Weekend Trip to Des Moines
Rather than flying back to Indy from SLC, I took a detour to DSM to see the boys for my bachelor party. I didn't have much of a plan for Friday night but was able to get a hold of Washburn. Alicia, his wife, picked me up from the airport and then we met up with Ben for a trip to the High Life Lounge.
This new bar is 70 some steps (Washburn counted them) from the back door of their loft. The place is pretty neat, it's a cross between the basement on "That 70's Show" and the "Live the High Life" television commercials. It was packed when we went in but we found some seats at a table with famous Phi's Bill Kackley and Dan Canny. Canny entertained us with stories from days gone by (Amazon Brown Fish, Naked Bed Races, Aborted Martian Dork urination, etc.) as well as giving me marriage advice. The best line of the night (oft repeated through the weekend) was when Canny told our server that despite the fact he's "legally blind, married, and drunk" she was "the most attractive waitress ever". Maybe you had to be there...
Saturday night Ben and I gathered some of the boys from Des Moines (Brice, Waddil, Tolan) in what became a two hour trip to Ames. We met up with Charley, Austin, Boeck, T-rav, Paisley, Benji, etc and went to the Legends in Campustown to watch the Cyclones take on Bobby Knight & Texas Tech. ISU has never defeated Knight, either at TT or IU and the Cyclones were honoring the 20th Anniversary of the 84-85 team & Johnny Orr that started Hilton Magic during this game. ISU went down early but pulled out a convincing win over their third ranked team in two weeks. It was great fun...
From there we went back to ol' 1027 and met up with Nick, DP, Batch, & Dave and then went to O'Malley's. This misnomer of a Mexican restaurant was great, as usual. I had the Tacos Carbon and the "trust speech" twice from Washburn. Interesting...
Next stop was People's to see Damon Dotson cover the Counting Crows, Tom Petty & the Animals (unfortunately not Frijid Pink). We closed it out, had more tacos at Es Tas, and then took a quick two hour trip to the PDT house.
It's amazing that as much as things change there, so much is still the same. The house is starting to look more and more like the old house as it gets worn down but that only adds to its character. Many things I personally hung on the walls (plaques, pictures, etc.) are still in place. Others are gone. One welcome addition is the original Harvard Trophy has taken up residence at Iowa Gamma. The last time I saw it was at Leadership College in '99 or '00, Nationals was using it to bingo numbers or something at Casino night. We asked if we could give it a more appropriate memorial, were told "no" only to find out later that they gave it to another chapter. I was quite surprised it made it to Ames but it's right nonetheless. All in all, the night was good times.
