Riding to Iowa on a bus (part one)

Our destination was the Kinze Manufacturing Plant in Williamsburg, Iowa.  Our group of twenty-nine tractor club members were going to get a tour of the huge facility where planters and grain carts are built.  Cliff is always interested in how things are made, but he did not sign up because of the plant tour.  He mistakenly thought we were also going to see Mr. Kinzenbaw's tractor collection, one of the largest such collections anywhere.  He had already paid for the tour when he found out there is a three-year waiting list to see those tractors, and tours are only done twice a year.  He was sorely disappointed when he learned at one of the club meetings that we were only doing the factory tour.  Personally, I was just excited to be going on a road trip!

Standing in front is Gloria, who was in charge of the tour.  She is a fun person.

We drove to the auction house where our tractor club meetings are held, and Cliff parked beside the other early arrivals.  We boarded the bus and left at exactly 6:00.  We planned to stop at the Dinner Bell Cafe in Eagleville, Missouri, for breakfast.  

I consider Eagleville to be one of my hometowns, the others being Guss, Iowa, and an unincorporated area of Kansas City known as Harlem.  Thanks to Facebook, I have reconnected with two sisters I knew at Eagleville in the mid-fifties.  We attended the same church, and we also went to school together for a couple of years.  The older one, Marla, is my age and lives not far across the Iowa line from Eagleville.  She and her husband joined us for breakfast and we talked about old times.  I told Marla how her mother was the first person I had ever seen, closeup, playing a guitar.   It made a lasting impression on me.  I was so disappointed when she stopped at one song (The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly) and put the guitar away.  Lois is gone from this earth now, but you can hear her singing and playing her guitar HERE.  

Marla and I noticed immediately that our husbands seemed to be kindred spirits.  It was a great visit.

  It took several tries, but we finally managed to get a decent picture.  At first we were sitting at the table with a window behind us, which bleached us out entirely.  

Breakfast was OK, although it took a long time for the waitress to serve everybody.  That put us behind on our schedule, but on the bright side, Marla and I had plenty of time to chat.  When we arrived at Williamsburg, there really was no time to eat, but there was a McDonalds nearby, so those who were starving grabbed something there.  Cliff and I simply ate some of the snacks that were provided on the bus.  

Stay tuned for more about the trip.