Matchsticks and Oldies?

Today was a leisurely day as we wind down our travels.  Our desired destination, Matchstick Marvel didn’t open til 1 and it was only an hour drive.  So when we left Cedar Rapids at 11, we had time. 

So we traveled north to Waterloo, IA, another tiny little city, but the Home Of Wonder Bread.  (I have the picture, but you’ll have to wait for me to get home for that.)  Actually we stopped in Waterloo for the Arts Center.  They had a show of Mexican and Haitian folk art and local artists.  It was colorful and a nice stop.  And again, another tiny little museum.

We then traveled through the corn (still no children) to a tiny little town  home of Matchstick Marvels.  http://www.matchstickmarvels.com/matchstickmain.html    They are amazing!  100’s of 1000’s of matchsticks and the man builds exact replicas of everything from Hogwarts to military planes.  They were truly amazing.

We then traveled through more corn finally turning south, to Ames, IA, were we toured the University’s botanical garden.  Okay, the real attraction here was that the garden had display of lego sculptures and a giant gnome.  Unfortunately, it was at this time that it FINALLY started raining here.  This did not deter us and we walked most of the garden in the rain.  But when it started to thunder and lightening we decided that maybe we should head in.

Finally we traveled further south into Des Moines.  We pulled into our hotel at about the same time as the band.  They got to the desk first and it appeared initially as if their rooms were not in order.  Actually, everything was in order, they just had booked the rooms by individuals not as a block.

So were standing there watching half the band members throw a hissy fit and half of them make snide comments and take it all in stride.  (Actually, they were very nice and very apologetic to us.)  But I was thinking,  I should know these guys.  And I was trying to see a name, finally we did and put it all together. 

We checked in behind Three Dog Night.