The Sandwich Life

Day Two of the Big Boy Jaunt

On Day two we wandered through some of eastern Iowa. My route ended up not being terribly successful, but we did come across a few things. It was gray and rainy throughout, but we didn't mind.

I loved this still-functioning store in the middle of nowhere. My favorite thing? When you zoom in on the second-floor window and see the name of the dentist. Dr. Fear.

We stopped in Grinnell (more about that later) and then headed for our evening destination of Cedar Falls. The temperature had dropped; the rain had turned to snow and the winds were fierce, so we didn't get out when we came across the stately old hotel, but grabbed a quick picture.

Then the weather made us decide 'no more stops' and we headed into Cedar Falls.

Onward.

Day One of the Pre Big Boy Jaunt: Fort Madison, Iowa

After we left sad, quiet little Stillwell we meandered through western Illinois, stopping here and there for pictures. Our destination was Fort Madison, Iowa. Owen and I had driven through there some years ago and liked it, and I'd found a really reasonably priced historic hotel overlooking the Mississippi. Sometimes something labeled 'historic' reads expensive, but this was absolutely perfect, historic indeed, but not too precious, and not too expensive, no more than you'd pay for a chain motel. I highly recommend Kingsley Inn. We had a big room with arched windows overlooking the very high river. We wandered around downtown a bit, had a drink in the bar of the hotel, and eventually curled up in our delightful room with dinner. The trains ran by in front of the hotel seemingly constantly but they weren't too loud and the sound made me happy. We woke up to a grey rainy day. We went to the Fort Diner for breakfast because it just seemed the thing to do. I had steak and eggs, no eggs, with hashbrowns. Not a perfect breakfast but you work with what you got. Life is odd but you figure it out as you go, right?

We wandered on in the rain. 

It really wasn't that dark in the restaurant, but I like how the camera decided seeing the river was more important than seeing the interior. I agree, camera, I agree.

I loved the color of the table, Ernie's shirt, and the blue cup all went together. That, and the way you can see where so many knees have worn the counter.

The Big Boy 4014 Awaits

I don't think I've ever written here about Leo and Ernie's upcoming trip. They leave Thursday for a 22 day trip to Wyoming, Utah, and Montana. Yes, I know. That is a LONG time together. I expect Ernie to come back thoroughly schooled in drum & bass, and Leo to have expanded his musical horizons as well. Well, that or they will kill each other. It's killing ME that I can't go with them, but I have things to do here AND a house concert.

This trip has been planned for years, and Leo's been carefully saving his money for it. 2019 marks the 150th anniversary of the Golden Spike in Utah, the completion of a transatlantic railroad, and will be the first time in 60 years there has been an operating Big Boy (it's Leo's, uh, spirit engine). If you're wondering how long Leo has loved the Big Boy, check out this old post from the early days of this blog. My sweet peas. There are only something like 8 Big Boys or so left, we have seen three of them I believe; one in St. Louis, one in Green Bay, and one in Omaha. None of those runs, in fact, none of them have run since 1959 or thereabouts, so when Union Pacific got this one (the 4014) a few years ago, with plans to restore it, it was a BIG deal. 

Ernie and Leo will drive out to Cheyenne, where they will see the Big Boy take off for the first time! From Cheyenne, it will go to Ogden Utah, for a celebration of the Golden Spike, then back to Cheyenne. They will follow along, chasing it for pictures, as it goes. It will have some days off, for maintenance, and some for celebration (they're spending four days in Ogden, Utah). Once it is back home in Cheyenne, they will take off for Montana. Leo's other favorite line, the Milwaukee Road, has some old substations there that he wants to photo document. He is, without a doubt, my boy.

I'm so excited for them. I got all the hotels for them, and have a big spreadsheet of the schedule, the hotels, and various recommendations I am making (where to eat in Cheyenne for dinner and breakfast, the popcorn neon sign in Salt Lake City that I want a picture of, etc.). We've got the lists made and most of the prep done. Leo shared a video from Facebook the other day (When I texted him, "OMG, you're on FACEBOOK!" he politely responded with, "Yes, and you're going to ignore that, thank you.") and it gave me chills.

 

I noticed that this video, posted about a day and a half ago, has already been shared some 5,000 times. This is a BIG deal in the train world. Leo's been waiting for this since, well...

He's missing his finals but is able to do them online, all except one which he is doing ahead of time. Thanks for understanding professors and bosses. This will be the trip of a lifetime for him. I will be a nervous wreck worrying about everything. And then there's Owen and me on our own for three weeks. I don't know whether we'll have a great time or kill one another. Possibly both.

Onward.

