We’re back in Iowa—in Elkader, the small town where Tracy’s best friend and his wife live. We weren’t keen on visiting (hence the second take) because they’ve been dealing with all the decisions and stresses you’re faced with as small business owners these days (they own a brewery and tap room here). After Wisconsin though, […]
What We Do in the Heat
We’ve been doing three things in Madison, WI: hanging out at a distance with old friends, walking miles of park trails, and sitting in a stupor due to the heat. Sometimes we’ve combined #1 and #3. Peeps I so enjoyed a visit from someone Tracy went to UWM with [that’s University of Wisconsin-Madison to you […]
Eclectic Madison, WI
We’re in Madison for several reasons: a couple of friends live here (more on that in the next post), Tracy went to grad school (and drove a cab) here so knows it well, and it’s a convenient stop for us to secure a campsite for the busy July 4 weekend. Exciting, huh? It kind of […]
Wisconsin Welcome with Beer and Cheese
Potosi Brewing Co. We stayed at another Harvest Host last night and our first one that’s a brewery, the very old Potosi Brewing Company on the Wisconsin River. It was our great luck that the tap room has an outside dining area, so we sat out there and were waited on (thank you Potosi!) for […]
Tracy’s Social Hometown
We came to Iowa to hang out with Tracy’s people, and Iowa is continuing to deliver. Or, to overuse that Field of Dreams reference, if you show up with your weird new travel trailer, the friends will come! We’ve walked, driven, and biked through old neighborhoods here in Cedar Falls and its sister city, Waterloo, […]
Special Banjo Edition
For my friend Whit, here’s a compilation of recent Banjo photos, plus a few new ones. Yowl! Sing with me. B A – N J O B A – N J O B A – N J O And Banjo was her name, Oh.
Finally, a Sunrise to Ourselves
Turns out that’s what Banjo and I were missing the most here in this full campground without an easy place to walk. Don’t get me wrong: there are beautiful trails around the lake and all over Cedar Falls, but everyone else thinks they’re great, too. Dawn Walk This morning I got us out of the […]
So Far in Cedar Falls
We’re in Tracy’s hometown, and I tell you what. You know when you’re driving through someone’s old stomping grounds and at every corner they say things like, “Well that entire complex is new,” and “I think my dad had a special dinner there once,” and it goes on and on and is annoying? I actually […]
Photos from Des Moines
We leave here tomorrow, and I can’t sleep because we stayed up late playing that Firefly board game. It wasn’t until we were cleaning it up that I saw a severe storm on the radar, so we had to pack away all the outside living room stuff while being pelted by moths and beatles in […]
Old Ties and Companions
The title here is from a Mandolin Orange song with lyrics that are quite melancholy, but the music and title make me think warmly about old friends, so it works here. The first time I drove up to Iowa with Tracy, I was overwhelmed by his high-school friends: their sheer number, how many of them […]
