Tradition

Our annual trips to St. Louis are always jam packed, and even when we have nothing planned for a few days, the calendar always seems to fill up. However there are always certain scheduled events that are marked on the calendar a couple months in advance and have become “traditions”. We arrived at the KOA in Eureka (just outside St. Louis) the afternoon of Aug. 27, and got settled into the same spot we’ve occupied the last three years. Our first night in town John always stops by after work for beer and Imo’s pizza, and this year Rick stopped by, too, for a brief visit before heading to work.

Sat. night was the “4th Annual Drink As Much Beer As You Can As Fast As You Can Without Puking Party”! As you may recall, the first year the boys drank way too much beer our first night in town, and thus a new tradition was begun. Of course, after that first year, all swore they would drink in moderation each subsequent year, and they’ve been pretty true to their word. This year shortly before arriving in town we found out that our good friends, Curt and Linda, would also be in town this weekend so of course they were invited to join in the festivities! Patty and Steve brought munchies for appetizers, Deborah and John brought a salad, and I made homemade lasagna. Though a little crowded in the RV, everyone had a great time and no one over-imbibed in spite of the party’s name…it’s just tradition now.

The following week found us visiting our friend, Bob, at the San Bar Tavern in Russ’ old neighborhood, Angelo and Carmen at Lombardo’s while enjoying one of their yummy pizzas, and Steve coming over to help Russ with an oil and filter change on the RV’s generator. Then the next couple of days were spent coordinating and preparing for the 4th annual tailgate party to be held prior to and after the Missouri/Illinois football game on Sat., Sept. 4, in downtown St. Louis. The first year there were only about 15 in attendance, but it has grown over the years with about 40 this year. The day before the big game I cooked up 5 lbs. of potatoes for my special homemade potato salad, made 60 deviled eggs, and 2 big pots of gumbo (all part of the tradition). We had purchased 5 cases of Heineken (tradition!), 2 cases of soda, a case of water, 4 bottles of wine, 30 Italian sausages, 18 brats, all the condiments to go with them, and all the fixin’s for 48 dollar roll sandwiches. We were ready to party!

The alarm had been set for 5:30a.m., and we pulled the RV out of the campground at 6, stopping for diesel and ice along the way. We were the first ones to arrive an hour later at the designated parking lot and got our traditional spot. Another friend named Bob was the first to arrive 10 min. later, and after helping us set up, was ready to start the day with Bloody Mary’s. It was an early game this year (11:30) so the major tailgating wasn’t taking place till after the game, but John brought donuts and Danish, and we brewed a pot of coffee. Our tailgate was the meeting spot before the game as John had everyone’s tickets, and even though we had the coffee, most started with beer or Bloody Mary’s.

At 10:30 we played the Missouri fight song on the outside CD player, locked everything up, and headed to the stadium. As usual, the streets were packed with folks walking to the Edward Jones Dome from several parking lots with Mizzou and Illini chants filling the air. This year our seats were near the 50-yard line about 2/3 of the way up, and as what seems to have also become a tradition, were on the Illinois side. There were several Mizzou fans on this side, too, but the Illini fans were rather rowdy and noisy the first half as the Tigers did not play very well…we were down 3 – 13 at halftime. But the team got their act together the second half, and the Tigers crushed the Illini with a final score of 23 – 13!! This was the last year for the Arch Rivalry supposedly because Illinois wants to play more home games in front of their fans in their new stadium, but we think that they just got tired of being humiliated every Sept. as the Illini have lost to the Tigers all 6 years!



















After the game nearly everyone returned to the RV to drink, eat, socialize, and watch the Cardinals game on the outside TV. As is tradition, Steve grilled while we got everything else set out and ready for consumption. A couple people had brought additional sides, and Jessica supplied lots of homemade brownies and cookies for dessert. Mike and Betty even stopped by as they had a couple hours to kill between a wedding they had attended downtown and the reception. We didn’t pull out of the parking lot till about 9:30 that night as the people in front of us were still partying hardy, but we didn’t mind as we enjoyed chatting with a few of our friends who had hung around. Another year of traditions of good food, good times, good game, and good friends!