Doing Nashville, TN

Our plan for yesterday had to change a little bit as a result of our poor internet connection at the site. We are located on a fringe area and the signal keeps getting weak, and sometimes drops altogether. There was a Verizon store in the town of Gallatin, so we went there to see about getting a booster antenna. That is something we have been thinking about for awhile, since we occasionally are in areas that are like this. We ended up spending a couple hours at Verizon because we purchased what they call a "Fivespot" which is  data card replacement and creates a mini network in our RV. That allows both of our machines to use the internet simultaneously, rather than using one card for having one computer at a time having access. It also has a stronger access antenna and should eliminate the need for a booster. This card is suppose to operate without a direct connection to any computer, and that was the problem. It worked fine in the store while connected to my system, but not in stand alone mode. The net of the whole thing is that if that problem persists and Verizon Tech Support cannot fix it, I am to bring it back for a replacement. Sheesh!

We then stopped at a local Lowe's to pick up some waste lumber ends that we could use as blocks for under our the jacks on our RV. That cost us some more time as they ended up cutting a board for us - a treated 2 x 10, into 12 blocks - and only charged us $5 for the whole thing.

It was then off to Nashville and the Grand Ol Opry House. There was a huge flood in Nashville last spring that severely damaged the facility and they were just now getting it ready to reopen next weekend. We took these pictures of the facility:

We weren't able to see the inside but we were able to go into the Opry Shop and we looked at all the Country and Western apparel, gifts and autograped CD's and albums. We will return to this attraction again in the future when we are able to go inside and maybe even see a show.

It was a beautiful day, so we went to the downtown area - Broadway St. in Old Nashville:

It was a different experience as it was basically a tourist trap with tons of Pubs, Taverns and gift shops with all kinds of Country and Western goods. There were horse and buggy rides available all up and down the street:

We walked around the area and stopped to have dinner at a place called the Wildhorse Saloon that we heard about while talking to some locals before we came to town. It was a rather pricey meal as you might expect, but we were glad we went because it was a unique place and one with a history of producing some great Country stars.

Our day ended at about 8 PM when we arrived home and settled in for the night. We received an email from Patty that had the headline story of the playoff game that appeared in the Naperville newspaper the day after Austin's game. It went like this:

Warriors running back comes up big

October 29, 2010 BY JIM OWCZARSKI jowczarski@stmedianetwork.com

http://yourseason.suntimes.com/football/2848670,1029-waubonsie-valley-brother-rice-football.article

Quite a few ghosts were exorcised Friday night at Waubonsie Valley, as the Warriors ended a string of playoff appearances that resulted in first-round losses. It’s been nine years since the Warriors last advanced to the second round in 2001, and they got there on the strength of an incredibly stout front seven on defense and the legs of an unlikely offensive hero — running back Austin Guido.

The Warriors run a balanced option attack, but on a night when the passing game was flat they turned to the 5-foot-8-inch, 180-pound Guido to carry the load. The sophomore was a workhorse, plowing through and dancing around the Crusaders’ defense 22 times for 211 yards.

It was a career night for Guido, highlighted by a 96-yard TD run in the fourth quarter that was the exclamation point on the Warriors’ 33-7 victory.

We are very proud of him as you may expect. His next game will be tougher as they will be playing one of the favorites to win the State Championship. No matter how it turns out, we know we will be proud of Austin.

That's about it for now. Today is our final full day before leaving for Campbellsville, KY, and our Amazon.com experience...

