Dutch Treat

The trip was, for the most part, A-MAZ-ING. Loved getting away, loved seeing the kids, loved seeing my older son happier than I’ve ever seen him. My new daughter-in-law is an absolute doll and I can see why he loves her.

We did a ton of touristy things too – really a first in my book. My parents’ idea of a vacation was to go see family, plunk down and talk to people who were mostly strangers to me. We almost never went anywhere just to enjoy ourselves, and on the rare occasion we did, we wouldn’t spend a penny. Even our lunches were packed. No Micky D’s for us. So getting to drive through rural America – a lot of rural America, too – was such a treat for me. We hit flea markets and yard sales across the country. Took the northern drive going to Iowa, the southern route coming home. Found places I’d never even heard of, much less seen.

We visited Pella, Iowa, which is in some respects a recreated Dutch town. G is Dutch and said the windmill at the top of the page is a perfect replica of the ones in the Netherlands. And it’s huge – don’t know if you can tell or not, but with the windmill blades it’s about four stories tall. We didn’t do the tour, because I obviously still can’t do stairs – but it was a blast just getting to se these places. We went into a bakery there (above) and I bought “letters” for the family. Those, sadly, are NOT true Dutch. They’re a pastry shaped like an S and filled with an almondy/hazelnut filling. Good, just not authentic Dutch. Actual Dutch letters are solid milk chocolate and come in all letters of the alphabet.

After visiting Pella, we did a drive-through lunch but ate it alongside Red Rock Lake, which is right around the proverbial corner from there.

Not only was it gorgeous, it was kind of a silly fantasy for my husband. He’s always wanted to have a picnic, but picnics and Arizona often don’t mix and in all these years, this is the first time we ate at a picnic table. G was a happy camper and our furbaby loved exploring the grass.

Despite it being early October, there wasn’t a lot of fall color in the midwest. We did find this single brilliant leaf.

And on the way home we stopped whenever a spot caught our eyes.

We love kitschy hole-in-the-wall places, and this trip was full of them.

The downside is by the time we got home, both G and I were sick. Sniffly, hacking-cough, get-food-away-from-me sick. G is doing better. I’m so-so. I donned a mask whenever I went in anywhere during our cross-country trek, but G only wore one when a sign said it was mandatory. I gave up trying to get through to him. Yes, we’ve been vaccinated. But it’s stupid and inconsiderate imho to go maskless when traveling. Aside from COVID, there are other types of creeping crud out there and I’d have preferred not to get my share.

I slept all day today and hoping by tomorrow I feel a bit more human, but yeesh. I’ve gotten spoiled over the past year and a half, thanks to masking up. No real creeping crud for all that time.

G gets over stuff fast. I’m not coughing much now, thankfully, and no longer have the chills. Still doesn’t make me happy, since it was 100% preventable.

This is the house where I grew up in NE Iowa. I hadn’t been back in nearly 50 years but still drove right to it. There have been changes to the house: the siding was originally gray shingles. The deck was added after we left, and what looks like a bay window was added by later owners.

G got a kick out of seeing my old stomping grounds. And he’s decided he wants to move there – to Iowa, not that specific town. After we win the lottery, mind you, so it can be our summer home. Winters will be spent here in Arizona, because we’re not stupid. Both of us have lived where you had to shovel snow. No thanks. But he commented on how clean it was everywhere. There isn’t a mountain of trash lining the highway on both sides. Yards are mown and neat. Homes – even older ones – are mostly kept up. People take pride in their homes.

G has about 70GB of photos to go through, so we’ll most likely share more over time. But it took him a while just to transfer that many photos from his SD card to his computer.