Wednesday, April 1, 2009

My home little Idaho

Terri- I hope you of all people appreciate the title of this post!
We had a GREAT trip to Boise ID for the first and second round of the NCAA tournament. Jeff's parents, us, and the Ig's all took the trip out west to follow MU (and WI...ok). When we were watching the selection show, we were pretty much thinking that we would maybe end up in KC, or Dayton or someplace a bit closer. I was secretly hoping that if we were going to be sent to a land far, far away, then let it be warm MIAMI... NO, no, no, silly little MU fans, let's send you to Boise Idaho. I had to ask Jeff if that was a dry state (?????), the answer was an eye-roll and no. So we scrambled, along with the Ig's, and booked our flight to Boise, with one stop along the way. Now I don't travel that often, but I should have known that when you really want to get somewhere, that is where the trouble happens. We were stuck on the tarmac for approximately 3 hrs in Denver. The flight from Milw to Denver was great, so what could I expect?? We finally arrived in Boise around 6:30 and tired as hell, but we were on vacation right?? After dinner at a fantastic little pizza place, FLying Pie Pizza, Iggy, Jeff and I went out for a beer at yippe applebee's. We still hadn't got the lay of the land, and we were tired, so we wanted somewhere close. We got there to watch the end of the first night of BB games and asked the server to turn on the volume. And his response, was "It is against the law" Some sort of copyright nonsense. So, this is how Boise is....hmmmmmm.
Next day, we were up and ready for some great basketball, and that is exactly what we saw. MU and WI brought a victory, so we were set for games on Sunday. The worst would be sitting in BOISE, with your team losing in the first round.
In between the MU and WI game, there was a big break. We met up with the Serb's at a micro brew called the The Ram. It was across the street from the Taco Bell Arena (note to those that were wondering, they do not sell taco's inside...seriously) IT happened to be the nicest day in Boise (milw for that matter), about 70 degrees, I could be lying, but it was THAT nice. We sat out on the patio which was awesome, and had some beer and fish and chips. Note/Quote: we are traveling with the Pope (ie. Jeff's dad) so we had to abide by the no meat on Friday, with the exception of out counterparts, the IG's, who ate triple meat. No, I did not sneak any chicken.....It really was a fun time there, Portland State and XU had their pep rallies there, so that was a lot of fun. I am not sure who noticed this, but we happend to see Jerry Glanville, who is the head FB coach at Portand State. Now, for those not football saavy, Jerry dresses like Johnny Cash and was the head coach for the Falcons 1990-1993...yes, he is the one that let Favre go...yiippee) So, we have a picture with him, which is amusing in itself.
Saturday we headed south to Jackpot, NV Cactus Pete's for a little gambling and road trip. It was about 2.5 hours away and it was well worth any time that it would have taken to get down there. We played Blackjack for most of the time, and I was down to my final 5 dollars of my allotted $100. I had to reach in my pocket for some singles to double down and from that point I think I may have lost 10 hands. I ended up coloring up $750, so that was great. Jeff won in blackjack too, but his claim to fame is sticking some random money into a slot and somehow winning $400. This happens EVERYTIME we go to Vegas, I swear!!
Sunday was the second round of the tourney. MU was playing Mizzou (who is now on my 5 yr hate list) and they lost, no need to get into the sucky details. WI lost also, however, they won us some $ at Cactus Pete's.
All in all, we had a great time. It was a lot of fun just packing up and heading out, not sure really where you are going until a few days before. My parents watched the kids for this long 5 day trip. We do owe them big time, as I was reminded!!

Here is a slide show of some of the pics from out west!!