And a hike!
May 28 – 30, 2022
I’m going to preface this with the fact that several weeks ago, we were delivered a John Deere E110 riding lawnmower sold to us on the cheap by Brandy’s parents. Our lawn is HUGE so mowing it with a push mower would take forever.
The first few times I ran it, the grass I was cutting was left in clumps on the lawn, turning brown and killing the grass beneath it. Again, with the lawn being as big as it is, raking all that mown grass would take even longer.
Our story begins here…
I took Friday off for a handful of doctor appointments in Cedar Rapids. I had a little time to kill between them so aside from lunch, I swung by Home Depot to pull the trigger on something I’d had my eye on for a minute: a bagger for the riding mower.
As you see, it’s not an inexpensive piece of equipment (due to the possibility of fluctuating pricing, as of the day of writing this, it’s $419). I was hesitant to buy it but after my last mowing, I decided to go ahead and take the plunge.
After already having a garage sale planned for the 28th, Brandy agreed that whatever we made that day could be applied to its purchase. That made it easier to swallow. I made the purchase and brought it home. When I got home, Brandy’s mom, Sue, was here helping Brandy finishing the marking of the merchandise that would be for sale and getting the tables ready to drag out to the driveway come Saturday morning.
Garage Sale Day
Saturday finally arrived. We woke up early shuffled cars around, pulled everything out to the driveway, placed signs and waited.
It wasn’t long before we had our first customer, a gentleman that had his eye on my corded Black and Decker string trimmer (that I had to trade in for a battery powered Ryobi model – the 100 foot extension cord doesn’t reach the furthest spot on our lawn… I told you, our lawn is HUGE.)
At 9:00, I ran to the bank to exchange $50 of the cash I got for change for ones. When I got back, we were mobbed. We surprisingly got rid of a bunch of the stuff we had for sale (though, sadly, not quite all of it) and wound up making $400 back. I was ecstatic.
When we eventually decided to call it quits, we pulled in what we had left, packed and made our way to Ottumwa for the rest of the weekend.
Ottumwa
We arrived at Sue and Craig’s house at around 4:30 or so. I dropped Brandy and Ash then headed to Hy-Vee to pick something up for dinner. I grabbed some deli fried chicken and mashed potatoes and headed back to the house.
We ate, chit-chatted with Craig and Sue, then they headed out to spend the night at the river. Shortly after they left, Brandy, Ash and I headed up to bed. It was a long day and we were bushed. As I drifted off to sleep, I thought to myself, “The sun is still out…”
Sunday’s Hike
Sunday morning, I woke up at 3:00 (as I often do.) I sat, drinking coffee and hanging out with Ash until Brandy got up. We checked AllTrails for an EASY nearby hike that we could knock out, settling on the Lamson Woods Neff Wetlands segment of the Fairfield Loop Trail in Fairfield. I knew it was going to be a quick hike, it’s only a mile out and back with negligible elevation gain, but after the day we had Saturday, it would be perfect.
We set off at about 10:00 and got on highway 34 heading east. Just outside of Ottumwa is Eldon, IA. In Eldon is the house that served as the inspiration for the painting American Gothic by Grant Wood.
American Gothic House
We spontaneously exited the highway in Eldon and followed the brown signs through the town to find our way to the site. We were heading down Elm Street when I noticed a bunch of smoke pouring on to the street from behind a line of trees. I mentioned it to Brandy and as we passed by the trees, we were greeted with the sight of the rubble of a burning house, completely unattended and still actively burning. With flames. Not smoldering embers, no, there were still full flames burning the rubble. All that remained was the foundation and a chimney with burning debris. And no one in sight. No spectators, no fire department, nothing. We thought it odd, but moved on.
After numerous twists and turns through the outskirts of Eldon, we finally found ourselves at the house that would stand as the backdrop of one of the most famous paintings in American pop culture.
In 1991, the house was donated to the State Historical Society of Iowa and in 2007, a visitor’s center was built containing a gallery and gift shop. The visitor’s center was closed when we arrived, but I was very happy to be able to see the inspiration behind such a well-known painting. I look forward to returning to the visitor’s center and to also visit Grant Wood’s studio in Cedar Rapids.
I snapped a few pictures and we went about our way.
Fairfield Loop Trail
We got back to the intersection at Elm Street and saw that the house was still burning, and there was still no one around. The GPS took us in the opposite direction though, so we made the left hand turn and started upon a series of dirt roads that led us in to Fairfield.
About half an hour after leaving Eldon, we arrived at the trailhead. We gathered Ash, sprayed ourselves really well with bug spray and headed into the wetlands.
We immediately started over a boardwalk that elevated us over swampy marshland, which I was surprised to see in Iowa. I didn’t think that was a type of ecosystem common in the Midwest, yet here we were. We continued along the boardwalk that ended before long, now finding ourselves on a gravel path that would take us along the banks of the nearby swamp.
We saw several red winged blackbirds darting through the wetland and perching high on the tall reeds that lined the bog.
About 15 minutes after beginning our trek, we came upon the end of this segment of the loop, where the trail intersects with Glasgow road. We had the option of continuing on, but we decided to turn back.
We doubled back and found ourselves at the car about half an hour after we’d left it. We shrugged off our packs, loaded Ash into the back seat and headed back to Ottumwa.
The Rest
We got back to Sue and Craig’s house where they had already made breakfast and eaten. We served ourselves the leftovers and sat for a bit before Hilary showed up. She came in and we sat and talked for a while before heading out to her son’s new place. He just moved into a small house on several acres of land where he will be growing alfalfa for hay and tending to a large herd of cattle. The property has four ponds and a small creek running through it. The house is in a state of mild disrepair but with some TLC, it’ll be a fine place for him.
We sat for a while longer before we headed back out to Sue and Craig’s where we lazed about for the remainder of the weekend.
Monday morning after a biscuits and gravy breakfast, we packed up and headed to Hilary’s to say good bye to her, then headed home. We unpacked the car, I went to the grocery store, assembled the bagger for the mower and mowed the lawn. It was a sweltering 84 degrees with 70% humidity. I was in that for about 2 hours, having to stop frequently to empty the bags. By the time it was all said and done, I had accumulated about 10 bags of lawn clippings in black plastic trash bags. (After some later research, I discovered that the city of Coralville wants yard trimmings disposed of in a specific manner that I managed on Tuesday.)
By Monday night, I was absolutely done for. I was ready to strip down, take a nice, cool shower and relax, which I promptly did.
Conclusion
It was a wonderful weekend that included a visit with Sue, Craig and Hilary, a hike, and a visit to Eldon to see the American Gothic house.
I had a thought during this weekend: I am absolutely grateful for the adventure-filled life I’m living. I love that I’m finally able to get out and do the things I never did, see the things I’ve never seen. I’m living a great story.
I’ve added all of the photos I took this past weekend to my Photo Diary, make sure you check those out.
It’s been a while since I’ve closed out with a quote, but I found this wonderful one by Donald Miller:
And once you live a good story, you get a taste for a kind of meaning in life, and you can’t go back to being normal; you can’t go back to meaningless scenes stitched together by the forgettable thread of wasted time.
Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life
As always, thank you for stopping by. I appreciate you!
-Phil