Saturday, June 30, 2007

Friday Construction Photo #11

Another week of working on footings. If you look closely, you might be able to see that some of the footings at the far corner of the site are actually now above ground level. You have the whole range in this shot: above ground, poured with rebar, and freshly dug.

Also, in the "background" of the photo, you can see the white tents of the Des Moines Art Festival. Each year, this event has seemed to grow in popularity and stature. Weather looks like it should be fantastic for this weekend's event.

Enjoying eight and a half innings and another sunset

Friday evening, we returned to Sec Taylor Field at Principal Park to enjoy an nice cool, overcast evening. For eight and one half innings, it was an excellent game; both teams getting nice play in the field, a couple of runs, and exciting baserunning. Usually, eight and one half innings is enough to make a good evening for the home team. Unfortunately, the half inning that we could have done without was the top of the fifth when the Oklahoma Redhawks posted nine runs. That kinda put the game into a different category. It finished eleven to two and the best photo of the night is to the right, just as it came from the camera. Sometimes I crop a photo down to capture the "important" part of the image. Sometimes I play a little with the brightness or contrast to "help" it a little. This one, I don't think I should touch. If someone came to me with this sky, I'd have to raise a skeptical eyebrow and wonder. I assure you that this is just as it was recorded. Pretty amazing to me... and I was there!

Practicing casting

Can't really call it fishing when there's no sign of fish now can I? Linda brought some bread and we swung by the Valley Junction Farmer's Market to pick up some cheese curds and had a little lakeside picnic. Energized, we set about the business of casting about in what proved to be a futile pursuit. Linda salvaged the evening with this photo of the sunset; somehow, her fishing pole got in the picture but, as it turns out, I like it! (Yes, I know that she wanted it in the picture...)

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Having fun at the old ballpark... again!

Monday night, as part of their Des Moines Area Religious Council Food Pantry Night, we (Linda) brought six cans of tuna to pay our admission as the Iowa Cubs hosted the Albuquerque Isotopes. It was another beautiful slightly warm evening to be out. The Cubs hit back to back homers in the second to take a 2-1 lead. Over the next three innings, they gave up four runs and trailed 2-5. It looked to me like the teams were playing pretty well, hitting the ball hard; unfortunate for the Cubs, they were generally hitting at someone while the Isotopes found the occasional gap. In the bottom of the ninth, the Cubs got things going and put two more on the board before running out of outs. It was a good time... and take a look at those barbecue nachos! Tasty!!

Reporting the NASCAR Results

Wow! I guess I've really fallen behind on my NASCAR reporting. Thanks Greg for reminding me! I can't really go into each of the races but here's how they wer scored.

Pocono 500 / Pocono Raceway
#1 Bear Down Racing 303 vs 345 #6 Red Neck Racing Academy
#3 Desert Denny 421 vs 449 #4 halffastracing
#5 Blue Bayou 444 vs 387 #2 Overdue

Citizens Bank 400 / Michigan International Speedway
#2 Overdue 470 vs 369 #3 Desert Denny
#5 Blue Bayou 356 vs 352 #1 Bear Down Racing
#6 Red Neck Racing Academy 297 vs 239 #4 halffastracing

Toyota/SaveMart 350 / Infineon Raceway
#1 Bear Down Racing 472 vs 398 #2 Overdue
#3 Desert Denny 251 vs 388 #6 Red Neck Racing Academy
#5 Blue Bayou 365 vs 300 #4 halffastracing

Over these three races, my Bear Down Racing won one but lost no ground to league leading halffastracing. Unfornately, that's three races that I won't be gaining ground ... and there's a lot of ground to be gained.

