Road Trip

We left last night for Bloomington once again.  As Meg and Cal had the same fall break as Cameron, we had decided that we would take a road trip to the Biltmore.  Brett wasn’t able to get the time off of work, but he didn’t mind as he was in Asheville in August for a wedding.  As Meg and Cal were busy studying when we arrived, only Brett, Doug, Cam and I were available for dinner.  We let Brett pick and enjoyed a fun dinner at Big Woods Brewery.  As soon as we got back to the apartment, Ticket to Ride was set up.  Brett, Cam and I were ready to dethrone Doug as the past two time champion.  It was tough, but Cam did end up winning by one point.  

               

We all slept in this morning as Brett did not have to work at Bell Trace.  The game board was once again set up and we had time for one more round before heading to the winery for lunch.  It was a little cool at Oliver’s, but they had enclosed their back patio this year which made it the perfect picnic spot.  Cam gave us his predictions for the upcoming Big Ten Football games, while Brett filled us in on the news on from last week’s Democratic Presidential debate.  We dropped him off at work after lunch.  Doug and Cam spent the afternoon golfing at Cascades.  While they were gone, I walked to Target to get a few items for Brett’s apartment and snacks for the trip.  I had just finished setting up the timer for Brett's Halloween lights on the patio when Cam and Doug arrived.  Neither had played in quite some time, but had fun anyway.  

We picked up Meg first and then stopped at Cal’s.  Hannah-Marie was still driving back from her dive at Lake Monroe when we arrived at her apartment, but by 5:45 we were all on the road for North Carolina.  We had talked about stopping for dinner, but with heavy traffic for the first half of our trip, we opted for Wendy’s instead.  We made it to Newport, Tennessee just after midnight.  It was the perfect stopping point as it was just short of the Smoky Mountains and only left us with an hour trip for tomorrow morning.  With two rooms everyone had plenty of sleeping space and we were all soon in bed resting up for our next adventure.  

Breaking Bad - The Movie

After our card game last night, Doug and I finally finished El Camino, the Breaking Bad movie.  I remembered when Cal first tried to talk us into watching Breaking Bad.  We had started it, but just couldn't get past season two.  I was glad this fall that we finally completed all five seasons and was even more thankful for that last night as El Camino was fantastic.  Jesse Pinkman was our favorite character throughout Breaking Bad and it answered so many questions on what happened to Jesse once Walt broke him out of the "meth prison" that he was tortured in the last six episodes of the series.  Several of the minor characters also played a role in last night's movie which made it even more entertaining.  At the end of El Camino I thought a lot about Cal and Jayce's question over the weekend - which series was the best Game of Thrones, Sopranos and Breaking Bad.  After last night, I might have to say that I agree with them and move Breaking Bad to the top of the list.  

Moe's, Moe's, Moe's . . .

Cam and I spent the morning shopping in Warsaw.  He and I both needed new shoes, his for indoor tennis and mine for walking.  We each found what we wanted at Shoe Carnival and got a good deal on them as well.  Our next stop was Kohl's.  Cam had decided that he wanted to try jeans.  We found three pairs that fit him and that he liked.  With our shopping trip complete we decided to eat lunch at Moe's Southwest Grill.  I actually planned on grabbing food from McAllister Deli and meeting him on the patio.  The long line and complaints about wait time quickly made me change my mind.  Thus, I enjoyed a chicken quesadilla instead and we ate inside at Moe's.  Cam filled me in on Big Ten Football news while we ate.  He also decided that he liked Moe's better than Chipotle because of the free chips, salsa bar and Coke machine.  

The worst part of the day happened next - flu shots.  Cam wasn't excited about it, but took the news that he needed one pretty well.  He doesn't really remember getting the flu several years ago, but it was awful.  He was out of school for a week.  The shot was a lot easier than that.  The rest of the afternoon was spent playing Swap Meet on the Wii and Madden on the PS4.  Doug took us to Mad Anthony's for dinner.  We actually had a great waitress which has not been the norm there.  We invited my parents up for a game of Oh Hell once we got home.  Cam wasn't sure that he wanted to play, but was glad he did in the end as he was the big winner on the night.  

Fall Break

I decided to sleep in this morning as it was the first official day of Fall Break.  Of course I was up wide awake at 7:30 a.m.  I didn't mind as I used the time to search through housing choices for Meg.  Thus, when she got ready to apply at 9 a.m. we both had a good idea of where she wanted to live next year.  Doug and I thought that it was ridiculous that they had to make housing choices this early in the school year, but at least Meg was happy with what she chose and by the end of the day was glad to report that one of her friends was going to live with her.

After helping Meg, I started laundry and headed out the door to take a walk.  It was cold, but not unbearable.  Cam was up playing Madden before I left.  Bailee had texted him in the middle of the night as she thought her baby brother was going to be born, but it was a false alarm.  I let Cam pick our lunch spot.  He had hoped for the root beer stand, but it was closed.  Thus, we settled for Peterson's, so he could get AYCE fish.

We picked my parents up at 2 to go see IT Chapter Two.  Brett and Cal had both seen the movie when it came out several weeks ago and highly recommended it.  The first forty-five minutes were extremely intense. I spent the majority of that time with my hands over my eyes at it was too scary for me.  It either settled down or I got used to the movie as the rest of it was definitely easier to watch.  The film had more humor in it than the 1980s version and even poked fun at Stephen King.  In the end Cam and I were glad that we went to see the movie in theaters.  We also appreciated that we watched it in the middle of the afternoon.  It would have been a lot scarier driving home in the dark.

