Preface: I'm not usually prone to making such silly titles to my posts (ok, maybe I am) but this is an exception. Someone mentioned this weekend that they wished they could have their name put into a pun in a headline like their star athlete brother. Well, this isn't the Marinette Eagle Herald, but I guess beggars can't be choosers when it comes to last-name-pun-headlines.
I made the trip down to Davenport, Iowa this weekend to visit my MTU bud Laura who now lives down there. I met her and her sister Emily at their booth of the farmers market in downtown Davenport. The sisters, of Flours & Fibers fame, bake (Emily) and knit (Laura) their way to stardom in the Quad Cities area. I can imagine residents walking the mean streets of Davenport with scone or gluten-free muffin in hand, kept warm by knit hat, scarf, and mitten, and carrying records or french bread in intricate yet sturdy (because of the reinforced band of the bag, so I'm told) striped bags.
Eastern Iowa has a lot to offer. I witnessed the aftermath of my first tug-of-war contest across state lines (Iowa lost to Illinois, if they wanted to win, they should've played Wisconsin. They're sissies over there.), though I missed the actual event. The aftermath of Tug Fest involved a lot of large, sunburnt men wearing menacing sunglasses, menacing facial hair, and non-threatening, "barely there" tank tops eating fried food. Or a pregnant woman who nixed the frumpy maternity garb for the ever-popular tank top (everyone loves tank tops in Iowa, too bad I left all mine at the store) with the bottom rolled up into a super bra. I guess she wanted her baby to be secondhand tan when it came out.
But the highlight of Tug Fest was a visit to an antique store in quaint downtown LeClaire. Not expecting a whole lot and feeling a bit bad for not playing bingo at Tug Fest, I was definitely surprised by what I found. Many antique stores I've visited have an almost obligatory selection of records, usually in old milk crates and usually featuring bottom of the barrel selection. But not this one. Four crates held the greatest density of "good" records I've ever seen. I ended up buying (thanks, Laura, for the loan) Prince (1999), Derek and the Dominos (Layla and other Assorted Love Songs), Led Zeppelin (Physical Grafitti), and David Bowie (Let's Dance). And could have picked up another half dozen save for the fact that I was already borrowing money from my host...Amazing.
The next day we made our way out to Laura and Emily's friend Kathy's farm. I could devote a whole post to this amazing place, but it's late and I have to wake up early. I'll just throw out a few words from the experience. Corn-zebo. Einstein ducks. Overflowing Japanese beetles. The god of yarn spinning. Wildflowers. Napoleon the chicken (who, according to legend, won power through a "chicken coup").
Then a redux of finding amazing records occurred Monday. Emily brought me (after some confusion on the streets of Davenport) to this small record store on the second floor of an old building. We were greeted heartily by two guys who, let's just say, looked like they worked in a used record store! But they were nice and, once again, I ended up in records heaven. After some gut wrenching decisions, I came home with an Elvis Costello (Get Happy!) and a Grateful Dead (Workingman's Dead) record and couldn't be happier. Emily stuck out an hour of browsing the dusty vinyls and came home with some new (old) LPs of her own to play once she finds speakers at home...
So this weekend was really fun and thanks to Laura for having me at her sweet place in Iowa, I'll be back.
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