An evening with the Occupants . . .

On Friday evening, October 7^th, Sophia and I drove to Du Quoin to visit The Occupants of the Empty House.  We received a true Sherlockian welcome from the Occupants.  The evening started with excellent Sherlockian conversation before and during dinner.   Our evening started in the courtyard at Alongi’s, which serves a fine dinner.  The first mystery of the evening was what to choose from the menu.  Our fellow Sherlockians provided so many recommendations it was difficult to choose one dish.

The evening’s story was Silver Blaze.  After dinner we moved to the meeting room for a paper concerning horse doping. Can you imagine that people would actually cheat and use foreign substances to win a game or a race?  A very interesting paper with numerous examples highlighting the extremes horse owners were willing to go to in order to win. After discussing several highlights from paper the night continued with more Sherlockian discussion.

Next month will see Sophia and I heading back to Du Quoin for another meeting of the Occupants of the Empty House.  We truly felt welcome and felt the camaraderie of the group.  We want to extend a heartfelt thank you to the Occupants for making us feel so welcome and for a fantastic Sherlockian evening.

And, to add to the evening’s highlights, Bill Cochran autographed my copy of his recent book.