2013 Iowa Tour

Essay – May 2013 Iowa, Wild and Wooly

Not to be confused with fast and furious but maybe....so after some delays and whatnot, Bridge and I convened at the Des Moines airport (which despite Hansi's careful coaching is NOT pronounced "dew muah"...nice try Hansi).  We head over to Perry and we manage to get a wee bit lost and stop at a lovely car parts place where the gents are more than willing to help us get to our hotel.  B and I made a note...just in case.  Anyway, the hotel in Perry called the Hotel Pattee was a beautifully appointed hotel with mission style furniture but remarkably clueless staff.  We found the bar (and can you expect anything less?) and had a great time with the three people in it including the wait staff from El Salvador.  Ended up having a nice meal and going to bed shamefully early. 

Next day, lovely b' fast which cost all of three bucks and we went walking around Perry to find St. Patrick's church (home of the St. Patrick's Church cookbook which I have), and just sort of noodled around town which was spookily uninhabited.  Friday a.m. and absolutely no one on the street.  In fact most of the place was boarded up.

I  went to the library, got some material for what I plan to be a donation on behalf of Mama to the library and the above pix describe pretty much what was going on.  Went to Violet Hill cemetery and despite having the site map from the internet, had quite a bit of trouble finding Grace until we threw caution to the wind and just prowled the graveyard until we found the catholic section, then the "old" section and then looked for O’Malley.  And you may know that there are a boatload of them.

So after a nice visit we headed over to Cedar Rapids, found Barry, Janet, and Kim at home and had a lovely catch up including a dutiful recitation of all of our illnesses. And telling fanciful stories about all of you…

Had a lovely dinner with Barry and Janet (the cod was on special….) and then Bridge and I went looking for a corkscrew (you may not be surprised that there was no such thing at the house). Manchester is not lousy with corkscrew places. But we did find one and spent the evening quietly getting sozzled.

Next day, up at at’em. First stop, a visit to Mama and Papa who were looking quite pulled together, courtesy of Barry and Kim who had thoughtfully put a planter next to their graves.  Flowers in bloom!

 Next a trip to Manchester to find an old flame of Bridget’s (no names, please). This pix tells the story

Then on to Ryan, where we took the obligatory picture next to Ryan’s claim to fame, the World’s Largest Umpire. Again, a day of spooky quiet, with very empty streets and the occasional sound of a lawnmower.

.. A favorite moment is my taking a pix of Bridge outside a local bar (there were two on Main Street, along with the post office and bank) which advertised itself as the best pub in Ryan. It was closed, however, at 11 a.m. but the one across the street wasn’t and the helpful proprietor threw open his door and asked if we girls were thirsty. I like that open Iowa manner.

We decline, uncharacteristically. After a tour around town, we headed back to Rancho Relaxo where Barry and Janet were already setting up for the party. Lots of pop in the fridge. In fact, nothing but pop in the fridge. (Recall now the old saw from Papa about “We don’t know where Ma is, but we’ve got Pop on ice.)

The gang arrived and if memory serves we had Kim and her daughter Melissa and grandson Colin and granddaughter Jayden. We had Barry Jr., his wife Toni, and their daughter Alexis. We had Shelly and her husband Jeff and their son Cole. And there are a lot more grandkids and great grandkids but we took notes and can, if pressed, come up with a credible accounting.

A quick trip to Manchester ensued to find the library and print out our boarding passes. Right behind the library is Papa’s old house on Howard Street. Who knew?  Barry owns it and has been renting it out for years.

Back at the ranch, boarding passes in hand, Barry and Janet took us to the Sand Creek Cemetery to find our great grandfather, John, and his various wives and relatives. I remember that cemetery and I can only guess I went there when Mama died for some reason. But of the three of them, I have to say that this one was the loveliest.

Had the rest of the wine that night, ate some leftovers and watched Ron White from the Blue Collar Comedy Tour (and damn is he funny). Well, we was in the country, so why not?

Off to the airport the next morning with one slight hitch. We followed the directions to the letter, but blew by the Eastern Iowa Airport because, of course, it didn’t say Cedar Rapids Airport. How the hell would we know that? So by the time we were seeing signs for Des Moines, we thought, uhhh maybe that WAS the Cedar Rapids Airport. Which of course it was and we dashed through the place to our gate and realized that the dash was not all that necessary as there really wasn’t much going on in the airport on Sunday morning. Got on our planes and got home.

And that, as they say is that.