Current standings:

#4 halffastracing 12-4
#5 Blue Bayou 10-6
#6 Red Neck Racing Academy 9-7
#1 Bear Down Racing 8-8
#2 Overdue 5-11
#3 Desert Denny 4-12

Visiting the Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge

Saturday, Linda and I met for breakfast at the Des Moines landmark Waveland Cafe. A smallish "greasy spoon" class diner complete with counter stool seating and a Coffee Mug Club, this place seems to always be doin' bustling business. We saw but didn't try the dinner plate sized pancakes; I've since read that their apple cinnamon pancakes are quite tasty. Fueled for a day of roaming across the countryside, we set sail east for the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge to check out Buffalo Day.

Overcast skies didn't deter a nice assortment of families and retired folk from coming out to see what's happening at the refuge. We took a brief look around the learning center and caught the bus tour around some of the grounds. Our guide had only been on site a few weeks but clearly had a great deal of knowledge about the flora and fauna and the progress the Fish and Wildlife Service have had with this project. Along they wa, we saw the three elk in my photo resting on a hilltop. Several other members of the herd under the trees down along the creek. We did see some of the forty-seven member buffalo herd but were too far away to get a decent photo.

The buffalo currently at the refuge are not the original herd. The genetics of the old herd were recognized as containing cow; they didn't get into how they recognized the contamination but it must have been apparent that the old herd wasn't as pure a strain as the current herd. The current herd is from a national bison herd that has genetics as clean as any around. In the interest of protecting that population, smaller herd groups are being distributed to other locations. While that may make our herd more "authentic," I can't help wondering what happened to the old herd. Hmmm...

Back at the learning center, we wandered the various displays and came face to face with the badger in the photo. His head is probably at least four feet tall and can be found around a corner in a maze teaching about what's lurking under the surface of the prairie. The displays were interesting and engaging, even for an old guy like me.

We stepped outside and walked the longer trail through some of the prairie restoration near the learning center. Over the two mile walk, we saw several interesting plants and saw and heard several birds taking advantage of the protected status at the refuge. The pheasants and deer better enjoy it while it lasts; in the fall season, hunting these two is allowed on portions of refuge land.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Friday Construction Photo #10

Rain this morning surely slowed at least a few of the tasks at the work site today. The sky was threatening when I took this shot and soon another downpour was rolling across the city. Several of the concrete footings are clearly poured and trenches bristle with rebar. It looks like the rebar storage area in the foreground is likely to be displaced in the next week or so as the trenches keep expanding.

Spending another nice evening on the square in Indianola

Tuesday evening, Linda and I set out for the square in Indianola to spend a couple of hours in lawn chairs with the locals listening to another bluegrass band. Unlike the Minnesota based group we saw a couple of weeks ago, Southern Reign is mostly a central Iowa family band; the two women are apparently sisters and one of them recently married the banjo player. Not as polished as Munroe Crossing, this quartet made up for it in with a cascade of fine bluegrass numbers that, to the best of my knowledge, didn't repeat what we'd heard last time we were there. Their setlist did come up about ten minutes short but they were able to pull a couple of pieces off the shelf and finish their time nicely. It was a beautiful Midwestern evening to be out. Unfortunately, they won't last long ... and, also unfortunately, the schedule is running out as well. It's been nice to sit in with the locals and enjoy one of their treats.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Checking out the HyVee Triathlon... Elite Teen Divisions

Saturday, Linda and I went to Gray's Lake to check out the start of the teen divisions of the HyVee World Cup Triathlon. Before we were done, we'd walked the bulk of the course and seen some kids press on through the temptation to just call it a day.

Temperatures were around ninety and there was limited air flow. At one point during our walk, Linda and I paused under an underpass to catch some shade and enjoy the breeze; it reminded me of the breeze that always seemed to be present in the a middle of corn crib.

