Road trip: Destination - Heaven

Family takes a roadtrip for a weekend get together in heaven.

Iowa City, IA -- In 1989 there was a movie called Field of Dreams. This movie is a baseball movie, so it comes as no surprise that David Stricker is quite familiar with it. Over the weekend he and Wendy parodied this quote:

Shoeless Joe Jackson (David): "Is this heaven?"
Ray Kinsella (Wendy): "No, it's Iowa."

Iowa. Practically heaven. It seems like a good place to go, right?

So on the morning of Saturday, May 26, Jason, Shelly, and youngerlings stopped in Red Wing to pick up David and Wendy. Half a dozen hours later, they met up with Philip, Aimee, and their troop. Each group had traveled 250-300 miles to get to Iowa City, IA - less than 90 miles from Dyersville, IA, the site of the famous movie.

This was not a long visit to heaven - err, I mean Iowa. The groups separated for the drive home on the afternoon of Sunday, May 27. So while the time together was short, there was still plenty of fun!

Some of the highlights.

• - Olivia and IdaMae meet for the first time.
  
• - Playing with a frisbee, soccer ball, and beach ball in the field next to the hotel - while the Moms talked about babies.
• - David going to get new batteries for their camera 'cause they were taking so many pictures.
• - David and Wendy required a new room because the first one smelled so bad.
• - Wendy going to get more film for their camera 'cause they were taking so many pictures.
• - Visiting a city park so the kids could play - and the Moms could talk about babies.
• - The hotel swimming pool was closed "For Maintenance".
• - The Jacuzzi was open.
• - Playing a game of pool with the help of Mateo and Nicolas
• - Two-person pinball - 'cause some of the players' arms were too short to reach both flipper buttons.
• - A group game of video bowling.
• - Moms talking about babies.
• - For the two vehicles:
  • * aprox. 600 miles per vehicle
  • * aprox. 350 photos (c300 digital, c50 film)
  • * about 36 total hours per vehicle (time gone from home)
• - Which means there was one photo taken...
  1. * Every 3.5 miles of travel (approximately).
  2. * Every 12 minutes while gone from home (approximately).
  3. * Every 246 seconds while together in heaven! I mean Iowa.

So while it wasn't truly heaven, it's the opinion of many that it was mighty close! (like about 90 miles?)

-- Philip