Anybody by UIUC?

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twoblink

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One of my students is moving to UIUC (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaigne) for 2 years. She's one of my favorite students, and she's deathly afraid because she'll be away from home for 2 years. I thought while she is there, I'd like her to maybe go for a shoot one of these days.... and maybe introduce her AND HER BOYFRIEND (sorry guys, as cute as she is, she's taken) to good places to eat..

If so, let me know, or PM me.
 
Been gone from there for going on 13 years, but. . .

She probably wants to look up the Champaign County Rifle Association ( http://www.gunssavelife.com/ ). Sure wish I'd known about them when I was there.

Where to shoot is going to be a problem. There was, when I was there, a police range south of town, and a group of faculty & non-academic staff that could shoot there, one Saturday a month. No students though. There was also, when I was there, a rifle range in the Armory, but was long closed and may not even still be there.

Closest otherwise might be Darnall's Range, 5 miles west of Bloomington (~50 miles up the road from C-U). When I took a class there last April I talked with a guy from Champaign who went there regularly to shoot.

Last time I was through there, things had changed quite a bit, and it seemed much more _crowded_. Yuk.
 
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I said goodbye to UIUC 5.5 years ago, memory is beginning to fade tho ...

I didn't know about the CCRA either while I was there (kicks self). The armory range was GONE by the time I arrived. I do recall visiting an archery range on campus a couple of times.

I'll try to locate a couple of ranges in the area and pm/e-mail them to you over the weekend.
 
She should transfer to UCI. I'll teach her to shoot and take her places to eat.

Champaign's redeeming factor is Alison Krauss was from there. Other than, Irvine has it goin' on :D
 
Champaign's redeeming factor is Alison Krauss was from there. Other than, Irvine has it goin' on
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I don't think Champaign has any redeeming factors.
 
either of you got any buddies out there??
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I only know a couple people there still, neither gun folk, AFAIK.

DOS -> Windoze -> Solaris -> Slackware -> OpenBSD -> FreeBSD -> Redhat -> Gentoo.
Totalitarian -> Communist - Socialist ->Democrat -> Republican -> Libertarian.
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DOS -> DOS+Deskview --> OS/2 --> Redhat --> Debian
Ignorant --> Libertarian --> deep end
 
I am (it depends, but you knew I'd say that). two, I'm 60 minutes away, east on I-74. Can they help with my Cantonese?

Pass through Shampoo-Bannana every two months on way to Peoria as well. My club always stops at the Lone Star (yeehaw!) on Prospect Avenue just off I-74. I can't convince them to simply try sushi ONCE. Mmm, sparring for eel.:D
 
I'm a couple of hours away. The CCRA is a good suggestion. Those are good guys. I'd have her contact Paul Vallandigham simply because he's the name I remember and seems like a good all-around guy. He's also a lawyer who offers to defend self-defense cases.
 
Forgot about this thread

I grew up in Champaign, and went to school there later on, but do not visit frequently. Of the places I know to eat at - that are still open - The Courier Cafe in Urbana is a casual place with good food. They have very good milkshakes. Expect to wait in line a bit.

Up the street from the Courier is Silvercreek, owned by the same people. Silvercreek is still "casual" but is more of a dinner restaurant.

http://www.couriersilvercreek.com

I was in the same HS graduating class as Krauss. The only time I remember seeing her was when she had a unique of a giving a friend of mine the finger one day in the school cafeteria.
 
Timpone's should be the best restaurant in town, but they always go out of their way to make you feel as though they're doing you a favor by letting you eat there, hence I rarely did (not to mention the cost). Silvercreek was good too, many moons ago when I went to school there. I used to live about a couple blocks from the Lone Star El Tejon describes..
 
I never ate at Timpones. The closest I got was going to the movie theater next door. I never heard of Lone Star either. I assume it is one of the chain restaurants nea the mall?

Another good place I remember is in downtown Champaign, the Great Impasta. Nice place, good prices. That assuming management has not changed hands or anything else has happened in the interim since I last ate there.
 
twoblink,
Champaign is a little more then an hour up I57 from me. Your friend and her boyfriend are welcome to come down and shoot with me. I have a former commander who lives in Champaign. He's a shooter, still wringing out his CMP M1. Let me dig through my class rosters...I took a patrol rifle course with a couple of campus cops from there a while back.

