Flood Season?

Felt like we just got done with Winter. Snowstorm, snow and sleet, snow this, and snow that. We were bombarded with the snow, it made the transition from Winter to Spring rather unnoticeable. I honestly felt like Spring was not going to happen at all.

And now, while Spring is finally here [and almost gone], it was not behaving nicely either. Apparently Lady Spring thought, “Well, if Father Winter could do it, I can too!” And swoosh… came down the rain. Lots and lots of them. Four to even seven days straight full water/hail pouring down from the sky. Our county has gone from thunderstorm watch, thunderstorm warning, flood watch, flood warning, flash flood watch, flash flood warning, tornado watch, and tornado warning. Because of the thunderstorms at night, the kids have been sleeping with me (including Max, our pet) while Dad evacuated himself to the basement. The four of us on my bed curled up like shrimps, close to each other, with our heads under the pillows; attempted to reduce the boom! noise and the bright lightning. 

Midwest has been hit the worst by the rain. Iowa, mostly. Many places were either flooded or hit by a tornado. Late May, a tornado hit Parkersburg, IA; killed 7 people and injured at least 50 people. Parkersburg is about 83 miles from Ames -the town we live in- and only 30 miles away from where my in-laws live: Denver, IA. One of my husband’s cousins live there and her house was flattened by the tornado and is now homeless. Looking at the aerial picture of Parkersburg after being hit (or video)was like looking at a demolished war zone. No buildings remain, just piles of debris. One could not tell where downtown was anymore, or location of houses. Can’t quite tell where one used to live, because the street name was blown away and other landmarks were destroyed.

About a couple of weeks later, a twister hit Little Sioux Scout Ranch (advanced Boys Scout camp) in western Iowa, near Nebraska state line. The twister struck as Iowa, like other midwestern states, was dealing with severe flooding along the upper Mississippi River. Four children were killed, while 40 were injured. From what I read, there was a group of scouts who were out hiking at the time of disaster. Seriously, weren’t they aware that bad weather is approaching? Don’t they have some kind of weather alert system, radio, or TV? But I guess there’s no point in questioning all this. Don’t cry over spilt milk, they said. 

The overflow Cedar River forced Cedar Rapids, IA, to evacuate the Mercy Medical Center hospital. Isn’t that crazy? How’d you able to evacuate hundreds of patients in a hurry? Post op patients, elderly patients, patients on wheelchairs, not to mention complicated ones; what a frantic situation I bet it was. The engorged river flowed through Cedar Rapids’ downtown. Hundreds of city blocks were under water, and in some neighborhoods the water was 8 feet high.

Des Moines, Iowa’s capital city, was also flooded. Many of its resident left after a voluntary evacuation request issued on Friday, June 13. So was Burlington, Coralville, Davenport, Iowa City, and more.

The town we live in, Ames, was not flooded as bad as those towns. ‘Just’ a golf course and a couple of streets/parks were flooded. I was actually driving on one of the main road one day, going from work to downtown. I was amazed when I drove back for the same route, the road was closed because it was flooded. I was just driving on it 35 minutes ago and it was fine! The raging South Skunk River was just overflowing so fast, the officials weren’t anticipating it at all, I guess. Judging from the last minute road closed and traffic detour. What usually takes 15 minutes ended up being a 45 minutes deal due to traffic.

   

Last Saturday we went on road trip ’to see the flood’. I know it sounded sad, but we were just intrigued. We heard that the U.S. Highway 30 between Boone and Ogden had to be closed because of the flood. We usually drove on that road to go to a state park, and the scenery around it is so pretty. Not boring flat or corn field-y like most of Central Iowa’s scenery, but hilly and curvy. We weren’t the only ones who were touristing the sites, others too. They were just watching… being a curious human being. Some were taking pictures/videos, and some went kanoeing! I couldn’t believe it… some people were actually took their canoe, loaded it up on top of their vehicles, took their kids along with them, drove there, and went kanoeing! That’s pretty risky, I thought.

Now that the rain had stopped pouring like crazy, the flood had decreased little by little. Everybody’s question is now, “What’s in the water?” Other than mud, there’s some scary shit stuff in it like naxious brew of sewage, farm chemicals and fuel. I read somewhere in the paper that the water just reeked of pig feces and diesel fuel in Oakville. Ugh, I couldn’t even imagine how horrible that is.

What about the stress level? Your belongings are destroyed or long gone, you have to live in a shelter (mostly a high school gym) with strangers, the worn out volunteer and Iowa National Guard who was working on the levees, you either still have to clean up your super messy house or find a way to rebuild your house, your medications were swept away by the flood, questionable of safe water to drink, tetanus from the nasty water if they got a cut/laceration, and not to mention mosquitos.

How stressful. It’s probably not as bad as The Great Midwest Flood 1993, but still…

PS: Thanks to the writer, for your concerned comment in my ‘Saya’ page. We’re safe and fine. Our part of Iowa is on a higher ground. 

