Day Six - DeWitt, Iowa

Due to a lack of a usable internet connection, this is being posted a day late. :) Sorry!




After a 2:30 am bedtime last night, getting up this morning was not pleasant, to say the least. But we made it out of the cabin on time, filled up the gas tank and washed the windshield and were on our way to Niagara Caves by7:20. The sunrise was beautiful.

Jess drove again, and let me nap for an hour partway through the morning. We had definitely entered farming country, as the view in all directions was yellow grass or corn stalks. Our trip today was taking us along I-90, then off on country roads to Niagara Caves, before ending in De Witt, Iowa where Bona, my great-aunt lives. We stopped at a gas station as we turned off the freeway to pick up a bottle of milk (I’ve still been have Carnations Instant Breakfast chocolate milk for breakfast). We had been searching for 1% or Fat Free (basically anything but 2% or Whole Milk), but to no avail. So we picked a bottle of two percent and overheard (okay, listened in on) some local people with their accents. They were talking about string cheese, but calling it stick cheese which I had never heard of before. We have also been seeing a type of gas – E85 (or something similar) – that is awful cheap, but I think it might be for tractors only, so we are just buying regular unleaded for now.

From this point on, we were in 60 (or less!) mile per hour zones, which felt like we were crawling compared to the 75 (plus) of the past few days. We also found some windmills, just like the ones in central / eastern Washington.

After driving around on backwood highways for a few hours, GPS was finally telling us that we were near the Cave. Seeing no signs, we figured that we had entered the coordinates wrong (or that the website was a hoax to draw us into the middle of nowhere…), but we eventually found one lone sign. The parking lot was full (meaning not as creepy), so we changed into tennis, grabbed our sweatshirts and went inside.

Did I mention that the weather today was perfect? It seems that as soon as we find activities that are not under the open sky, the rain quits.

The tour was pretty full, but we managed to get into the front of the line. The Cave goes down almost 300 feet (that is A LOT of stairs) and includes a 60 foot waterfall (hence the name “Niagara Caves”), along with a wishing well and other formations. For those of you who have seen “The Goonies” – yes, we were having flashbacks to the movie. The walk (*hike*) back to the top made us notice the 95% humidity in the Cave that our tour guide had mentioned (with his amazingly awesome pronunciation of the letter “o,” I might add). As soon as we walked into the open air, the 70 plus degree temperatures meant that we spent the next hour driving with the windows down, rocking out to country music (Brantley Gilbert anyone?).

Before the long trek back up the stairs...

I’m sure we gave Californians a good name when we pulled over on the side of the road so that I could get out and run back to take a picture of the “Welcome to Iowa” sign. I guess that’s one of the perks of being a Washingtonian with California plates.

By now it was way past lunchtime, but it seemed like the cafes and restaurants in each of the towns that we passed were closed for the day or shut down. We finally found a pizza and ice cream place that was open, and bustling with customers. The pizza was okay, probably not worth the wait but we were hungry. Their ice cream flavors did not include Maui Waui, so that was a disappointment.

For those of you who have yet to be introduced to the delightfulness that is Maui Waui, it is a delicious tropical sherbet flavored ice cream. As far as I am aware, you can buy it at O’Brady’s in Dollars Corner, WA, sometimes in the ice cream shop at the end of the street in Long Beach,WA, and at an ice cream shop by the beach in Oceanside, CA. As I discover more locations, I will let you know. :)

Another stop for gas, and we were finally headed into De Witt, Iowa. We found the house, unpacked and chatted with my (2nd) cousin Jim until Bona got home. Jim grilled up some turkey breasts that Bona had marinated for dinner. It was absolutely delicious…much better than the turkey I made a few weeks back. My other (2nd) cousin Tom (Jim’s brother) also came over for dinner. I’ve only met them once before, right after I graduated high school, so it was good to see them again. Bona came to the wedding last summer, and is possibly the sweetest woman I have met. There isn’t really internet here so I am typing this to post tomorrow night, but we are in bed and ready to sleep by 10:00. Tomorrow we are doing almost 9 hours of driving in an attempt to see my mom’s childhood home in Flint, Michigan. After tomorrow, we might finally be able to sleep in a morning.