Bonnie: By 3:35 P.M., we were enjoying the comforts of home in Kimmi and Cindy's room. Hannah remembered Kimmi. They jumped on the beds together in March of 2002. Of course, more goods from the hoods were exchanged. We decided to eat dinner at Lunardi's. Craig met us at the room by 5:00 P.M. to join us. Cindy and Craig had already vowed not to discuss politics, and I was surprised our yard signs remained in tact the course of the weekend.
Cindy: I left my magic markers at home.
Bonnie: Lunardi's had wonderful Italian cuisine as usual. Afterwards, Cindy, Kimmi and Shane came to the house of Borgh to watch Monkee video clips and eat pumpkin ice cream.
Shane: It wasn't Whitey's ice cream, but I suppose it was okay.
Kimmi: Yeah, it was all right. But it was no Davy Jones!! Or something like that.
Cindy: Hey ice cream is ice cream and so what if we aren’t worthy of the best…. (Sniff)
Bonnie: These are a few of my favorite things! It was great to see the clips when David guest starred on Love American Style (1971-1973) as well as David, Micky, and Peter on the Sally Jessy Raphael show in 1987.
Kimmi: Oh, wow! Love American Style was great! Davy is so dreamy in those shows. *sigh*
Shane: But for some reason known only to Bonnie, we had to fast forward through an old tape filled with an old Lawrence Welk Christmas special in order to find some of this stuff. But that's great; I wanted to be able to tell my friends back home that I spent my vacation in Iowa watching Lawrence Welk.
Kimmi: Hee, hee. Lawrence Welk.
Cindy: It was just part of the ambience of the evening…to put you in the mood. No self respecting Iowa family in the 60s missed Lawrence Welk!
Bonnie: The Gang departed shortly after 10:00 P.M. Tomorrow was gonna be another day!
Shane: Departed, yes, but not quite down and out for the day. We stopped by the old "Lady Luck", the "scene of the crime" of so many of our past adventures, to help subsidize the Iowa economy for a short while. This time it was Kimmi who came out ahead. I was just thankful that I was able to walk away only having lost 25 bucks; due in no small part to a nickel machine I had found that kept me playing on just 10 dollars for a very long while. Then it was back to the hotel for the night, where Cindy and Kimmi stayed up half the night talking and decided it would be "fun" to call me up in my room and scare the bejeezus out of me. Thankfully, I hadn't gone to sleep just yet--I was up reading for a little while. On long bus trips, a book is something that you definitely don't want to leave home without.
Kimmi: And after I had offered to come "visit" him, he hung up on me!! So I had to go to bed alone. I said bed, not sleep! I hadn't talked to my Mumsy in quite a while, so talk I did!! Our tummies ached from laughing so much. It took me forever to get her to shut up!
Cindy: Bonnie, next time you take Kimmi and I will take Hannah. Hannah can’t be any harder to put to bed. No caffeine after noon for you next time, Kimmi! She was bouncing off the walls. However, it was entertaining…each story ended with “I have more thing to say...” I laughed till I cried and my sides ached. When you only see each other 3-4 times a year you have to get a lot of catching up into a very short period of time.
Bonnie: It was a typical Saturday morning. By 6:30 A.M. I was doing my "Pool It" routine. (Some people drink coffee in the morning. I drink chlorine.) After swimming my usual 45 minutes, 3/4 mile, or 54 laps (whichever comes first), I returned home where Craig and Hannah had prepared blueberry pancakes with whipped cream for breakfast. We followed the usual Saturday morning schedule. By 10:30 A.M., I received a call from Cindy. Kimmi was in pursuit of a specific beauty product. After finding it, Cindy said they would be over to our house to pick me up.
Shane: I will never understand this. I can pack for a weekend trip in one large duffle bag. The rest take suitcases and bags and U-Haul trucks. And then they take everything BUT the things they really need. [Sigh] After a leisurely breakfast, some being a bit more "leisurely" than others [looking casually in Kimmi's direction], we went out to get Kimmi's damn make up. But that's great; I wanted to be able to tell my friends back home that I spent my vacation in Iowa watching Lawrence Welk and looking for make up.
Cindy: Shanie, if you are going to hang with the girls you are going to have to learn to shop! I notice that Kevin and Craig don’t complain. They know it won’t do any good and they will pay later if they do!
Kimmi: I made it on time. I'm the youngest. I'm entitled to slack off! And, by the way, we did not find my make up. I had to go without. Thank goodness I have Mumsy's natural beauty!
Cindy: Especially when you keep Mumsy up until 3AM! But it is true "natural beauty" runs in the family! HA!
Bonnie: Craig was going to entertain Hannah for the day. The ticket to the show was my birthday present. Shortly after 12:00 P.M., the Gang arrived. Within a half hour we were on the route to Peoria via a brief stop at K'Nees Florists, (official florist of the PFG), to pick up a dozen red roses. (Do you know how hard it is to find purple flowers?) Kimmi refueled at a local Bettendorf gas station. Thanks again for the water, Shane. It was much appreciated later.
Shane: Why, certainly. If it were only that easy to please people half the time, I'd take stock in the Aqua Fina Corporation!
Kimmi: Yeah. Thanks, Shanie!!
Cindy: That’s why we let you hang with us, son!