Friday-Trip Journal Day One

Friday morning I got up around 6:00 a.m. and started running errands while theMan worked. We loaded the car and left an hour early (making me know this is totally going to rock because we are usually late to EVERYTHING) and hit the ground running. Traffic wasn’t even that bad, especially once we got out of the city. Once I realized we were surrounded by red barns, farms and the open road I completely relaxed. Like the tension just melted away.

We pulled into a small town on the way and saw signs for Ronald Reagan’s boyhood home so of course we had to stop! And stop we did, complete with pictures of theMan flipping off his statue and then running to the car before they brought out the shotguns.

I was a little apprehensive about the cabin, but as we got closer to the town it was in and saw the Mississippi I realized it was going to have to be pretty shitty to ruin this trip. Turns out, it’s gorgeous! The couple that own it are adorable. The lady asking us if we needed anything to make our stay better was wearing the fiercest denim jumpsuit I’ve ever seen. In fact, I think it was custom tailored to her slight frame.

The cabin itself is very clean and comfy. All the comforts of home and though there are 3 other cabins on the property, it feels like we are pretty isolated. It’s stocked with breakfast items, she even pre-filled 2 coffee filters for each morning we are here.

We unpacked and took the free trail bikes down the road to the trails at Indian Head. It was short but pretty rough and ended with a steep rock overlooking the river and highway. Everything is very slow and pretty here. People sit out on their porch and wave at you, all that. We came back exhausted since it’s like 80 here during the day and hopped in the hot tub. It’s pretty good sized too and clean!! Usually when I sit in hot tubs I envision all the big hairy dudes that previously sat in it, but nothing doing in this one.

After the hot tub, a quick cold shower then well...I gave theMan one of his birthday presents. Ahem.

The cool thing about this place is that they built them all on their land and there are all kinds of cool little touches. Like a journal in each room that everyone who has stayed here signs and fills out. They even provided us with some jazz CD’s and movies to keep us occupied. Once when we left, you could hear them playing guitar on the porch of their house at the front of the property.

We decided to eat some supper and then head out to tour the town while the sun was still in the sky. Ended up sitting next to the Missisippi River at this little park and taking some pictures. Then driving around the town and over to Iowa investigating. We came back and watched the coolest music channel I’ve ever seen. IMF (International Music Feed) is on one of the satellite channels in our cabin and it’s non-stop music and good music from all over the world! We’ve started a list of bands to check out like The Sounds, Morningwood, Energica, etc. I‘ve been out of the music scene for a bit so it was nice to get reeducated.

We had the car full of food: vegan garlic bread & asparagus for the grill, pasta salad w/tempeh for a meal we don’t have to cook, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and spices. So we haven’t spent a dime on food since we’ve been here and it’s been nice not to have to hunt for veggie alternatives. The cabin has a stocked kitchen with utensils, etc. so it’s easy to get it done. We brought so much food the fridge is about full.

Anyways, we’re about to start our second day here. Currently I’m writing this while sitting by the fire and the birthday boy draping his legs on my lap. That’s hard to beat.