"Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas any more."

Through the Cornfields

Although it's not technically Kansas, every time I'm in Iowa, I can't help but think about the opening scenes of "The Wizard of Oz." We drive for hours through endless cornfields. Some of it is really beautiful in a Norman Rockwell sort of way.

We loaded up the old Volvo with three bikes and a huge bag on the roof and made the 15-hour drive up to Iowa City this week to bring Danielle up to school for her sophomore year. The BIG THING that got us up there so early this year was that she was moving into a house near campus that she and four other athletes are renting. This is a typical old house in the city, complete with spooky basement, creaking floors, and various creatures of the night in permanent residence. Their first night in the house, and a bat somehow gets inside, at which point they all lock themselves in the house's single bathroom, leaving Danielle to deal with the frightened little bat. She chased it into one of the bedrooms, shut the door, and waited until the next morning to call so that I could do the "born free" thing and release the cute little mammal back into the wilds of Iowa City.

I brought my bike on the trip and Danielle and I did a 25-mile ride the first morning. The weather there was nothing less than fantastic. Low humidity with low temps in the 60's and highs around 80. The ride was nothing spectacular, but some nice little rollers and decent roads. I did the same ride the next day by myself, but I still feel pretty unprepared for tomorrow's team time trial. This is about the lowest-mileage week I've had all year, I guess.

It was actually a lot of fun fixing up what I could of the house up there and getting Danielle set up in her new place. It seems like a great community there of mostly students. All the houses have bikes outside and people hanging out on the steps and porches. I still wish I had gone away to college. It all looks like so much fun, and even at my (ahem...) advanced age, I feel so comfortable around college students.

Well, now I'm back home with the bills and the job, and on Monday I'll have to hit the ground running to catch up on some important stuff at work. Plus, I am apparently going to be handling the U. of Iowa's women's gymnastics "inside stuff" website, assuming the data systems folks up there can deal with an "outsider" having access. Should be interesting - one more volunteer job!