God Made Iowa Too

Alright I give in. God made Iowa too. :-) Sarah had decided a while back that she was going to organize an Iowa appreciation trip for a few friends, and that's where I was this weekend.




Packed her car with five of us. Pete and Amanda needed someone to keep them separated.







The only deep thought of this post comes from our music selection on the way there. Francesca Battistelli is a new and upcoming Christian female vocal artist. I've heard a song of hers on the radio recently, "Free To Be Me", and of course took issue to it. We had a great discussion revolving around the question, "Does this song indicate that some people tend to bury, forget or avoid past mistakes where other people would seek out their own failure in order to correct it, be challenged by it and make themselves better for it?" The question was more complex than this, but you get the idea. Great discussion, and I might have actually learned something from it!

We passed through poopie town USA so that Bjorn could get some designer shades.


Just before crossing the river, Sarah pointed out how last year's flooding left Gulfport, Illinois a ghost town.
Next stop was Sarah's home. Her family's farm was knocked out by the flooding and still stands, to be torn down very soon.

I felt kinda stupid(er than usual) for closing the door behind me when we came in.


It was very sad walking where Sarah had so many memories. I visited this house briefly two years ago and it was beautiful!

The farm life intrigues me. Everyone else was very familiar with farms, but it's a rare treat for me. So we went on a little tour, including a very old barn.


Last year I got to ride in the combine driven by Wayne during harvest time. He commented on how many questions I could ask about the inside of a combine in such a short period of time.


Wayne is the father of another one of our Iowan friends who took us on an Iowa appreciation trip a while ago. Speaking of Wayne - he has be become a bit of a wine making fiend. We didn't get a chance to try some of his homemade stash last time, but he quickly offered it up this time, and sent me home with a bottle! I can't tell you how excited I was.



Took a quick tour of the farm equipment. Thank you Sarah for giving us as much farm exposure as possible!




Both farms were more like ice skating rinks outside. Kim and Amanda stuck together for support, but almost brought each other down several times.




Don't forget Grizzy!


On to Sarah's fam! Sarah's parents moved into a normal house in a nearby town soon after last year's flooding. They live very close to their other children, who all joined us to play after totally awesome lunch by Edra.



We then traded stories about Sarah with her brothers, to be published in a later post titled "The Sarah we Didn't Know"



I found shamelessly stole a picture of Sarah's family from facebook. These are all the folks we got to hang out with for half the afternoon, and it was a blast. I figured it was ok since the fam was all dressed up and looked very nice. It could have very well been taken while we were there. The same decorations are still up. :-)


AUGH! It got late on me again! Can't finish tonight either. Well, enjoy this much.