Our day in Iowa

Jen and I left my apartment around 7:20 Saturday morning headed for Michelle's in Iowa. We were headed for a fun day of sewing with our new dear friend. The internet has made such a difference in my life. A little history first so bear with me. Back in about the late 90's I was first introduced to the internet one Christmas break from my work. Jen showed me how to get on and I went right for a quilting chat room. I spent the next week late into the night chatting with ladies who had the same interest that I did. Soon we started to bond. Little did I know then that all these years later we would still be the best of friends. Little by little we started having get togethes and soon we were sharing so many events in our lives. Weddings, funerals, divorces, graduations and mile stone birthdays were just a few of the things we shared along with our love of quilting. Now fast forward many years and there's a whole new group of you out there who have become part of my family. Back to our travels. The trip went really quick and it didn't seem like it took us that long at all to get to Michelle's. OK I have to admit that in the end Jen fired me as the map reader. Down to her quilting room we went. Let me just tell all of you that Michelle has the coolest room for quilting. Well actually throughout their house you see all of her quilting touches so beautifully displayed. Jen's quilt was the first one on the frame and soon she was quilting away. I had taken a table runner along to work on but I was just fascinated watching and learning as she quilted. Once hers was done off we went for some lunch and a tour of the town. We saw all the sights and even where Michelle and her husband Louie work. We stopped off at the car show and found out they had taken a second place in the Harley that Louie had rebuilt. Back home we went and on the quilter went my quilt. Let's start out by saying that this was a dream come true to me. I've wanted to quilt on a quilter for so many years and here I was doing it. Well, I'm not that talented after all. I just don't have a rhythme. I can't stay on one "pattern" so I was all over the place trying all kinds of things and in the end, yes, I had quilted a quilt on the frame but it looked like I was on an acid trip. Oh she's done alright but I have a long way to go. If I could just get the rhythme of a pattern then look out world a new quilting monster will be born. Before long it was getting late and we had to leave. This made me sad because we had so much fun at Michelle's house. She is such a gracious hostess and our time just flew by.
We loaded everything up and out we headed. It was around 9:30 when we left and we had a long drive ahead of us but since we're both used to being up late on the weekends it wasn't bad at all. I got to be in control of the MP3 player so we sang our way home. We made a couple of quick pit stops. Once we pulled into a McDonalds for something to drink and then across the street for some gas. Gas is so much cheaper in Iowa so we took advantage of that. Then one more stop down the road because now Jen had drinken the big soda from McDonalds. I was waiting in the car and I see this young man come out and pass infront of the car and well he was dressed rather strange. He had on these old fashioned pants with suspenders, an odd shirt and he was carrying what appeared to be a small pouch like we used to keep marbles in. He got in a car and I didn't think another thing of it with the exception that I thought maybe he was part of some musical group. Jen comes out and gets in the car and before we back out we see an older man pass us and he's got these same odd pants on and these long things that go from below his knees to his shoes and she says "hey he's dressed in civil war pants". I look over and he gets in the car with the younger man and they had a large trailer behind them and it's a civil war enactment group from Wisconsin. Well for some reason at that time of night I guess you had to be there because we laughed like crazy. All rest of the way home all of a sudden she'd just say to me " he had civil war pants on:. The rest of the trip was uneventful and we were home in no time at all. We unloaded my stuff and played with the dogs a big and then Jen made me sit at the kitchen table and start drawing patterns to go over and over again so I get a rhythme for quilting. I'm hoping that someday this comes to me easier because I honestly can't wait to try another quilt.
Today I've done nothing but watch TV. Now it's time to forge for food and I have a vacation day tomorrow and some appointments tomorrow but then I can do whatever it is I want to do.
Don't forget to check out Jen and Michelle's blogs they have pictures of our day and watch Jen's movie about me.