There weren't a lot of fans lining the course for these kids so we had great access to about anywhere we wanted to go. When all was said and done, we caught the shuttle back to the lake. One of the young competitors was directly across from me on the bus and his eyelids were sagging; I'm guessing he slept well.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Checking out the preparations for the HyVee Triathlon

This weekend, Des Moines will host their first HyVee World Cup Triathlon. This event will award a record seven hundred thousand dollar purse and be covered by NBC Sunday afternoon. Over the course of the weekend, there will be several age and gender specific runnings over varying courses. For example, Saturday morning, there were triathlons for seven and eight year olds, mostly the children of competitors but also some more local participants. Saturday afternoon, elite teenage competitors will take to the course. Sunday morning, the cycling portion of the course for the amateur classes will take them out of the county to Jordan Creek and back again where they'll finish with their run. The elite adult competition will focus more downtown and make up the distance by turning multiple laps. All will start at Gray's Lake as seen in the photo and I believe all finish near the capitol. It promises to be quite a show and showcase for the community.

I've heard that these are fairly rare and that next year's event will be one of three triathons to qualify people for the United States Olympic team... and the only one in the United States. The designer of the course and event has compared this course with that of Amsterdam; I'm guessing that's a good thing.

Friday Construction Photo #9

Lots of stuff showing up now! They're diggin' holes and trenches and puttin' rebar in to form footings and there are trucks and barrels and wooden forms and all sorts of things on the site now! The pathways between all the trenches look to be narrowing down to where only the smaller vehicles are going to be able to navigate some parts of the site. The big dump and cement trucks appear to have a path right up the center but it looks like they'll soon be crowded out. I imagine it takes a little while to get the hang of planning the sequence of work and the logistics of vehicle movements to be able to manage a work site like this.

This shot shows one of the things I've been mentioning for a while. This digger has cleared the gravel and dirt from around eight to ten of those pilings that were made with that tall derrick drill. You can see the rebar sticking out of the top of each one. The concrete for these was injected into the ground as the drill was withdrawn. If you've been following along, you know I'm fairly impressed with this approach. It's pretty a pretty slick operation to drill the hole and refill it with concrete with one tool; it's a complex tool but I think they make good use of it.

Having fun at the old ballpark... high school style

Thursday evening, Linda and I got together and went to the Valley High School baseball field to watch a couple of her nephews play ball. The game was a sophomore game between the West Des Moines Valley Tigers and the Mason City Mohawks. Valley has recently had a run of four years as state champions in boys baseball and it showed. They were "hittin' 'em where they ain't." I think the game was called by the ten run rule in the sixth for a final of thirteen to three. It was a nice thing to stop and see.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Runnin' around

For the third straight weekend, Linda and I were running around central Iowa, enjoying perfect weather. This week, there was statue event in Newton that sounded interesting. We hadn't really finished up a couple of things last time we were in Grinnell so we went east.

Our first stop was the jewel box Merchants National Bank. Memorial Day, we'd seen the outside but could only imagine the inside. This time, we got to go inside and it was impressive. Wells Fargo acquired the bank and chose to preserve the structure and it's easy to see how this would have been a bustling bank in its day. The docent that talked with us about the history actually had had an account at the bank.

After stopping at the bank, we walked across the street to pick up a couple of coney donuts at Hansen's bakery. The coney looked pretty similar to many other bakery products but, having tasted it, it belongs on the list of 100 Things to Eat and worth stopping in to try.

We asked around for directions to a bait shop to see if we could get some worms to fish at Arbor Lake. The gentleman couldn't tell us where to find bait but did share that Arbor Lake was a man-made lake built to provide water for steam engines. Being at the crossroads of two rail lines, it had been important to have a reliable source of water for the iron horses.

The lake turned out to be at least three times as large as either Linda or I had expected. Someone had done a very nice job of documenting the efforts that are being taken to preserve the quality of water in this lake. They pointed out several examples of measures that had been implemented to that end. We fished our way part way around the lake and walked the rest just to see what it was like.

Moving on, we wandered south and east to Sully, home of the Coffee Cup Cafe. A nice little business on the south side of the square, the Coffee Cup is home to the listed Dutch Salad. On The List, there was no description; on the menu, it sounded like a basic tossed lettuce salad with a dressing of their creation. When it arrived, the salad appeared pretty typical. The first bite revealed the unique pleasure of the combination of elements. Another nice entry to the list! We finished lunch with a piece of rhubarb pie. Tasty.