Sitting at Starbucks in Gallatin, TN

We arrived at our destination yesterday very early - 1:30 PM. The trip from Elizabethtown, KY,  was a fairly short one - 129 miles - and we were happy we set it up that way. The campground we are staying in - Bledsoe Creek State Park - is just fantastic. There were no discount campgrounds that we have any affiliation with that were nearby, so we searched the state park system and came upon this park, just outside of Nashville in Gallatin, TN. Not only is it a beautiful spot, but it is inexpensive - $15. We have electric and water hookups which are all we need. Below are a couple shots of our space:

It is very spacious and private and we have a view of the lake from our side windows:

This will be our space until we leave for Campbellsville on Monday morning. After we set up in our space, we went exploring in the campground. We found the laundry and bathhouses and then we discovered a hiking trail that went along the lake. Why not try it - so we did. We did get some shots as we started out from along the shoeline. This first one is of a strange variety of duck (?) that we have never seen before:

Then we stopped at a dock to get a shot of the huge lake:

Actually, the lake is a lot bigger than the picture shows. This shot was taken of one end, so you can imagine the overall size. There were boats on the water but out of sight from the dock. We continued on the trail as it followed the shoreline for quite a distance. It then started to get further into the woods and we caught this last shot of what looked like a bunch of cranes in the cove across the way:

The trail then went into the woods and we hiked for what seemed like 5 miles. It was a beautiful trail through the woods and about halfway through the hike we had to climb a steep hill that had steps made out of railroad ties that went from the bottom all the way to the top of what was probably a 500 foot climb. We certainly didn't count on a hike like this but we sure did need the excercise. We finally came out at the end of the campground and while walking back to our sight came across several deer. This is the only one that I had my camera ready to capture before it ran off:

That was the extent of our first afternoon in Gallatin, TN. The only negative so far is the weak connection for our wifi. We keep dropping the signal so we are obviously in a fringe area for reception which prompted us to go into town (Gallatin) and find a Starbucks where we are now enjoying a latte and free wifi. I will have to try and locate a store where I can get a booster antenna to use in situations like this.

We did get a message from Patty with the results of Austin's first playoff game last night. His team won, 33 - 7, and Austin scored a 96 yard touchdown in the game. How great is that? We wished we could have been there to see it and cheer him on. The games get tougher now as they move up in the playoff bracket.

Anyway, we are off to explore Nashville today and should have some interesting things to relate tomorrow. Until then...

Elizabethtown, KY

We were glad we made the decision to split the trip yesterday rather than try to make Nashville in one day. It was a much more comfortable day leaving at 10 AM and arriving in Elizabethtown, KY, at around 2:30. That gave us time to set up in our site:

and then do some exploring in town. The town is a good size (25,000) and has some interesting attractions. One that we found out about when we stopped at the visitors center in town was a Coca Cola Museum. We drove into the lot and were going to go through the huge museum (10,000 S.F.) full of Coca Cola memorabilia, but found out there was an admission charge so we decided to save that tour for some other day when we could spend a couple hours there if we wanted to. Anyway, I thought this shot of the side of the museum was interesting:

As it turns out, this town is only 50 miles from Campbellsville, so we will most likely return - at least once - while we are working at Amazon.com.

We drove around the whole town and came upon a Walmart Supercenter and stopped for some groceries, and also discovered that the town had a Kohl's - that puts it on the map for Josie.

The trip yesterday was much better, mileage wise. We got 8.7 MPG in very light winds which is much better than the day before. Today will be a trip of only 120 miles to a State Park in Gallatin, TN, just outside Nashville. We are looking forward to seeing some of Nashville. It also is a town that is fairly close to Campbellsville, so we will definetly return again. Until tomorrow...

Stop in Greenfield, IN

After settling up our charges with the repair facility, we went and had some breakfast in town at the restaurant where we had dinner the night before. It is called The Hometown Restaurant and is a very nice, inexpensive family restaurant. By the time we got things ready to go and hit the road, it was 10:45 AM. So far, we have had the worst weather of anyplace we've traveled - here in Indiana. Monday was the huge storm, and yesterday, although mostly clear, was windy all day. With the high head winds we had traveling the whole way down the Interstate, we only averaged 7 MPG towing the fifth wheel. Not only that, the winds continued through the night last night. Here is a shot of our space at our campground in Greenfield, called the S & H Campground (No, they don't take the green stamps!):

One advantage to traveling this time of the year is that most campgrounds have tons of open sites so you don't need a reservation. We had our choice of probably 10 or 15 nice pull through sites here.

