Settling into Iowa

Cara and I made it into Fairfield, Iowa at about 3pm today. When we arrived we met Ted, Sherri, their kids and my parents for lunch at the Hy-Vee. We then drove by the house where my Mom grew up and visited the cemetary to place flowers on the graves of my grandparents and uncle.

After visiting the cemetary, Cara and I drove to Keosauqua and went to the Lacey-Keosauqua State Park. I wanted to find the Indian mounds that are supposed to be in the park, but we drove around for about 20 minutes without finding them. The park is nice though, even without Indian mounds.

We then unloaded our luggage into the cabin that we're staying at for next few nights. The cabin is about a 100 yards from the Des Moines River. Keosauqua is having a (relatively) big 4th of July celebration during the day with a fireworks show over the river at night.

For dinner we went to a place called AJ's Bar & Grill in Mt. Sterling, Iowa (population 46). Most of us had pork tenderloins that extended beyond the bun by several inches. We ate outside and listened to the crickets chirping and watched the lightning bugs fly around. You cannot get anymore "Iowa" than that... Crickets, lightning bugs, and tenderloins. It was a fun evening.

I'm not exactly looking forward to the 4th of July weather if it's anything like the weathermen have been predicting. The predictions call for mid-90s temperatures and thunderstorms--not a good combination!