Herbster and Clutch were out of town on work so we got Danny and Jean to substitute for them.  The weather was great for the nights games.
In the first game we took on Holly Ballz on the middle court.  They started out by getting two points but we answered with two of our own.  They jumped on us with a four point frame but we countered with a three point frame to make the score 6-5 them.  A couple frames later we had tied the score 7-7 when Mick edged out our ball and they went ahead 8-7.  Fred's first ball was touching the pallino and it took all four of our balls before we moved it off but when the balls quit rolling they were still closest and they won 9-7.
In the second game we took on long time nemesis Squatchy Bocce.  We were playing once again on the middle court.  The game was never close as we made a lot of really good throws either edging them out or knocking their ball away and we won 9-0.

On Friday we had to run down to Cape to pick up some flooring since the roll at the Carbondale store had somehow got damaged.  We hadn't been to Cape this year mainly because of the flooding.  While we were at Lowe's we talked to a couple who lived in East Cape and they talked about how bad the flooding was there.  They said they were lucky and didn't have to leave their house but most people did.
After picking up the carpeting we decided to go to the Pilot House.  It had been a while since I'd been there and we got real lucky once we got there.  There was a parking spot right as we pulled in and we got a table with no problem.  I was worried about getting both the parking spot and table since we got there right at noon.   Within a couple minutes all the tables were full and the place was noisy but enjoyable.  We decided to split an order of the giant kabobs with vinegar slaw and a side salad and also get a BBQ pork sandwich so we could try the BBQ there.  The side salad came out first and they put it in separate bowls which was really nice of them.  We got it with a some sort of bacon grease dressing and it was a excellent combination.  The kabobs and slaw also came out in separate plates so it would appear they get a lot of requests to split the kabobs.  The kabobs were great excepting one piece that was fatty or gristly.  The slaw on the other hand wasn't very good.  The BBQ sandwich wasn't good either and may have scared us off from trying any of their other BBQ stuff.
Since we hadn't been down there this year we decided to stop at Katy O'ferrels and have a quick one of their house Irish Red ales and then head home.
I'd been craving fried chicken so yesterday we went to The Mill Bar and Grill in Sesser mainly because it was the only one of the places we were debating that had draft beer.  If I'd have remembered it was DQ State Fair time I wouldn't have gone there.  I usually try to avoid that area when it is going on.  Anyway we decided to split a whole chicken which came with corn and mashed potatoes.  The Glue decided she wanted fried okra too and we both got Shiner Bock drafts.  The drafts were good and real cold which is always a plus.  The chicken was excellent but I wish we could get all white meat.  The corn appears to come out of a can but was a lot better than last time.  The mashed potatoes and gravy was solid and the okra was good.  A very good decision to go there.

Roll'em took to the courts again on Wednesday for week two of the fall bocce season.
In the first game we took on Mission: Imbocceball.  The game wasn't close from the beginning as Roll'em jumped out to an early lead before closing out a 9-1 win.
In the second game we played Too Old To Bowl narrowly avoiding having to play on the Silkworm court which gets pretty unpredictable after several games have been played on it.  The started out with a 2-0 lead before we tied it back up 2-2.  The game remained close and had them leading 6-5 before we moved ahead 7-6 and then 8-6.  Herbster closed out the game on his first throw and we won 9-6.
On Monday night Boro City Rollers came back from a 6-0 deficit scoring the nine straight points to beat the Eclectics in a very emotional game.  We beat Love Is A Boccefield in the second game.

