The Cubs and Cardinals both sent Caravans into Central Illinois.  Why the White Sox don't has always puzzled me.  They can't crack the market if they don't make an attempt to.  What made this a hectic week is that the Caravans were scheduled for Thursday, Friday and Saturday night.

I went with a friend on Thursday night to the Cub Caravan in Peoria, not certain as to what we were going to encounter.  The Cubs in conjunction with the Peoria Chief have tended to muck things up of late.  This evening Ryne Sandburg was scheduled to appear as was Cub GM Jim Hendry, broadcaster Pat Hughes, former Cubs Chris Speier and Jody Davis (the latter will be the Peoria Chiefs new manager this upcoming season) and players Mike Weurtz, Michael Barrett, Bob Howry and Sean Gallagher.  A very good line-up.  The hitch was that the advertisement for the event said that there would be a drawing at the door to see whose autograph we would get and that everyone attending would be guaranteed one autograph.  This didn't sound promising, so I was going to pass at first, but at the last minute decided to spring for my $15 and attend.

I drew Mike Weurtz and my friend drew Bob Howry.  Many of the people who attended just went and sat down when they didn't draw Sandberg, so although his line was filled to capacity, the other tables weren't being hit that hard.  The staff did the intelligent thing for one.  They opened the tables of the auther players up for autographs regardless of whether you drew the named player or not, with people holding tickets for that player going to the front of the line.  It worked out well.  I got all my Weurtz, Howry and Gallagher cards signed, got 4 Barrett items signed, and caught Hendry and Hughes as well.  No Sandburg of course, but given the way the event was advertised, I felt lucky to do so well.

Friday night was the "Burlington Bees Winter fundraising dinner."  I got three John Wathan cards signed, as well as his autograph on an 8x10 of George Brett remonstrating with the umpires after the "pine tar" call.  I already had Des Moines native, umpire Tim McClelland on the 8x10, and Wathan is very visible in the picture.

I also bid successfully on the Dontrelle Willis "bobbleleg" bobblehead for my MWL collection and on Beloit's B J Surhoff givaway bobble and on two bats autographed by the 2005 Dayton Dragons.

Saturday night Nancy and I along with a friend and his 8 year old son wennt up to Davenport, Iowa for the Cardinal Caravan's appearance.  A gouge at $25 bucks a ticket now given that the event was free three years ago, but what else can you expect from a team (the "Swing of the Quad Cities," that abominable name again) owned by a lawyer.  Former Cardinals Ricky Horton and Tom Lawless were there as were present Cardinals Johnny Rodriguez, Alan Benes and Larry Bigbee  I was especially happy to catch Benes there, as I got cards of all the gentlemen signed (with Nancy's help), but also got Benes on two Baseball America's (one by himself and one with brother Andy, who had already signed it, and on a picture that I had already gotten signed by both brothers Andy and Adam.  I won a pennant and a hat during the drawing, but gave them to my friend's son.

Sunday we drove down to Peoria to catch the Cardinal Caravan at the hotel near the casino.  Only $5 a ticket and we had shopping to do in Peoria anyway.  Needless to say, had we known of this before we bought tickets for the Quad City event, we never would've paid the gouge price.  Anyway, same players as the night before.  We got the rest of my Bigbee, Horton and more Benes cards signed and finished up Lawless as well.

The next weekend was the Iowa Cubs Fanfest.  For me always the big event of the winter.  I opted to pass on taking time off Friday and Nancy and I just drove up there early Saturday morning.  Our son Dylan, who lives in Des Moines now, went to Drake University where the event was held Friday evening and got my HOF plaque postcard signed by Reggie Jackson, 2 8x10s signed by negro leaguer and the eloquent spokesperson for negro league history featured on Ken Burn's baseball documentary, Buck O'Neill, and cards and 8x10s signed by Ryan Sweeney (White Sox prospect), Wes obermueller (new Atlanta Brave) and Cal Eldred.

We got there about 9:30, in time to get everything signed that I had of I-Cubs manager Mike Quade and the coaches, Von Joshua nd Alan Dunn.  We got everything I had signed by Sweeney, Obermueller and Mike Mahoney and Nate Frese, but were disappointed that Matt Macri had to cancel out at the last minute, as did Frank White and Freddie Patek, who were going to swing into Des Moines as part of the Royals caravan. Autographs that I had to purchase were Luis Aparicio, Tom Seaver and Rod Carew.  I got Seaver on his HOF plaque postcard and a 70 Topps, Carew on two different 70 Topps and Aparicio on a 70 Topps.  I also sprung for a sharp looking signed 8x10 of Ryne Sandberg that the Bob Feller museum had available from his recent signing there.  A little price, but its the same picture used on the 90 UD card.  A beautiful action shot.  I also brought my duplicate autograph box and swapped about 110 signed cards with two friends I've made during my trips up there to watch I-Cubs games.  I also got to visit with our son Dylan, who joined us for awhile.  His mother took him out for lunch while I roamed the dealers and did the card-swapping thing.

Our day wasn't over yet though.  We left Des Moines about 1pm, stopping at the Amish stores at Kalona.  My wife enjoys the bulk grocery store there.  She has as much fun there as I do swappig baseball cards.

At 5;30 we met a group of Burlington Iowa writers at the Comfort Inn in Burlington for supper.  Ted Kooser, the US poet laureate was our guest.  Our writing group had been instrumental in bringing him to Burlington to give a reading, which he did at 8pm at the Burlington Golf Club.  He drew approximately 230 people, which is impressive given the size of Burlington. He read 33 of his poems and induldged us with a Q & A session as well. He signed 4 volumes of poetry for me, his "Poetry Home Repair Guide," (a handbook on how to improve one's writing skills) and his book "Local Wonders" which obseves and reflects upon life In the Czech Hills region of Nebraska.  He also signed a double-sided 8x10 that I put together of pictures of him with his work for my scrapbook of authors.  There is a good selection of Ted Kooser's poetry avilable to read on the web if you use your "search" engine.  Give him a try.  You'll enjoy his work as much as I do.

Well, I've rambled on long enough.  Time to call it a letter.  Take care, and have fun with the hobby.  I sure try to.