Thanksgiving in Iowa Too

Eikon and I traveled to my homeland on Thanksgiving Day. It was an uneventful drive, about 5 1/2 hours, and as soon as we arrived my mother began cooking the meal. It was all together quiet and uneventful. We had a lovely time.

On Friday we spent a goodly chunk of the day helping my parents to put up Christmas decorations. Every year, my parents bring out a 100ft (that's a guess) long fake evergreen garland and drape it from the pillars (yes there are pillars, but they aren't fancy, so don't get any ideas). I wish I had pictures, it's really quite attractive.

Anyway, after that, we went downtown. Eikon did a little picture taking as he is want to do. Here are a few:

We visited the Goats - Johnny and Pepper, that I trained in high school. They're now in retirement at local farmstead. They've gotten older and fatter, and well hey, so have I. No biggie. If you don't know about the goats, check out the GOAT U website.

We were especially impressed by our friends' effort to remodel their house. They re-sided the building with REAL SIDING, and put on a beautiful porch. I hope to lounge on it next time around.

We also made a pilgrimage to St. Mary's Church - the church that I grew up in as a church musician. It's been recently renovated and the church, which was pretty darn ordinary when I was there, is now blue and stenciled and gold, and dare I say it - - gaudy! Ah yes - gaudy, just how we like things.

So anyway. Here are some pictures. Judge for yourself. :-)















While in G.C. we also paid homage to one of the oldest buildings, the Cottage Motel. This building is owned by the city and needs a new roof. What next? Well, what else! Pave the way for progress, de-asbestos it and rip the thing down. The sad part is that I didn't get a sense that anyone back home really gave a damn. It's an old building, rip it down. I suppose that goes along with midwestern sensibility. There really should be something in place to protect buildings like the Motel, but I guess there aren't - that is there isn't anything that I, an outsider who doesn't own the building or live in Iowa can do. Oh well. It's just history right? Anyway, here's a picture. May the building have a happy afterlife.