Today was suppose to be a long trip to Nashville, TN. That would have been nearly 300 miles for us and would mean that we would have to leave early and travel most of the day. Now that we are not in "rush mode", we decided to split the trip into 2 days and tonight we will stay in Elizabethtown, KY. That will be about 170 miles and allows us time to relax this morning and not worry about spending most of the day driving. Once we arrive in Nashville, we will spend a couple days there before heading to Campbellsville, KY, for our next job at Amazon.com. That will be approximately 130 miles and is a reasonable trip for our last day.

That's about it from Greenfield, so until tomorrow...

Big Storm and Factory Tour

We had scheduled a tour at the DRV Suites factory for 8:30 AM yesterday morning. We arrived right on time and, along with 1 other couple, started the tour. It was a very interesting experience to see how these fifth wheels are manufactured from the bottom up. We were taken through the entire operation beginning with the frame:

the floor:

the sides and insulation:

Construction and insertion of the slideouts:



 and everything in between until the final product is lined up for its final checkout process:

Since we arrived right on time to start the tour, we took a shot of the sign on our way out:

It was nearly 10:30 when we left the factory and you can see in the shot above that the rain had already started. It kept getting darker and darker, and the rain kept getting heavier and heavier until we couldn't see the road in front of us. We pulled off the road under a freeway bridge while on our way to town and heard on the radio that there was a band of heavy storms passing through and there were tornado warnings in LaGrange County - where we were. The rain and wind kept up for about 5 minutes and we heard that the tornado warning was canceled - after 2 had touched down only a couple miles from us. Whew! Close call! We heard that the storm track was moving at a speed of 75 MPH and blew through rapidly. It's a good thing that our rig was inside being repaired at the time.

We drove into town to visit a furniture store that specializes in RV furniture - Lambright Comfort Chairs - and they were owned by, of course,  an Amish family:

We had talked about removing the huge sofa in the rear of our rig and replacing it with either a love seat and end tables, or a couple more loungers. We decided to wait on that change after seeing the prices of the furniture.
There were more of the Amish horse and buggies as we traveled in this area:

and we even passed a lot where they sold the buggies:

By the time we got back in the afternoon, it was too late to pack up and move on to another location. We will leave this morning and travel to Greenfield, IN - just outside Indianapolis - and spend tonight there, before moving on to Nashville on Thursday.

Until tomorrow...

Drive to LaGrange, IN

It was around 10 AM by the time we got everything together, packed the vehicles, drove to the storage unit, unpacked the vehicles, hitched up and hit the road. Patty went with us to the storage unit to see us off and we appreciated her help.

Our drive was to take us only on toll free roads and it wasn't too long when we questioned that strategy. We went through every town, stopped at every light and lost valuable time. By the time we decided to switch to toll roads (the interstates) we were in Indiana and the roads were great without taking the toll road. We arrived in LaGrange at 2:30 PM and were surprised to see all the Amish people that were in this area. Actually, we shouldn't have been surprised since this is the RV manufacturing center of the country and we knew that many of the RV's were manufactured using Amish help. I was able to get a couple shots of them on the road, even though I was driving while shooting these pictures:

Our first clue to all the horse and carriage activity was the amount of horse apples along the roadside. They were everywhere. We got set up:

(ours is the 2nd from the right) and had conversations with our neighbors about why they were here, where they were going and everything else about their travels that RV'ers talk about. It was a Doubletree hang out, so to speak. We scheduled ourselves for the tour at the factory that was to start this morning at 8:30, so this entry will be cut short.

The day today was a doozy! I finally got this entry posted, but check back tomorrow - it was an exciting, and scary, day...

