Jun
21
2009

Back In West Des Moines

(Add / View Comments) (0)Sunday, June 21, 2009 - 10:00:17 pm
(Posted Under: Travel)
This morning we said bye to Kristin and headed back out on the road destined for West Des Moines. Surprisingly I've coped well in the backset of the VW for well over a thousand miles, but admittedly the leg room in the front seat is appreciated.

Driving into West Des Moines there wasn't that much that I remembered, until we past the Kum and Go and McDonald's by Perkins. Sadly, the McDonalds (the first place I ever went with Katie after the airport 10 years ago) has since closed down.

The Perkin's car park was also very familiar, as was the entrance to the restaurant, though, inside not so much. I also remember the pancakes being a lot better, but maybe I ordered something different the last time I was here.

Part of the trip to West Des Moines was to catch up with Katie's friend Diana, who ironical is the only one of Katie's friends I met in 1999 who still lives in Des Moines. It was cool seeing Diana again, and she came with us for a trip around town to check out the sites. Surprisingly a lot of West Des Moines looked different that I remember. No doubt because it has changed in the last 10 years, but I think also because I am looking at it differently than I did 10 years ago. Back then it was my first time in the States, everything was very new and foreign. These days this is so less the case, and so much has happened and changed in the last 10 years. Katie also thought things looked different, and she was here (briefly at least) two and a half years ago, so at least it's just not me.

The first place we stopped by was the old house. Over the past few years there have been many times I've wanted to go back to the house, because I had so much of a good time there. Before my trip to Arizona in 2006 I'd hoped to be able to get out there, but that didn't happen. So I was looking forward to going past there. Of course, with the Jensen's no longer owning the house (ironically it wasn't that long ago that they finally got it sold!) it wasn't quite the experience I was looking for. Apparently Brad drove past there recently and found it very weird that other people were now living in there, and I had a similar reaction (which seems funny to make the comparison, since I only lived there for 2 weeks, compared to his 13 odd years). Still really good to have driven past 604 38th Street, just not as good as if the Jensen's still lived there.

From there we drove past Katie's elementary school, behind the old house and then by Valley High, which to me looked quite similar to when I went there with Katie for her radio show, although apparently there have been significant changes to the school.

From there we drove down to Valley Junction, and then to downtown Des Moines, which seemed a lot larger than I remembered it. I doubt that it actually is (and according to Katie, although it's changed somewhat, the size hasn't particularly) and I accredit this again to a difference in me in 10 years. 10 years ago I was seeing Des Moines from the perspective of largely only knowing Melbourne Australia (which is clearly much larger than Des Moines), now I'm seeing it with a lot more life experience and having had seen much more of the world.

After dropping Diana back at her car at Perkin's we went past a few other important places of West Des Moines in the history of Mark & Katie. I was quite happy that the field behind Carlos O'Kelly's was just as I remember it being 10 years ago, and it really didn't take much imagination standing out there to be taken back 10 years ago. Such a familiar feeling, moreso than a lot of the places we went by today. Also, standing out there, almost 10 years after the fact (in August), with everything we've seen and done since then, being married as opposed to two crazy kids in love, was...really cool.

After that we headed out to 'The Trail' which again was really cool to go 10 years after the fact, and was pretty much exactly the way I remembered it. Immediately on driving into the parking lot I was taken back to it being about 5pm and having my first cigarette in America there. Being there, it was kind of bizarre to think it was 10 years ago, because I remember it like it was yesterday. After a cool walk and chat out there, in the quite muggy heat, we headed back to the car. The other destination we would have liked to have gone to was Walnut Creek, but since it was 4pm and it was going to take us an hour to get there, we decided to do that next time. Hopefully we'll get back to West Des Moines before we move to Arizona.

Another funny sign for the trip as we passed the exit for Cumming, IA. Climax in Michigan, Cumming in Iowa, good times. [smile]

Surprisingly, Buller had our ETA back in Warsaw as 9pm - which sounded good to us. It's been a fucking awesome road trip, but the idea of getting back at this point sounded really nice.

The drive back to Warsaw was pretty nice, and Buller's ETA on getting back was right on the money, getting back to the house just after 9:15. Certainly getting back before the sun totally set was nice.

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