We drove as far as my sister's in Petrolia, ON on Wednesday and got as far as Terre Haute, IN (remember Buffy, Jody and Cissy from "Family Affair"?) on Thursday and made it the rest of the way on Friday - arriving at about noon.
The weather was so hot, I had to run out Friday afternoon and buy summer clothes for the weekend. Sunday the high hit 28C - a great way to spend Thanksgiving.
On Friday we visited and shopped and had dinner at our favourite chain Italian restaurant, Romano's Macaroni Grill. On Saturday, Skip and Rich hit the driving range and Francey and I did a bit of shopping and browsing at Barnes and Noble.
We were able to walk to the game for the 6pm kickoff. The Tigers were 4 and 0 for the season and favoured to win on their home turf. We spotted this little Tigers fan in the lineup to get into the stadium.
Faurot Field is also called 'The Zou' and features a big 'M' made of painted stones on a grassy berm in the end zone. Traditionally, the stones are whitewashed by freshmen during orientation week in September and each graduation senior on the football team is permitted to take a stone as a memento. Otherwise, the berm is general seating on game days.
Truman is very enthusiastic and even does pushups with the end zone crew. There is also a golf cart with a big Mizzou helmet that rides around. Truman can be seen in action at the end of this video.
Francey and I sported our Mizzou t-shirts.
In addition, there were about 24 'Golden Girls' who moved in synch with the Mizzou Marching Band. Here, they were getting ready for the half-time show.
The Tigers were victorious and maintained the 26 - 0 score right to the end. That makes them 5 and 0 this season and moving up in the ranks to 21st from 24th last week.
The next day, we drove about 30km to McBrine, MO to see a 300+ year-old bur oak tree. Skip is in blue in front of the trunk and is dwarfed by the enormity of this tree that is just on the side of a country road.
On Sunday, we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with a turduckhen I had ordered online ahead of time and had sent to the house in Missouri. It was a 4lb roll of turkey breast meat stuffed with duck meat stuffed with chicken breast meat stuffed with a bit of pork sausage dressing. It was all edible and only took 2 1/4 hours to cook.
Monday morning, Skip and I headed for home via a somewhat different route that had us avoid driving through St. Louis and Indianapolis. We treated ourselves by staying in a motel that was fancier than usual so we'd have pouffy bedding, lots of pillows, Skip could watch Monday night football and I could get a nice, strong Internet signal. How fortuitous that the Holiday Inn Express in La Porte, IN was next door to a Mexican restaurant!
We decided to stop into our favourite 'dim sum' restaurant in Markham to ride out rush hour. Here, I'm about to enjoy a mango pudding.
Have a fabulous time at Rhinebeck Geri!!
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