Final Game, Final Day

The final day of our visit here was packed with - you guessed it - football. The twins left early to get to their final regular season game which started at 9:30 AM. It was a home game played at the stadium at Benedictine University in Naperville. The game was another massacre, as the twins' team - the Patriots - scored early and often again. Here's another picture of Jordan kicking for a point-after-touchdown:

and a shot of the twins on the bench (#8 and #23):

Part of the festivities for the final game of the season - and being their homecoming game - all the players presented their moms with a corsage at halftime. Of course, Patty was the only mom that received 2 corsages - one from Brandon and one from Jordan:

The team played a great game for their finale. Brandon caught a pass and ran for about a 39 yard touchdown and Jordan was again the kicker for all kickoffs and played the outside on the defensive line. Brandon also played safety on the defense. The scoreboard at the end looked like this:

Yes, it ended at 40 - 0. Following the game, there was a luncheon/party for the team in the boxes that were above the playing field. It was a happy celebration for the whole team, coaching staff and parents:

It was also a happy ending to our visits at the boys football games. Except for the first game disappointment (loss) we had at the first game we saw Austin play, the teams were dominant and victorious. The boys have all worked hard all season and deserve all the accolades that I'm sure they will receive when it's all done following the playoffs. We will certainly be anxious to hear the reports about their playoff games. It is almost a guarantee that Austin will be a star player again next year and we hope that he stays healthy and continues to improve.

This morning is a little sad as everybody is back to normal for the work week and school week, and we are gathering up our things for our departure around 8:30 AM. It has been a wonderful visit and we are thankful to Patty and Mark for all their hospitality. The boys will all be missed, and we hope to see everybody again very soon. We will try to come through here again in less time than the 2 years or so that it took for us to come this time. We will be in LaGrange, IN, tonight, and depending on how long it takes to complete repairs on our fifth wheel, we will either be there a second night or head south toward Nashville.

So long from Naperville...



Weekends Mean Football

There were no football games being played within the family yesterday, but that doesn't mean there wasn't football. The twins had a practice session in the morning for a couple hours and the rest of the day was spent switching between college football games on the TV. There is very little time here on weekends - at least during this time of year - that doesn't involve football in some way.

Except for a short trip to the store, we spent the day getting ready for a small "party" that was taking place last night. There was an announcement being made - locally - on the high school football championship series schedule and several of the football "parents" were coming over to try to catch the announcement live on TV. The party started around 7 PM and went to beyond 9 PM which is when we went to bed. The schedule was published in the morning paper this AM and Austin's school has a first game scheduled with a school that has a 5-4 record so they should win, at least, the first game.

This morning was an early start for the twins' game and we were out of the house before 9 AM. The post is late today as a result of having to get ready to leave early so that it wasn't completed until after the game. Not only that, but there was a luncheon in the team's honor following the game this morning so that made it even later.

We will get things gathered up for at least 1 trip over to the fifth wheel sometime today. If we are to leave at our estimated departure time of 9 AM tomorrow, we will have to start loading up today. It was decided that we will leave the rig in storage until we leave as the street out front is fairly narrow and I didn't want to take a chance on causing a blocking problem on the street - even for one night. We also need to make sure we have enough gas to go the 170 miles tomorrow to LaGrange, IN. The trip to the storage will give us time to gas up. That's about it from here, with one more day to go...

Final Game a Winner

Once again, most of the activity during the day yesterday was all leading up to the big Friday night football game. We all had errands to run during the day - Josie and I to the fifth wheel and Patty to the store. Patty also had to work at the "fun fair" at school for a couple hours starting at 4:45 which meant that there was a good chance we would miss the start of the football game, which was being played at a field that was about 30 miles from here. We all (us and the twins) piled into her car at 4:30 and headed to the twins school in downtown Naperville. It was a huge event that was held inside the school and Josie and I walked around the downtown area while Patty put in her work time. Downtown Naperville is a beautiful place. We never get tired of walking around visiting all the nice shops:

and going down to the river that flows through town:

Patty was able to leave her work assignment early, so we left town at close to 7 PM for the game that started at 7:30. We arrived just in time to see the opening kickoff as we walked to our seats in the stadium.

This was the final game of the regular season for Austin's high school team, and they needed to win in order to have a share of the conference title. I thought that this was a team that wasn't suppose to be very good, but Mark reminded me that they averaged 50+ points in their first 5 games of the season but have lost their last 2 games. Uh Oh! It started out like it was going to be a close, hard fought game and stayed that way the whole game. Austin's team was leading 6 -3 at halftime, and it looked like it would be anybody's game to win. His team scored the only touchdown in the 1st half, and it was a result of a 20 yard pass play. Austin had a few good running plays to gain some yardage, but couldn't break loose from the other team's defense - until the 3rd quarter. Austin scored a touchdown on a 9 yard run and the team scored one more touchdown on a punt return to eventually win the game 20 - 13. Austin played well and the team now shares the conference title with another school.

