Iowa Day One - Secret Getaway

Okay, I'm a wuss.

We're here in Iowa. My parents have no idea we're out of town. In fact everyone except my parents knows we're here, and why.

Now, it's not that I don't want them to know; I just can't figure out how to bring it up. (I've been trying for a couple of weeks.) My Dad was next door working on a rent house yesterday while I was cleaning out the car. He made a comment to Gaby about how rare an occurrence that was, but that's as far as that went. I polished my shoes on the front porch, hoping he might comment on that as well, but he didn't see. Ditto packing my briefcase and ice chest in the car. Then he was gone and I hadn't said anything. Gaby called me a coward. Yeah, I know.

I called my brother on his birthday last week. We discussed the plan a bit, and how fast it was all happening. I figured that maybe he'd be talking with the parents later that day. In the back of my mind I was hoping he'd bring it up to them so that I wouldn't have to. If he did, they've said nothing about it. Sigh.

My parents love Gaby, and my Mom frequently says how glad they are that I've found him. But I just don't know if they're glad enough so that it's okay for him to be their son-in-law.

I was discussing this with my neighbor, Dot, the other morning. She said, "I'm sixty years old, and my Mom's been dead for years and I'm still seeking her approval." Damn. I was hoping I could grow out of this eventually.

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So, we left Edmond at 7:00 this morning. The pastoral scenes in the sunrise were gorgeous. We have no pictures because I was driving, but we got some other shots later. Gaby took a lot of pictures of the Flint Rock hills in eastern Kansas. We stopped for lunch in Ottawa, and took a mini tour of the downtown area and I got really excited by it's amazing Victorian architecture, especially the courthouse. Kansas City was just up the road, and then we were in Missouri for 114 miles. At the Iowa border, we stopped at the visitor center, and then drove an hour to the hotel just NW of Des Moines. Now we're just resting up for a day of tourism tomorrow.

I don't know this as a fact, but I suspect that we got the room we did because we were paying the Hilton employee rate, which is really cheap, just like the view from our room.

I learned today that Des Moines, Iowa is about 60 miles closer to my house than San Antonio, Texas. Who'd a thunk it?