Day 5: Monday, May 19th, 2008
Council Bluffs, Iowa to Urbana, Illinois

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On the rest of our Sunday together, Steve and I engage in contests of mini-golf, scrabble, ping pong, two softball games and a round of Mr. President. He wins every single one of them.

The next morning, I take on Steve's other son, Patrick, in Super Mario Brothers. He crushes me in the most adorable way possible.

This is the train set that Steve set up in the basement for Patrick. Patrick doesn't spend a whole lot of time with it, apparently.

On Monday morning, Steve and I also play a set of tennis, which he wins (in comeback fashion), 6-4. Here he is afterwards, celebrating with his wife in front of the family trash can.

I will later find out that he has been training for a month, in preparation for my visit. As you can see from this photo, I'm thrilled with the way the Steve Squared Sports Spectacular has turned out.

Completely exhausted, I let Steve go off to work at around noon that day and begin the slow plod across Iowa on I-80. About 60 miles out, I realize that I've not only left my shaving kit behind at Steve's, but that I'm going to need to take a nap before I fall asleep at the wheel.

So I pull over at a little place called Anita Lake...


and take a nap in the shade of a tree.

It seems like a pretty nice place, as far as places in Iowa go.

The highlight of the day, however, has to be finding a gas station that sells gas for only $2.79 a gallon. And it's E-85 gas, to boot!

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