To a certain degree, I guess I'm trying to figure out where these coffee-and-free-pie sessions on Wednesdays at Village Inn are going.
Hey, you figure it out.
I'm calling it the versatility of people whose careers have mostly been involved with writing about, talking about, supervising or observing collegiate athletics.
After all, these sessions started as gatherings of folks such as a few retired sportswriters, a TV/radio sportscaster, a retired sports information director, a guy who financed Drake's women's softball stadium, a man nearing his 100th birthday [Paul Morrison, of course] who still works as Drake's sports historian and...well, you get the idea.
I can't remember anyone talking about flying to Mexico to see monarch butterflies until today.
Two folks [a guy and his wife] had talked about bird-watching in the past, and said more about it after looking for more birds on a recent trip to Texas.
The guy who talked about butterflies had just visited Mexico with his wife to see monarchs, which go there every year in what's known as a migration called "one of the most spectacular natural phenomena in the world."
The monarchs--estimated to be a billion or so--leave the U.S. and southern Canada and fly to central Mexico, arriving in late-October. They begin their return trip in March.
Even someone like me, who knows little or nothing about monarch butterflies other than they're very pretty and very graceful, calls that phenomenal.
The guy who talked about viewing the monarchs said he and his wife spent six days and nights in Mexico looking at them.
Meanwhile, you and I were up here in Iowa freezing our you-know-what off.
But it wasn't all butterflies and birds at at the coffee-and-pie session.
I stayed for 90 minutes before going to the mall for my 2-mile walk. We talked about the state's four major-college men's basketball teams, Drake's outstanding women's team, football recruiting and a few other sports topics.
By the way, my pie was blueberry [pictured]. That's why I needed the 2-mile walk afterward.
