50 Years and Counting

September 14^th,

We had a great time visiting with Russ & Candi at Smokey D’s, http://www.smokeydsbbq.com/ when you are in Des Moines you need to visit SMOKEY D’S they have great tenderloins and fabulous BBQ. Darren is one of the owners; he and I worked at Ruan. He and his business partner have won many awards for their BBQ, it is that good. So when you are in Des Moines or passing through stop and try some award winning BBQ. Enough of the commercial, Candi is recovering from some surgery and she looks great, of course Russ says he is taking very good care of her. Men are good at that aren’t we?

September 14 & 15^th,

Class reunion in Burlington, IA, Fifty years, can you believe it? I never thought about it much about a 50-year class reunion until it was time for it. I can remember my mother saying she was going to her 50^th class reunion and I’m thinking, wow you people are old. Now I am the one who is old and attending our 50^th class reunion. I don’t know who all worked to put the reunion together but I want to say thank you for doing it and doing a very good job of it. Sarah and I had a great time. It was to see everyone, I know not all of the class was there, but it was great to see those who were and a couple I haven’t seen in years. I don’t remember that last time I saw Jane and Diane. Mike Cummings gets the award for traveling the greatest distance, but then he would get award at every reunion, he comes all the way from Australia.

I had a great time visiting with everyone there, I believe I spoke with everyone, if I missed anyone I apologize; it was just great to see everyone. I am still looking the length of your driveways. Diane has the lead with 300 ft of driveway or something like that. I am looking for long driveways for the RV, I’ll buy dinner. If you have hook ups for the RV I’ll buy drinks also. Thank you to my brother Larry and wife Kathy for their hospitality; we had a good time visiting with them. I also returned his truck, so now he can haul things again. We did get a picture, I want you to see how good looking we are at our age:

Again thanks to all of you who worked on the reunion it was a great time.

Monday,

I hate shopping but I need a new pair or two of shoes, I only buy running shoes, I am trying to break the three and a half minute mile. Actually, the orthopedic doctor told me to buy running shoes because size, he didn’t want to say fat, running shoes give more cushion to my feet. Anyway, Sarah & I went to Sports Authority store and I bought a shoe called Meling. It was a nice shoe and felt great in the store but after wearing it all day, I decided it wasn’t the shoe for me. Therefore, Tuesday we took the back, I will say the store took them back with no questions asked, that is nice.

We met Tiffany, Matt & Alexa at McDonald’s in Ankeny. Alexa had two catalogs from school with items for sale. We bought an item from each catalog and told them to keep them, I bought what they said they would use; I couldn’t see them shipping the items to us so they will keep them.

Tuesday I had an appointment to take the car in to get a fender bracket fixed, we noticed it when we bought it and I said I would make an appointment to bring it in for fixing. We got a loaner car, it is a good thing we did because the problem was on a recall, and it will take a couple of days to get it so we are driving the loaner. I am glad we didn’t say we would wait.

We also went out to the Iowa Veteran’s Cemetery, https://www.va.iowa.gov/vetcemetery/, so I could get some questions answered. We met Dave, and employee of the cemetery, he answered all my questions and gave us some material to look at. Sarah & I will both be buried there.

In the afternoon we went over to Cairo’s, Sarah & Norma were going to do some beading but first they had to go to the bead store. Since Orren was busy with some phone calls I took them to the bead store, Artistic Beads in Valley Junction, http://artisticbead.com/id73.html, I read while they were shopping. We returned to the house and the ladies beaded. Norma fixed chili and grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner, very good.

Today I worked on the camper to get things done before we leave here in 10 days. One of the items is greasing the MorRyde system; this entails me getting under the camper. Since I am a bit claustrophobic it is not my favorite thing to do, it does help the sides are open and the camper does sit high so I am able to get the task done.

I have just finished the book “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand, I enjoyed reading it, and I knew the prisoners of war in the Pacific were mistreated but I didn’t know to what extent. This book took seven years to write and was well documented from both the Japanese and American side. Good book well worth the time to read.

That’s it for now remember,

Dreams Do Come True.