Springfield

Me and the Glue took a trip to Springfield recently for her to have a retirement meeting. 
I overestimated the time it would take to get there and we arrived an hour and half early.   So we did what everyone would do in that situation and went shopping.  Yeah, right.  We found a bar that opened early and went there to blow the time.  The place we found was the Blue Grouch.  When we walked in no one was saying anything including the bar maid.  We got a couple drinks and finally people started talking a little, maybe it was just to early for conversation in a bar.  Anyway I asked a couple of the guys about Darcy's Pint which we'd passed on the way there and they both said it lived up to it's hype.  Our old friend and former MBC player Mike had recommended it to us also.
We got to the meeting a little early but were able to get in ahead of schedule and it didn't last long which was great.  The Glue didn't get the retirement news she was hoping for but it wasn't awful either.  Realistically she has two options and a couple months to make up her mind what she wants to do.
After the meeting we decided to skip Darcy's Pint and get out of Springfield before the noon rush.  We decided to exit I55 at Staunton and take Route 4 all the way home.  We stopped in at a place called Mr. T's for a quick beer and ended up talking to the bar tender/owner for a bit and he was very nice.  Another guy at the bar said they have the best cheeseburgers around.  The place I really wanted to stop was Decamps Station outside of town but it wasn't open yet.
We headed down the road a bit and stopped in a place called Slotzy's for another quick beer and there was only one other person in the bar.  We were talking with him and the bar maid and asked about other places in the area.  The bar maid said Mr. T's has the best cheesburgers in the world.  They also mentioned Tilley's in Mt. Olive and McClintocks in Standard City by Carlinville.
Our food choice came down to Schiappa's in Lebanon or the Mascoutah Steak House.  We decided on Schiappa's and some pizza and wings.  I really like the pizza but the wings were just ok, nothing special.   There were only a few people in the place and they left while we were eating so the owner who as he put it was also wearing an apron came by and sat down and talked with us for quite a while.  A really interesting and nice guy, we could have sat there a lot longer but didn't want to be out too late.  As we were getting ready to leave the owner said "I'll tell you what, I'm going to be nice" and brought us a whole pepperoni pizza from the buffet that had brought out as the other people were leaving.  He then went back and brought over some wings, meatballs, green beans and steamed veggies that were left on the buffet.  Way above being a nice guy and the wings on the buffet were better than the sweet mild ones we'd gotten.  Still can't believe that he did all that.
At this point we debated stopping at a couple other places but decided to come on home and take care of Otis and relax, not that Otis and relaxing should be mentioned in the same sentence.