Still in Muscatine! After our weekend boat trip up the Mississippi, we're hanging out in my hometown and spending some time with my sister and her husband at their place in rural Muscatine. The weather has become more unsettled with on and off again showers, temps near 90 and plenty of humidity.
 Sunday night we joined two high school friends Jake Zoller and Jim Merideth at Boonie's on the Avenue to catch up on their lives and talk about things that I had long forgotten during "the old days" in the mid to late 1960's . Jake, Jim and I were far from trouble makers, but Dolly after listening to some of the tales of old, was surprised at some of the antics. We discussed many common friends, those who had passed away and those who have been lost to the years by family, jobs and geography.  
 Monday morning, we headed out fairly early and traveled north on old Highway 22 along the Mississippi River to LeClaire, Iowa; home location of the "American Pickers" TV show. I've watched the Antique Archeology show numerous times over the years and was interested to see what it was all about. I also, secretly hoped Mike Wolfe and Frank who star in the show might be around, and yes, Danielle too (the nice looking lady with lots of tatooes that coordinate their travels) but, not today. One of the people there said they would be back later in the month. 
 Our faithful GPS skillfully guided us to their location, and at first had trouble seeing it as it is tucked behind several other nearby buildings just off the highway. I was surprised at how small it was! We weren't the only people that stopped by, as it was very crowded with others looking through their "finds" taking "selfies" in front of several Antique Archeology vehicles and memorabilia . As you might expect, there was nothing I found that I wanted and everything was grossly overpriced. A T-shirt would have been nice, I wasn't going to lay out $25.
 Originally we planned to head northwest and visit the "Field of Dreams" location in Dyersville, but lost interest when the GPS said it was another 120+ miles. The Muscatine Journal reported they had a 25-year reunion LAST weekend. So we decided to skip that and headed back to Muscatine.  
 After we made it back to town, we headed toward "Southend" and pulled up to a large red building at the intersection of Highway 61 and Oregon Street. This is the home of Laura Leigh Schroeder Photography. While Dolly and I had not met Laura personally, she is a friend of the family, and over the last few years have closely followed her on Facebook. This young lady has built an incredibly successful photography business from the ground up, studying at the University of Houston then capturing all of the nuances of digital photography and Photoshop on her own . We first started following her on Facebook when she posted the antics of her "Elf on a shelf" named Jethro during Christmas time a couple of years ago. Her posts literally had us rolling on the floor with streams of laughter with tears streaming down our cheeks. Since then, we have carefully followed her career and witty posts. Our visit to her shop was absolutely delightful and we had a great time visiting about common friends, touring her extensive office, studio and prop storage areas.  
 For lunch, we stopped at a local legendary drive in "The Cheri Top". The Cheri Top is been a local landmark for over 40 years and still has waitresses "car hopping" with aluminum trays on your driver's side window. Known for its Pork Tenderloins and onion rings, Dolly and I had lunch there. A Midwestern treat!
 Later in the afternoon we stopped by the local American Legion with Floyd, Tisha, Dolly and myself and had a great visit with Rhonda Leonard and John Shelangoski. 
 Tuesday morning we had a "Breakfast Date" at McDonald's with Bill and Linda MacCracken, Vivian Waltman Reed and Kathy Pagel Witte to talk about our trip, high school friends and families .
 My sister, Tisha and I later visited Greenwood Cemetery to visit graves of our parents, brother Kim and sister Linda Ann.
 After the stop at the cemetery we drove past our childhood home on Route 4 (now Seven Springs Road) and we picked up a bag of Maid Rite burgers to take home (with Dolly) for lunch. 
 Note: Dolly and I decided to amend our planned trip schedule and depart for Chicago on Friday to visit my daughter Jana and her husband Kevin and grandkids Miles and Ozzie this weekend before heading back to Maine. Jana, Kevin and family are moving soon, so we have an opportunity to help them get ready for their move. We had planned to stay in Iowa a bit longer, but we've done everything we had planned to do and there are things that need attention at home. Fishing trip? Yes, still doing it - will fly from Boston to Sioux Falls and head to Canada, then fly home afterwards.
 Stay tuned for future updates!!!

Love ya,

Cheers,

Jan, Dolly and Chi Chi