Only in McLeansboro

There are many things that happen in life, and there are some that only happen in McLeansboro, IL. I went there to visit my Mom and had a fun, but interesting weekend. Mom and I went to a yummy dinner at Billy Bob & Nina's (seriously, there is a restaurant called this) that has AMAZING catfish dinners on Friday nights. Afterwards, mom and I came home and then walked up to the town square to splurge on Blizzards at Dairy Queen for dessert. Interesting fact: my mom worked there the first year it opened in 1964. Anyway, it was so cool that we had to put sweatshirts on for our walk! My visit also was during the annual Fall Festival for the town of 3,000 people and they were ALL there for the event. After we got our blizzards, we stumbled upon one of those "Only in McLeansboro" moments - the Little Miss McLeansboro pageant taking place in front of the only Chinese restaurant in town, Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant. What a site! I had to show the picture of this to prove it.

Saturday, we met up with Uncle Whit and Aunt Cathy at a craft show in Mt. Vernon. We went to King Barbacoa BBQ for lunch, which was really good if you ever go to that part of the country. We came back to McLeansboro and walked up to the square again so Whit and Cathy could check out the Fall Festival. We ended up eating a light dinner there and they left, but mom and I stayed for the 6pm parade. Once again, there were MANY "Only in McLeansboro" moments - a donkey dressed as a card dealer on a float, one of the real "Barney Fife" cars, and all the politicians from the entire county out doing their campaigning. Too bad I didn't have my camera with me for all of this!

Sunday, Mom and I were able to make me a new kitchen window valence and a new UT wreath for my house (here's a picture to show it off). We also went to the Vanity Fair Outlet in West Frankfort, IL and then drove to Carbondale to eat at the famous 17th Street BBQ restaurant (voted best ribs). Overall, we had a crafty, BBQ-filled, interesting but fun weekend in McLeansboro, IL!