On the road again!!!

We went to Gary’s 50th class reunion and saw some friends he hadn’t seen for 50 years; some other people we had seen during previous reunions. Everybody was surprised to see how little he had changed. We had a good time, had a buffet dinner, listened to 50s music, heard an Elvis impersonator, saw Jerry Springer (one of Gary’s classmates, not the one you see on t.v.) who said he often has a hard time making reservations when he says who he is. Danced on Rock Around the Clock and Francoise didn’t break her foot this time (she had broken her foot dancing to that song in the 80s and Gary had vowed she would never dance to that again as he didn’t want her to break her foot again). Got reconnected with some of his old classmates and promised to keep in touch this time which is a lot easier with cell phones and internet. Next destination was Nashville, TN where we saw our friends Rick and Gloria who showed us around town. It was fun to see the Country Music Hall of Fame, saw Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge where wannabees get discovered, the Ryman Auditorium which started out as a church but now is the Grand Ole Opry, the Opryland Hotel and the Parthenon which was an exact replica of the one in Greece. We didn’t get to see everything we wanted so we need to return there some day. On the way to Nashville we stopped at a campsite in Southern Illinois. This is where we saw trees with ugly, green apple like fruits. Some of them were laying on the ground. When I picked one up I found out how sticky they were. Some of them had been crushed by cars and the insides looked not very appealing. We asked some people who live in the area what they were called and if you could eat them. They are called hedgeapples and you can’t eat them. The only thing they are good for is for building fences with the wood of the actual tree as the wood is really hard and therefore good for fences. If they have any other purpose and you know about it let me know. Tomorrow (the 11th) we start home for the final leg of our journey.       

This has been a busy but exciting week. On Sunday we went to the rock quarry outside Raymond, IA where we saw a small geology show put on on by the University of Northern Iowa. Also saw a display on water conservation. On Monday we went to the Northeast John Deere Assembly plant in Waterloo, IA. Had about a 1.5 hour tour of the plant where we found out that John Deere doesn’t have any inventory and only build the tractors after the order is places. Waiting time is anywhere from 6 months to 1.5 years, depending on the tractor. While on the tour we met a young couple from Europe. He was from the Netherlands and works for a John Deere distributor in Flevoland. He told me that a typical farm in the Netherlands is about 150 acres. His girlfriend was from the Czech republic where he met her. After that we met our friends at the Isle casino where we had a very good lunch. In fact it was so good we went there again later on in the week. That time it wasn’t quite as good. Gambled a little bit but left slightly poorer than when we started. We wondered why!! During the week we drove through all kinds of neighborhoods in Waterloo and were very saddened by how Waterloo looks these days. Lots of neighborhoods that used to be beautiful are now very unkempt. We also went to the cemetery where Gary’s family is buried and located their gravestones and found some of his family he didn’t know were buried there. Gary fixed his cousin’s porch. He had to do some cement work he hadn’t done before but it turned out very nice. We also visited his other cousin in Waterloo and got caught up with each other’s lives. Hadn’t seen them for 10 years. We visited friends near Hudson, IA and found out when we drove up that they live in the very same house Gary’s second cousin built and used to own. It is a beautiful house on 12 acres of land with lots of woods and fruit trees. There is a huge rock on his property that the glaciers brought from somewhere else during the last ice age. He has a business making custom gunstocks and his shop is located in one of the buildings behind his house. His wife helps him with the business also. We drove around Cedar Falls, IA and saw our old house and the house of one of our friends. Both looked very nice. We walked around downtown Cedar Falls and located a bead store. Had to check that out, of course. Had dinner with some old friends at their home in Cedar Falls and had a great visit with them. They are coming to Sedona next May and plan to visit us in Sun City while in Arizona. On Friday we went to the social gathering for the first day of Gary’s reunion and met several classmates, some of them he hadn’t seen for decades. Tomorrow is the 50 year High School reunion.