A Fun Sunday Morning

Brett texted me last night to let me know how much he enjoyed playing Ticket to Ride this morning and going to lunch with the three of us plus Meg afterward.  I was really happy to receive his text as we all did have a lot of fun before leaving Bloomington.  We have stayed with Brett a lot this past summer and fall, so it meant even more that he enjoyed what has become our normal Sunday morning routine in Bloomington.  Ticket to Ride has risen in status lately as one of our favorite family games and having several restaurants to chose from on Kirkwood makes it easy for all of us to order lunch and meet in people's park for a picnic of sorts.  Cal hasn't been able to join us as much due to the large amount of homework he has had in addition to the vast number of interviews he's been involved in these past few weeks.  Thankfully, he did get an offer from Greenwalt, so his life should return to normal soon.

Brett left from lunch to walk to the comic bookstore before he had to work.  We then dropped Meg off at Read before leaving for home.  We appreciated how easy the ride home was compared to the trip down on Friday night.  Once we unloaded the Pilot, Cam started a new game on Madden 19.  Doug got the mower out and I unpacked.  Doug and I then went to dinner at Huntington St once we were finished.  We pretty much had the place to ourselves, which was nice after such a busy weekend.  Grandma and Grandpa came up to play Oh Hell once we got back.  Cam even joined us, but after the hands that he kept getting, decided that he would wait another three weeks before he played again.  At least he walked away with an ugly bird to display in his room until someone else becomes the big loser.

Homecoming 2019

Cam had talked about today's IU football game for several months.  IU hadn't won a homecoming game since 2010 and he was hopeful that today would be the Hoosiers day.  They were slated against Rutgers who had been having an awful season in and out of the conference.  Doug, Cam and I arrived at the grass lots a little after 9 a.m. and couldn't believe how many tailgaters were already in attendance.  We found a spot, however, and soon had our tent set up and table full of food.  Cal texted for our location right after we arrived.  We tossed the football and frisbee around for awhile before he and his group of friends found us. Everyone appreciated the minestrone Doug made and the Red Stripe he brought.  David was most impressed with Cameron's new apparel - a Detroit Lions shirt.  They hung around eating and talking for about an hour before heading to other tailgates.  Brett arrived from work just in time to debate about season eight of Game of Thrones.

 

After Cal and his friends left, Doug and Cam headed into the game.  They wanted to be in for kickoff and were glad that they made it as IU scored on a recovered fumble on the opening play of the game.  While they were enjoying football, I spent time catching up with Brett.  Meg had just finished a tough Finite midterm and didn't make it to our spot until close to twelve.  She had a migraine, but once she ate and took some Ibuprofen she felt better.  The three of us talked about Disney for well over an hour before packing up.  Brett had to work tonight and Meg wanted to rest before she went to a haunted house with her friends.  

          

I made it into the game by halftime.  Rutgers was as bad as Cameron had been telling me.  IU held them scoreless and ended up winning by 35.  We stayed until the end as everyone else was busy and Cam was enjoying the victory.  We grabbed breadsticks on the way back to Brett's and spent the rest of the afternoon watching college football at his apartment.  Doug had time to put together Brett's new tv stand.  It looked very nice and fit everything that he needed it to with room to spare.  I helped organize a few items that Brett had wanted to get to, clean up our tailgate dishes and set up a carbon monoxide detector.  Once all of the key football games were over, Cam, Doug and I played Yahtzee before leaving for dinner at Upland Brewery.

We were surprised that we were seated almost immediately after we arrived.  It helped to wait until 8 to eat as there were a lot of open tables.  It was a quiet dinner as only the three of us were able to go and we were pretty tired from our day of football.  Meg called once we got back to let us know how much she enjoyed the haunted house with her friends.  It was lame, but they had a good time and went to Texas Roadhouse afterward.  Brett got home at 10:30 from work.  We were going to play Ticket to Ride, but decided to wait until we were more awake in the morning.  He did really appreciate his new tv stand. It fit the space well.

Bloomington Bound

Today was the last day of the quarter for Cameron and the start of Fall Break.  We celebrated by heading straight to Bloomington.  Our plan was to take the 6:30 tour of Memorial Stadium.  Unfortunately, traffic and rain made that a lofty goal and we didn’t get to Bloomington until close to 7 p.m.  Thankfully, they let us forgo our assigned time and join the tour that had just begun.  It was an awesome experience.  We started in the president’s box and moved up to the press boxes above the stadium gaining information along the way.  From there we were lead through the tunnels to the locker room, weight room and team meeting room spending about an hour total on our tour.  We were extremely impressed with the facilities.     Cam especially enjoyed it.

Meg was at a finite review while we were on our tour.  We met up with her afterward.  We brought down a few items that she needed - white converse, gloves, a screen protector, and her wallet.  Meg had left her ID at home last weekend, so she and I hung out at the dorm while she reactivated it.  Doug and Cam put our name in at Mother Bear’s and within thirty minutes we were seated and ordering pizza.  The meal was delicious and it made for a nice study break for Meg.  We picked up breadsticks at Pizza X on the way to Brett’s since he had to work.  He was glad for the snack and headed to bed shortly after we arrived.