Kevin’s Pub Peoria would have to be downtown, in the middle of everything. You could sneak in for a pint after eating lunch on the main square. Hopefully, that will still be a busy place, even with Caterpillar moving their HQ further north.
I’ve been in Peoria twice, staying once in the middle of things for an extended stay with weekends home and once in the suburbs for three solid weeks. Peoria is a good, generic Midwest city, the former home of Caterpillar (although there are about a billion Cat buildings all around the area), and the birthplace of Richard Pryor. “If it will play in Peoria, it will play anywhere.”
When in Peoria, you can go on the riverboat. It’s a lot of fun. I was onboard the first time, and I heard the Captain mentioning their overnight cruises. This seemed strange, since I couldn’t figure out where anyone would sleep onboard. Then I found out they don’t. The riverboat goes downstream for a while, then they dock at a hotel, people sleep in the hotel. Next morning, back on the boat, back down the river. I want to do this!
Peoria is the place I was very close to the hotel staff without ever meeting them in person. I used to upgrade all the time and the flight attendants used to let me take some extra booze with me since they saw me at least once a week, depending on their schedules.
I left all the bottles on the TV in my hotel room. One night, I found a note from the maid, asking if she (I assume) could have the Courvoisier. So, I wrote a note back and said, “Help yourself.” Then, I made it a point to grab a bottle of Courvoisier from the plane every time. One time, they didn’t have any, so I got Bailey’s, and wrote an apology note.
I still hadn’t had met the maid.
One weekend, I got home to Dallas, started undressing, and I couldn’t find my wallet. Oops. So, I didn’t do very much, but it didn’t matter, since I had to go back to Peoria two days later. I got back to Peoria, and asked the desk clerk if anyone had turned in a wallet. Nobody had. At this point, I was freaking out because I needed a way to pay for things. I went to work, checked my email, had a couple of meetings, and when I got to my new room that evening, I looked at the TV, and there was my wallet. There was a note from the maid on it that said, “I thought you would need this.”