One Year on the Road

Grinnell, my home town.

Its downtown is as quaint as ever.

It&#039;s been spruced up a bit, actually.

New paint, flowers.

Most of the downtown buildings date in the 1800s.

The bank was designed by Louis Sullivan (Wright&#039;s mentor) in 1914.

This glamorous bank is one of Grinnell&#039;s biggest prides.

They have repeated the bank&#039;s motif on downtown planters.

The motif is even built into the street intersections.

The Catholic church, where I spent many a catechism and mass.

My junior high school is now a government building.

My elementary school (built in 1899) has been torn down.

The bowling alley is pretty run down but still open.

My parents bought our house on Summer Street for $12,000 in 1960.

Like most Midwest homes, it has a huge unfenced yard.

Ira and Susan have lived there since 1973, and they offered me a full tour.

They&#039;ve done so much work on the place.

They removed paint from all the woodwork.

It&#039;s updated, but still quite recognizable as the home I loved.

Our piano was here in the entryway.

View from the landing, where I would spy on my parents&#039; parties.

It felt so good to be able to visit this wonderful home again.

On the corner was my good friend, Anne&#039;s house.

It&#039;s been beautifully renovated.

The corner store, however, has gone to seed.

My dad taught at Grinnell College.

This modern theater building was a big excitement then.

It&#039;s grown a bit, but the campus was deserted over the holiday.

There are so many wonderful historic homes in Grinnell.

The old library downtown is now an arts center.

Masonic Temple.

Railway station.

High school team pride.

We were welcomed back to Grinnell by an old friend, Barbara Breen.

I knew Barbara from high school in Tallahassee, but now she teaches physics at Grinnell College.

She had room in her alley for Bessie.

It was a perfect place for us.

Her dog, Jack, made himself at home in Bessie.

Jack got very worried when the kitten cried.

Barbara was so welcoming, and we spent most of the weekend together.

Two evenings, we walked the short distance to downtown for dinner.

We sat outside so Bailey could be with us.

Sparkly glass.

When I was a kid, there were two gas stations in town: the Flying Horse and the Dinosaur.

The Dinosaur was where I would go to get help when my chain came off my bike.

It&#039;s not a gas station any more.

But it has a cafe.

We got there in time for a late breakfast.

Our waitress and a little helper.

The gas station decor is lots of fun.

Not sure where Magoo came from.

Nor why they have a  real jail cell from an adjacent county.

And a little snooze.

In the afternoon, we drove to Rock Creek Park.

The park was scrubby woods when I was a kid. Now it&#039;s pristeen and grassy.

Strangley, on this July 4th weekend, the picnic area was deserted.

We gave the kitten some fresh air.

Just hanging out together.

Bailey isn&#039;t too sure what to think of this tiny thing.

But Jack is ready to protec it.

I left Kate and Barbara in the park and went on a bike ride.

Through miles and miles of cornfields.

The green is so shockingly brilliant.

On the way back, we stopped at Barbara&#039;s friends&#039; farm.

These two kids had been born the day before.

They were already walking.

They are nubian goats.

Their ears are comically long.

At first, Bailey thought they were puppies and got down on her front paws with an invite to play.

A visit with Mom.

We hung out there for a while.

Bailey&#039;s such a sweet dog.

I took a turn at milking the mom.

The kids are bottle-fed, because mom&#039;s not too interested.

Bottle-fed kids make for  more human-friendly goats.

But they still get to bond.

This is the mom&#039;s first litter.

The other four adult goats.

Kitty and the milking shed.

The goose and duck are fast pals.

They go everywhere together.

Back in Bessie, the kitten likes to be swaddled in her dark shoe box.

But when she wakes up, she wants out.

She can&#039;t see, but she finds the hole.

Her favorite place to be is right here.