Is There Life as "Just the Two of Us"?

With the nest soon to be empty, Mike and I decided to see if we could really spend a few days of vacation -- just the two of us. This is quite a challenge. We were just short of our second anniversary when we had Gabby and from that point on, as many of you parents know, life is never the same. Now with Gabby out on her own and Micah spending pretty much all of his time at college and Reed looking into moving out and living on his own, we are faced with our time being spent together...just the two of us...Mike and Kristi...all by ourselves. GULP! I honestly can't remember what life was like before kids but I do seem to recall spending a good portion of the time with them and remember always being tired, life just kept spinning, and it seemed like they were always hungry. That said, I figured it would be a good idea to set out on vacation with nobody but each other.

We headed off with no time schedule and just general ideas of where we were going and a few ideas of things to see and people to visit. The first day we headed off later in the a.m. and made it to -- hold onto your hats -- Des Moines. While there we bought a new camera, checked into a hotel, I introduced Mike to the restaurant, Bonefish and then we went back to the hotel and did pretty much what everyone does in hotels --- SLEPT! (I wouldn't discuss THAT with you guys!) The next morning we finally rolled out of bed, got showered and dressed and decided to get brunch at the Iowa Machine Shed. After that meal, we decided we wouldn't need anything to eat until supper! Good food! So we headed off down I-80 and Mike stopped at one of his picks for a stop -- the Iowa Motor Speedway.

Our next night's destination was Le Claire, IA. It's a quaint little town along te river and we arrived there the day before the big Tug Fest, the tug of war across the Mississippi between Iowa and Illinois residents. We went to the Mississippi River Brewing for a tour. Since they give them on the hour, we had about a half hour to blow so we walked in a few shops and browsed before heading back for the short tour and a little taste test. Of course a purchase had to be made there. After that we got a room with a river view and went to Bierstuben to "get a little German" in us. After filling ourselves with sausage and reubens we walked back to our hotel and vowed not to eat that much that late again -- at least not on this trip! The next day we went to the American Pickers store and to 4 Miles to Memphis before hitting the road for that day's destination, Decatur, Illinois.

As I looked at the bridge that goes over the mighty Mississippi, I wondered just how many times I had crossed that river in my lifetime. Every summer as a child we would go to see my grandparents and sometimes we would even go in the winter. It seems as if most of the Corman family dies in the month of February (lovely funeral weather) so we made our share of trips in the winter as well. Off we headed across the bridge another time. Something about crossing a river...makes me have to use the restroom. So I announced that I really wanted to see the Illinois Welcome Center. What a welcome -- the drinking fountains had signs on them to not drink the water as it was contaminated by pollution and the Welcome Center portion of the welcome center was closed since the State of Illinois was broke. I got to use the restroom though!

With the Garmin set for Decatur, IL, we finally set off down the road for real this time. I am still not quite sure why we used the Garmin at this point as when I go to Illinois I run on "gut" as in, once I am there, I will just feel that this is the right way to go because I've been there so many times. We made a stop for a light lunch just south of Bloomington and filled up with gas at $3.53 which seemed like the best deal we had seen thus far. After lunch we rolled into Decatur, taking a left on Pershing Road and heading south on 121. Once we neared ADM (formerly known as Staley's), I cracked my window just to get a whiff of what I call aroma but what Mike calls an odor. This aroma triggers the "we're almost at the end of this long horrendous journey" feeling from when I was a kid. Mike doesn't have that attachment to the smell so he promptly rolled my window up. We crossed Lake Decatur which was looking a little low and, get this, went to Walmart. I had ordered a few pictures of the crops from back home for the family to see and had them printed at the Walmart in Decatur. After that we headed down Ocean Trail road to my mother's home place. We drove down the long lane, parked the car and headed toward the shop where my cousin's boy, Kevin and my cousin's hired man were working on a semi. Of course they were surprised to see us since my cousin never actually answers his phone and all I could do was leave messages. Tom was out picking up some welding supplies and arrived back about 15 minutes later. Since we had been there last, Tom has erected this ginormous new shop and machine shed. The shop wasn't quite done since the builders poured the cement and sealed it the same day. The sealant bubbled and was peeling so now they had to come in and grind it all off and are going to put epoxy on the 80' x 80' shop floor. One of the things about my cousin, Tom, is that he is the most particular farmer you will ever meet. Since he has nothing but grain to farm, he spends the rest of his time polishing all of his equipment and toys. He is meticulous to a fault. Everything looks very impressive which is just what he likes.

