Columbus Junction

As promised, here are some shots from our evening in Columbus Junction. The Swinging Bridge was true to its name, especially when Ron and Jody started to shake it wildly from side to side when we were about halfway across. Not very nice!! Sadly, there's much graffiti on the bridge at this point. Most of it appears to be the work of local high school kids, and it tended to fall into two categories: vows of undying love or vicious character slurs. Apparently, "Tony R." is a #&!*%#@ jerk, and "Sarah S." is the hottest girl in school. Who knew? So it was educational as well as terrifying. What more can you ask?

Joking aside, we had a very nice evening. The Mexican restaurant made up for what it lacked in lighting design and atmosphere by offering very tasty margaritas and chile rellenos, not to mention gobs of character. Our waitress looked like she was about 15, and she was immensely shy. Every time we ordered something, she would get this look of quiet panic and inform us that they might be out of it (this included margaritas, guacamole, a kind of beer jody wanted, and on and on...). She would look at us so helplessly that we wound up comforting her, as if to reassure her that it would be just dandy if all she could offer us was some rice and Diet Sprite. Of course they wound up having plenty of everything--with the exception of one of the margarita ingredients, as she could only eke out 3, falling one short of the number requested.

Of course, in a town as small as Columbus Junction, we weren't going to avoid running into someone who knew Ron. So we sat down in this tiny little restaurant and who should be sitting at the next table but Ron's high school prom date. They've remained friends and see each other often, so it wasn't a huge surprise or anything, but it certainly added to the charm of the hometown visit.

After the meal, we drove back to Iowa City through a classic Midwestern thunderstorm and saw some incredible lightning. Then we wrapped up the evening with more conversation and dessert on Ron and Jody's screened-in porch. Quite nice.

Unfortunately, I've caught the bug that Dennis had last week, and so am off to nap...again. My throat is incredibly sore, and we've got a show tonight, so I've been downing all kinds of special herbal tea remedies, plus zinc, advil, vitamin c, you name it.

Dennis is in the shop today building a couple of bedside tables for us, but more on that later.....