Jeff
 
I never heard of Lone Star either. I assume it is one of the chain restaurants nea the mall?
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Actually it's on Prospect, between Meijer and I-74, adjacent to Sam's and across from the Lowe's. It is a chain restaurant and I've only eaten there once and had chicken, which was okay, since I don't like any chain steakhouse other than Ruth's Chris.
 
I don't remember if I ate at Papa Del's or not, but it must not have been memorable. I always liked a local central IL chain, Monical's, better with their really thin crust pizzas. There used to be a bar/pool hall called DeLuxe that had some very good fish sandwiches, even to a person who doesn't really like fish, as another place to try.

The whole state of IL has bad gun laws, but nothing like chi-town's. I know Urbana is the left-wing center of Champaign Co., with, it would seem, most of the professors living there, so who knows what foolishness they enacted there. I wasn't into guns when I attended U of I, so they may have had some strange stuff on the books for quite a while.
 
How's Papa Del's? I hear it's great pizza..
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It was at least in the early '90s. I was through town last August, and their original resturant in Campustown was gone.

C-U didn't, AFAIK, have any obnoxious gun laws of their own.
 
UIUC is my Alma Mater.

It's been a while since I was there, but as a college student the treat was Monical's pizza or Garcia's (If it's still there). Get the gutbuster for sure. I lived right across from the armory in a Fraternity house for a while (among numerous other places). Great college campus, I'm sure you're friend is going to love it.


I do remember some anti laws on the campus, perhaps they only pertained to student housing. I was miffed, even though I didn't have a firearm at the time. As for Chicago, Heir Daley has made it so that only criminals are allowed to have handguns.

Remember, life is too short for bad beer.
 
This is all from the late 80's so YMMV:

Alexander's Steakhouse was great.

DeLuxe had good fish sandwiches but always smelled nasty because of it.

Papa Dell's had the best deep dish pizza in town, the original restaurant is gone, they had a new one last time I was back.
 
'nuther alum here.

1. Papa Del's recommendation is a good one.

2. Illini Inn Mug Club memberships are lifetime.

3. If she's interested in martial arts, the Illini Kuk Sool Won club is run by fantastic teachers who happen to be good people.

4. She should, of course, join the trap and skeet club (they have nice 391s she can use):

http://www.trapandskeet.org/
 
Regarding Lone Star: Anything north of the Interstate is marketplace mall to me.

I'm pretty sure Alexander's has been out of business for a while. I don't think I ever ate there. My only knowledge of the place is that they had a gas explosion in the eighties.

Monical's thin crust is good. Garcia's is good. I used to go over there sometimes for lunch during HS.

DeLuxe went out of business a few years ago and the building is now another bar. Our neighbors owned the place and it started going downhill after the dad died in '82 or so. They used to be absolutely packed on Fridays and Saturdays when they had the fish sandwiches.

I would have visited the Illini Inn more often - I lived across the street for a year - but all they had was beer. That's it, just beer.

Murphy's Pub was also a really good place as well. They had good burgers and a nice atmosphere. They expanded into another bar a few years ago and it looked more like a chain or corporate bar, but the food was still good.

As far as bars go, the Esquire in downtown Champaign is a great place. it's not a campus bar so there is a good mix of people. The martinis are good and they have a menu as well. A decent mix of beers on tap as well. There are a few other places near there downtown that started up or changed names after I left.
 
Jeff,

One of these days when I'm visiting the future in-laws in Weft Frankfort, I'm going to have to drive up to Alma and meet you for a beer or two.

Come to think of it, you might even know my future FIL. He's a personal injury attorney in West Frankfort, a member of WFPD (his best friend is the chief), a police firearms instructor there in S. Illinois, and a member of ITOA. He's a very adamant supporter of cops, and does quite a bit for the cops in the area. For PERSEC reasons, I'll omit his name here. (Of course, anyone who is familiar with the area would most likely be able to put 1 and 1 together.)

Frank
 
Frank, just let me know when you're coming this way. I think I have an idea who your future FIL might be ;).

Jeff
 
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