The Department of Transportation was replacing a bridge on the road we'd expected to take us to Newton so we were on gravel for the third straight week! We found our way to Maytag Park and enjoyed the viewing many pieces by several artists, local and distant. Between the two main tents, this steel band played nice island tunes. We also received a map to installations around town. Sir Rustalot, the dragon in the inset, is a long time guardian of the Newton library.

We swung by the Thomas Mitchell park to see if the fishing hole there would produce for us. Nearly covered with a thick mat of moss, it was apparent that we needed to keep moving.

We took a break to recuperate, rehydrate, and just get some things done around our respective homes. Rejuvinated, we headed for Waukee to see the Des Moines Menace Soccer team host the St. Louis Lions. The first soccer game that Linda or I had attended, it was a very fluid and dynamic game with rapid and frequent reversals, attach and counterattack. The Menace pulled ahead by the half and extended that lead to a four-zero win. Along the way, it was fun to see that about one third of the players were from Iowa schools, specifically Drake and Graceland. We will likely return for another.

Having fun at the old ballpark


But first, we stopped by the capitol for Blues Before Sunset. One of Linda's favorite bands from last year, Sumpin' Doo, was going to be playing and there would be time to catch them and still get over to the ballgame. The crowd continued to build during the course of the set and the music was well selected and performed. I'd go see them again.

We walked over to the ballpark, found our seats, and stopped by the concession for a ballpark dinner before the First Pitch ceremonies. The first pitch list was a little odd: there must have been a dozen people taking their turns on the mound. The last name, you might recognize: Fergie Jenkins. Yes, the Chicago Cubs Cy Young Award winning Hall of Fame pitcher threw out the first pitch! Linda has said that she thought "some famous baseball guy" was going to be there; I guess she was right. Of course, he wasted no time with the pitch and the camera wasn't out so there is no photo. Unlike a couple of the other First Pitchers' attempts, his toss made it to the catcher without hitting the ground.

I'm not going to dwell much on the game... it wasn't much of a game. Before it was over, the I-Cubs put eight on the board; the visiting Zephyrs put nine up in the first two innings! At the end, the cubbies lost eighteen to eight. Early on, the Zephyrs had more runs than hits.

During the game, we did find several things to entertain us. The B-Bops race had a photo finish thanks to a great starter giving a perfect head start to the youngest racer. The QuikTrip food race turned ugly when Taqito bowled over Hot Dog and Egg Roll in center field and cruised to victory. Just one of them racin' deals, I guess. A sure indicator that things weren't going as planned showed up when the scoreboard suggested we start The Wave in the sixth inning.

We left a little early and made our way down to the riverside where we'd parked. This gave us a little different view on the fireworks and let us catch the last few song by the local band, The Nadas. A good crowd had shown up at Simon Estes Riverside Ampitheater and were very clearly enjoying their show.

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Friday Construction Photo #8

It's been a pretty good week, weather wise. Some new holes have been dug and a good deal of rebar has arrived. Near the center of the photo, along the edge of the biggest hole, I'm starting to see trenches connecting the pads atop the pilings. These trenches have been filled with concrete and have rebar poking out of the top; looks like footings to me... but I didn't stay at a Holiday Inn so you should take that as just the speculation of an uninformed.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Returning to Indianola

This evening, Linda and I returned to Indianola to check out the cherry pie at the Crouse Cafe and to see what Bluegrass Tuesday on the Warren County Courthouse Lawn would be like. Both were great!

We parked on the square and strolled around until we found the Crouse Cafe. We had the option of sitting at the counter, a table, or booth. We took a booth on the fringe of the locals. As it turned out, we were positioned very well for local conversation.

