friend of a friend for games in Lincoln, NE, Austin, TX, Waco, TX, and Kansas City. If the Tigers are doing well (and there’s no massive snow storms), we even have tickets for the Big 12 Championship game in KC at the beginning of December! It’ll be fun to see some other campuses and visit at least one other state we never have (NE).

Earlier in the week I caught up with some of my high school friends, first meeting at Diane’s house, then grabbing a bite at Rizzo’s Italian Restaurant. We’ve made plans for a birthday barbecue at Dana’s house to be held in a couple weeks celebrating all our birthdays since we never get to do that together!

A couple days later I visited Alice and Bill Riley, parents of my lifelong friend, Linda. Unlike last year, Bill is no longer living at home but rather in a nursing home about 4 blocks away. After a minor infection sent him to the hospital a few months ago, Alice realized that she really couldn’t care for him by herself 24 hours a day any longer. I stopped by the house first to chat with her, and while we were catching up, Bill called and wanted to know where his “girlfriend” was, and Alice told him I was right there. LOL When we arrived at his room, of course he wanted his hug, then we ventured down the hall to a very brightly lit atrium area they call the Bird Room, I guess because they have a couple caged birds. Alice had made arrangements for us to have lunch with Bill, so for the next hour till it arrived, we chatted and caught up. The stroke he had a couple years ago has not affected his mind, and he surprised me with being very much up on current events, talking about Hurricane Gustav possibly hitting Louisiana, and other things. Lunch was pretty bland and commercial, but I was there to spend time with two wonderful people not for the food. As you can imagine, he hates living there but realizes it is necessary. Alice visits him every single day for several hours at a time, and 3 of their kids live in the St. Louis area and visit often with their kids. (He’s very proud of his grandchildren!) Linda and her brother, Wayne, live out of town but visit as often as they can.

Our friend, Rick, stopped by later that day to visit and share some Steak ‘n Shake, and the rest of this week has been pretty low key since I was feeling a little under the weather. But next week is already booking up with plans so we’ll be back in gear with more to report!