I made some adjustments in my camera settings, but still couldn't find the right combination to take clear, action shots of Austin (#27) during the game. These are the best of what I was able to take during the game:

Of course, I am always able to get good shots of the bands that play at halftime:

It was a great game and we are all excited for Austin to do well in the playoffs. It has been a fun experience for us to go to Friday night high school football games again. It brought back memories. We will also be looking forward to hearing about Austin's progress in the future. He is 1 of only 2 sophomores on the team, and is clearly one of their best players right now.

Michael came home for the weekend to visit with some of his old buddies from high school so they partied here at the house until around 1:30 AM when Mark chased them all home. It was a long day, but a fun day.

Nothing is planned for today except the twins' football practice to get ready for their game tomorrow. That will be the last game we get to see before leaving on Monday. It sure has been great to see all the games while we have been here.
Until tomorrow...

Starting to Plan Departure

Yesterday was just a day to start gathering things we needed before leaving this Monday. We went to Costco for a few things and then to the discount liquor store so we could stock up on some booze. It has been a while since we bought any of that stuff since it has been so expensive in the places we have stayed over the last several months. Actually, we were doing really well losing weight when we weren't drinking at all - looks like we need to go back to that mode again.

We need to take a trip to the trailer today to take out the propane tanks and make sure they are filled and to get the portable air compressor so it can be re-charged. The last time we got any propane at all was in Lincoln City, so we have done really well not using much. With the colder weather on its way, I'm sure we will be using more. We still haven't decided yet how to load up the trailer for Monday - here or at the storage site. There are advantages to both, so we still need to decide which way to go.

Tonight will be the last football game that we get to watch Austin play this season. They need to win tonight to gain a share of the conference title. Next week begins the playoffs and we know they will do well. The team tonight is not a particularly great team, so we look for another win. The game is being played away, and the field is about 50 minutes from here so it will be a rather long evening. Patty needs to work at a fair that is being held at the twins' school late this afternoon - a fund raiser - so we hope we can get to Austin's game on time. I'm sure it will work out fine.

With only a few days left here, we will try to make the most of them. It's been great so far...

Doing the "C" in Aurora

Believe it or not, there is a Casino in Aurora, IL, which is about 10 miles from the house. It is called the Hollywood Casino. It is certainly easy to get to and there are plenty of slots and table games that are offered. It will probably never pass as a Vegas casino, but when it is the only game in town we thought it would be worth a try. Besides, Patty has not gambled in a casino for years, so it was a chance to introduce her to the kind of fun we have when we go to these places. We each took a stake of $50 with the agreement that when it's gone, we leave. We arrived there at around 10:30 and parked in the casino parking lot which was across the street from the casino itself. We walked across the "catwalk" to get to the other side of the river and have these 2 shots. The first is of the casino itself taken from the catwalk:

and then a shot of the "gamblers" on the catwalk:

Our first stop in the casino was at the Cashier's cage where we changed our $20 bills into $5 bills to make it easier to change machines, and also to sign up for the club card which we get at all casinos. Patty didn't sign up for one since she thought maybe she would never use it. It did provide free parking for us in the casino lot, but other than that there was no immediate advantage to having one. Anyway, we then began our search for the "hot" machine.

We jumped around from machine to machine trying to find one that might be ready for a nice payout. We were all going through our "stake" at a pretty good rate when I finally hit on a machine for a $100 jackpot. I cashed out of that machine and gave Patty and Josie another $20 each to continue their search as they were getting low on cash at this point. Patty was beginning to get a little frustrated because she was seeing her money disappear at every machine she tried, so she stopped playing before she ran out of money. I ran out of my money and the remaining cash from my winnings when Josie hit a $100 jackpot. That pretty much made our day. Rather than use that money to give back to the casino, she wanted to quit and use it to buy us lunch somewhere, and then save the rest. Good idea! Below is the last shot that Patty took of the "winners" of the day:

Our hope was that Patty would win some money but she was so new to the slots that she probably just didn't quite understand how to play them for her best chance to win. There are many times when we don't win anything either. It is always fun though and we had a good time while there.

