Lesson Learned: Don't try to leave Chicago at lunch time the Saturday before the 4th of July.
It took 3 hair-pulling hours to get out of Illinois, a trip that should normally take an hour and a half. Not-Brother Lucas and I got into the Twin Cities around 9:30 p.m. and headed straight to Café Latte to pick up a slice of turtle cake, because that's what Rachael Ray ate on the Twin Cities episode of "Tasty Travels."
Monday afternoon we ventured west to collect Marcus at St. Cloud State and then pressed onward to Spicer, where x-treme competitive tubing and a full cooler awaited us on the boat. When the guests started rolling in at around 6 p.m., out came the enormous cocktail shrimp and endless platters of highly addictive bite-sized tenderloin sandwiches. Eating. Drinking. Eating. Drinking. The Jo Bros. cranked out the classic rock hits in the back yard until the mosquitos came out, as the she-welder/bartender did her best to serve up Josh-calibre cocktails. When the party moved inside, Little Ed stuck with tradition and was on the guitar quicker than you could say Bye Bye Miss American Pie. Which we did.
In honor of Marcus, the self-proclaimed star of the evening, we ended up dancing to our own singing of that famous Men At Work song without knowing any of the words except for, "I come from a land down under!" Have a look .
