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Packer backer bday travels of TravelinEdMan |
| Monday, December 17, 2007 |
After giving 104 talks on e-learning and related topics in 2005 and 107 in 2006 (only 82 in 2007), during the past year or two, I have tried to spend less time away from home when traveling. I have done day trips to DC, Atlanta, Milwaukee, Lafayette, Dayton, Athens, Ohio, etc. If it is within 6 or 7 hours, I try to drive and I often see if I can get back to Bloomington (Indiana) the same day. And there are many US cities within 6-7 hours of my home. That was true this weekend in a journey to St. Louis and back.
Normally TravelEdMan blogs on e-learning, but yesterday was Sunday and so not a lot of e-learning things happening though I will sneak a few points into this post. Yesterday was my birthday. To celebrate, TravelEdMan went on an adventure from Bloomington, Indiana to St. Louis, Missouri to see his favorite football team, the Green Bay Packers.
My father took me to such a game for my birthday decades ago back when I was a young lad. I remember that freezing cold (icicles forming from your nose) day at the old Milwaukee County Stadium. I think we beat the Los Angeles Rams that day 28-7 with Bart Starr at quarterback and some keen passing to Carole Dale in the NFC championship game right before the Super Bowl. Well, now it was too many years later and they were to play the St. Louis Rams (the Rams moved to St. Louis in 1995) with Brett Farve at quarterback. Sure enough, we won again! Score was 33-14. Many Wisconsin fans made it to Green Bay. They were dressed in green shirts, green hair, and cheeseheads. It was crazy. Felt sorta like a home game for the Packers though they were the away team. No one from St. Louis stayed for the end of the game and most did not come early like us Packer fans!
I got 4 tickets on eBay a few weeks before—one for me, one for my daughter Nicki, and one for her boyfriend, Corbin. Unfortunately, I did not know that the weather would be so bad!!! Fortunately, I think my daughter and her boyfriend had a blast though they got to sleep on the way there and back and I could not. The 4th ticket was for my Thai friend from the University of Missouri, Ta Boonseng. TA is a great guy. He took me to Bangkok for my birthday last year to keynote a conference and then had bands from 6 pubs sing happy birthday to me. This year was different--a football game in America.
Driving to St, Louis was quite a painful experience yesterday for my bday (many cars, trucks, etc, in the ditches or in accidents; some major semi-truck accidents and one car flipped totally over). We made it though-- I drive carefully. Little plowing on I-70 when got to Illinois—I now officially hate the State of Illinois highway road crew people and the politicians who apparently underfund them. Very scary when big trucks pass you and you cannot see where the road is. That was so-so bad. Left at 4 am St. Louis time and got there at 10 am (normally 4 hour drive took 6 hours—so not too bad). Looking back, we probably should not have gone but once you are in it, you just go.
At least I did get to listen to part of an old book I have been wanting to read, "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance." I complete roughly one book each month this way. Speaking of e-learning (smile); perhaps there is a way to get people to listen to books that they are assigned in class. I think there is a serious need to translate articles and books to audio.
Anyway, the game was great. One new record for passing was set by my favorite player, Brett Farve of the Packers. The Edward Jones Dome was easy to find and great to watch a game inside. And you can make phone calls when inside. Both my brothers called me while I was in the stadium to wish me happy bday which was great. My son too. TravelinEdMan was happy!
After the game, we spent over an hour just trying to get out of the parking structure. And by the time we passed by “the Arch” and departed from STL, it became dark and I took a wrong turn onto Highway 55 and ended up in Springfield, Illinois before I realized it (60 miles off my route-- I simply missed the sign since in Illinois they give you 1 sign and no warning) so it took 2 hours extra to get home. In retrospect, at least we did not go on same I-70 which was bad in the morning (took I-74 instead--so perhaps 2 extra hours was good for us). Spent 12-13 hours driving on my bday. Still wearing those clothes today. I smell bad I bet! Oh well, I get to wear my bday pin one more day (I got this pin when former and current Korean students had a surprise bday party for me Saturday at a great restaurant here in Bloomington with Chinese food, gifts, singing, etc). So my bday celebration now in its 3rd day. Or perhaps the fourth since it is now the morning of the 18th!!!
My next post, I promise to be back on e-learning stuff. |
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| 1 Comments: |
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Happy 28th birthday, Curt. The driving sounded painful to me, but at least you enjoyed the game.
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Happy 28th birthday, Curt. The driving sounded painful to me, but at least you enjoyed the game.