Iowa trip (2 of 2)

Now we're up to Saturday of our IA trip (July 7).

Had our usual wonderful breakfast. Got on the phone with Kerry, who was celebrating b'day #24 (as you can see from this post). Later in the morning, key representatives of the Cullen family arrived from Storm Lake (Dolores, Clare, Tom, Kieran). Pork patties for lunch, actually really good.

Then Patricia, Paul Jr. and I drove up to Algona for the Garrigan alumni baseball game, which started at 1p. Eventually, pretty much everyone else showed up (except Grandma). Which was very nice, considering there was no shade the day was really quite hot. So I had a very good fan base, and I considered putting on a show. But it didn't entirely turn out that way.

There was a basic problem with the alumni game: pretty much no alums showed up. There weren't enough of us old guys, so we had to play with the young alums. That wasn't good. I played left field, after a fashion. I observe that the ball moves far, far more quickly than I remembered from my last baseball outing some 33 years ago.

I had a couple adventures during the game but mostly got away with some blunders. For example, I was on third base yakking with the third baseman and paying no attention to the number of outs. So I failed to tag on a flyball, which is considered a pretty bad mistake. But the next batter drove me in, so it turned out ok. The last play of the game was unnecessarily exciting. A single to left bounced slightly up and to my right; of course I'm too slow to react in time. So I chased it down about 10-15 feet and made an acceptable relay to the shortstop (Bob Haag, a classmate of MHG) -- who in turn made an amazing relay to cut down the winning run at home and end the game in a 12-12 tie. Bad, but could have been worse.

I did drill one hit into left center which ended up as a double. That was nice. One other scratchy hit in a total of four trips. So the alumni turnout was disappointing, the crowd support was awesome (except when Patricia called me and the CF "dumb and dumber" in honor of our side-by-side outfield misadventures), my play was about what I would have expected, and it was a good experience.

Picked up groceries and back to the house. Eventually we got to hear the Cullens perform some tunes. Even a bit of audience sing along (per this short video).

Then we switched to other fun things, such as card playing. We worked on teaching euchre to Clare; her brothers already are card sharks. We had a nice dinner together, followed by more cards and general fun. This was a nice visit.

On Sunday morning, we all went to 7:30 mass. It's always nice to be back in St. Joe Church, it really looks good these days. It was our good fortune to be in town for what the parish refers to as "coffee and rolls" -- but this is not accurate, for $2 you get a more than complete breakfast.
We enjoyed, plus had a chance to talk to various folks, including Clarence & Caroline. Turns out that Karl and Susie were visiting from Sibley and we enjoyed catching up with them also.

Back at the house, we watched a bit of Wimbledon; there was a last card game (you can guess who won looking at the photo); Grandma put together a fine bunch of cookies. Then we hit the road for the Twin Cities; smooth trip; met Therese, Cecilia and Steve at Therese's place. We all had dinner together at Axel's. That place does a number of nice things, but the lowly chicken sandwich is among its best. Made our way to the airport, returned our Crown Vic - then got into the air after about a 3-hour delay. I slept most of the way.

We all pretty much felt this was one of, if not the, most fun trips out to Iowa. of course it seems we say that after most of these trips. I will note that we definitely had fun covering lots of ground, seeing lots of folks, doing lots of interesting things. And we may not have had quite as much time as we would have liked just sitting around the house in St Joe, but we didn't feel particularly squeezed for time either - everything had a nice rhythm. And it's fun starting and ending with the Mpls/WI contingent. One heck of a nice way to vacation.

Home at midnight, and back at it since . . .

Iowa Trip (1 of 2)

After all the travel and 4th of July fun, we all slept in late on Thursday (July 5). Except Grandma and Grandpa, who went to 7:30a mass. After we finally stirred, we had v. good breakfast - featuring typically awesome cinnamon rolls and banana bread.

Turns out that Theresa McKibben (Sonny's sister) was selling some of her collected items (she being a beyond-avid collector). Grandma was inspired to organize a trip to Livermore because the items included a statute of the BVM that originally had been donated to St. Joseph parish in memory of Irvin Bormann. After some wrong turns in urban Livermore, our party of seven found the McKibben residence.

The amount of stuff that TM has collected is truly interesting. She has lots of stuff, and lots of categories of stuff. We looked over the stuff in the garage (her less-favorite stuff, which is being put up for sale), and then looked over the stuff in the house. Small tractors, ty animals, cookie jars galore, Roseville pottery, "evening in Paris" cologne (which smelled particularly alluring on Chris) - simply, absolutely amazing. It was fun looking it over and talking with M/M McKibben. Grandpa settled up on the statue and some "Gales" chocolate boxes, then back to the house for dinner (or lunch, if you will).

Grandpa and I next went on a road trip to see some interesting sights: (1) putting up a cattle building at Matt Bormann's place (Altman farm); and (2) some guy operating a bale-eater at Mark Bormann's farm. Drove around the area a bit; I hadn't seen the Geishecker farm in many years, pretty strange to see it basically flattened. A beautiful property.

