Crossin' The Mississippi

Woke up this morning around 9 am, well-needed night of sleep. We slept in Alyssa's room in her super soft bed, almost like a waterbed. The air overnight cooled off quite a bit so it was decently comfortable overnight. Came downstairs, had a shower, trimmed up my nearing week old goatee, and we were off to town.

First stop of the day was "Johnson Schmidt", a Diamond Mens Store type place right on Main Street in Keokuk. ("Clothes For The Particular Man") Jeff, Amanda's older brother, needed clothes for the services and he went and was fitted for clothes. I found it really strange that you look on the wall and see sports clothes and its Iowa Hawkeyes, Chicago Cubs, or St. Louis Cardinals stuff. Weird that its not Steelers or Browns things. They were extremely nice folks at the shop there.

Second stop was supposed to be meeting the Grandmother Nadine, who Amanda's middle name was after. She wasn't around so we went to a "Discount Shoes" place on Main Street. Sort of a "Payless" meets second hand store. Some interesting little items in the place; they had everything from work boots to comforters to a full size arcade game. The place feels so much like my mom's hometown, Ridgway PA, that sometimes I felt like I was actually there.

Then we went over to Vincent's mothers house on the other side of town. Lots of folks there supporting their side of the family. Jeff and her have been separated for a long, long time. Not on good terms, either, from what I'd understood. Amanda and Robert of course hadn't been around in YEARS so everyone made comments about "how big" they've gotten.

We went to Nadine's house finally and met her. She was very nice and very open, and very religious. Lots of wisecracks and that sort, but I immediately liked her. Amanda says that she will definitely be keeping in touch with her, maybe even come back out here this summer.

Then dinner at this Mexican restaurant in town...I had this Steak Tortilla thing with refried beans and hot sauce. Pretty good stuff, surprisingly...I was worried I wouldn't like it.

Amanda and I finally broke away from everyone around 8 o clock and we went out to the WalMart and picked up a few bottles of water. WalMart was needed just for a sense of normalcy, I guess. Its so different out here. Small town, nowhere near any lakes, things like that. People seem not as patient or anything like that, but its okay. I still think Amanda and I have too high of standards now that we're in the hospitality industry.

We finished off our busy day by meeting one of her high school friends, Adrienne, from Keokuk. Last time Amanda was here was ten years ago for her wedding. She has a gorgeous house right near Amanda's old home on the north side of town. I'll have some pictures for all of you sometime soon.

Now its off to bed. The next two days are going to be rough. Showing tomorrow, meeting Vincent's friends and that sort of thing. Then the funeral on Thursday, with dinner following. At this point it seems that we'll be coming back late Thursday or early Friday morning.