Saturday, Saturday - Trophy Time.....and more help needed

We had to say goodbye to all our friends at the Eagles Club convention at the Embassy Suites Airport on Saturday. Those folks were quite friendly at breakfast and in the elevator, ya'll. We picked up Jud and Kara and headed out late that morning - Kara had an appointment for a brewery tour with her girlfriends. Jud, Paul and I were on a mission to eat some barbecue.

While we were en route to West Port to drop Kara off, we received a call from Paul's sister Jean. I was shocked and sad to hear that Jean's husband Dave had taken a fall during his walk on the beautiful trail where they live in Webster City. He'd been alone and wasn't found right away - so no one is quite sure what happened. He has a head injury and was life flighted to Mercy here in DSM. I was glad to hear that Jean's daughter Annette from Minnesota and Paul's sis Carol were both with them. Dave was not yet conscious at that time but I'm glad to report he is better today (Sunday).

It's likely he'll have some rehab ahead of him though - so again I'm asking for your thoughts and prayers. You did well with my Uncle Bill, so I'm counting on you again dear readers. Thanks. We hope Jean will stay with us during the next week or so as Dave recovers and moves out of ICU and into a regular room. Rumor has it daughter Peg may even head this way next.

So with that in mind (puts everything into perspective of course) back to the KC story...
Oklahoma Joe's already boasted a line out the door by the time we arrived at 11:45 a.m.

Good thing is was a beautiful day! We waited over an hour to eat.

Ugly...but delish

Many Cyclones fans joined us in our barbecue mission. I took a guy's recommendation for the pulled pork sannie with cole slaw on it. "Best sandwich ever" he proclaimed! Paul and Jud had burnt ends.

We headed to the Plaza next - as I'd gotten a text from Paul's brother Kenny. They were in town visiting their daughter and Katie and fam. They were at the Cheesecake Factory. We walked by there and what do you know...of course we saw the whole fam dam. Blinded by the sun when trying to take pics all I got was this crappy one...

Paul with Albert and Baby J. My pic of Kenny and Mary was a video. Argh!

Next we tried to look up my high school homey Candice at J Crew. Alas she didn't seem to be working that afternoon. Next up....pep rally. With like 8,000 of our Clone friends.

Pep Selfie

Paul had picked up a ticket for me the night before - but offered to sit "solo" so I could experience the game with Jud. It was "priceless". First of all - randomly his seat turned out to be right next to his college buddy Paul. #smallworld    I sat next to a woman who was about 10 years older than I who grew up in Exira. #swiowa    Before the game, Jud said, "no matter what, this has been really fun - thanks!" Aww.

He and I are both nervous game watchers. That first 10 minutes weren't pretty. We were happy going into halftime to be only down 5. Okay not happy but it coulda been worse. It wasn't a pretty game. But the last few minutes the shots started dropping. Paul texted. We made free throws. Sweet victory! Jud hugged me. Twice. 

We ran into Stofferahns from Creston right outside the Sprint Center. High fives. Then it started to rain on our parade. Literally. By the time we hit the road it was pouring rain and windy. The temp was dropping. Our plans to drive all the way home were dashed when we heard it was snowing in DSM. We got a room in Cameron. I was asleep in a minute.


I could get used to this championship thing.

Jud was glad to hear we stopped - he was fretting about us driving in bad weather. He and Kara were partying in the Power and Light District (until 3 a.m. - way to represent the Cyclone Nation!). He texted later to say a woman named Julie stopped him to say "hi". Her name is Julie Stroud Kassel, my pal Vic's first college roomie at ISU - Shilling House in Maple. She recognized Jud from pictures in this very blog. That, my friends, is small ISU world. Hello Jules!

It was quite a weekend. I'm exhausted. #worthit