Life of Wry

After dinner last night, we hung it up pretty early… not much to see when it’s dark outside. Jason set up our respective roomettes and that was that. Slept through eastern Colorado and the entire state of Nevada (poor Nevada — gets no Amtrak love) and woke up in Iowa!

First view:

I’m really proud of the picture below. We are moving at our usual clip — they say Amtrak tops out at 79 mph on most of its rail lines because to go faster would require all kinds of upgrades to signals, gates, crossings, and ties, among other things. So says the googles, and that’s info from 2009, so not sure it’s still true. In any case, we are moving right along here and my iPhone is pressed up against my not-the-cleanest-window, and I’m clicking when I think I’m passing something interesting, but it goes by so fast, it’s hard to know! I like roads that trail off into the distance and try to snap at the right moment to capture that.. but you just never know. I was delighted to see that I got the road, but I also got (and never saw!) this RR Crossing sign. And the early morning light was really pretty. No touch ups.. this is as seen.

We forewent showers (well, I did), got breakfast, packed up, and were ready to de-train in Ottumwa. We got there at 9:45am. Tipped Jason (via Venmo!) and off we went to find the Enterprise Car Rental. It was just two blocks from the [very quiet] Amtrak station.

I’m pretty pleased at how easy that whole operation was.. nice midwestern folks, no other customers, got a nice Toyota .. and I started behind the wheel.

We decided to take a bit of circuitous route to Grinnel.. wanting to see Sigourney, a town both of us had visited at different times in our childhood. Turns out, Matt had gone for more than one summer to hang out with Bonnie and Al (and Kevin, Kyle and Susan). He had some memories we needed to check out. I had been there twice myself, but couldn’t remember much.

It was about an hour to get from Ottumwa to Grinnel, via Sigourney and What Cheer. You can see Grinnel up at the top-left.

We parked and then circumnavigated City Hall on foot… Sigourney (pop. 2000) is the county seat for Keokuk County. I believe Uncle Al was the mayor of Sigourney at one point. He was the town optometrist. Aunt Bonnie was a second grade teacher. They had a ton of friends there, so many of whom we got to know (like the Margets).

Matt and I bought Aunt Bonnie some apple bourbon at Brothers and a plant at another store right there on the square. We also did a bit of junking — a term I learned later from Aunt Bonnie, which means shopping in an antique store — also on the main square. We called Aunt Bonnie to give her an ETA and also get the address of the old house on E. Pleasant Valley St… which we had to check out!

Pretty much every town is identified on its water tower.

Really love this name.

It goes without saying that I lasted about five minutes behind the wheel. I was far too interested in documenting the countryside and couldn’t count on Matt to snap the right stuff (though I tried). He was sort of game, but, yeah… that was never going to work. I love to be the driver, but I love taking pictures more. I think this is What Cheer.

I do like road shots. I need a better camera for zoom ins. Iowa is very hilly.

Can’t get enough of barns and cows.

And roads.

And barns.

And the textures and colors of ag fields.

So… we arrived to Grinnel about noon and checked into a truly wonderful hotel — Hotel Grinnel — at Park and 4th in downtown. Not only did it used to be an elementary school, but it was the elementary school Aunt Bonnie attended, and her dad (Kenneth Starbuck) taught at. It was so cool! It had a “school” theme (chalkboards, hall pass for a key) and the [extremely cool] cafe was called The Periodic Table. Some shots:

Then headed over to Aunt Bonnie’s for lunch. She made minestrone soup and apple pie. Bonnie is 92 and is as spunky, self-sufficient, and engaging as a person can be! We visited for a few hours, then headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up for dinner. We picked Bonnie up and drove to the Prairie Canary on Main Street — a hip student hangout — where we met Kevin. Had a wonderful time! Returned to Bonnie’s for more pie, then called it a night.

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Saturday morning was a cold one!

We opted for an indoor Bonnie day: family stories, photo albums; a room-by-room tour of her house (and all her collections) and we watched Best of Show with Sassie (a mini-Australian shepherd). She served us breakfast AND lunch and we hung out the whole day together. Perfect day.

She gave me a full tour of everything.. I couldn’t get enough. Even her closet was charming… she wears bright colors, red is her favorite.

I took dozens and dozens of pictures of pictures! Here is a sampling:

The sisters and their mom: Great Grandma Hattie, Leone, Vera, Mary (grandma), Martha, Tootie, Ethyl, Hattie Zoe. No pics of great uncle Romeo.

And in more modern times: Leone, Vera, Mary, Martha, Tootie, Ethyl, Hattie Zoe…

These were fro the Bicentimental Trip they took in 1976 (Aunt Bonnie, Uncle Al, Mom, Dad and another couple). They had a blast.

These are a few of some of the visits the Cornishes made to California….Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm.. Northern Cal.

And a few more random:

After lots of photo albums, Kevin came by and we went for a drive/tour of Grinnel and environs.. Karla was out of town, but he showed us where she works these days.. a sort of I-80 truck stop/camp ground/picnic spot with flowers, gardens, art (see below) and chickens. Quite cool. Just a couple of pics.

And finally… we drove to Lynnville to have dinner at the Lindon House, an old mill and B&B. Great pork was had!