Sunday, August 29, 2010

Just Like Daddy

Lucy and I made chaw-chalk nenos together tonight. (In Lucy-speak chaw-chalk nenos = chocolate brownies.) Her contribution to the process consistedted of dripping batter all over the counter paired with a bit of finger-stirring, as well as batter reduction services. At the end of the ordeal she was covered in batter and very excited to have a brown beard and nash (Lucy-speak translation = mustache) just like daddy. So excited that when I washed it off, she threw a fit and Eric had to smear batter all over her face again. Lucy wore that batter beard proudly.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Lucy's New Park

In moving here and choosing a place to rent (begging into a place to rent more like it) sight unseen, I was a little nervous about what we would end up with. The house we rented looked nice enough in pictures but was rough around the edges when we arrived ... as in, I almost turned around without unpacking my stuff to look for another place. After the initial shock wore off and the flood waters had receded, we started to explore our surroundings. About a ten minute walk down our busy four-lane road is this beautiful park with trails, baseball fields, a playground, and a picnic area, East Riverside I think, that was completely submerged for about the first week we were here.

The playground was under water to between the deck to the little slide and the deck to the big slide, maybe 4-5 feet high. The water was running right through the park and across the road, and brought with it bushels of debris and this weird silty sand, not to mention washed away all the wood chips playgrounds usually provide as a landing pad. I've been steadily working to clear the sticks and leaves off the actual playground structure, and finally on this trip remembered a towel to wipe off the dirty slides too. Since our last visit, the town did come in and rake, too, clearing away most of the biggest branches.

No matter, Lucy and baby wouldn't let a silly thing like dirt get between them and a good park. Here they are both posing (cheese) on the ladder.

Even though this one is for the big kids, we though we'd give it a try!

Shorty takes a break under the equipment. It's hard work being the dog.

And Iowa didn't let us down. Yes, we almost live across from a corn field.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Iowa

Well after being in travel-mode then without internet for several weeks, it's time to update where we're at and what's happening here in beautiful, sunny, Iowa. Oops, I mean wretchedly hot, flooded Iowa. Though in all fairness, it has gotten a little better since that first week we were here.

The move out of Old Town went fairly smoothly. The moving van was three hours late arriving, which gave us the time we needed to put the finishing touches on our packing. They were loaded and off by about dinner time, allowing us to clean our way out of the place and pack the car.

It's lucky for Lucy that Grandma loves her, because otherwise Eric & I would have let her actual birthday pass without so much as a cupcake. But, Grandma comes through again, with Ariel cupcakes, a new "prize" and lots of birthday songs.

We spent the night in Waterville after leaving our house, cutting about 60 miles off of our 1600 mile trip, but getting a good night sleep in a comfortable bed and hot meals were the real incentives. We said goodbye around 4pm from Grandma and Baba's and were off.

And too soon out of Maine, over the Piscataqua River. (Remember this bridge shot, it will come up later.)

Our trip was long and draining. Eric drove straight through the first afternoon and overnight, logging almost 700 miles and 12 hours (minus a fiasco stop for dinner in CT), when I took over at 4:30 am. I drove all the way through western PA, Ohio, Indiana & into Illinois. By this time we were exhausted and ready to arrive, though still about 5-6 hours away. Being from the northeast I never really though about how much closer Maine is to Ohio than to Iowa. In any case, the trip was relatively uneventful. Lucy was an absolute peach given the circumstances (mainly due to the portable DVD player we had in the backseat), and the overnight drive really put us so much closer without all the awful traffic we might otherwise have hit.

So we finally arrived in Iowa, strangely enough crossing a bridge that looks like we're headed back into Maine.

We were greeted by this fabulous view of the cornfields, which was pretty much what we expected to see on our whole trip across the midwest. We were not disappointed.

Finally, I'll have to double check with my dad, who tells me the world's largest truck stop is on I-40 in Tennessee, but apparently the claim to fame of Iowa extends beyond the Field of Dreams!

No, we didn't make a stop there so I have no first-hand account of how big this truck stop actually is. Maybe on our way back to Maine next summer.

All in all not a bad journey.