This year's road trip had my wife and I meandering soutwest from Ames to Malvern and back...375 miles in exactly 12 hours. I've had a gift certificate to Classic Cafe in Malvern burning a hole in my pocket for the past 3 years, and yesterday was the day we chose to cash it in. 375 miles is a long way to drive for a tenderloin, but hey, times are tough, and a free meal is a free meal 😁

We hit 36 towns in 10 counties. I wave to everyone, so I might have waved to one of you as I was driving by. We were in:

Boone, Ogden, Minburn, Dallas Center, Panora, Guthrie Center, Casey, Greenfield, Fontanelle, Bridgewater, Massena and Lyman;

Grant, Stanton, Red Oak, Emerson, Hastings, Malvern, Elliot, Griswold, Lewis, Atlantic, Brayton and Exira;

Hamlin, Audubon, Dedham, Coon Rapids, Bayard, Bagley, Jamaica, Dawson, Perry, Luther, Napier and Ames.

Counties traveled: Story, Boone, Dallas, Guthrie, Adair, Cass, Montgomery, Mills, Audubon, Carroll.

Observations:
--Lots of tall corn in SW Iowa, especially in the river bottoms, but corn of all sizes looked great all along the way. Some of the biggest corn I saw was between Atlantic and Audubon. Lots of standing water in many counties from last week's rain. I think I only saw one planter running yesterday over all those miles.

--It was the first time I had driven Hwy 25 through Adair County. What a beautiful drive...I had no idea the county was so hilly and suitable for cow-calf production. It was sunny and clear yesterday, and the lush green hills were covered with cows and young calves enjoying the warm sunshine. Nice! Of course, there were many more cow herds to see as I continued southwest.

--My wife was bummed...one of the reasons we headed to Panora was so she could go to the old Five and Dime downtown. But we found out it is closed and is now a boutique and outdoor power equipment store. The world needs one more boutique . My wife loves old-time drug stores and five-and-dimes, and this store was a favorite. So if your town has one, let me know. We will likely come visit.

--Panora and Guthrie Center are beautiful communities though. Going to bring my granddaughter to the little historical village in Panora someday (and the ones in Greenfield and Manning, too).

--We stopped by the original Freedom Rock on Hwy 25. We had just featured Ray Sorensen in our latest issue of Our Iowa. Ray "Bubba" was out painting the finishing touches on this year's edition. It was such a nice day, lots of people were stopping by. I visited with one motorcycle group from Colorado...they were Iraqi War veterans and stopped to pay their respects. I thanked them for their service before we headed out, and one of them offered to snap my wife's and my picture by the rock. This group was on its way to a veterans gathering in Illinois this weekend.

--Made our way to Malvern in Mills County. Saw the remains of Mulholland Grocery and Meat Market that burned down last winter...that place was quite an institution. Anyone know what new business they are building on the north end of Malvern? A new grocery by chance? Our destination for the day...Classic Cafe....was jam-packed with customers over the noon hour. Had a great meal....as good as advertised! I had to try the tenderloin, of course.

--Headed back northeast. Stopped at a pretty little country cemetery south of Griswold...wanted to touch base with some folks we know buried there, and it was a first-time visit. Went into Griswold...what a nice, clean little community. And it appears they still maintain their own school district? The school facilities looked very well-kept and modern.

--From there we headed to Lewis for our last stop of the day to tour the George Hitchcock Underground Railroad House outside of town. Quite a piece of Iowa history...well worth the $5 each for our one-hour tour. What history those old sandstone walls of the home hold.

--I lied...one last stop at Micky D's in Perry for chocolate shakes on our way back to Ames.

This concludes your tour...thanks for coming along. No charge, and tipping is not necessary.

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Going through stored boxes preparing for a city wide garage sale, our first since moving to Sgt Bluff in Dec of 2016. I'm sure we all have piles of old Cyclone material and I do remember promising some old football programs to Paul Clark. But we moved and they were stored away. Anyway, I'm not sure what I want to do with all my collected memorabeilia. I already have quite a bit displayed in my "man cave" area but not enough wall space or approval from the boss for more. I have newspaper articles, football and wrestling programs, newsletters ,etc. I haven't come across the old fb programs yet but know they are here, some dating back to 1971. I think the most prized possessions I've come across today is a Newspaper article from the '92 upset over Nebraska and the cardboard wrestling match placard from the Big O's victory over Lou Banach. I even kept the scores of each match on it which included Jim Gibbons big win over Randy Lewis by medical default when Randy's elbow was dislocated when bracing for a landing. They obviously have a place in my heart but don't think my boy's would appreciate them. I'm not 100% positive I could give them up unless I knew they were going someplace where they could be displayed and appreciated. I realize this may not be possible but maybe Bill or some of you connected posters would have an idea. Or Paul if he's still listening. I promised the fb programs to you so they are yours when I locate them if you still want them. I think it would be cool for someone like Paul, Bill or a poster to set-up Cyclone Report tailgate once a year for posters to meet and look at these type of collections. Any ideas would be appreciated.

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One more thing... from now on, if a post has to do with college sports, let’s go ahead and put it on the ISU Confidential board. I know that was a little bit of a gray area, as far as being on-topic or off-topic. If that particular post ends up turning political, myself or Chester90 will move it to the OT board.

Thanks!

Was by myself yesterday so went to Boulders after the game to watch more basketball and have a beer. My side of the bar was almost all open and i had 3 open seats to my left and right. Here comes a father with three boys heading to the open seats. As i look up and offer to move over i know its an x ISU player, but for the life of me i cant think of his name. So, i ask and its Klay Edwards. 5 minutes later, i look up and recognize a face across the bar by the entrance. I turn to Klay and say if i didnt know better id say that looks like JC Holloway. Klay gets his attention and JC sits down on my other side. The next 10 minutes while they were waiting to get a table i was in bball heaven mostly listening to these two discuss families old times and bball. JC had some or all of his garden city H.S. bball staff with him. Oh, and he has 7 kids now. Wow

What great gentlemen and fine cyclones.

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