Day 1 - Thom Mahler - Parkersburg, IA

Our Family and Friends Tour (Part 1) has begun! We left the house at 8:20, later than we had planned, but, duh, we forgot about Daylight Savings Time! LOL! Thanks to Sandy’s mom at 7:21 (“why is she calling us at 6:21??”), we got up and got moving. Fortunately the car was all packed and it didn’t’ take much to finish the last minute stuff – AND change all the clocks!

We stopped at Casey’s, filled up the gas tank, set all the controls to “0”. We also picked up a copy of the Ames Tribune which has a BIG front page picture of the Ballard Girls Basketball team winning the State Tournament. (Kate, we’re bringing it to you!)

It’s a wet, rainy, dreary day. But our spirits are up and we are excited to start this trip. The car is riding smoothly, we’ve got XM Radio and a new Verizon card that allows us to use the internet while driving. We’re slow to get new technology, but we really really love this!

First stop: Visiting our 23 year old nephew Thom (Sandy’s sister Kathy’s son). He lives in Parkersburg Iowa, the town that got wiped out by a tornado last year. An interesting thing about that: he got his first teaching job as Band Director after graduating from Central College and shortly after that the high school was destroyed by a tornado. So he is now teaching in temporary quarters in Aplington while the new school is being built.

We arrived at Thom’s about a ½ hour early – and found out that we weren’t the only ones whose alarms weren’t set for Daylight Savings Time! LOL! His phone didn’t convert over to the new time. He thought we were 1½ hours early! But it didn’t take long for him to whip up breakfast – crab omelets, toast and raspberry tea. And we quickly learned that he has a new roommate. In addition to his pet rat and fish, he now has a tabby kitten named Lilly. Cute little thing! We had a wonderful visit. Thom showed us all the things he’s done with his house and what he plans to do. He’s got a good start on his future.

We’re now on the road headed to visit with Joy Gieske, and old friend from Huxley. She now lives in Mineral Point WI. She has a son that was a class mate of Kate’s, and a daughter that was a class mate of Chris’.