Peoria, IL

I've lived in Illinois for many years, but never've really been anywhere outside the greater Chicagoland area except for a few occasions. Does anyone know what goes on in southern, Illinois? I always imagined people smoking from corn cob pipes and drinking brands of cheap beer that I'd never heard of before.

Yesterday I was talked into going to Peoria, IL. Its not even close to being Southern Illinois, yet it's still 3 hours south of Chicago. No one was smoking corn cob pipes and it actually appeared to be a city with semi tall buildings. I found this to be peculiar as I looked at Peoria's skyline and watched my AT&T cell phone switch to "Roam" mode. Nationwide plan my ass.

What followed was alot of drinking, house partying, driving around in the back of pick up trucks, late night burrito joints, color coded plastic cups with beer in them, Bryan Adams songs and sleeping on an apartment floor with a backpack for a pillow.

Not bad for a Saturday night I presume, as long as you don't include the part about the Bryan Adams songs.