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| The Columns at Francis Quadrangle |
When Michael approached me (before
Cycle for the Summit had been conceived) and said he wanted to get serious
about this crazy idea. I told him I
would be game under one condition…that we made it to University of Missouri for
the 100th anniversary of homecoming.
Knowing how passionate I am about my baccalaureate alma mater (I bleed
black and gold glitter baby!) without hesitation he agreed, because he knew I
would not miss it for the world. Why was
this so important to me? Mizzou
conceptualized the modern day homecoming in 1911, when athletic director Brewer
wrote to all of Mizzou’s alumni, enviting them to come home to watch the Tigers
take on the Kansas Jayhawks. I won’t go
into more details, but jeopardy and trivial pursuit both support that we
invented homecoming. Check out this
article "Did Mizzou really invent homecoming?" which tells an interesting story on the history of homecoming and you
can make up you own mind.
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| 2007 Summer Welcome Leaders (SWeven!) |
The entire weekend was a whirlwind
of activities. (I will apologize now for
not taking many pictures) I got to catch up
with so many old friends. To add to the
excitement, my girlfriend flew in and my parents dove down as well. Friday night was the Summer Welcome Leader
reunion. Summer Welcome is Mizzou’s
summer orientation for new students and their families. I was part of the Summer Welcome program fro
two years. It was so great to catch up
with my SWeven family, not to mention meeting other Summer Welcome leaders from
years past.
A
homecoming staple at many universities is the parade. We were going to be in the parade with 170
other “float” entries. The parade
committee thought they were pretty funny putting us behind the Harley Davidson
club! I had planned to bring
earplugs, but unfortunately we had a little shifting snaffou with the bikes and
had to skip out on the parade to go to the bike shop. (I didn’t want to miss out on family and
friend time trying to get to the bike shop after getting the parade) It was just an issue where the shifter cable
had popped out of it’s bracket, so he fixed it in no time and we learned how to
fix it if it ever arises again.
The rest of
the day was spent tailgating with friends and family. It was a short tailgate, because it was a 1pm
kickoff. I had a blast at the game
reveling in the familiar songs played by Marching Mizzou. Even though it was a blowout, we stayed to
sing the alma mater and fight song after the game.
To cap off our time in Columbia, MO
I got to visit four of Columbia’s dining staples and my favorite places to
eat. Shakespears Pizza, probably the
most popular answer you will get if you ask a Columbia, MO local where you
should eat. All I have to say is they
slice their own peperoni, because the pre-sliced stuff just isn’t thick enough. Booche’s Burgers, made the USA Today top ten
burger in America list. No frills, just
your burger served on wax paper, love it!
Addison’s, my personal favorite for nachos bianco (from the menu: Italian pasta
chips topped with Asiago cheese sauce, tomatoes, scallions, kalamata olives,
banana peppers, mozzarella cheese, and chicken, black beans, or chorizo
sausage) and the Boulevard Wheat beer just tasted better there. My friends and I were Thursday night
regulars. To cap it all off, breakfast
at the Broadway Diner, famous for the Stretch, an omlet on a bed of hashbrowns
topped with chilli, diced onions and green peppers…and I like to add all of
that on top of bisquits and gravy. So
good!
Thanks for allowing me to ramble
about my homecoming experience a new blog on the ride will be here soon.
Sincerely,
Brent and Michael
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