While we were away, the rest played cards, Chinese checkers (Grandma's continuing specialty), etc. They claimed they had fun. The boys started learning 500.

Time for early supper (dinner, if you will). Drove over to Clarence & Caroline's place at 7p. This ended up being extremely fun, and featured a card-playing marathon. First we all chit-chatted for awhile. And Clarence served beverages, including the traditional 7&7s. I think the pleasures of that beverage somewhat escaped my sons, but they gave it a try.

In round one of the card playing, Patricia and Caroline beat up on Clarence and me in 500, while Grandpa and Paul Jr. pounded on Chris and Patrick in euchre. Pretty resounding poundings all around, so we switched games. Caroline and Patricia proceeded to pound on Chris and Patrick in 500. Clarence and I actually went ahead two games to one against the two Juniors in euchre, then just started getting beat up - pummeled 30-8 over the last three games.

But this was all too much fun. Caroline and Patricia seemed to have an amazing run of good play or affinity or whatever. Chris and Patrick had no luck whatever. Grandpa called Paul Jr. "Chris" a few times, so Paul Jr. called him "Romie." Etc. The time flew by; we had a delicious dessert about 12:30a, finished the last game, hit the road around 1a. The card playing must have gone on for about five hours. My sons were impressed that their grandpa could theorize pretty much nonstop throughout. A fun visit, as always.

On Friday (July 6) we got off to a very slow start. These 80-somethings are wearing us out. So we didn't accomplish much other than eating breakfast and dinner and chatting, looking at Grandpa's pictures, checking out Google Earth sites, etc. Grandma made a rhubarb pie.

Early afternoon we went off on another tour. Drove to Wesley - visited Marguerite Laubenthal and Gary at the farm there. Grandpa threw up an impressive dust screen as he dusted us driving along the gravel road. Gary had a bunch of stuff to show us - he had a neat-o utility vehicle; took a walk down to check out the 22-year-old gelding; tried to get Jodie to be our friend; new-ish pickup; etc. Then we went inside and talked, all very pleasant indeed. We hadn't gotten out there for a few years and it's nice to see the house and farm again. I had forgotten that the kitchen cupboards were a Howard Barton job pretty much identical in style to the house in which I grew up. Enjoyed cookies & lemonade, then hit the road to Mason City.

This turned out to be v. fun. Steve, Liz and entire family were there; also Liz's sister and family up from Kansas City, we enjoyed getting to know them. Sat on the patio quite awhile, it was a gorgeous day. Excellent supper, we liked the grilled stuff, all the sides, strawberry pie (clearly a lot of work). Some picnic bugs visited, which was a novelty for the desert types. Watched Twins game a bit. There was a HORSE game. Very pleasant just chatting and catching up. Drove back to St. Joe and arrived around 11:40p. Grandpa and Grandma had gone a bit earlier.

4th of July

We had a v. good 4th of July. Patricia, Chris, Patrick, Paul Jr. and I took a road trip - flew to Minneapolis on July 3; landed around 6p after a short delay. But the flight was easy. Patricia did some work on her Grand Canyon photos; I slept a bunch; Patrick had some trouble finding a new friend to yak with.

Picked up our car and headed up to New Brighton. The House family proved to be excellent hosts per usual. Last visit, we enjoyed their new deck; now we looked out from the deck over the new landscaping project. Fantastic weather, at least for our purposes - dry so no (or at least few) mosquitoes; warm; very fun to sit out there and eat and drink. Margaret took the boys out for some local fun later in the evening.

Next morning was a bit of a delightful repeat - drank coffee on the deck. Then switched to lunch on the deck - 4th of July type picnic. Paul & Lois stopped by; also Dan, Barb, Emily & Allison Haag; Nick Gales; Therese Gales; so this was a legitimate 4th party. Dan's dad had put together some kind of PVC pipe outfit along with golf balls on a string; this entertained us mightily. Except Patrick had some difficulty with launching these things onto the cable lines. Emily Haag knows how to hit a wiffle ball.

That sounds like fun, but our day was just getting going. The five of us hit the road for Iowa and the Capesius seed corn shed for their annual 4th of July party. Saw too many folks to try to name here; good food and drink (the pork patties were great, typical baked goods etc.) Also watched the Algona fireworks from there. It's a nice event, especially as it gives us a chance to catch up with a lot of people in one place. Caught up on info regarding the new Gales Law Office in Algona; Spud was entertaining; Capesius folks are great hosts; etc., etc.

Then down to my parents' house in St. Joe. More fun to come. Happy 4th.

Lucky Day

Lots of talk about 07 07 07 being a lucky day. In our house we have proof - it's Kerry's b'day! Top photo shows mother & daughter shortly after arrival (07 07 83). Daughter appears quite interested in whatever mother is saying.

Photo 2 shows Kerry with birthday cake (3d birthday, as the cake decoration scheme communicates so clearly). You can do the math on her current age.

KHG = excellent daughter.