Adventure

After many long months of studying (again) AK finally took Step 3 last week, which meant that we finally were able to have a full day family outing over the weekend. We had planned to swing by the DMV to finally get our Iowa licenses, but after we waited 15 minutes in a non-moving line of 30 people which lead to another room full of another 100 people we decided to ditch that part of the adventure. I imagine it wont be too hard to keep the Iowa cops off of our tails for another few months.

First stop on our adventure, Bass Pro Shop. Bass Pro Shop? The place where you spent countless hours as a kid counting the fins on fake fish while your dad wandered aimlessly? Yes. The very same Bass Pro Shop. Aside from the fact that the Bass Pro Shop here has a spectacular array of (imitation) taxidermied everything from moose to raccoons including a reenactment of a buffalo stampede, sporting goods stores are our new hang out for window shopping. After narrowly escaping a sales pitch for a timeshare vacation in Branson, MO (apparently driving 6 miles is a weekend trip here), we tried on a few accessories for our upcoming (i.e. in 2 years) excursion and rustled up a lunch of fudge, beef jerky, and kettle corn, which are apparently the official snacks of outdoors men.

The second, and perhaps much more adventuresome stop for AC was Center Grove Orchard, a quaint (i.e. hand painted), family friendly farm that boasts a variety of attractions. AC was very entertained by the 50 ft slide, the hay maze, and a giant inflated pillow that was kind of like a wall-less moon bounce. Sadly, AC can't jump, so he just mooched bounces off of others while he sat and laughed hysterically. His favorite attraction by far, however: corn pool. Just as the name would suggest, the corn pool is a giant pit filled with feed corn. What does one do in a corn pool? According to AC, you repeatedly pick up corn and drop it. Boring you say? Apparently not because it was the only thing that caused him to cry when I told him we had to leave it. Fortunately, there were animals (and animal feed) to distract him before too long.

We wound up the trip with a walk through the corn maze. I was sure that we had finally found a way to expend all of AC's energy. The maze took nearly an hour and a half to get through and by the end AC was dragging a bit. When we got back to the road to wait for the hay ride home, AC sat for 30 seconds and then got up to pick grass and go explore the pumpkin that a fellow farm goer had just picked. He did go to sleep in the car after about 32 oz of Gatorade.