Carroll’s Pumpkin Farm

Day 2 of laryngitis. Not working today, I have a date with my son. His daycare is going to a field trip and needed extra help with transportation. The two daycare vans were too small for the children from two classrooms (plus extra teachers). Other than ours, there were 5 other car of parents/grandparents who also chaperoning their little ones. We’re going to Carroll’s Pumpkin Farm in Grinnell, IA, today.

Google Maps shows that the driving distance from Ames to this place is about 1 hour and 22 minutes. But since we’re convoying and the lead van is going 60 mph on a 70 mph Interstate, plus the potty stop, it took 2 hours and something minutes to get there. Dante was getting antsy but managed to maintain his good manners. He didn’t even ask “Are we there yet?”  question once. We were just talking about what we see while we’re driving and play ‘20 questions’. The only thing I dislike was driving on the crazy I-80. Four lanes, a lot of semis, Nascar-racer-wannabes; they’re all added to my phobia of this particular interstate. And I got a ‘bonus’ that particular morning: it was raining! Eek, I don’t like driving in the rain either.

If the field happened to be too muddy in the farm like it was when we were there, they wouldn’t take us on the wagon ride to the field to pick the pie pumpkins. Instead, they’d have the pumpkins ready on the wagon for us at the parking area. Shucks… where’s the fun then? No worries… there are tons of fun thing to do. Carroll’s had created a number of ’sites’ for the children to play. Kids can swing or slide into piles of straw at the Straw Barn, play with the shelled corn  or bury your friend at the Grain Barn (formerly a corn crib), or ride the most awesomest bike in the whole wide world! (according to my son) -which is actually John Deere’s TMX trike- around the barnyard course in the indoor TMX Trike Barn. 

I really appreciate the work these guys had done. I’ve been to other pumpkin/apple farm around Iowa, and so far, this one is the most organized and well planned. For school/daycare trip, they’ve created a special program which work so well for the little ones who need. Instead of just hauling people to the field to pick pumpkins, Carroll’s Pumpkin Farm actually do have an age appropriate lesson/talk about growing pumpkins. Meaning it’s explained [and showed] in a way that a kid would understand. The talk takes place in the loft of their restored 70 year old barn, and only takes about 15 minutes. Gosh, they must now that little ones wouldn’t sit tight for over 15 minutes…

I think we spent at least 3 hours there (including eating lunch prepared by the daycare) and at the end of the day, we got to pick a pie pumpkin for each. Since by then I knew my way back to Ames, I didn’t wait for the school vans. Dante was tired, he fell asleep in the car on our way back to Ames. Glad I spent some time with him today despite my lack of voice.

Oktoberfest at the Amana Colonies

Was? Oktoberfest im Iowa, USA?
Ja! Warum nicht?!

Yea… why the heck not? If Jakarta, Indonesia, has Oktoberfest and religiously celebrate it; a small town in the Midwest, USA, could too. A very thorough writings about how the Amana Colonies started can be found here. Oktoberfest in Amana is celebrated 28 – 30 September this year with a theme ‘A little bit of Bavaria in Iowa’.

Amana Colonies is a touristy place itself. Adding Oktoberfest doubles the fun. It’s a neat place with downtown full of cute little shops [with cute names] like ‘Chocolate Haus Dessert and Coffee Cafe’ and ‘Olde World Lace Shoppe’. When walking into the chocolate house, it smells soooo good. The smell of hot chocolate and fudge, fine roasted coffee and chocolate chip cookies; all the goodness in the air.

We had Max on a leash, so Doug and I had to take turns going in to a shop. He said he didn’t care so much about the chocolate store, but he definitely want to go in to the Amana General Store for their bakery stuff. The kids loved the toy store, Little Red Wagon. They have lots of cool vintage toys made out of tin.

A website about Oktoberfest in Amana is here.

Diny/Amana Colonies, IA/Sep 30 ‘07

… See my Tabblo>

Hobby Turns Into Museum

Found this place accidentally. We were just driving on the country road (wasn’t even aware we’re in Colfax -name of the little town) when we notice the sign of Trainland USA. Very interesting.

… See my Tabblo>

Pufferbilly Days 2006

What: Pufferbilly Days 30th Anniversary.

When: September 7-10, 2006.

Where: Boone, IA.

Whatelse: Craft Fair, Carnival, Entertainment, Food, Drink, etc.

More: A pufferbilly is a small steam engine used to tunnel deep into coalmines. And while the days of the steam engine may be in the past, Boone keeps its memory alive for a few days every year during its Pufferbilly Days event, a four-day celebration of everything trains. And it’s only fitting, considering some 70 trains pass through town on a daily basis and the railroad industry remains the city’s largest employer. The event starts on Thursday and runs through Sunday, and by its end, participants will have seen a spike-driving contest, a parade, a lip-sync contest, a 5K run, train rides and more. In addition, a variety of music will be performed, including Tami Jo Platter with country western and Bob and the Beachcombers with a Beach Boys/Jimmy Buffett tribute. And if none of these things sound appealing, there’s always the beer garden. Beer can make anything worthwhile.