10/07/2009

The Great Iowa Adventure

I spent 16 days en route and visiting family. Here are our 3,000 mile trip highlights:

1. – 750 miles – Houston to Springfield Missouri – Eliza boxes with the night stand at the hotel and loses the match. We leave the next day with a swollen face and black eye (see previous post).


2. – 550 miles - stopped at Mark Twain cave in Hannibal Missouri . Made it to my hometown of Strawberry Point, Iowa. My first encounter with Iowa wildlife - were greeted by a real giant moose head sitting on a neighbors car (classy).

3. NO LONGER A CLEAN INSURANCE RECORD… I had my second encounter with Iowa wildlife. On our way home from Wartburg college at 9pm on a dark country road I went coyote hunting with our van. Before I could even hit my breaks a black shadow darting out of the ditch ripping a hole in the radiator, and damaging the AC condenser, bumper, transmission tube and tie-rod.

The gash made the van overheat within a few miles so we pulled into the nearest farm. The farmer and his wife came out and offered his hose in hopes to refill the radiator and drive the last 10 miles to Strawberry. We soon found out that the gash was too large and so we called for a tow. Farmer and farmeress hung out in the driveway with us chatting for the next two hours. Like any Iowa farmer we talked about the new siding on their barn, her insurance business and how they have 20 barn cats because they started to spay and neuter them but every time one got hit on the highway she thought ‘Well there goes $60.00” so they decided it was cheaper to stop cat birth control and feed the masses. Needles to say the dozens of cats were the highlight of Erin and Eliza’s trip. The damage toll on the van was $1800.

To add insult to injury we just switched our insurance policy a few weeks before and decided to double our deductible since we have never had a claim in 5 years. However I firmly believe the world is a better place with one less coyote


4. OLD FRIENDS, STRAPPING BOYS….Visited a few friends from high school, we all had boys within three weeks of one another. Like any new mothers we spent the afternoon swamping our birth stories. one c-section, one 40 hour home birth labor and one non-labor. Welcome Lincoln, Isaac & Noah.

5. THE JEKYLL AND HYDE RACOON….My third encounter with Iowa y wildlife… Last fall my brother found an abandoned baby raccoon and nursed it back to health. As tame and cute looking this 25 pound wild animal is, its still stinks like a raccoon and my brother’s fiancée said it had to move out of Max’s house before she moved in. So naturally my parents inherited it and ironically he lives in their retired chicken coop. Erin and Eliza had a blast playing with him and then decided it would be fun to let him out in the yard. I soon found out that sweet fur ball was a ferocious animal as I chased him through the windbreak attempting to grab him with my unprotected arms. I finally caught this half-domestic animal as it attempted to knaw through my hand. I thought “Man, if I have to go to the ER how do I explain I was bit attempting to catch a wild animal”. But then I remember its rural Iowa, it’s probably something the hospital sees on a weekly basis.

Most of the days the girls just had fun playing in grandma's gardens and grandpas equipment.

6. THE LOST HUSBAND - After an afternoon of driving around NE Iowa I found my husband. He was scheduled to fly into Dubuque Iowa, a 60 minute drive from my parents. As I was in the Dubuque mall waiting for him I got a call that he didn’t make his flight when he got to o’hare. Dubuque is not much more than a concrete strip in the midst of corn fields and only has two incoming flights a day: the 4pm and 10pm. He called back and said he got a flight into Cedar Rapids at 5:30. So I jumped in the car and drove 80 miles to Cedar Rapids. We missed the dress rehearsal for the wedding but hit the rehearsal dinner at Pizza hut.


7. THE BIG DAY – my baby brother got hitched to a wonderful woman named Jodi. There is once again a Fenton woman (I’ve finally been replaced). It was your typical Midwest wedding, 300 at the ceremony and over 500 at the reception. They had a customary Midwest dinner, complete with meat, potatoes veggies and served with milk. They had beautiful weather and it was a perfect day. Erin danced the night away and even my grandma broke loose and was dancing to songs like “wild thing” and “whip it”.

8. THE BALL & CHAIN – A Fenchel/Fenton family tradition for over 30 years. It’s a 20+ pound bowling ball on a chain, paddle locked to the grooms leg. When Jodi was getting dressed for the wedding Katie and I pinned a key to the inside of her dress and told her not to lose it unless she wanted to spend the night in the locksmith shop.

9. OFF TO DES MOINES – Got to see the Great Grandparents and hang with the family.

10. FUN AT THE PARK – Erin and Eliza had fun with their Brooklyn and Jace in Ames.

11. THE STINKY CAR - Erin got car sick just outside of Des Moines so we made a pit stop for febreeze and crackers.

12. GOOD FRIENDS, GREAT PIZZA…Stayed in OK City with old friends and caught up on life.


13. THE OKLAHOMA CHURN…while driving south on I-35 we watch the sky grow black , then purple and the clouds began to billow then churn and finally we started to see rotation. Luckily we got out of dodge before we saw flying cows. On the outskirts of the front was this dust storm.

13. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! We celebrated out 6th anniversary driving the last leg of our trip from Oklahoma city to Houston. We spent the day listening to Car Talk with Click and Clack on NPR as Jared wore my rhinestone sun glasses.

14. THE HOUSTON TRAFFIC…We drove over 3,000 round trip and hit our first traffic jam coming back at the woodlands, welcome home :)

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