Big 10 Football Tour

So prior to our stop in Evanston, a guy from Northwestern by the name of Chad sent us and email and offered to let us join them at their tailgate.  We put Chad's tailgate on our "must-see" because when he mentioned it, he told us that it would be "Iron-Chef inspired." 

A group of friends from the Chicago suburbs would be competing against a group of friends from the city.  They would have to create a drink, an appetizer/side, a main course, and a dessert all themed around one ingredient.  Let's remind you that it's now late September, so what else?  APPLES!

So the first thing we tried was some apple/rum mixture & it was incredibly strong.  It was only approximately 4 PM (& we're not the tough guys that claim to "drink you under the table") & we didn't want to overdo it, so we called Dan & told him to get the Schlitz up here immediately.  After what seemed to be 3 hours, Dan arrived and placed what is shown in the photo below in front of us.

Then came the real deal.  There was salad with apples, apple-stuffing, apple-ka-bob, pork with apple glaze, and much more.  Just think, some of these judges had ate McDonalds during each of the past four weeks, so this was just plain delicious!

Finally came the judging...& the Big 10 Tour was the "celebrity" judges.  These guys were legit too, they already had pre-printed scorecards with scales of 1-10 on presentation, taste, originality, etc.  In what was probably the most shocking moment of the day, it was revealed that the city team won! 

Eventually it was time to go back to our original tailgate; which was now over a mile away.  So what to do?  Stuff 10 people into one cab of course!  Somehow we got 10 people in there and the funny thing was that the ride only cost $7.00!  I guess cab drivers are paid handsomely in Evanston, because we gladly would have paid well over $20.00.

Favorite moment of this tailgate.  One of the girl's from Northwestern looks at one of our shirts and says....Wait, let us backtrack.  Drew was talking to a member of the Detroit Pistons staff on Thursday evening and was told "Enjoy your time in Evanston - If any of the Northwestern fans act like they're smarter than you are, that's because they are!"  So back to the story...one of the Northwestern alums looks at a shirt and says, "What's the meaning of the fish bone on your shirt?"  She then asks Drew, "What are you writing down?" as he's laughing aloud and scribbling something down on a notepad.  Free can of Red Bull to whoever can tell us the meaning of the fish bone on our shirts!