We stopped at the Fox Restaurant on the way home at about 1 PM and had a nice lunch - thanks to Josie. The rest of the day was spent relaxing at home and just reading our books and watching some TV.

Our time is beginning to run out here, so we have to begin thinking about what we need to do to prepare for our departure on Monday. We aren't sure yet whether to hook up the fifth wheel and bring it over here for the night on Sunday, or just take everything over to the rig and leave from there on Monday morning. We'll get it figured out, I'm sure...

Girls Day Out

Patty and Josie went and had their nails done yesterday morning - both hands and feet. I'm glad I can live with my ugly hands and feet and can save that money. They do like it though - they look good and it makes them feel better which is all that matters.

They stopped back to pick me up to go to Walmart to get some items and I went to the Barnes and Noble store next to Walmart to see about getting a map of the Lewis and Clark Expedition which is a book that I am reading. The book I have is great, but I was looking for a better map with a timeline and more detail of where they were on certain dates. Now that we have traveled a good portion of their Expedition, it has a lot more meaning. I didn't find what I was looking for but did discover that I could find most of what I was looking for by "Google'ing" it on the internet.

There appears to be a bit of a bug going around as Brandon had it Monday and Austin stayed home in the morning with the same thing. I have a slight cold myself, so I hope it doesn't get any worse. We have been very fortunate - knock on wood - that neither Josie nor I have gotten really sick since we started our adventure 2 years ago.

We have a plan today to try out something rather new to Patty - a visit to a local Casino. Yes, there is one that is not too far from here so we are going to take a small stake and give it a try. We'll try to get some pictures along the way today and hope that we have some good news to report from our visit there today. It would be nice to win enough to at least play for some time while we are there. It's always fun to see new Casinos and get another club card to add to our collection. We can almost paper a wall with all the cards we have collected over the years from the different casinos. Now, there's a hobby...

Slowing Down on Monday

It seems like Monday's in this household are used to get your feet back on the ground and rest up from the hectic weekend. Brandon wasn't feeling well, so he stayed home from school and, basically, nothing else happened that was really noteworthy. Josie and I took a trip over to our fifth wheel in storage to pick up a couple things and also just to check it out to make sure everything is still ok. Patty made a  grocery run and took Jordan to football practice in the evening and that was the extent of our Monday. It is good to have days like this though - we get to catch up on reading our books, and Patty gets to relax at least a little bit. It's still pretty much go-go-go for Mark as he stays in town after work to bring the boys home from practice at night which makes it a long day for him.

Today has the girls scheduled to get some nail work done. Josie wants a Pedicure and I guess Patty gets a Manicure. I'll stay home with Oakley and just read some more of my book.

The weather remains beautiful, except for some cooling in temperatures. Instead of highs in the 80's, we're getting 60's now. The nights are great for sleeping with lows in the 40's. Basically, it's still sunny and the trees are rapidly losing their leaves. Winter is on the way and we just hope that it is a gentle one - at least in Campbellsville, Kentucky, where an exciting November and December awaits us. Of course, we're hoping that it will be exciting in a positive way. Until tomorrow...

A Football Massacre

After a very early start yesterday we arrived at the field at around 8:45 AM - an hour's drive from Naperville. The teams were already set to go on the field to start the game:

That's Coach (Mark) in the center. Brandon and Jordan had stellar games. Jordan does the kicking for the team along with playing on the outside of the defensive line. Brandon plays safety on defense and did have an interception during the game. Although I didn't get any pictures of Brandon, the shots below show Jordan - first on a kickoff (third from right):

and then on a point after touchdown which was successful (#23):

He had lots of chances for these as the team scored early and often. The opponents (Welles Park in Chicago) only got 1 first down the whole game and that was a result of a penalty. The final score is shown on the scoreboard below:

The shot is shown larger than normal so you can see the score - 40-0. It wasn't as close as the score indicates.