Opening the menu, I saw a small image of the cover of the Register's 100 Things You Must Eat... but it featured the Hot Beef Sandwich! I looked for the cherry pie and it also had the image. They'd been featured twice! We decided to try them both. As we waited for our food, we saw several servings of the Hot Beef Sandwich going to other tables; it's a popular order. It turned out to be a good call as both the sandwich and the pie were excellent! Fed, we moved out to find out what Bluegrass Tuesdays was about.

The southeast corner of the courthouse lawn was already pretty well filled with lawn chairs by the time we arrived. The ever present kettle corn stand was operating at capacity. Someone was operating a grill and a little lemonade stand completed the on-site food options.

The evening's featured performers, Monroe Crossing, had just started their show and were sounding very good. The little handout said
Minnesota Bluegrass Group of the Year five of the last eight years, a full time 'on the road' bluegrass band playing over 230 shows in 2006, they are stopping in Indianola on their way home after three weeks on stage in Silver Dollar City, Missouri.
They were a high quality act. In bluegrass style, each member of the band took their turns showcasing their talents as they played the music of namesake Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs, and the Stanley Brothers. It was quite a show ... for free! If they have this caliber of show week in, week out, it's an unfortunately well kept secret.

Monday, June 04, 2007

Reporting the Dover Results

Rain Sunday postponed the race until Monday so I didn't get to see it.

Jeff Burton finished 12th, Jimmie Johnson took 15th, Kyle Busch scored 17th, and Juan Montoya came in 31st.

#2 Overdue 414 vs. 461 #4 halffastracing
#3 Desert Denny 461 vs. 357 #1 Bear Down Racing
#6 Red Neck Racing Academy 290 vs. 236 #5 Blue Bayou

#4 halffastracing was 10-2; won; now 11-2
#1 Bear Down Racing was 7-5; lost; now 7-6
#5 Blue Bayou was 7-5; lost; now 7-6
#6 Red Neck Racing Academy was 5-7; won; now 6-7
#2 Overdue was 4-8; lost; now 4-9
#3 Desert Denny was 3-9; won; now 4-9

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Enjoying a free fishing weekend

Linda called Saturday morning to see if I had any interest in taking advantage of the weekend set aside by the Department of Natural Resources for fishing without a license. I'd been kinda thinking it wouldn't be a bad day to just stick around home ... after last weekend's major road trip and all. Linda also mentioned that there was a classic car show on the square in Adel and that's on the 100 places list. I took a look at the Google Earth map and a plan started forming. Linda came over, we stopped by the big box store to pick up a rod and reel for her, and we were on our way.

As luck would have it, we ended up heading south and passing through Indianola, home of a cherry pie on the 100 things to eat list. It was a little early for pie but we could check the square to see if we could recognize the place. Instead, we found the Warren County Corvette Club car show! We got out and walked around the square admiring the various versions of the car and the wonderful job that people done in their maintenance. It was a nice, unexpected treat.

We left Indianola headed for St. Charles to catch the Imes covered bridge. Located only a mile or so from the interstate exit, it seemed like the right time to pick it up.

We cut through Osceola on our way to "The Spot" and saw this surprising roadside floral display. For a couple of blocks, the hillside was covered with a striking mix of poppies and smaller, complimentary flowers. We were a little surprised that they were still at such a nice point in their bloom. After going to Pella to see the tulips and being a couple of weeks late, we stumbled into these at what appeared to be near their peak. In the breeze, the fluttering flowers were very pleasing to the eye.

We arrived at "The Spot" and found that we weren't the only people there. One family with two early elementary kids were enjoying some early afternoon shade while they tried their luck. Linda was the first to get a bite but it got away just as it was about to be pulled from the water; sounded like a good fish story to me. We worked our way around the shore and Linda found evidence of a comfort focused fisherman preceeding us. She tried the seat and found it comfy enough; it was even located at a part of the lake where she wasn't bothered by biting fish.