 

 

 

Wandering

The truck pulled up next to me. "Do you know that building?" the man asked.

"No," I said, "I just like taking pictures of old buildings."

He nodded his head and was quiet. I asked him what it used to be. "The back was the bank, and the front here was a store. It was the whole center of town." He paused a minute, then said,  "It was built in 1913. It needs a lot of work. I've had it about fifteen years and it just keeps going down. I was in a car accident and I'm lucky to be alive." I said, "We all are, we all are," and he nodded in agreement. We chatted for another minute. I thanked him for telling me about it. He drove off, and I kept taking pictures.

Across the street, next to a well-kept house.

And down the street. Other than this there were a street or two of houses and trailers. Stillwell, Illinois. We drove on a gravel road to get to it. Ernie's not always thrilled with my routing.

The only living thing we saw, other than the woman who asked Ernie if he needed help as he was waiting in the car for me, and my friend that I chatted to, was this creature.

Smoothies: The Paint Color Collection

I think some enterprising paint company should have a smoothie collection of paint colors. Look at these! They are mostly varying amounts of berries, greens, and avocado. Ok, the really pink one was when I ran out of greens. That top middle one would make a lovely room, now, wouldn't it?

Decatur, Tomatoes, and Aaron Lee Tasjan

I met a friend for lunch in Decatur the other day. I swear, I almost crash the car every time I drive by this sign. Oh, Busey. I shake my head. Really, what were they thinking? Was that sign somehow meant for a much bigger building and they just slapped it on this one by mistake?

I stopped at Del's Popcorn Shop and got some cheese popcorn for Owen, because, well, you have to support that sign. And it gives me a chance to walk by some of my favorite window hoods I (just behind the sign). And look, I managed to crop the Jimmy John's sign out of the picture! Mostly I just sat and listened to my friend, who is going through a nightmare of a time, while we ate lunch. I love her dearly, and despite the rotten reason for seeing her, it felt good. Going home I blasted Aaron Lee Tasjan, listening to Dime over and over again. I've decided it's my anthem. You should always have an anthem, and this is currently mine. (Side note: I'm still holding a bit of a grudge against Ernie and Owen that when they came back from seeing Aaron Lee at Space they didn't even have, I don't know, a fucking signed NAPKIN or something for me, but I'm trying really hard to be adult and let go of that. But, but, but, surely there was SOMETHING on the merch table they could have gotten....)

 

Oh, ok, I'll go ahead and post the pictures I've been meaning to but didn't because I was pissed at them. I'm TRYING not to hold a grudge.  It was only when Owen didn't want to share his pictures from the night with me that I blew. And I get that too...wanting to keep something to yourself. I try to be good, but sometimes I don't have it in me. Anyway, good GOD but I love Aaron Lee, and could that bass player be prettier?

You can tell Owen is thinking, "For God's SAKE, just take the picture Dad."

Owen hyperventilating earlier in the day at Chicago Music Exchange.

Ok, done, now back to current day... later that afternoon and evening I didn't feel great. I'd had wine over the weekend, and that doesn't always agree with me, but it felt like it was getting worse, rather than better. That night I couldn't sleep at ALL, and I was itchy, itchy, itchy, getting up in the middle of the night to change to see if that would help. Yesterday I just felt lousy, bleary and fuzzy. I met somebody I didn't know at Art Mart that morning, and I hope to hell I sounded coherent. Later in the day, as I sat in Avionics with my beloved Sasha, we were chatting about food and our respective intolerances and the like, and it suddenly occurred to me...WAIT, I HAD TOMATOES YESTERDAY! I felt so relieved to have figured it out. A few months ago, after the elimination diet, I tried reintroducing tomato and had immediately reacted to it. So I mournfully wrote tomato off. However, in the past month or two, I'd had a random cherry tomato or two on a salad when we went out, so I thought I probably was ok now. When I had lunch with JoAnne, I was too busy talking to think about it, so although I avoided the croutons and onion in my salad, I happily ate the big slices of tomato without thinking.

WELL. Damn. I mean, maybe down the road I can eat it, after all, I still hold out hope for garlic, but I guess tomato is off the table for now. I was incredibly relieved to have figured it out. I was beginning to google my symptoms worriedly. It was bad enough that right now I don't even care that I can't eat them. Come August it might be a different thing, but then again, supposedly fully ripe tomatoes have fewer lectins (which is why local is so good for us) which might make it bearable. We shall see. 

So, onward. Happily tomato-freely and AaronLee-lovingly onward.

More Cemetery Love

Had a lovely day exploring more cemeteries on Saturday. Beautiful day. I'm lucky to have friends point me in the direction of different cemeteries and places. 

And this tree...and this fence. Oh my heart.

