PJ and I traveled to Iowa - primary motivation for the timing of this trip was the graduation of Tom and Kieran Cullen from Storm Lake High (what with PJ being Kieran's godmother).
We had a delightful time of it, per usual. Here's what happened:
Thursday, May 19 - flew into Omaha, picked up rental car, drove up to St. Joe in time for supper. This was a pretty quiet evening - caught up on everything, put together plans for a busy Friday, etc. Did go over to Dick Erpelding's for some rhubarb (which I cut up for pie) and radishes (which PJ and EMG polished off for dinner).
Friday, May 20 - Went to Mass at 7:50a, chattered with the crowd after. Cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Went to Maggie B's for lunch shortly after 11a - partly because it's tasty, partly because the place is closing permanently next week so this was the last hurrah. Then to Clarence & Caroline's - very enjoyable sitting around talking about various topics. Caroline was up and around, which we understand to be an improvement from recent months. We didn't play any 500, but Clarence served drinks (and made us a loaf of bread). They were talking about personalities of and occurrences involving various of the relatives, including my grandparents; old-days stuff about gardening, cooking, food storage, food (un)availability (no spaghetti, for example), on and on. One of the highlights of the trip.
After some deliberation we decided to drive over to Alton, Iowa for the annual Luxembourg Mass celebration over there. This was a pretty big commitment - 2+ hour drive, very unsettled weather. But ended up being a very pleasant outing. Made it through lots of rain in time for the Mass - which was held indoors rather than at the site of the original church (now a small cemetery a few miles outside of town). Our group constituted four of the nine attendees. After Mass there was a gathering at something called "Pizza Ranch" in nearby Orange City (odd name: American/Italian food on a "ranch"??) Can't say I'd select this type of restaurant very often, but it fit the bill nicely. Chatted with the attendees for a long time, primarily Fr. Paul Eisele and some Luxembourg-connected deacon named Rick Roder. Long trip back through lots of rain, then we sat and decompressed a bit before going to bed.
Saturday, May 21 - power outage in the morning, even though the weather was pretty mild. Cecilia and Therese arrived from Minnesota for lunch. Mass at 5p - we were ready for the (erroneously) predicted "Rapture" at this point. Very enjoyable sitting around and talking, I think we were ready for a lower-key day. Even sat around on the patio for awhile, which was a nice place to have a Boulevard pale ale (which we found on last year's trip to Kansas City).
Sunday, May 22 -Graduation day. Best weather of the trip, which was nice. Storm Lake High was fascinating - reflecting the meat-packing town - Hispanic, Sudanese, Asian, some white. I have a pretty bad attitude about code words like diversity, multicultural etc - typically employed in seeking government preference and primarily serving to divide - but here's a town where it's all happening in real time. No doubt there are plenty of problems in dealing with all this, but graduation day was quite wonderful (the Sudanese had the best clothes and were the most demonstrative). Dolores and Art hosted a very nice gathering at the house - great food and turnout - and it was interesting to hear Tom and Kieran's college plans. Steve came over from Mason City so we had a pretty good representation. Nice drive back to St. Joe on a beautiful evening while we recapped the day.
Monday, May 23 - travel day. Cecilia and Therese were off to the Twin Cities early (in Therese's case, after she and Grandma raided the Erpelding rhubarb patch). PJ and I sat around chatting with Grandpa and Grandma, including entertaining ourselves by watching a robin feed its baby perched on the patio rail. Patricia received a tour of Grandpa's self-built exercise facility (in the basement), including the latest addition (which relies on a 35 year old cut up truck tire inner tube). It frightens me a bit to admit that he appears to benefit from using this (probably dangerous) equipment.
Then off to Omaha and a smooth trip back to Arizona.
We'll look forward to our next midwest tour.
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