Visiting Mark's Family

The tree that I planted in my parent's yard when I was a 17 years old.  

After Don & Joan's anniversary blowout, Grant & I headed to Moline to visit my family.  We drove our rental car and dropped it off in Moline, which was easy, convenient and essentially quadrupled the cost of the rental.  I checked into taking the bus -- Greyhound has a nice schedule and the price was only $45 per person -- but I thought that was one experience that Grant didn't need.  Having the car also allowed us to stop at the Iowa City outlet malls and buy all of our clothes for the next year.  Avoiding Holland's 21% sales tax helped helped put a dent in the rental car drop off fee.

Grant behind the wheel of the big rig. 

This was his other driving experience.  He and Tom took some sticks to the brush pile.  

With Grant's impending 16th birthday he did some practice driving around the farm.  This year he used Grandpa's old (1984) truck for his lessons.  It was a great strategy since that thing is about as wide as a semi; it gave him practice at staying on his side of the road.  It also made me feel better; just about any car that hit us would be smaller than the truck.

World famous Walker Brothers Apple Pancake...with ice cream.  The best part is that this is breakfast!  If you're interested, they will mail order to your home (not the ice cream).   

I couldn't finish it. 

While Lori was enjoying her Tasty Tacos we continued our own culinary quest.  In the Quad Cities we discovered Gansons, which deserves its #1 rating in Rock Island.  We also drove up to Winnetka to visit my brother, Dave.  His daughters treated us to breakfast at Walker Brothers Original Pancake House -- rated one of the top ten pancake houses in the US by USA Today.   And mentioned in the movie Mean Girls.

Tom's onions drying.

Grant enjoyed the fresh (and raw) onions. 

Last year this area was barns and cement.  Quite a change. 

Uncle Tom with Dave's dog, Teddy. 

For those of you who remember the TV show......"My Three Sons".