An Iowa Intermission

Sleeping in airports is never fun, and the Denver airport is no exception: there were a lot of bright lights, random loud announcements, and barely comfortable benches to sleep on. We eventually found a decent place to sleep, but didn’t realize that one of the earliest flights of the day was going out of that gate. So, we were awakened by the gate agent and congregating passengers and had to find a new home. We found a new and much less comfortable spot to sleep and got a bit more rest before our alarms went off and we had to get to our gate. We wandered over to it and boarded our plane soon after. The flight went quickly but not without a handful of delays that amounted to getting back later than we anticipated. We had arrived in Cedar Rapids, IA and had a wedding for a college friend in Des Moines, IA (a ~2 hour drive) in a few hours. We had no time to spare and had conveniently neglected to ask my mom to bring the formal clothes we had left at my parents’ house 45 minutes in the wrong direction. Additionally, my mom revealed that our last remaining childhood dog was not doing well and was going to be put down in the next couple days due to nasal cancer. So, after praying about it, Faith and I decided that we should spend the rest of the day with our family. We met up with my mom and sister, Jeralyn, at Lake MacBride to paddleboard with them and enjoy the afternoon together. The water was warm but refreshing and gave us our first swim of the year in water that wasn’t uncomfortably cold (at least to me). As evening came, we went back to my parents’ place for a lovely dinner with my brother-in-law as well, the first time all six of us had been together since Jeralyn and Gideon had gotten married at the start of the summer. We drifted off to sleep not long after as we really needed to catch up from the previous night.

The next day, Saturday, we had another wedding to get to, this time for a uncle (ish) who was getting married at the ripe age of 69 years old. The wedding wasn’t until the afternoon, so we spent the morning at the Cedar Rapids farmer’s market and ran into a good number of friends from the area. We quickly stopped at home, got ready, then hit the road up to north east Iowa to the venue: a campground that was previously owned by my great-grandparents and where we still have annual family reunions. The ceremony was short and sweet and followed up with good food and cold drinks. Thank heavens the drinks were cold as the day was about as hot and humid as they come in Iowa. We stuck around for a few hours, but left in the late afternoon to get dinner with my aunt and uncle at a local brewery my family frequently patrons. However, before we made it down to the brewery, we had to spend some time clearing a large branch (small tree size) that had fallen across our driveway. So, I got an opportunity to use my chainsaw and build some muscle cutting and moving the large chunks of oak with Scott and Gideon. We spent the rest of the evening hanging out before again heading off to sleep.

As the sun rose the next morning, we got to keep sleeping a bit as church wasn’t until later in the morning (thank heavens). We arose, got dressed, and headed to church for a good message and fellowship with friends we hadn’t seen for a while. Afterwards, we went home, hung out, and prepared for dinner with many of my childhood friends and their ladies. We had great food and caught up throughout the evening and into the night, bidding farewell after having mostly planned a trip together for later in the summer.

The next morning was a sad one: Jeralyn and I accompanied our mom to have Zinger put down and buried in our forest. The rest of the day was somber but productive; I got some work done while Faith helped around the house, we had lunch with a former coworker that now lives in Cedar Rapids, and Jeralyn and Gideon came over for dinner again. We played some cards for a while before calling it a day.

The next day was fairly similar: get up and work, go out to lunch, this time with a college friend, and return for dinner before heading down to the airport to catch our flights back to Seattle. We had a similar connection through Denver, though this time our layover was only six hours. The flight to Denver was quick and painless, and we once again had to find a place to lie down for a few hours to get some sleep.

Animals Seen

• Bald eagle
• Turkey vulture
• Crows
• Water snake
• Frogs
• Sparrow (inside the Denver airport)
• Deer

Stats

• ~250 miles of driving
• 1 wedding
• 1 beer pong tournament
• 2 nights in Denver International Airport