The next day we woke up at about 11:00. Talked for a bit, then decided to take a short tour of Iowa City. Denise was tour guide, and she already knows a lot about the city. We saw the really ugly green house, the school that Salvatore attends, some parts of the university, and downtown Iowa City. The University of Iowa is spread out and intermingled with Iowa City, unlike UC Berkeley which is mostly in one exclusive area.

We stopped at The Airliner for lunch. This is the oldest restaurant in Iowa City, established in World War II when there was an Army Air Core training facility in town. It's a nice bar/restaurant, although I had some really spicy paella, so it wasn't all that good. Everyone else enjoyed their meals, and the cheese fries are also quite good.

Afterwards we walked back to Billy's place. Iowa City is a small college town. Very little traffic at this time of year what with all the students away. A fair amount of stores and shops but nothing really big, like a strip mall or a multiplex theatre. I suppose it's not my kind of town; it's more like Fair Oaks or Carmichael, near where I grew up, kind of old and sleepy.

After we got back we played a game of Euro Rails. It's different than Empire Builder since it's set in Europe, and I kind a liked that change. It tries to be internationally friendly by using just icons and pictures on the cards, which makes it harder to know what you need. We played the fast game which is indeed quite faster. Denise won, and we found out just how ruthless Billy and Denise can be when playing rail games.

But it was a fun game, and we followed it up with my weekly Friday BattleTech game. Billy and Sweet played the good guys, Pick played the bad guys while I just the referee. In one of those quirks of gaming, Pick, with an inferior force, demolished Billy and Sweet, proving once again that players can always upset a gamemaster's carefully laid plans. Once again, everyone had fun and Pick got to experience the quirky marvel that is my campaign.

By then it was quite late and Billy retired for the night. We had some leftovers for dinner, then the Daves and I stayed up for a few more hours and talked. About Billy and Denise and Sal and about the trip so far, and about gaming and old campaigns. By the time we went to sleep it was already after 04:00.

On a random note, Sal is one hyperactive kid. It's strange that Billy is the only one of the group that has a kid, maybe one of the other guys who left has one also, but I haven't heard that. I suppose I should say that I don't have much experience with kids. I was a quiet child, as were my sister and brother. I've seen baby's cry, but the few 9-10 year olds that I've seen have been relatively composed. Sal is a screamer, and he wants to be involved in what the grownups are doing. It's not my place to critique, but I'll do so anyway. Sal is a bit spoiled, not in terms of gifts or what he can get his parents to do, but in the freedom to be expressive. I don't think he's ever heard of the phrase "children should only speak when spoken to", and maybe that's good. He's quite outgoing and egrerious, but lacks self- control. I just wanted to get that out.