The five and a half years I spent managing group homes for the developmentally disabled were my best time for road trips, as I had to get out and away from the madness and frustration that was my job (and would eventually result in my leaving the field altogether).
For months, we had planned to travel to Lincoln, Nebraska to see some friends of ours who performed in a family band in their home state. As I pored over the road atlas, I saw there was more that we could do with that trip.
We loaded up in our van, and hit the road. First stop: Dyersville, Iowa, home of the "Field of Dreams" movie site and the National Farm Toy museum. I had long been a fan of the book "Shoeless Joe" on which the movie was based, and, as I have stated many times before, I am a HUGE baseball fan. So the field of dreams site was right down my alley, the farm toy museum was a nice bonus.
We arrived at the movie site the Friday preceding the World Series. I had with me a game used American league baseball and proceeded to get to business right away. I cranked the ball hard out into the corn as my token sacrifice to the baseball gods in hopes the dreaded Yankees would lose (they did -- to the Diamondbacks, in a World Series that will forever remain to me the most memorable). We then proceeded to play an impromptu game of baseball, and purchase a few souvenirs before heading on our way. We had originally planned on overnighting in the center of Iowa, but my wife was suddenly and unexplicably sick, and I decided that the extra few hours' drive to Council Bluffs would be advisable, as it would give her an extra day to rest.
Sometime after we left Cedar Falls, but before we reached Council Bluffs, it occurred to me precisely where we were and I, always wont to belt out an appropriate ditty, launched into the opening bars of "Turn the Page" in response to this epiphany. We reached Council Bluffs, and found a nice Motel 6 (prior to this, I had never thought the words "nice" and "Motel 6" could be properly combined). We checked in, and the next day, began exploring Council Bluffs, a city with a wonderful history. We especially paid attention to the connection to the Lewis and Clark expedition, as one of my ancestors was part of their entourage.
We enjoyed meeting up with our friends and a wonderful concert, but upon leaving the barn where the concert was held, noticed that the bag in which we had had our travelling money was gone. Not sure if it was lost, stolen or what, but it was gone.
This made the return home rather interesting. Fortunately, at the time, we had credit cards, all of which were maxed out by the time we returned home.
signing off,
Gideon MacLeish