greetings from Iowa!

[edenfalling]

I am stealing an hour on the computers in Norelius Public Library of Denison, Iowa. Mostly this is to check in and print my boarding passes for tomorrow's flights, but it is also something of a sanity preservation measure.

Grandma Doris has gotten even fuzzier since last year. On the bright side, this means that I can talk about the same thing two or three times as well, if I run out of conversational material. Anyway, we visited for a couple hours, then went out for lunch, then drove around town to see her previous houses and Yellowsmoke Lake. When my time runs out on the computer, I am going to Wal-Mart to buy a couple things for myself and maybe a bouquet of flowers for her, since the flower arrangement my mom had delivered for Mother's Day had wilted completely, and I threw it out after lunch.

In other random news, I was not the only person flying from Ithaca to Omaha on Friday -- an older woman shared both flights, and on the second leg, we were seatmates. She told me about a nifty program called Rails to Trails, which takes old, disused railroad lines and turns them into bike trails. I told this to Grandma Doris, who thought it was wonderful -- she grew up in a train depot, you see, so railroads are dear to her heart and she likes the thought of them being remembered and repurposed rather than destroyed or built over.

That is about it, I think. :-)

Comments

[fateofshadow.livejournal.com]

"sanity preservation measure"- I know what that's like! I'm sure your Grandma likes having you over though so it's all worth it in the end even if it is uprooting.

Rails to Trails sounds interesting, I've always lived close to the Innocent Railway in Edinburgh which is now a very long cycle path by the Queens Park. I hope you get a chance to see a similar project in your part of the world as they can be rather beautiful once nature starts to creep back in.

I hope you have a nice flight home. ^^

[edenfalling]

Grandma Doris appreciates visitors very much, which is why my family makes sure she gets at least one visit each month.

The flight home was... interesting, shall we say... but I got here in the end. :-)

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

Did you change planes in Chicago or somewhere else? Because AFAIK there is no way to fly directly from Ithaca to Omaha (of course, there's no way to fly directly from Madison to most places either;)

[edenfalling]

There are only three places you can get to from Ithaca -- Detroit, Philadelphia, and La Guardia (in NYC) -- so I switched flights in Detroit. I have come to know the Detroit airport fairly well these past few years...

[uminohikari.livejournal.com]

That sounds like such a cool program! Though I wonder what happens if the railroad goes on a narrow bridge!

[edenfalling]

You mean the rickety-looking metal frame bridges? Perhaps they lay down asphalt, metal sheeting, some of the wooden railroad ties they remove from other parts of the trail, or some kind of honeycomb panels.