Captain’s Log – Star Dates 07162009 through 07182009
Location --- Sutherland Home, Waterloo, Iowa
Trip Miles – 3551.4
Report from Engineering – Brake controller is OK. Big Rig Trailer Company checked it and it didn’t cost a dime! Star Ship Wolverine is cleared for transit to the Galaxies of Illinois and Indiana.
Diesel Price -- $2.46 per gallon
Weather – Strange! Daytime temperatures have dropped to 64F and night temperatures are down to 48F! We had to break out our storm jackets! It’s JULY in IOWA and it’s supposed to be HOT!

“You could sleep in the cave”, said Carla, somewhat apologetically. Carla is Carla Everett Sutherland, a high school friend of Barb and the salutatorian of Barb’s high school class. Carla’s beautiful eyes blaze with an intelligence that is positively scary. Her husband, John, is a family-practice physician and avid golfer. Together, these wondrous people made sure we lived WELL while we were in Waterloo!

We absolutely LOVED the cave! As a note of explanation – “the cave” is the transformed basement of the Sutherland’s home. It is a warmly decorated spacious apartment, full of contemporary art and family photographs. This place was indeed our hallowed sanctuary! Angie was transferred from the trailer to the cave and made our sanctuary her personal domain for two days! John’s and Carla’s home is truly gorgeous, filled with choice contemporary art pieces and possessing an 80-foot driveway on which our rig rested easily!

My impression of Iowa is that of a place where one is confronted with the mind-boggling immensity of American agriculture! The state appears to be one enormous well-tended farm, studded here and there by outstanding institutions of higher learning. It is also home to some truly outstanding eateries, one of which is Galleria de Paco in Waterloo. Carla and John took us to this gracious place, established by industrious Bosnian refugees with a flair for the artistic. The chef decorated the ceiling like the Sistine Chapel --- using spray paint! This dude is a genius! The food is outstanding, too!

Waterloo’s Grout Museum District is home to the moving Sullivan Brothers Veterans’ Museum which documents the costs of war. It is an intimate museum that focuses on Iowans involved in our nation’s conflicts. The Sullivans were five young brothers who joined the Navy together and died together with the sinking of the USS Juneau in World War II.

Our son, Dan, was a champion wrestler in high school and attended wrestling camp at Iowa State University in Ames. We visited the campus en route to Waterloo. John and Carla took us to the Dan Gable Wrestling Museum in Waterloo. Wrestling is a true passion in Iowa. The Gable Museum traces the history of this intense sport from Biblical times. Abe Lincoln was very proud of the wrestling match he won over Jack Armstrong in 1831.

The College Hill Art Festival is a world-class festival of contemporary art held each summer on the campus of the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. Nice stuff here … creative works in wood, clay, metal, paper and photography. We came! We saw! We BOUGHT! The day was chilly and we wore our jackets. Carla told us the weather at the festival is usually impossibly hot.

The local production of Disney’s “A High School Musical” at the Waterloo Community Playhouse disappointed us. John fell asleep during the first act. I need not mince words here since Carla, a Playhouse benefactor, was far stronger in expressing disapproval than Barb and I! The male lead was awful! A teeny-little guy portraying a big basketball star, he sang a quarter-tone FLAT – enough to make us all cringe! The script is numbingly trite and would have made this much-hyped show a bust for us, even with stellar Broadway performers! Barbara and Carla are both veterans of excellent high-school musical productions. We all had a good laugh! At the performance, John treated me to a world-class oatmeal raisin cookie. Luscious!

Down-the-road-a piece from Waterloo…which means a 140 mile drive through Cedar Rapids and Iowa City…sits IOWA 80…the largest truck stop in the
WORLD! It was a daunting task to thread our way though a giant random-motion mass of big rigs, RV’s,cars and tourists at this place. We did not HIT nor GET HIT, Thank You God! Hey, we accomplished our mission here…climbing behind the wheel of an enormous Kenworth truck parked inside the Largest Chrome Shop in the World. Over at Ma’s Kitchen, an overweight trucker could really bust his gut at the lunch buffet. We were content with soup and salad.

Across the Mississippi River lies Illinois! Enough of my words for now…except to note that John has really taken to geocaching. He hunted and found an ultra-ultra-tiny cache in a Waterloo fountain…exhibiting the tenacity of a good physician! Hoo-rah!

Enjoy Barbara’s photo displays, kids…I sure do!

Affectionately,

Captain Baldy