On Our Way to Florida

Doug and I left yesterday for Bloomington as Doug prefers to spend the evening there on the night before we head to Florida.  It makes the trip down so much easier for him.  Since he does all of the driving, I have no problem doing it his way.  It also gives us time to visit with Brett and Meg which we both enjoy.  Our first stop in B-Town was the Union.  Meg was studying there and took a break to take a long walk with us.  She then decided to head back to her apartment afterward to study some more.  Brett was just getting off of work, so Doug and I met him for dinner.  We tried to get into The Tap, but it was absolutely packed.  Crazy Horse had a forty-five minutes wait, so we tried The Irish Lion next.  Doug and I had not been there in years.  Thankfully, they had a table for us.  We all really liked it with Brett enjoying the traditional shepherd's pie and Doug ordering a half yard of beer.  It was a lot of fun.  

Doug and I were up and out the door by 6 a.m. this morning.  It was dark for the first hour and a half, but overall the first half of the trip was pretty easy with only ten minutes of traffic in Chattanooga.  Georgia was long as always, but relatively quiet except for a delay just south of Atlanta that lasted almost twenty minutes.  Doug and I had brought Subway for lunch, so we didn't have to stop for a meal.  We did get gas in Southern Tennessee and at Buc-ee's in Georgia, but otherwise only stopped on other time.  

To keep ourselves busy, Doug and I listened to a few Rewatchables from Bill Simmons in the morning and spent the afternoon following five different Big Ten Basketball games.  Cameron had told us before we left that Purdue needed to beat Illinois, then Maryland or Iowa had to lose so that if IU beat Michigan, the Hoosiers would finish in the top four in the Big Ten Conference and get the double bye in the tourney.  Doug and I were hopeful, but skeptical that all would fall into line.  To start the afternoon, Purdue beat Illinois.  That wasn't much of a surprise.  Maryland losing to Penn State and Nebraska beating Iowa was definitely unexpected.  IU was in the driver seat - if they could beat the Wolverines on senior day.  At first it looked like we were going to win easily.  The Hoosiers were up by fourteen in the first half.  Michigan rebounded, however, cutting the lead to two by halftime and then going on a run that put them up by ten with only eight minutes left in the game.  IU's seniors took over and soon tied the game leading both teams to overtime.  Thankfully, the Hoosiers held on and won giving them third place in the league.  We celebrated the Hoosiers' win and our successful trip to Ocala with dinner at Tijuana Flats with Uncle Phil.