Last week we went back to the Caribbean Hut mainly so I could try the jerk pork.  Once again we got it to bring back to the house.  I got a double order of corn to go with my jerk pork.  The Glue went with pulled pork which surprised me and a double order of crab salad.  The jerk pork was good but the jerk chicken is head and shoulders above it.  The Glue really like the pulled pork and said it had a different flavor than the normal pulled pork found around here.
This past Monday we tried out Mac N Dogs which is in Key West but is a separate business.  We got there just after they opened at 11am and we were the first people there.  They had a person pick up carry out and another person stopped in to eat.  Key West only had two taps and neither were beers we care for very much so we each opted for a bottle of Shiner Bock while we tried to decide what to get.  The waitress gave the impression the burgers weren't all that big so I ended up getting a double stack with onion rings and the Glue got a single stack with a side of chili.  When the burgers arrived it was obvious they were bigger than the waitress let on and it was all I could do to finish off the double which was delicious.  The Glue doesn't get burgers very often and she really liked hers too.  The onion rings were on point and the Glue said her chili was good and it was a big portion.  The burger is probably the best I've had since Jack's burned down.

Yesterday as I was walking I received a phone call from league president Brad who informed me that bocce player Pete had died in a tractor accident over the weekend.  It stopped me in my tracks.  Pete was a charter member of the MBC playing on the Eclectics since the club started.  He also played on Can't Be Trusted and was a long time member of the MBC board.
Our Monday team, Boro City Rollers, played the Eclectics in the first game last night.  The Glue and Fred separately came up with the idea to pay tribute to Pete by dressing up in his normal attire.  He was known for wearing either a hawaiian shirt with a wife beater tee shirt or a tee shirt with the sleeves cut out and a V cut into the neckline in front.  He almost always finished his "look" by wearing a fedora and boat shoes. 
I was worried on how the other players would take this but everyone realized that it was a tribute.  It was another HOT Monday night and the mood at the courts started our very subdued.  No one can replace Pete's flair for calling games, especially the towel tournament and keychain for the league winners.  His long time friend and teammate Gene is taking over Monday night coordinator and gave a very nice talk and prayer about Pete.
Even though the Eclectics had four players there they wanted to have one of their players sit out and have players from other teams throw a ball or two in Pete's honor.  What an awesome gesture by the his teammates.
As the night went on the subdued atmosphere gradually loosened.  The games themselves were an afterthought and Pete was in everyone's mind.  Condolences to all Pete's family and friends, he'll be missed by a lot of people.

The defending Wednesday night champions took the court last night but with Herbster and Clutch returning to take the place of Pete and Roberto.  Roll'em If Ya Got'em was back to the original lineup.  Wednesday night has a record 17 teams on it which will make for some long breaks in between games.
In the first game we took on Corner Bocce Ballers on the Silkworm court which was rolling very erratic.  The game stayed close until the last throw when we got two points to pull out a 9-6 win.  They had a lot of close misses that would have made for a different outcome.
In the second game we took on Feeder of the Pack and long time pain in the butt Everett.  The game started with teams trading two point frames.  They then put a four point frame on us for a big 6-2 lead.  Roll'em answered though with a three point frame and closed to 6-5.  We got a point to tie it at 6-6.  With the pallino long and kind of close to the wall we couldn't get anything close and had to sweat out a measurement to see if the game would continue.   They ended up with two and the game continued.  On their next throw pain in th butt Everett's wife Kathy got on close and we couldn't get closer and Roll'em lost 9-6.
On Monday night defending League champions Boro City Rollers beat Why Do You Roll Smoke and Elks to open our season.  It may have been the hottest game we'd ever played in.  Brutal.

On Saturday we went to Route 51 for their version of Cajunfest.  We weren't really interested in the cajun boils or the alligator so we went about 2pm to avoid the crowd.  When we walked in there seemed to be something in the air that aggravated my sinuses but not too bad.  Our timing couldn't be better because when we went in there were a few tables in the main area and the filled up a few minutes after we got ours.
First order of the visit was to decided on what beer to get.  I didn't want both of us to go up and possibly lose our table so I went up to pick out both our beers.  They didn't have our normal favorites Irish Red and Wee Heavy but I went with a light amber ale and a lager that is a collaboration with Molly's Pint.  The Glue chose the lager which surprised me.  Both were good but I think the lager was probably better.
We ordered etouffee and gumbo.  The whole time we were whatever was in the air kept me sneezing and coughing.  I'd noticed a couple other people having the same reaction but the Glue said to look around and most of the people there were being impacted the same way.
The food got there way faster than I expected with the crowd they had.  When I picked it up the portion size was a lot smaller than most places.  Additionally the etouffee had a whole crawdad in it which isn't really our thing.  The food tasted okay but not what I'd hoped for plus it wasn't overly hot.  The piece of bread that came with it was very small, about the size of a D battery.  That's no exaggeration. 
We both ordered the coloration lager for our second beer but about halfway through it I'd had enough sneezing and coughing and we decided to leave. 
We decided to go to the Hop for a beer.  We both ordered the Red Wasp which is one of our favorite beers from the local breweries.  I don't know if it was the stuff in the air at the cajunfest or what but even it seemed off.
All in all a big disappointment for something I'd really been looking forward to.

