Ribs 'n Wii

February 14th – Huntsville and Madison, AL

Well, today wasn't U.S. Space & Rocket Center day. For reasons that were unclear to me, while I was upstairs blobbing (as my folks call it) after breakfast, the "elders" decided against a trip to rocket heaven.

Dad had expressed an interest in some BBQ, so I decided it was my turn to buy. I asked Abe about Dreamland BBQ and, based on his enthusiastic endorsement, the five of us bundled into the CRV once again. I'll let you, my faithful hitchhikers, determine from the photos how Dad felt about the experience.





After lunch, I took the Camry to a filling station. Lawrence, I can tell you that the car had just over 2,800 km when we left Winkler. It now has about 5,100. We drove most of the way on interstates at between 70 and 75 mph, with virtually all of the southbound travel into a stiff crosswind. Most of the last half day eastward into Huntsville was in a torrential downpour. The overall mileage was 34.6 mpg (Imp), with the final 440 miles at 36.3 mpg.

After a quick shop for a few toiletries, we made the short drive to Madison and the home of Abe & Janet's eldest son, Darren, and his family for 4 p.m. Ruhi, his wife is Iranian and she prepared a sumptuous Persian feast for us. The Mennonite in four of us once again sated by potent combination of family and food. After the meal, their daughter, Samineh, favoured us with a selection on the piano, then on violin.

Following a flurry of picture taking, Janet reminded Samineh that I needed to have my Wii age determined.

After a migration from the great room to the front sitting room, Samineh created a gaming caricature of me and then hooked me to the *&%#@ device. I immediately felt an age. I managed to flail my way through a test of bowling quite well, followed by baseball (not "been bery, bery good to me," Jose Jimenez) and tennis, which I played like Boris Badenov. Still and all, I came away within a year of my age, and retired to the sidelines. Samineh and Darren are seriously competitive and, following Samineh's frustrating rounds of boxing, her dad whupped her good, coming through with an age of 33.

The highlight of the evening, though, was Mom taking a whack at Wii with tests in bowling, tennis and baseball. She actually scored three years younger than her actual age. Next thing we know, Mom will be thinking of picking up an iPhone and a computer. And why (Wii) not?

Time for bed. After hugs and thanks we headed back to Huntsville's Monrovia Junction.