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Published: November 6th 2007
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Manchester United In Illinois
Over looking the mighty Mississippi Wow what a night the night before was! I woke up with quite a headache, even worse was the fact that Alec was sleeping next to me snoring away! Not a pleasant sight. Everyone else gradually started to wake up from the dead with half drunken mumblings and sore throats. But Joel, now this is a man who gets up really early, either that or he just doesn't sleep at all. He was up at the crack of dawn and managed to get us all some much needed breakfast in. Lovely Bagels. These again were huge, I struggled to finish one. It was more like a dinner than a breakfast. That filled me up.
As the day moved on everyone was doing different things, some went for walks, some went down the bob sleigh shoot or if your name was Marsha then you were carrying on drinking Rum n Coke.
Myself and Alec were invited to take a boat trip along the Mississippi. Joel, Cora and Andy came with us. We had to get the chair lift down to the bottom of the hill. It was much cooler than the previous day, it actually started to rain on the
Manchester United on a train track
Nearly getting run over by a freight train! way down. I thought we left the English weather behind us. Obviously not.
Once we got to the bottom of the hill we heard a freight train in the distance. There was a track we had to cross in order to get nearer the boat. But Joel and Andy had this idea. I love getting my Manchester United flag in as many pictures as possible and so they both said why not get you and your flag, with the fast approaching train in one. Which i did. The train was approaching fast, firing its horn every few seconds. It was getting closer and closer. Me and Cora walked onto the track and held the flag up and managed to get a picture with the train literally 15 seconds away and travelling at about 80MPH. The train then went passed- with us just a couple of metres away. What a buzz that was.
We all moved on to the boat area. Joel and Cora didn't want to have a ride so myself, Alec and Andy went instead. It was a family members boat, it was really nice of them to allow us on for a ride. There were around
6 other people on board. The engine started and we headed out in the mighty Mississippi!!! What a sight it was. Truly amazing. I had never been on a river so big in my life, the scenery was immense, the feeling that either side of the river were two different states was surreal. I was taking it all in, not really talking that much. I was making the most out of this experience as I don't think I'll be riding the river that often in my life. It was raining quite heavy at this moment but that didn't spoil the whole experience. After all I'm used to rain.
The different tree colours, all the different wildlife flying above and most of all the sheer peace and quiet of the whole area. The Ride lasted around an hour and I have to say that that hour was one of the best of the whole trip. It was just so different to what I had experienced before. I no it was only a boat ride but we just don't get the chance to do anything like that back home in England. The boat docked back and we made our way back
Messmores and English
Joel, Cora, me and Andy Messmore up the hill via the chair lift.
Within the facilities of the resort there was a cycle track which delves into the woodland, so myself and Alec decided to hire a bike for an hour, This turned out to be the funniest hour of the trip. So we buckled up (which later turned out to be a good idea!) We started off on a relatively easy part of the track, a few hills here and there but nothing to worry about. Again the scenery around us was brilliant, after about 10 minutes the track led us into a wooded area, this is where the fun started to emerge. The Track became rugged and light dimmed and bear in mind that I was filming the whole cycle in one hand and steering the bike in the other. Alec was out ahead of me, he turned a sharp bend and fell off his bike. I laughed it off thinking that that was just one of those things. I overtook him so he was now cycling behind me, I was struggling with the increasingly rough terrain and Alec was a mess. After another bend he fell off again!! I was laughing my
View from the boat
Woodland of the resort head off. He brushed himslef down, I cycled on ahead he and was trailing behind a fair bit. It then went quiet, so I stopped, turned around I couldn't see him anywhere, I walked back a few metres and there was Alec fallen off his bike again but this time down in a hole. He was about 3 metres off of the track, he said he couldn't control the bike and couldn't help himself, and so obviously by this time I was in stitches of laughter, it was one of those moments where you just couldn't stop yourself from laughing and most funny of all was the fact that I got the whole thing on camera. Every turn after that he took really slow. Priceless.
After that memorable bike ride We went back to the room for a well deserved beer. Most of the Messmores were all there drinking away. Surprisingly Marsha and Diane were drinking. Now that shocked me. We told them about the boat trip and the cycle.
The rest of the afternoon was spent talking, eating and drinking.
There was a photo shoot for the re-union which was being held downstairs in the evening,
Inside the Boat
The driver, me and Alec The whole family went down for the pictures. They have got a huge family. Everyone single one of them that we met were really nice people.
And so back up the stairs and to the 'Alcohol room' most of us were still recovering from the night before, so we all just had a few 'casual' drinks in the room. I didn't get drunk. But this was not stopping Marsha, (I'm sorry for putting this on the site) but she got so drunk that she managed to fall off of the bed in a drunken state. A Kodak moment if ever there was one! The English would be very proud. But as I said the rest of the evening was relatively quiet. Well it was compared to the night before. Another eventful day indeed.
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mom simpson
non-member comment
TOO GOOD!
Andy, Another great blog. I could have done without the picture of me though. Can't imagine what else you could possibly say about the Simpson's and Illinois. Please keep them coming. I can't wait for the party cove!!!