This past Friday was the first day the Glue didn't have to go back to work after having the summer off.  To celebrate we went down with some friends to the Iron Whisk in Cobden for a late breakfast.  We lucked out and got a table that would seat eight and didn't have to wait.  We hadn't seen Baby Daddy or Baby Mama in a while so there was a lot of talking and not much looking at the menu for a while.  Big Gay Al and his son Jakob came down as  did the Glue's sister Mona and her husband Kelly.
The Glue started off with a bloody mary but ended up not really caring for it.  I tried a sample of their mint lemonade but it was way too minty for me.  We split a biscuits and gravy and a classic combo.  Both were really good.  I'd been looking forward to the biscuits and gravy but I ended up liking the classic combo better.  Bacon, eggs, potatoes and toast, who wouldn't like that?
The Glue switched to mimosas and I just had water.  We ended up getting a carafe of mimosas for the Glue and Baby Mama to split.  The worst part about the Iron Whisk is that is was noisy and I really couldn't talk to the other end of the table, other than that it was a great time.

The Glue and Baby Mama decided they needed to stop at Fuzzy's but it wasn't open yet so we headed to Von Jakob.  It wasn't open yet either so we backtracked to Alto Vineyards.  None of us were in the mood for wine so we opted for a round of beers.
Next stop was back to Von Jakob.  I'm not sure what it says when you're at your second winery before noon but surely it says something.  Both me and the Glue went with the Octoberfest which was very tasty.
We rounded out the day with a trip out to the Kinkaid Marina for lunch even though I wasn't really hungry.  I went for the hot dog while the Glue once again went with the chili dog.  Both were good and the fries are some of my favorite.
Lots of stories and catching up not to mention a great way to start the Glue on her retirement.

On Wednesday we had to go to Lowes and Best Buy so while we were in Carbondale we decided to drive a few more miles and pickup lunch at the Caribbean Hut in Cambria.  When we got there the menu wasn't posted but was told to you when you were at the window which made making decisions kind of hard but we were the only people in line so it wasn't awful.  We both decided on getting the jerk chicken with corn and while I went with beans and rice the Glue went with crab salad.  We also got an order of shrimp to try.  As we were waiting for the food to get ready we talked with the two guys that were working there and told them we were from Murphysboro and it was our first visit there.  One asked if we would give them a review on Facebook and I told that if we liked it we'd be a couple of their biggest fans and would help spread the word.  When we got our order they'd thrown in a couple of hot patty's which are wrapped in a crust of some sort, similar to a pizza pocket.
Anyway the drive home seemed awful long since the smell was sooo good.  While the jerk chicken was all dark we got three pieces in each box and it was great.  The Glue said her crab salad was real good and the corn had a seasoning on it which was also real good.  The shrimp also had seasoning and was good but not as good as the jerk chicken which surprised me.  The beans and rice weren't anything like I expected which was along the red beans and rice cajun dish but they were nothing like it.  They were good and the hot patty's seemed good but there was so much other stuff it was really hard to decide.
Later on Wednesday we met up with Packer buddy Schmuck for our annual preseason pizza get together at long time favorite Quatros.  I've been a little tired of Quatros for a while so we haven't been going there as much.  It was great to be back and the pizza has long been one of favorites in Southern Illinois and didn't disappoint.  I also had a piece of thin crust that Schmuck had ordered and it was really good.  I hadn't had think crust since early in my time working at SIU. 
On Thursday night we went up to the Thursday concert at Marvin the Martian park.  Nine88 was playing and we've heard them before a few places but I don't recall them playing songs that featured their banjo player who happens to live down the street from us.  I've loved the banjo since I was young and he sounded real good..  Once again it was a good crowd and there's something about listening to music outside that makes it better.
While we were there we ran across my old teammate from my softball playing days, Red Dawg or just Red.  We had a nice visit talking about what's going on with us and the required reminiscing about the old days.

