Going to The Zou

Today featured two big firsts for us. First we made our driving debut in the US. We went out this morning and travelled around Blue Springs a little before heading west on I-70 (that's Interstate 70) to downtown Kansas City where we visited the City Market (a large farmer's market), had a little lunch and stopped off at the Steamboat Arabia Museum. Sonja had shown us where the proof of vehicle insurance was kept in the unlikely event of an accident (how unlikely can it be when everyone else drives the wrong side of the road?) but this was not required.

The afternoon featured the other first for the day - our first ever American Football game, between the Missouri Tigers and the Colorado Buffalos. This was held at Faurot Field, home ground of the Tigers at Columbia, Missouri. To the locals they are known simply as Mizzou and Faurot Field is also known as "The Zou". The die-hard sports fans can read a match report here which will tell you that Mizzou won 26-0 and that for the most part they won ugly. Their defense was awesome but their offense was awful for the most part. That is only a small part of our story because the whole occasion was amazing. We were invited to "tailgate" with Bill Wrisinger and his family. Bill owns 45 Sonic Drive-In restaurants in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Florida and is Chairman of the Blue Springs Growth Initiative. But back to "tailgating". Think barbecue and beers - thousands of people partying in small groups in the stadium carpark for hours before the match. Its the scale that takes your breath away - just thousands of people in yellow and black shirts having a great time - and the football hadn't even started at that stage! In the stadium, there are marching bands, cheerleaders, giant screens with full replays, a ground announcer giving you play-by-play, and much, much more. All this and some football players. Its really hard to do justice to it in words but the video and pictures might give you some idea.

PS from Christine

I felt that tonight (Its well after midnight), I just had to write about my new language skills - Here are some of my new vocabulary - MIZ - ZOU, touch down, field goal, First Down, Second Down, Third Down, Fourth Down, Golden Girls,The Marching Mizzou,The Missouri Waltz,TIGERS, Offensive, Defensive, Quarterback, Truman the Tiger (mascot), Jimmy Costello (#12 Quarterback) & Darvin Ruise (#12, Linebacker), all yelled at full volume. American Football is much much better than Rubgy - I LOVE this game. It might have something to do with the 62,000 fans all dressed in yellow and black and the warm balmy atmosphere. No freezing your butts off here. I was comfortably dressed in a tee-shirt and light pants. It was approx 33 0C at 8pm in the evening. My body loves the climate here.