Day 16: Sunday, May 7th, 2006
Council Bluffs, Iowa and environs

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I book-end my trip by spending an extra day with my friends, Steve and Dana McHugh, in the city of Council Bluffs, Iowa, which is right across the Missouri River from Omaha.

Their son, Patrick, seems happy to see me.

Steve and I make plans for our own head-to-head Olympics competition. The festivities start on Sunday morning with (what else?) a round of mini-golf, after Steve has already taken a 1-0 lead by thrashing me in Scrabble (by more than 400 points!) on Saturday night.

Patrick's putting method is unconventional and only occasionally effective, but always hilarious.

Eventually, he becomes absorbed in rolling his ball continually down the chutes that lead either away from or directly to hole #7. He does this without losing interest for nearly a half an hour as I easily beat Steve by nine strokes.

Later on, I beat Steve in tennis while he somehow beats me--as Jeff did--in both 21 and H-O-R-S-E. In between the two sports, we somehow find the time to get pictures of the Pottawattamie County courthouse in Council Bluffs.

Here's me, trying out Steve's putter in front of the courthouse.

Later on that night, Steve and I split a couple of games of ping pong at the weekly meeting of the Omaha Table Tennis Club. I then obliterate him in a mere three turns in the game of Axis and Allies when we return to his house after ping pong. We mutually decide to end our Olympics competition there with the score still tied, as there's no time left for a game of one-on-one whiffle ball.

So, instead of playing another sport, I do the McHughs a favor by taking a picture of their entire family, cats included.


And, with one final grimace, I say goodbye to the life of fun that I've lived on the road for more than two straight weeks.

Clearly, it's time for me to go home.

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