Kicking off another season

We're kicking off another football season today! It will be a different one. For one thing, I'll be without my honey. Paul texted Friday to say the hunting group had arrived at their camp near Ouray, Colorado. It's very lush and green there, he said, since they've had lots of rain. A nice change from past years in that area. Good luck me amore. I don't really want a fricking giant elk $ head in the basement - but know how much joy that would bring you.

This year, we will be tailgating at Iowa State Cyclone games without an RV for the first time in several years. Don and Diana have traded up - a home on Lake of the Ozarks for a 1992 Pace Arrow Recreational Vehicle. (Okay they had to get a home loan and the RV cash is really just helping with some of the cost of remodeling.) But the fact is - we won't be tailgating in the RV lot any longer.

Donnie had an ISU skin put on it when the new logo came out - so it looked sharp! (so did we in our snuggies)

 

Paul grilled often - we had the routine down.

The new lake place is a work in progress - but is moving along nicely!

Cap'n Don is at home behind the wheel of his new pontoon, just like he drove the RV.
 

I'm sad that tailgating, as we've been so spoiled to be accustomed to, is over. But that's the way life goes. Life changes all the time. Last fall was different because we weren't there to "pre-tailgate" with the gang on Thursday nights before home games. We moved away and life changed for us in a big way then.

 

Those pre-tailgating nights were sometimes more fun than the actual games because we didn't have the stress of entertaining any other tailgaters - nor the stress of the actual game! (some of us actually care about football - not just the party). On pre-tailgate Thursdays, we delivered food, chairs and liquor to McKim's home in Creston and ended up staying there - setting up lawn chairs in their driveway, if it was nice out - or sitting in the RV if it was chilly. Sometimes we would get pizza delivered. One time Dan Coen brought it to us from A&G because it was on his way home. Ryan McKim usually got stuck with the duty during his year coaching in Creston.  

 

Important decisions were made in those group meetings! We came up with the menu for game day, and split up who would bring what. And a lot of other real, real important stuff. And stuff. Yeah! It was often hard to get up for work on Friday. We had a lot of fun. McKim's neighbors thought we were nuts. Paul Eckhoff was known to stick his head in to give us the Hawkeye perspective now and then.

 

McKims drove the RV up to Ames on Friday nights to get a good spot in D2 in the RV Parking area. Lots of ISU games were early, so Paul and I often found ourselves heading there from Creston bright and early on game days to assist with RV setup and to help cook. One year we went through every type of breakfast food we could think of - burritos, casseroles, Egg Mcmuffins. Good thing we had Pablo's Bloody Marys to keep us company. The RV kept us toasty too - I'll miss that plush velour seating. And the toilet facilities! It was also a plus to have somewhere to be able to change clothes if one needed to - put on longjohns or take 'em off.

 

Our RV connection helped us be in the "popular" group. People from all areas of our lives stopped by to see us at our tailgate.  College, work, Creston, former Creston - they all came and they'd hang around - to have some food, watch the TV Don set up on the side of the RV, under the awning. If they were young cute girls (and of age) Don would set them up with shots. Don likes to make shots for girls.

 

Jud's college buddies went all through 4 years of school spoiled by the RV. And then even after they graduated they found they liked to hang out and play the bags game and eat - even if Jud couldn't make it to the game from his home in St. Joe. Amy surprised me there for one birthday - it was quite a shocker. I was speechless, if you can imagine that. We like seeing her friends Ginger and 'Chelle at games, and the McFee children. Katie McKim brought the "grandpuppy" Lena last year. 

 

We've gotten to know Don and Diana's marvelous parents during these past years of RV tailgating. They didn't come for the games - though they'd watch on the RV TV. They just liked bringing food and hanging with their families. I really have enjoyed that, especially since our parents have left us - too early. There is something about hanging with that generation that is calming. Except when you hang with Margaret - who is an enabler....It's been fun. I'll miss it. I doubt D & D will miss the messes they were left with on Sundays (Mrs. Clean, Diana had to scrub everything down each week), though I know they loved seeing everyone too. Their son Ryan, who has been on the ISU football staff in some role or another (except for that one year when he coached in Creston) since 2006, took a job with the Oklahoma Sooner staff. He's an assistant special teams coach. So no sidelines passes or high-fiving Ryan as he does the Spirit Walk this year. Changes - they just keep coming. It makes life interesting, no?

 

Now we'll come up with a new routine. Maybe we'll be the ones to visit someone else's RV! Paul and I have a parking pass so that's what we're going with tomorrow. Bobbie and Jeff will pick me up. It will be hot as hell so I'm in no rush. We have a tent, so we can get out of the sun. Game time is 7 p.m. Don and Dee will be running late - coming over from Margaret's family reunion near Lincoln, NE. We'll find a way to have fun. Because that's how we roll. Don't worry - you'll see pictures.

Go Cyclones!  

 

 

It made a great backdrop.