Friday, July 11, 2008

Pray for me, I drive Route 3…


So say bumper stickers in Iowa, where the road ain’t nothing but straight! We traversed the heartland on this two-lane secondary highway, stopping to gas up in small towns with fun monikers like New Vienna “The Envy of Iowa;” Dumont “Small Town, Big Heart;” or, our personal favorite, Readlyn “756 Good People and 1 Old Grump.” Readlyn actually hosts an annual Grump Day, which we’re sorry to miss because after a long day of driving surely any one of us could find something grumpy to contribute.

Nearly a month on the road, Dave is sporting a solid tan on his left arm and we are finding a road-trip-rhythm that blends IPOD-induced-solo-space with reading, writing, driving, and playing. The kids are adapting to being strangers in town (swimming in the local pool in Pocahontas, Iowa, a young boy asked Kim “What are you doing here?”) Will can spot a baseball court from miles away (imagine I didn’t think there was room for a basketball in the van: what a mistake that would have been.) A favorite sight has been the huge wind turbines, giants generating power in the corn fields.

Midway across Iowa, a washed out bridge over the Shell Rock River diverted us to the low-lying town of Clarksville. The sky opened-up pelting Philomena with heavy rain while she waited for a long, slow-moving freight train to pass through town. Sandbags and signs for flood relief were still present in this rural community hard hit by recent severe flooding. Once the train moved on so did we, chased a double rainbow to higher ground. We camped in a lovely community park in Alison, Iowa surrounded by silos, soybeans, and corn. Other campers in the park were helping to rebuild the town of Parkersburg, 15 miles south, nearly destroyed on Memorial Day by an F-5 tornado.

Close to the border of the South Dakota, we are spending a few days at the family farm of our good friend Margaret Ottinger from Shelburne, who is here with her daughter Lila visiting family. Kim and Lila are having a wonderful time climbing trees, swinging on the tire swing, and rekindling their friendship. Tomorrow we head for the hills, the Black Hills that is…

1 comment:

mwittke said...

Hey, guys...I thought you weren't updating, but it was me being blog-inept. I am SOOOO happy to have caught up. Your trip sound spectacular so far. I am very interested in how people are helping in the flood-ravaged and storm-torn mid-west. You're in the heart of it (or were) and good give us outsiders some insight. Love, Mary