Monday, October 16, 2006

 

GTI

GTI *sure* doesn't have the ring of "GTT." Sounds like a gastroenterological procedure.

But here we are, wakin' up in Overland Park, Kans., fixin to be GTI -- gone to Iowa, where I will serve as Dr. ER's trophy husband, payin' her back for her bein' my trophy wife in Wichita. :-)

I can't remember whether I've been to Iowa or not. Seems like I might've been in Des Moines for a meeting of the what then was the National Association of Agricultural Journalists in the early 1990s. I mean, I know I was at the meeting. Can't remember whether it was in Des Moines or Kansas City. These boxy Yankee states all run together in my mind.

Dr. ER has been after me to go with her to Iowa for years. I've been indifferent. She says I will like the farm country. Probably. But it's still The Land Where People Talk Funny, so I don't know.

However, a good steak can cover a multitude of dialectical sins. And I plan to eat a piece of one of the corn-fed beeves that Iowans are known to brag about.

We'll just *see* whose cows make the best supper. Oklahoma and Texas grass-fed or wheat-fed, with a corn finish, does makes a purdy good slab o' cowflesh.

--ER

Comments:
Stop by the Amanna Colony and buy one of their red or grey Civil War Union issue blankets.
As a Historian you should go to their woolen mill as well. The blankets aren't exactly replicas cause they are madefrom the same pattern, on the same looms, in the same mill, at the same place, by decendents of the people working there in the 1860's, and from the decendents of the sheep providing the wool in 1860. So call them brand new artifacts or something. They were also a standard trade-blanket among the central plains Indians of that time. You can get them at the Colony or at the Little Amanna tourist stop on the interstate.
 
This is a good time of year to be up thataways, at least. Still a bit early for the nasty freezing rain they often get starting in late October.

My alma matter, being in the very northern bit of Missouri, was often subjected to the same weather patterns as southern Iowa. One year we had such severe ice storms, the campus was one of only two places in three counties that had power (the YMCA was the other). My roommate and I had to start a schedule to keep track of all our off-campus-living friends who were stopping by for showers.

Anyway, if you'd like a nice drive back to OKC, depending on where you are in Iowa, you could take highway 63 straight south through Kirksville (home of my alma matter) and Columbia to Jeff City, then take 54 through the Ozarks to 65, which will take you to Springfield, where you can eat lunch at a very old Steak N Shake before jumping onto 44. That's how I used to drive home for breaks, and it's a nice drive (just don't be in a hurry through the Ozarks).
 
Iowa has some of the best antiques shops I've ever seen. I would love to go to the Amana Colony myself right about now. And should you be seeking out sites for the return trip, check out Jamestown, Mo., an Amish community just to the west of 63 between Columbia and Jeff City. A good detour for lunch and looking around for an hour.
 
Hey now!! ER is one fine looking man..... OK, he ain't that good looking but at least he is..... uhh... ummm... well, at ,least he has great ummm.... well ... nevermind

Ronholio
 
What yer tryin' to say, Ronholio, is that ER has *personality*. :-)
 
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