"We had a nice long visit"

Does that sound familiar to any of you Midwesterners out there? That was precisely what we (my parents and me) did on the Fourth of July...we had a nice long visit with friends. I always seem to make it back from Europe just in time for a summer gathering of my parents' friends. In 2001 I returned from Vienna on July 3rd and was hanging out with these people on the 4th. Last year I returned on June 25th and was hanging out with these same people on the 4th. This year was no exception. Good thing I like them all, right?

We headed over a bit late, as my family is known to do, and took one of those infamous "tours of the countryside" because the location of the party had changed three times and my parents forgot about the third change (and therefore our final destination). So a three mile drive turned into a 10 mile drive over various gravel roads south of Arlington. We got there and "visited", ate, drank and played games, brought to us by David B., who was the best man at my parents' wedding and is best known locally as the auctioneer. He had some fun games for us, including one where he showed us ads from newspapers and we had to guess the correct price of each item. I've included a picture of his rapt quiz show players. Do you see the concentration?

There were also two golf games. The first one required us to aim for a buried cable flag (you know, the little orange ones) that was about 60 yards off in honor of one of the guest's 60th birthday. It only took me two swings to hit the ball! Last year I think it took me three, so my game is definitely improving. The second game required us to putt the ball to another cable flag 30 feet away in honor of my parents' 30th wedding anniversary, which was on the 3rd.

That evening we went to the fireworks in Aurora, as is our custom. They have a really good display...much better than Oelwein (a larger town a few miles further down Highway 3).

The rest of my days in Iowa have been spent with paintbrush in hand. I helped my sister paint the window trim on two windows and have since been painting parade sponsors' names onto plywood for the upcoming Arlington Days celebration. This year marks Arlington's sesquicentennial of existance. All are welcome--it kicks off the the crowning of Miss Arlington on Friday night and goes through Sunday afternoon, ending with the tractor pull. Sometimes I can't believe I'm from such a place, but the rest of the time it just makes me smile.