Iowa trip (December 11-15, 2014)

I like this view up the lane at the farmsite where we grew up.  Various grasses - now undisturbed by the
former parade of vehicles - nearly blanket the formerly 100% gravel surface.  Fog was rolling in, pretty much
obscuring the grove across the road on the old Merkle place.  (Taken Saturday, December 13)

Enjoyed a really-fine trip to Iowa (via MSP). Very fortunate that my parents remain in such great shape as they push along in their mid-80s.  Something unusual about this trip:  PJ unable to accompany me due to work schedule - so my first time visiting Iowa on my own since 2000.

It was a fine time for lunch at Day Block Brewing!  (Yes, you can tell who still has to go back to work.)

December weather was great - mid-20s with some flurries upon arrival at the airport, but steadily rising into the low 50s by the end of my visit.  (Though I didn't see the sun at any point on the trip (let alone any patches of sky).)

Mom and Dad standing in the passageway between parlor and dining room.  

This time, they are standing in the parlor.  The old green wallpaper is working its way
to the surface, slowly and steadily.

Thursday:  Therese and Cecilia & Steve were able to meet me for lunch - so that was very fun.  Went to Day Block Brewing - pulled pork and their own brews - would happily return.  That went all too quickly and I hit the road for Iowa.  Swung by Steve/Liz house in Mason City - they were dealing with repair folks but Liz was kind enough to take over supervision of that process and Steve and I went out for a couple stops:  (1) a bar place where a group of his buddies meet to sip and do football predictions etc.; (2) dinner at Quarry restaurant.  Yup, they know some very nice folks in Mason City - much enjoyed the opportunity to spend some time.  Then drove on to St. Joe.  We milled around a while; had a nice chat with Carol & Jim up in Nome; finally went to bed around 1a.

Howard Barton's kitchen cabinets actually still look pretty good.

Friday:  Visited Caroline in Algona in mid-morning.  She seems to be doing really great, was fun to visit.  Timing overlapped with arrival of Brian, Corrine and Marita - so nice to catch up with them a bit.  Then what was intended to be a short visit at the Capesius seed corn shed . . . but we lingered for three-four hours as various folks kept wandering in and the conversations continued.  Sitting around and talking with these folks is hard to beat, and Bill-Bob-Chris are great hosts.  But we did get a little hungry so were ready for a snack upon return to St. Joe not much before 5p.  Chatted, sat around, worked a bit on Grandma's Christmas letter, late supper, nice day.

I always liked this light fixture in the parlor.

Saturday:  Finalized edits and formatting of Christmas letter in the morning - there wasn't that much to do, but it was nice to wrap up.  In the afternoon we went over to the farm house and checked things out.  Wow:  that place is really starting to fall apart in various areas.  Might not be that long before it fails to be entirely safe.  But we enjoyed going from room to room and discussing whatever came to mind.  While inside, fog started building outside.  So felt just a little weird when we first stepped outside:  time machine effect inside the house, change of weather to foggy-mystery outside.  Back to St. Joe for a pretty quiet evening.  Nice to have supper with my Mom & Dad (three times).

Reviewing the loot from the prior weekend's "Cookie Bake" hosted per usual by the Haag family
in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.  Yes, I took home samples to Arizona.

Watching a Lawrence Welk rerun with my Mom - took the picture because the performers here happen
to include "Ralna" - who later lived across the street from us in AZ.

Sunday:  10a Mass in St. Joe - very large crowd, nice.  Talked to some folks after but then headed over to Livermore for the Legion breakfast.  Sat with Alvin Bormann but talked to others including John Gales.  We were in a bit of a hurry because we were planning to head over to Storm Lake and wanted to be back before nightfall given foggy forecast.  Had a very nice visit over there - just had a chance to say hi for a few minutes with Joe before he went to work; chatted with Dolores, Art, Clare; much enjoyed.  Intense fog along the lake, otherwise weather was a non-issue.  Back in St. Joe we went through maybe 200 audio cassette tapes that have accumulated going back to 1971.  We tested a few - generally seemed to remain in very good shape.  And it was quite interesting to hear voices such as Rev. Leo C. Schumacher, John Kohlhaas, among others. We organized all tapes by category; a useful start but much additional checking remains.  This - and dinner - pretty much took up our fine evening together.

EMG theorizes at Sunday pancake breakfast, American Legion hall in Livermore.

Dad and Mom are listening to one of the old audio cassettes we had pulled out of deep storage.  
  For the two of them - who have spent 80+ years building nothing but the finest
memories - it must be quite a pleasure to revisit them every now and again.

Monday:  Mass in St. Joe; drove 'round the cemetery; breakfast; miscellaneous wrap-up; packed some Christmas cookies in my luggage along with a ham sandwich and cinnamon roll for the road; said goodbyes, and that was it for a really fine visit.  Consistently busy with interesting things - but not too busy, the pace was really quite excellent.

Easy trip back to AZ, where PJ got to hear all about it over a late supper.

Yup, I'm lucky.

A few more photos:

Dad and Mom in the southeast bedroom, upstairs.  I recall when this was their bedroom - before
mounting numbers resulted in turning it into the "girls' room".

The three of us, in the "boys room" - southwest bedroom, upstairs.
The green paint job certainly held up well (though ceiling-fail is underway).

I was standing in the "yellow room" (aka "box room") when
I noticed Mom checking through the boys room closet.

Fog rolling in as we prepare to head back to St. Joe.

This gentleman no longer mixes his beer with orange juice.  Now it's prune juice.  (While I don't
foresee adopting the habit, I'll admit that it tasted surprisingly good.)

Milling around at back of church after Monday morning Mass.