Blue Goose ~ Day 143

October 19, 2014 ~ Sun Prairie, WI to Iowa City, IA

Since I was having trouble uploading photos to my laptop using a cable, I bought a card reader in Walmart so I could upload that way if necessary but then also found a Best Buy in Madison where I spent 90 minutes with the Geek Squad guy and the camera guy, neither of whom could figure out why my cable / camera wasn't working. The camera was still under warranty and the best they could offer was to send it back to Canon. It would be gone for 2-4 weeks which was not acceptable. I did discover that the memory card didn't need a reader and plugs right into the Mac...which I did, and the photos downloaded perfectly. Such is the elegance of Apple computers.

As I was leaving Best Buy, a dad with two small kids (about 4 and 5 years old) were coming in, and I heard him say: "Please, please gentlemen, do not touch anything."

I then returned the card reader to Walmart and was on my way, driving in sunshine through Iowa most of the afternoon, up and down a scenic landscape of long open hills. I have always like this state. It seems benign, prosperous and self-contained. Many of the fields had dried corn stalks and huge farm machines moved slowly in the fields. The distant farmhouses on the hills were generous and tidy with large hardwoods or evergreens in the yards. For awhile at least, I was leaving the busy roads behind. The horrible smell of CAFOs did occasionally disturb this bucolic drive, but only for a minute or two.

Using Priceline, I reserved what I thought was a good deal in downtown Iowa City, but I had to pay to park and had a light supper that was truly awful. The soup I ordered was shrimp and white bean. The broth was water-based with cayenne to spice it up. The shrimp were the little canned circular ones that look like grubs; the white beans looked like large chickpeas. There was probably a stray diced veggie in this mix which mostly settled in the bottom. The Caesar salad nearly overflowed the large deep cereal-type bowl in which it was served and consisted of big chunks of iceberg lettuce, large croutons and some shaved strips of hard cheese. It was impossible to cut the lettuce without stuff spilling out on the table. But the wine was delicious. When asked the next day "How was your stay?" I mentioned the horrible food and was offered a free breakfast which I declined as I was checking out.  (This is so whiny and trivial, I know....)

But the bed was heavenly...

(I had emailed a college roommate who lives here but never heard back from her.  I know she isn't an avid social media participant or perhaps she was out of town. I drove by her house the next morning on my way out of town. It was lovely (as I figured it would be) with political signs in the front yard, a stained glass piece in the front door and many bird feeders in an established neighborhood defined on three sides by a large bend in the Iowa River. )