Quick Cousins Trip to Chicago Day 1

Day one started off extra early as I had to catch the red eye to Dallas to hit my connector to Chicago. Getting up early was not hard as Pam and I got little rest. Poor Little D came down either with the stomach bug, or she decided she was going to try out for the next Exorcist movie. Either way, her projectile vomiting was rather impressive to see, but not to have to clean up!

I took a quick shower, got dressed and looked at my lottery ticket. You can imagine how excited I was to learn I would get to return to work the following week! I know it is going to be hard to break the news to my fellow coworkers Julie and Karen about the loss. I had told them I would share the sizable amount of ten dollas each if I had won. I still do not know how I am going to break the news to them when I return, as I already regret seeing their sad faces when they find out!

Both flights were on time and travel was going well. I got into Chicago early and had no issues at the rental car facility. My sister Katie, was coming in from Colorado and I had about an hour to kill before her flight arrived.

Since I had flown into Midway I decided to go to the local White Castle's establishment to get a cup of coffee. This is the same place my dad would stop in over forty years ago to get a cup before work. I remember him telling me White Castles always had the best coffee. I didn't get any of the burgers, but I did enjoy my cup. I looked out the window down Cicero and wondered what occupied the thoughts of the much younger version of my father when he was hurrying in to get a cup of coffee and hurrying back out to get to work?

I still had some time to kill, so I decided to head over to the first house my parents lived in when they got married. It is really close to the airport and I thought they might like to see a picture of it. I called my mom and she gave me directions. I was soon in front of their old house being the weird guy taking pictures in broad day light. There was an older lady who was looking out the window at me. She didn't seem to happy I was snapping pictures, so I decided I had what I needed and headed off to pick Katie up.

Katie was waiting for me when we arrived and as usual, she was very excited to see her favorite little brother. With Katie loaded up it was time to head to the greatest pizza dinning establishment known to man. Home Run Inn! The plan was to have lunch with my Auntie Cookie and Cousin Kathy from my dad's side of the family.

I absolute adore my Auntie Cookie. She has always been one of my favorite people in the world and she treated us kids very well when we were little tike's! Both her and Cousin Kathy looked great. Kathy is my dad's first cousin and very close to him in age. She gave Katie and I some insight and great stories on what he was like as a child. We now know why Jeff and Denny were so wild growing up!

The pizza was wonderful, but the company was even better. Getting good quality pizza in Midland, Texas is a hard thing to do, unless you consider Pizza Hut quality??? Which I don't!  We can now get Home Run Inn frozen pizza in the stores, but eating in the restaurant is always better! On a scale of one-to-five, Katie gave Home Run Inn the rare score of a five while pizza sauce dripped down her face!

As all good things, it was time for it to come to an end and head out to our next stop. We said our good bye's and with a few hugs and kisses later we were on our way to Aunt Sue's house. The plan was to stay at Aunt Sue's for the night and meet up with Cousin Beth and her son Johnny for dinner.

We found our way across town in no time. Katie and I both enjoyed sitting and visiting with Aunt Sue. After awhile, Beth arrived with Johnny. We were soon putting down several of my new favorite beer called Spotted Cow. Beth claims you can only get it in Wisconsin. Which is a bummer for me. I guess it just means that I will have to load up on it while I am in town! After several beers we found ourselves chowing down on some Italian beef sandwiches. They are another wonderful Chicago delicacy that is hard to find in West Texas. I know I enjoyed my sandwich, and I am pretty sure Katie enjoyed hers since she had licked her plate clean!

It was a fun night of hanging out, talking and catching up. Day one was great, but no doubt day two will be even better as we will get to visit with more aunts and uncles, get more nourishment from the Spotted Cow, and head up to Wisconsin and let the Cousins Weekend officially kick off! Rumor has it...Cousin Beth might even get us a few White Castle burgers to eat on the way.

Desparrois Family Vacation on the Fly Day 7 & 8

Day 7:

The day started out a little later than most of the mornings in Colorado. Maybe it was the fact that Pam and I actually got to sleep on a king size bed rather than the full size bed at my parents; or perhaps it was the fact that maybe we had a too many free cocktails while we were at the tables. Either way, the rest was welcomed and we woke up refreshed and ready to hit the tables for some more gambling debauchery and fun!

We enjoyed The Isle of Capri and would definitely consider staying there again. The price was decent, the room was huge, and they treated us well with comps. After a quick shower, we checked out and headed down to the buffet. The food was okay, but nothing worthwhile to really note. We each had an omelet with Pam giving the buffet two forks out of five for lack of any fresh fruit and very few options. We are not going to complain since it was free of charge, thanks to our gambling skills. I will say, that I wouldn't waste my money if I were paying.