Following the game, Mark and the boys went off to watch another game closer to home where their friends were playing. We came home and watched the Bears game on TV - another good game - where our beloved Seahawks beat them in Chicago, 23-20. It was a fine day of football. The evening was capped off with a great chile dinner that Patty prepared and watching the latest episode of Desperate Housewives. Everybody was tired by then, so it was off to bed.

Brandon must have caught a bug somewhere as he wasn't feeling well last night, and is home from school today. Not much is planned, so we'll have to see what everybody wants to do. Until tomorrow...

Busy Day, Busy Morning

Yesterday was a day of getting some things done that we needed to have done before we leave. I took the Jeep to Discount Tire and had the wheels balanced and rotated. Our tires on the Jeep are warranted for 60,000 miles and one of the tires was showing more wear than the others. Of course, they tried to sell us new tires but with only 36,000 miles on these tires, decided it best to walk away. The next stop was at Walgreen's to get our annual flu shots. Mine was no problem with my Medicare card, but Josie's insurance doesn't have a program with Walgreen's and it would have cost $30 to get hers there. Her insurance works with CVS, so we went there - down the street - and she got hers with a co-pay of $13. It's terrible the way these insurance companies are gauging people for items that should be covered 100%.

Finally, we took a trip to the Pumpkin Farm that is only a short distance from the house. We had the twins pose for this picture before they got wrapped up in the selection process:

We spent quite a bit of time going up and down the rows of pumpkins to select just the right ones:

We managed to find three - 2 large and 1 small - and went inside to pay for them:

It was a fun exercise for us and now they just have to carve them and set them out on the porch.

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening watching some college football and then the National League playoff game between the Giants and the Phillies.

It was early to bed as we had to get up early this morning to drive to Chicago for the twins' football game. We left at 7:45 - the reason for the late post today - and didn't get back until near noon. Tomorrow we will have the results of this morning's game - very exciting, to say the least...

Football Night Again

Most of what we did yesterday was just passing the time to get to the real drama of the day - the football game. After last week with the disappointing performance of the team, we were all hoping that the "real" team would show up. This was a home game and it was Seniors Night, which means all the Seniors were introduced with their parents before the game started. Here is a picture of the pre-game ceremony:

We arrived at the stadium just before this ceremony, and just as the Sophomore game was concluding. The Sophomores ran all over the other team - East Aurora - and I believe the final score was something like 43 - 6. It was a sign that the varsity would probably have an easy time of it also.

The first quarter was almost a repeat of last week as our team turned the ball over 3 times and had several penalties that killed drives. In spite of their poor play in the first quarter, they led 14 - 0. The "real" team showed up at the start of the second quarter. There was no stopping them. Austin had 3 touchdowns in the game with scoring runs of 6, 20 and 15 yards. He also had several long gainers and the team came together and played near flawless football. Although I took many action shots of the game - including Austin's touchdown runs - I had a setting that was wrong on my camera and all the action shots were blurred. What a bummer! I will see if Mark was able to get some clear shots so  I can show them later. Nonetheless, the team was leading 51 - 0 when the Coach started playing the 2nd and 3rd team players at the start of the 4th quarter - so we left, since Austin's day was over. This is a picture of the scoreboard just before we left:

It was a thrill to watch the team play the way they are capable of playing, but even a greater thrill to watch Austin play so well. He really does have the talent to go far in this sport.

There will be one more game that we can watch next week in the regular season before the playoffs start 2 weeks from now. The team has already clinched a spot in the playoffs, so we will hope that the team continues to play the way they did last night.

There is nothing scheduled today, but we need to take care of a couple things before we head out on the 25th - such as having the tires rotated on the Jeep and getting our flu shots at the local Walgreen's Drug. Other than that, we are looking forward to the next game tomorrow, when the twins take on a team that is located near Chicago. Later...