I thought this might be a symbol from some kind of fraternal organization. There was another one like it. It's on a women's grave though, and I couldn't find anything online. Anybody know?




Happy infant, early blest

Rest in peaceful slumber, rest

Happy Easter from the Girl with the Easter Bonnet

Easter is a funny day for me as an adult. I grew up with Easter as one of the major holidays, but as an adult, I don't celebrate it on a religious basis. Yet I feel a loss when I don't recognize it. When the boys were little we celebrated it with eggs and Easter baskets, but that is long in the past now.  Somehow it doesn't feel respectful to celebrate with a celebratory dinner when I don't celebrate it with my beliefs. It somehow leaves me at a loss a bit. Maybe I am just missing my family.

I DID have a hell of a nice Easter bonnet.

Well, it is a gorgeous day and I have a rack of lamb to cook for dinner tonight, so all is good.

Happy Easter

Happy Passover

Happy Spring

Onward.

Cemetery Throwdown

When I'm in a bad mood, I say to Ernie, "Let's go for a drive." It doesn't solve everything but it puts me in a different place and lets me process things differently, and I'm usually a little easier on myself. So, yesterday, mid-afternoon, I said, "Let's go for a drive." I had a cemetery exploration throwdown from a friend, so we headed over there. We had to walk through a field to get to it. We looked at it from the road on one side and it was awful muddy from all the rain we had the other day. We went to a different road and thought, "Well, huh. Maybe." So we pulled the car over and hiked over in the wind, trying to find weeds to walk on to save us from sinking into the mud.

I stood there in the middle of the muddy field looking at the gravestones from a 19th-century family. It is primarily the graves of Alexander Boyer (1825-1868) and his children, as well as possibly a sister, Merica Ann Boyer Clouser (born 1833), and her children, two of whom died just weeks apart in 1854. She had a daughter two years later, who lived until the 1880s, but she herself died in 1858, when her daughter was two and she was only 25. Her husband married again and lived into the 1920's but is buried in Mansfield. Oh, I found references to Alexander Boyer as a farmer, teacher, and judge. His wife, Hannah Duckett Boyer, didn't seem to have a stone there that I could see, but some were toppled and of course, some could be missing entirely. I could totally go down a rabbit hole following this family. I will try to restrain myself. It is somewhat magical to me that in the middle of this cornfield a few miles from here could be so many stories.

Dolly, Daughter of A. G. and H. Boyer, Aged 4 mos, 21 days.

 

Perspective: Friends and Food

I had a relatively frustrating week. Nothing horrendous happened, but by Friday I was in a piss poor mood. Mind you, there were bright spots (I got to meet a longtime virtual friend, Norma, in person). But despite the bright spots, yesterday was just not a good day. However, I heard from two friends yesterday who are undergoing devastating situations, and as always, those things put everything in perspective. I've got my ups and downs, but I am very lucky.

So. Onward.

Lastly, I've made a few dinners of late that were ok, that looked good enough for my Instagram cooking feed lol, but were kinda eh. I thought the kiwi/cucumber/jalapeno salsa on salmon would be good, but it wasn't as flavorful as I thought. Perhaps more acid would have helped now that I think about it. Last night though? Oh good GOD we made a great dinner. We knew going in it would be pretty good, as we had Farmer Greg's first batch of asparagus, but we knocked it out of the park. I'd had some frozen scallops from Aldi in the freezer for a while. Yesterday, we finally pulled them out and tossed them in a bowl of cold water to defrost. When it came time to eat it came together pretty quickly. I took an overripe avocado and put it in the blender. Then I added a half cup of good olive oil, the juice of one lemon, 1/4 cup of white balsamic vinegar, a bit of salt, and whirled it all up. I cut up the asparagus and put in a pan to steam. Then I dried the scallops and sprinkled them with salt and pepper. I got a cast iron skillet nice and hot and added avocado oil and some grass-fed butter. It started to brown pretty quickly so we put the scallops in and seared them on each side. Oh, oh, oh, and Ernie had made some tri-color quinoa (if you think you don't like quinoa and have had just the plain yellow, try the tricolor, I like it MUCH better). I made a bed of quinoa and put three scallops on top. The leftover oil/butter/scallop liquid in the pan got mixed in with the avocado dressing, then drizzled on top. I had forgotten to add the cilantro to the dressing so it just went on top. Another sprinkle of salt on top of everything.

It. Was. Amazing. 

It put the so-so meals into perspective. Good, healthy food, but not at the level of this meal.

It's all about perspective. EVERYTHING is about perspective, huh?

And yes, I know my plate is messy. We all have our strengths. Plating is not one of mine.