yet i still recall as i wander on, as clear as the sun in the summer sky

I'm still in ye olde Iowa, but it's a different part of ye olde Iowa - today I drove up to northwest Iowa to see [censored]. I had a lot of unfinished business to take care of this morning, though - I had to wake up, for one, which was onerous enough. Then I loaded my car (using my dad's lawn tractor to haul all my stuff around from the walkout basement up to the driveway, thus saving myself many trips up the stairs) - this included a chair and a piano stool, both of which are probably unnecessary, but I will enjoy having them in my house. I also spent some quality time putting away the photos that we spent the last week sorting through - we didn't get through everything, but things are in much better shape than they were, and I'm looking forward to finishing it (plus possibly expanding to my mom's side of the family) the next time I have time at home.

Then I showered to get a century of dust off me, finished loading my car, and ate some leftover Mexican food to fuel myself for the drive. At that point it was noon, which was only ninety minutes after I'd planned to leave, so that seemed pretty reasonable. I said my farewells to my parents - it wasn't quite as dramatic as getting in a covered wagon and heading off into parts unknown, but in a pandemic you never know. So we hugged it out, and then I dropped my dad off in town before continuing north.

The drive to [censored]'s took a little over 4.5 hours (not helped by stopping for fuel and a bathroom). When I got here, [censored] gave me the grand tour of his apartment, which is v. nice. I also unloaded some stuff from my car (more than I need here, but some tings can't sit in a 120+ degree car for two days). Then we drove around his town so that he could show me the sights - it's a lovely town, with way more stuff than our neck of the woods (but northern Iowa has always had more money than southern Iowa). We stopped at the grocery store to pick up drinks, then got takeout Chinese, which was delish. We then spent the evening watching comedy shows and music videos, which is pretty par for the course.

And now I need to sleep - we have plans tomorrow that require getting up at a reasonable hour, so I should probably sleep at a reasonable hour too. Goodnight!