After a very busy weekend me and the Glue decided we needed to go somewhere on Sunday rather than cook at home.  The choice came down to Fat Bottom Betty's, Route 51 or The Landmark.  We decided on The Landmark mostly because their weekend special was catfish topped with etouffee but partly because of the nice drive up route 3.  Route 3 had been closed for quite some time because of flooding and this was our first trip up since it had reopened.  What a scenic trip it was. 
Once we got  to the Landmark we found out they were out of the weekend special and it usually sells out on Fridays.  Oh well.  After perusing the menu we decided to split The Captain which is a prime rib sandwich but we opted for swiss instead of queso since neither of us really like queso.  We also got an order of asian zing wings to split.  The Glue decided on cream ale while I went with the wee small and both of us were real pleased with our selections.  I had a couple tough bites of the sandwich but overall it was good as were the fries.  I thought the wings were better than the sandwich but were very sticky and messy.
When we left there was a riverboat tied up to the shore just below the Landmark and it looked like it was getting ready to cast off.  We watched it for a while but it was obvious the process took longer than we wanted to hand around for so we headed back home. 

Edit:  Note that the smokestack is up in one picture and then down in the next.

What a great weekend to be in the Murphysboro area.
On Thursday we went to the first summer concert of the year to see the Lewis Creek Band.  The weather was great but the sun was an issue until it went down behind the trees.  I went across the street and ordered a couple BBQ sandwiches from long time favorite Kilby's.  As always they were great.  We sat next to old friend and sometimes bocce teammate Ted and his wife Marsha.  We were talking about stuff going on around the town and area and it was Ted who came up with the title of this blog post.  He was spot on about it too.  Lewis Creek was great and I ran into several old classmates, teammates, bocce players and old friends.  There's too many to list but it took me 30 minutes or so to go to the bathroom inside the building which was about 50 yards away. 
On Friday was the block party at Brews Brothers Taproom which had the Downstate Music Company playing.  We had twin #1 staying overnight so we packed up her stuff and went up not knowing how long we'd be able to stay.  We got there a little before 7pm and it was already crowded and as the night went on it got more and more crowded.  The weather was once again great and we weren't looking into the sun.  Downstate Music Company is probably my favorite band in the area but that may be they are so different with all the horns.  They play a lot of music that I listened to in my youth.  We once again sat by Ted and Marsha and once again there were a lot of old friends there.  Twin #1 was a trooper and was great but around 9 she started getting tired so we packed up headed home.  As we were leaving the Glue got several compliments about how well behaved twin #1 was which made the Glue's night. 
On Saturday the Glue picked up twin #2 and we went uptown to the Cruise Night which was around the court house.  Neither of us are really car people but seeing all the old cars was really great.  Twin #2 loves tractors and they had several of those there.  The weather had warmed up and after a walk around we went into Brews Brothers for a couple beers and some air conditioning.  I tried to order a pizza from Cummares but they were swamped so I ordered one from Whiffleboys which isn't very far from our house but I'd gotten burned out on a few years ago.  I went a little off the reservation and ordered pepperoni and half pineapple which I hadn't had in several years.  The pizza was real good and we won't wait as long to order one from there.  Twin #2 zonked on the ride home but twin #1 ate almost two pieces of pizza before her parents picked them both up.
A lot of negative is said about Murphysboro and there's an element of truth in most of them but there's a lot going on here.