We all visited about the folks and of course, the crops. What else do farmers do? We showed them the pictures of our crops here in Iowa. As hard as it is to believe, we have it pretty good. Now we knew Tom had said that the crop there was awful but he says that EVERY year and then they go on to have a bumper crop. This year is a different story. Central Illinois looks pretty bad and we were told the further south you go the worse it gets. We took some pictures of Tom's corn and I posted his worst here. Mike walked out into the field on the home place and once he got into the field it was difficult to find stalks of corn with ears on them. Decatur is on a Stage 2 water conservation so all the car washes were closed, no watering lawns or gardens, etc. Tom said they should have done it long ago though. Lake Decatur is the town's supply for water and it is getting very low. No boats can be taken off the lake now since the water is too low to get them off the docks. They are really hurting.

After leaving Tom's we were off to try to catch up with my 92 year old Uncle Cecil. We heard he fried steaks on Thursday nights at the legion and all we knew was that is was on Route 48. So we tried to hunt it down and came pretty close but came to a "bridge out" road and so we turned around and headed towards his house. We knocked at the door and decided to leave a note and the pictures of Iowa crops. From there we went to Mt. Zion and got a room and went to eat at Monical's Pizza. This is a chain that must be unique to the Illinois region but I love to eat there when I go out. Their pizza is hard to beat. When we got back to the room, Mike called Cecil using one of the three numbers my mom gave us (so helpful!). Luckily we picked the right number first. He was on his way home from the steak fry and said we could come on over and visit. Cecil is my mom's brother-in-law. Her sister, Lu, died of colon cancer when she was 40 leaving behind Cecil and three sons. He raised those boys alone and did a good job. He is 92 years old but you would never know it. He delivers cars for a Chevrolet dealership in Decatur. That week he was making three trips a day to Springfield delivering police cars. He even makes trips to Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan. The next week he was going to be delivering police cars to Chicago. He is pretty impressive. Cecil and Lu lived in Iowa in the very house that I live in today only when they lived in it it was brand new. My mom moved up to North Iowa to be near to Lu and that is how she met my dad. It is really fascinating to hear Cecil reminisce because he can tell me things about both Iowa and Illinois. He told us of how he worked to get this farm that we live on in shape to farm. He told us about the 16 huge rocks buried in the field that they used dynamite that they bought from Kreitinger's Hardware in town. They kept the dynamite in the basement of the store and the fuses for the dynamite at the cash register. So HE is the one to blame for us having to pick up so dang many rocks to this day! He also talked about the cockleburrs here...apparently this farm was full of them. He told about raising sugar beets and the Mexicans who came to harvest them every year and how they lived in the hog house when they were here. He spoke fondly of the Sweers family and what good people they are/were. Cecil really loved it here in Iowa and if Lu had shared that love for Iowa, he would still be here. It was so good to see both him and his son, Stu. I am glad that Stu can be there for his dad to look out for him. That is a good thing.

The next morning we awoke to a very cool day which all were grateful for. I wanted to drive around to get some pictures of places and things that meant a lot to my mom. we started off by going past our good friend Evelyn's house. Evelyn passed away quite suddenly a little over a year ago. She was my uncle John's long time friend and she became like a sister to my mother. From there we tried to locate the Mt. Zion Cemetary where my aunt Lu and grandparents are buried (as well as my mom's old boyfriend but she didn't show my dad those pictures!). Turns out my gut was having an off day as we had to stop and ask directions for that cemetery. Once the cemetery was located there was the matter of locating the graves for the people of importance to my mom. Once that mission was accomplished, we headed to get the Krekel's custard stand where my mom hung out in her high school days because her best friend worked there. Mike wanted to drive along Lake Decatur and so we snapped some shots of its lowest point, which was pretty much just mud. From there we headed down Ocean Trail Road again to get a few parting shots of the crops. After that we arrived at Long Creek cemetery where my Uncle John and Aunt Kay are buried along with their grandson, Todd who was stillborn. We were then able to plug in Long Creek United Methodist Church into the Garmin and took some pictures of the outside. Mike then saw that there was a light on inside what looked to be like the office and suggested we go inside. We got to meet the new pastor, a young man who had just arrived in July. He showed us the new fellowship hall and allowed us to go into the sanctuary and take some pictures. I'm so glad we did as Mom commented tonight on how those pictures of her childhood church bring back so many memories.

