Snowfest '07: The IB Lunch

It was nice to wake up at the folks' place to a hot breakfast and a whole day ahead of me. I headed out for Champaign, still enjoying the cold temps until I stopped for gas near the edge of the city. As soon as I stepped out of the car the wind about sliced through me. I donned my coat and hoodie and started to gas up. The G6 was caked with salt and slush so I figured I'd better clean the windshields. After about 5 seconds, my hand was a frozen, throbbing claw that I could barely move. I was so fascinated by the sensation, which I hadn't felt in over 10 years, that I almost forgot that I had gloves to wear!

I enjoyed the ride up 72 to Champaign. The fields and forest were layered in snow but the roads were clear. I listened to my favorite DJ on the radio and soaked up the country music, commodities reports and forecasts. It was finna be a good day!

I was a bit surprised when I rolled into Champaign. They seemed to have gotten quite a bit more snow than Springpatch. A lot of the roads were barely passable or were down to one lane. I was reminded how much tougher Midwest folk are than the Florida sissies when I went by Champaign Centennial at lunch hour. Tons of kids were walking home or to restaurants for lunch. Most had on winter coats but no one was bundled up like I'd expect. In Florida, people wear coats, hats and gloves when it gets below 65! I think the temp in CU that day started out around -14. It was still cold by noon, but the sun was out and their wasn't much wind in the city limits.

I made it to Billy Barooz right on time. It didn't take me long to find the party. I saw RedHolly as soon as I walked in the door. We crowded around the table that was reserved for us and the final tally was 18 of us. Three were non-IBers. Holly's b/f, Paul's wife (who it seems is a lurker) and my buddy Lucas (ironically, I met Lucas via a different message board years ago). It was cool to see the Chicago Crew roll in. That's a helluva ride in the snow for a night of partying and kandy cakes.

Final roll call: Holly, Mr. Holly, Scott, Amber, Jen, Chris, Dave, Ryan, Dan, Seth, Brad, Paul, Mrs. Paul, Jeff, Joe, Lucas, Andrew & Dan.


After introductions around the table (I knew pretty much everyone from previous visits), we all got settled in and started catching up. The table was livened up considerably by the arrival of Dan "Wolf Tie" Saint. The Saint came all the way from Lincoln and was pimped out, as you can see (remarkable PS job by CHL).

His end of the table was treated to pics from his yearbook, including those of his classmate, Brian Cook and IBDA's doppleganger, stripper chick.

Chris and the rest of us were disappointed to discover that there were no Buffalo Chicken sammiches to be had on the menu, so we settled for Buffalo Chicken burgers, which were acceptable but still not a good substitute for the chix. Ryan really seemed to enjoy Billy's Hot Beef. In fact, he said he loved Billy's Hot Beef and in his mouth and he had hot beef sauce running down his chin.


The Chicago Crew started their bar crawl at Billy's but most of the rest of us had other things to do before the evening started so we agreed to meet up later at a place to be decided. The lunch broke up and I headed to Tuscola to visit some friends and have dinner with my cousins.