After eating, we headed back up the mountain to try a couple of more casinos. We have discovered that it is well worth the time to get a players card in both Black Hawk and Central City. The comps have been great with free meals and money back to gamble. If you are looking for a little fun and you go up the mountain, take sometime to get a players card and be prepared to be treated like royalty. That is, if you are low life degenerate gamblers like Pam and I are and consider a free lunch as being a part of high society!

After calculating our losses and figuring that we might not have enough gas money to get back to Texas, we decided to call it a day and head back down the mountain and to reality. Besides, I had to get ready to go to the big Monday Night Football game that Pam had given me as a Christmas present.

When we got back to my parents house, Pam loaded up the girls to take them to the mall to spend down some of their Christmas money and I headed to the light rail to catch the train to the game. It was going to be a cold game and I felt like I was well prepared. On the way to the game, Pam sent me a picture of them wishing me a good time!

My partner for the game would be Tony, AKA Holmes. I have known Holmes since fifth grade when he first moved to Colorado. He wasn't in my class, but he had a mullet and thought he was pretty tough back in the day. In fact he thought he was so tough, one day he took on the entire fifth grade when he decided to steal a football from all the boys at recess. I instantly liked him. Anybody with guts and a cool mullet was good to have as a friend instead of a foe! Holmes met me at a place called Brooklyn's. We had a few drinks and some quick eats before the game. Mainly we went there to be warm as long as we could before the game started. 

We made the trek over to the stadium. With each step, I felt my lungs gasp for air and my muscles scream in pain. The stadium name of Mile High could be more accurate. We had to go over several ramps and climb many stairs to finally reach our destination of sitting on the thirty yard line...In the very last row! 

I was huffing, puffing and either preparing to pass out or die. Holmes, who is more acclimated to the high altitude than I am was laughing at how out of Colorado shape I am.  Luckily he had enough energy to buy me a beer to settle my nerves and get me prepared to cheer on the Broncos to another victory and sew up another playoff appearance. 

The game was awesome to see and be a part of. It did get a touch cold and it didn't help that Holmes liked to point out that the temperature on the scoreboard was only nine degrees. I wasn't really sure what the windchill factor was, but I do know that my beer turned into a slushy and I lost all feeling in my toes and feet. 

The game was great all the way up to the end. We were fortunate enough to get to see some overtime with the win! Since we had Ueker seats and were enjoying life at the top row, we had to wait for pretty much everyone else to leave the stadium in order for us to get out.

We headed back to the light rail where we said our goodbyes as we were heading in different directions. After a brief 45 minute wait in the freezing cold, I was finally able to board the packed train. A couple of younger men were standing next to me and they had way to much to drink. It got so bad that one of them had vomited on himself. It was pretty disgusting, and I was glad I was just far enough away from them that I didn't need to be near them.

After the long train ride home, I was happy to get in the car and blast the heat all the way back to  my parents house. When I got into bed, Pam told me I was still ice cold. I didn't care. I had an amazing gift, got to spend time with one of my best friends, and the Broncos won a spot in the playoffs!

Day 8:

The day started out extra early as it was time to head home. We had planned on staying an extra day, but Goliath had made a mess of things down south while another storm was threatening up north. We figured we had a small window to get home. 

We gave our hugs and sad kisses goodbye to load up and head south. The roads were great all through Colorado and New Mexico. In fact, we saw very little snow until we hit Amarillo, which still was not too bad. The roads didn't get rough until we hit Lubbock. They had done a good job clearing the highways and we had very little trouble until we hit Lamesa. Highway 349 between Lamesa and Midland was by far the worse road we faced. It was icy, slushy and the snow was all over the place. It is rather ironic to think that we had come from Colorado where the roads were clear to Midland where the roads were a mess.

Just a few miles outside of Midland, Pam's car hit a milestone of 100,000 miles. We asked Little D and AK to lead us in prayers of thanksgiving for a great time and getting us home safe. After many miles driven, lots of hours in the car, some toes that might need to come off due to frostbite, seeing Star Wars for the second time, Pam and I putting on our plumbing pants, and a great deal of family time and love...Pam declared the Desparrois Family Vacation on the Fly complete. As we rolled in, we realized our dogs were not pleased that we left them behind-- all in hopes that Kelly would have something to read for eight mornings while she enjoyed her coffee!