We moved on and within a few minutes Linda landed the pretty bass she's displaying. I grabbed my camera and recorded it for co-workers and family who were pretty surprised she'd entertain the idea of going fishing. Nice fish! As you can see, there are no photos of my fish; I didn't even get a bite. After about an hour, we hit the road again.

Our next stop was Three Mile Lake located between Osceola and Creston. During the last few miles approaching the lake, we were met by over a dozen pickup trucks pulling boat trailers; the fish must be gone, the fisherman were calling it a day. Having never been to this lake before, we still wanted to see what it was like.

It's a big lake. Based on the number of dead trees sticking up out of the water, it's a fairly new lake. Based on the number of boats that were still on the water, the fishing is good. We went out on one of the fishing jetties and beat our way way around a couple of times but came up with nothing but a couple of brief snags in the rocky structure near the jetty. At least Linda got a few shots of me in action! As we were preparing to leave, a family with a couple of young boys came out on the jetty to drown a few worms. It was a nice day for it.

We tried to find Twelve Mile Lake but ended up just driving a box around it but never close enough to see it. Along the way, we found these two ... yes, there's a horse in the lower right; there's also a donkey in the upper left. These two were tethered along the side of the road, apparently to munch on the tall grass in the roadside ditch. Just over the hill, we found three more similarly staked out. I'm not sure I'd be completely comfortable putting them that close to the road; the horse in the photo did come up and put all four feet on the edge of the gravel while paused for the photo.

We arrived in Winterset, county seat of Madison County ... yes, with the bridges. I'd seen that one of the bridges had been moved to the city park. That one would be easy pickin's. As we were making our way across town, we happened to pass the birthplace of Marion Robert Morrison, later known as John Wayne. We also passed the old county jail house and I couldn't resist taking a shot of their sign. When we got to the park, we found the bridge in good shape and a nice attraction in an otherwise beautiful park. About fifty yards from the bridge was a hedge that, on Google Earth looked like a maze. We strolled over and found a nice hedge maze, complete with a sundial and bench at the center. While it wasn't too difficult, we found we'd walked right past the proper turn the first time.

Of course, when in Madison County, you really should visit some of the covered bridges. Linda and I saw and photographed all but Roseman; we got Imes, Hollister, Cedar, Hogback, and Cutler-Donahoe. Of course, reading up a little afterwards, I found that, "in Robert James Waller's novel The Bridges of Madison County and the movie of the same name, Roseman is the bridge Robert Kincaid seeks when he stops at Francesca Johnson's for directions; it is also where Francesca leaves her note inviting him to dinner." The other bridges were quite enough for us.

One of the things that seeing five covered bridges in fairly rapid succession allows is recognition of variations in construction techniques. As you can see in the photos, some had flat roofs, some peaked. Some had ventilation and allowed light along the roof line, some were simply walls. Some of the floors had board running lengthwise, some diagonal. One of the bridges had nicely curved wooden beams to provide the supporting arch; later bridges used two diagonals and one long straight beam.

Another thing that I became aware of was the history. Of course there was the history of the structures but there is also history carved into the timbers or written in Sharpie on the walls. "Nathan U. was here" "Kathy and Nelson forever" Proclamations adorn the walls and add to the history of the place. Why people decide to post them on public structures is another question but there they are.

Our last stop was another of the 100 Places in Iowa You Must Visit, the Adel town square. The courthouse there is undergoing major renovation and the grounds were enclosed by a chainlink fence so that wasn't so appealing. Looking above the construction machinery and materials, it was clear why this building made the list. It's quite a handsome structure with great details.

As we arrived, the participants in a classic / hot rod car show around the square were starting to leave. While it would have been interesting to get to see the various vehicles up close, it was even better to get to see and hear them fire up and make their way out.

We wrapped up the day by going to see the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Quite a day!

Friday Construction Photo #7

Rain this week has no doubt slowed progress but they're still moving forward. Even with the thick later of gravel, enough water has fallen to make some pretty large if shallow pools; enough to really make things messy on the site.