Oct 20, 2007 - Eastern Homecoming

Ken cooked up a big batch of sloppy joes and Italian sausage soup for the boys before we left Quincy. We arrived at Trevor's house late afternoon on Friday, set up the RV and then began warming up the sandwiches, soup and nachos for the boys.

The guys began showing up after practice. We found out that, unfortunately, neither Don Thomas (far right) above or Drew Cairo-Gross (center below) would be on the field this weekend because of injuries.

We fed about a dozen guys before they needed to head back to campus for a pep rally, where Don-Don (Thomas) got to talk for the team.

After the rally Trevor and Sarah came by the RV for awhile. Trev had a second round of food and then we all called it an early evening, knowing that Saturday was a big day for everyone.

It was a big day for Ken and I because Quincy Notre Dame football was coming to the game bring 80 team members, coaches and chaperones.

The EIU Panther were great hosts for the team. They provided tickets, a special area close to the stadium for parking, and even cordoned off an area for us where they set up tables and chairs, with electric hookup for our food containers.

We went through 180 pork burgers and brats, with chips, cookies and lemonade.


They picked a good day for their visit to EIU since there were a lot of tailgaters joining them .



The QND football team were a line of gold across the stands. Unfortunately, they had to leave in 3rd quarter, just before Trev made a great sack, and the Panthers turned the game around with a come-back victory against Tennessee-Martin.

During the game, Trev's friends, Sarah Liesen, left, and Dani Flynn, right, made quick 'girlfriends' with Trent Steckel's little niece. Trent, one of Trev's housemates, ran in a 2-point conversion to give her even more to cheer about.

Trevor's cousin, BJ Jacobsen, joined us at the game and for this photo op after.


After the game we took our time cleaning up while Trev showered. He was having problems with the car and so we were chaufering him. I dropped him at Sarah's while Ken took 'Baby' out to Fox Ridge State Park where were planned to spend Saturday night. By the time I got to Fox Ridge Ken was had Baby settled in to site 12, one of our two favorites. We were glad we'd made reservations since for the first time, the hosts had the 'campground full' sign out.

Since it had been a really big day we decided to go out to eat. We dropped back by Sarah's to check on Trev. It was obvious the post-game celebration was gearing up fast. Ken and I decided we probably weren't up to this level of college night life and opted out for a quiet dinner, just the two of us, at a local restaurant.

We were back to the RV by 9am and took a nice long walk around the campground. It was perfect autumn camping weather, comfortably cool, breezy, with nearly every campsite replete with couples or families with kids enjoying campfires under a clear moonlit sky.

Sunday we slept in and took our time with showers and breakfast before heading back to Trevor's house to work on his car. As it turned out Ken was able to start the car without problems and we drove it in to town for lunch without having any further starting problems.

The wind was absolutely brutal with up to 45mph gusts. We got as far as Mt. Zion, about 45 minutes, and decided to pull over and wait for awhile.

As it stands right now, we won't be taking 'Baby' for another outing for 3 whole weeks, since we have a game in Tennessee next week, followed by a 'bye' week, followed by a game in Alabama. We decided with fuel prices as they are it makes more sense to drive the Audi and do hotels for the next two games.

We are not looking forward to going back to sleeping in hotels again!

Until then...

Hugs, C