At that point we were ready to leave the Decatur area. I got on the phone to my cousin Don's wife, Lois and told her we would be heading their direction shortly. So off to Champaign we headed. We had lunch in Champaign and then headed out to the farm. I had not been to Don and Lois' house since it was my aunt Mary's house. They've made a few changes and it is not Mary and Bill's house anymore which is as it should be. After visiting with them and driving around their feedlot and seeing their grandson's family, it was determined that we would be staying there and that we were going to Texas Roadhouse for supper. There we met up with their daughters, Jill and Lisa and we had a great supper and lots of laughs. It turned out that they were down at the Lake of the Ozarks the same time that Mike was and just a few houses down. We decided that next year when they go they need to let us know and we will go down to Mike's sister's house and that way I can play with my cousins and Mike can play with his family and we can all be happy! The next morning we got up and went to see their son, Mark and his wife, Kim and then it was on to Rantoul to see my cousin, Gayle and her husband Dave. We didn't get to visit with them very long though as they had to scoot to Dave's uncle's funeral.

While at Gayle's house, we called my cousin Ron and left a message on his machine to see if we could get together to visit. They called us back and we plugged their address in the Garmin and off to Sandwich we went. Apparently four days is the limit for that much togetherness as Michael started to get testy. He was so afraid that the Garmin was going to get us lost. Then he makes me get out the Illinois map to see if we are going in the right direction. Remember the shape of the state of Illinois? The Illinois map is as tall as I am! Just try and unfold that baby in a car and study it -- not an easy task! I tend to go by my Grandpa Corman's motto -- if it is still daylight and there is gas in the tank then you are not lost. We kept following the Garmin and Sandwich we did find. I hadn't seen Ron and Jeanie since Uncle John's funeral and before that it had been at least a decade. We caught up on all sorts of stuff. They pledge to come up and see my folks again and Ron even has Britt as one of his cities he regularly monitors for weather. He says that what we get one day usually gets to his place the next day. Their daughter, Kami, came over to visit before she headed off to her class reunion. They have a nice in-ground pool in their back yard and it is all fenced off and private, just a really beautiful place.

From Sandwich we headed to Chicago. We got there kind of late, around 7:30 and hadn't had anything to eat yet. Once we got in the room and cleaned up a little, we headed out and down the street to find somewhere to eat. The restaurant we ended up going to had a man asking to see some ID. Of course, I didn't even bring my purse! Laughing, he checked Mike's ID and saw we were from out of town and said, "Well, since you're from out of town, I'll just let you and your underage girlfriend in just this once!" So in we went and had a much needed drink and a light supper. We then walked back to the hotel and headed to bed. The very friendly concierge aided us in finding a Catholic church which turned out to be only a 5 minute walk away from our hotel and he also had all the mass times ready to be printed out. Sunday morning we got up and walked to mass at Holy Name Cathedral and then ate breakfast at -- McDonald's and walked back to the hotel, packed, changed our clothes and headed to the Cubs game. I had heard many people talk up Wrigley Field, some equating it to some sort of religious experience. I have to say, and Mike agrees, that after having been to Fenway Park last summer, this was kind of a letdown. Maybe it was because the Cubs just sucked so much that day (I won't add any additional comments for any Cub fans) and people were just not into the game but the whole baseball game experience just lacked the "wow" factor. Following the Cubs' loss, we determined that it was time to get out of that town. I think my uncle Johnny was right -- nothing good comes out of Chicago, it is a dirty good for nothin' town. You know, there are towns that you visit and you could actually picture yourself moving there. There are towns that you visit and you say, "It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there." Then there's Chicago. There's no place like home...or anywhere else for that matter. After a night's stay in Dubuque, we ended up getting back home early Monday afternoon which gave me a day to catch up on everything before heading back to work on Wednesday. It was an interesting trip and thank God Mike and I won't be spending the rest of our lives in a car together but now we have an idea of what to work on!