Tales From The Midwest - First Night

I never got around to blogging about my 2007 Midwest tour. Bad on me. There was so much to talk about that it was overwhelming. So, to cover both trips I'm going to give both the 2007 and 2008 stories where relevant.

2007

Cheers with Debe, Bruce, Kathy and Dawnie

Our first stop after Dawnie picked me up was a local watering hole called Buzzard Billy's. It was Crappy Beer night there. That's a tradition where they serve such classics as Schlitz, Hamm's, Pabst Blue Ribbon and Old Style for cheap (buck - buck fifty?). Debe and Bruce met us there right away and I was happy to order an Old Style Light. It made me feel instantly like I was home.

Some of the night's evidence.

The Conrads joined us and we attempted the bar trivia game without much success. A couple of beers and some food later, we were off to The High Life.

Conrad and Dawnie (yes, the phone was attached to her head the whole time).

Picture Dad's (or Grandpa's) basement bar circa 1960 and that's The High Life. Ugly shag carpet, wood paneling and lots of beer decorations. Again, I felt right at home. Especially, since we were drinking pitchers of Miller Lite.

They have a great jukebox there and we played Jessie's Girl and Mrs. Robinson and other classics. Fun!

Our next stop was nearer to home (Ankeny) as Dawnie and I headed to Randy and Wanda Stoner's for some cocktails and to meet up with Tyson (Dawnie's bro) and his wife, De. We had a good time getting to know each other (I'd not met the Stoners before) then it was one more stop at a bar in Ankeny before finally getting to Dawnie's place.

We were actually worried that this wasn't enough Jell-O.

The evening wasn't over yet, though. Dawnie whipped up some Jello-Shots for the weekend while I got some puppy loving in with her dog, Lucy. She's a cutie.

Puppy!

2008

Dawnie and Tyson met my at the airport and we waited to pick up the rental car. And waited. And waited. It seemed quite the challenge for the lady behind the counter but we finally got it and Dawnie and I headed straight to Ankeny where we dropped off my suitcase at her new house and I got some Lucy and Shelby and Zoey (Dawnie's daughters) time. It was good to see them; they're great kids.

There was no Buzzard Billy's because it was a basement bar and restaurant and the big flood took it out. They haven't rebuilt yet. That made me sad.

Dawnie, Jen and Kathy

Jennie came over to pick us up and we were off to their current local bar. Think neighborhood bar where everyone knows your name and they have karaoke. It was that kind of place. We called Jamie and he came over to meet us when he got off from work.

Our next stop was the Stoners'. They were kind enough to host a "Welcome, Ms. Kathy" party in my honor. How sweet was that?

Disgusting!

Randy mixed up a cocktail that he wanted us to taste. It was his version of a Zombie and it was incredibly nasty. He said it was because it wasn't mixed and we were just tasting the 151 layer that was on top. That could be but none of us (except Randy) chose to drink it.

The boys playing washers.

Tyson and Dawnie took on Randy and me in his version of cornhole. Instead of bean bags, we used big washers. Thanks to Randy's great play, we won. I may have scored one or two points but it was really all him.

Of course, there was a Shotski.

The party was going along nicely until the heavens opened up on us. It started with a few harmless sprinkles but then it was buckets coming down. We ended up congregating in the garage to stay dry. That worked for a while until the water started spilling in to there creating a river. A flooding river.

Dawnie's flip flops going down the river.

While we were huddled together, Dawnie (again, with the phone perpetually attached to her ear) was just standing there when, oops, she dropped her phone into the river. What's up with phones and water? I should mention that the phone is one month old and her kids already broke the face by dropping it on some tile. She's not good with phones, clearly.

Wet phone.

We tried to dry off the phone and Randy fetched us all umbrellas so we could make it to our cars. There was no stop at the bar action on the way home. We pretty much went straight to bed so we could be fresh for travel day.