Chris and I have a tradition on Mother’s Day. The boys used to be a part of it although Aaron says he has no memory of this being our tradition so I guess it wasn’t a very good one!!! Church followed by a picnic which usually involved a drive through at Kentucky Fried Chicken. Maybe not that healthy but it was what I always wanted to do. By Mother’s Day you could usually count on the weather being fairly decent in whatever state we were in so it was a win win. Add to it the gift of flowers to adorn the outside of our dwelling place and I was always a happy Mama!
This year we decided to do the usual—packed the picnic with some help from HyVee and headed to Clear Lake where we dined in style by the lake and didn’t have to fight the crowds. We saw maybe 5 people the entire time we were there and since it was not as windy as it was last year when we did it we could actually eat outside and not be fighting sand and wind in our food and eyes. From there we went to the Central Gardens of North Iowa to view the flowers that were blooming. We try to go at different times of the year because there is always something different to look at ! We were not disappointed.
From there we went where every Mother wants to go on Mother’s Day—The Crash Site of Buddy Holly. I had wanted to go there for ages —just never had done it. It may seem kind of morbid but it was one of those things I had on my Iowa bucket list. And it was the perfect day because it was beautiful, warm, sunny, breezy and the corn was just planted so an easy hike through the field to the exact spot. Huge eyeglasses mark the spot on the road and since it is on private property a big thanks to the owner for giving up a couple of rows of valuable planting to allow visitors easier access to walk along the fence row 1/2 mile to the site. People leave all kinds of memorials at the site and it was interesting to see some of them which included library cards, a microphone, flip flops and even a valid driver’s license. I dug down in the treasure box and found a check……could not read who it was made out to or for how much but I found it a little odd that someone would leave things with so much personal information on them for random people to find. But anyway—fun trip and below is a slide show from the day.
Just a thought–if you visited a memorial site like this what would you be tempted to leave behind??? We only left footprints..
It's Just Life 
wow… I think my favorite part of the memorial would be snooping through all the stuff left behind….
It was really kind of neat to see what folks had left behind and I am sure this was just the recent donations—over the years I can not imagine what all has been left there and it makes me wonder who “collects it”. The farmer who owns the property or the Buddy Holly Fan club or who??? Hmmmmm
It definitely be interesting to look through everything people left behind. I’d probably try to think of something myself too.
At least once a year, I have to have KFC too. I don’t know what it is….sometimes the wind is just right and we can smell it while outside, since it is just down the road from us.
Glad to hear I am not the only one who has to have the KFC fix once a year!! It is funny but that is just what we always did and I hate to break tradition!!! Have a great day!
Sounds like you had a wonderful day. I love the picture of the butterfly sundial. So pretty. Not sure what I would leave behind at a memorial. Like you, probably just foot prints or maybe some flowers.
It was a fun day—weather was perfect and of course the only thing that would have made it better would have been if the boys were there with me in person!
I enjoyed seeing your pictures of the beautiful flowers at the memorial place. I would probably just leave my footprints also.
That’s a nice tradition Beth 🙂
I bet it is great to be a mother, I know I had a great mom. Happy Mother’s day to you.
Oh…just like to tell you that WordPress has stopped that silly automatically subscribe comment thing 😉
Thank goodness!! It was absolutely driving me nuts!!! 🙂 But it doesn’t take much to drive me nuts!!! 🙂
I think I’m with you, footprints. I understand why some want to leave something, but that isn’t my style.
Sounds like a great Mother’s Day. Perfect to have avoided the crouds. Good for you. I don’t know what I would leave behind at a memorial. I’m with Hilary above. I think it would be fascinating to snoop around.
By the way, I posted a totally new version of chapter 1 of my memoir this morning. I will be curious to know what you think.
Hugs,
Kathy
I don’t think I’d want to leave more than footprints, either. You found some pretty flowers! The only picnic we ever had was after a trip to KFC, too. The park we visited had so many bees, they’d crawl in drink cans…it was a beautiful day, otherwise.
Ugh…bees!!!! Not my friends at all!!!!
So glad you had a good day! Those ginormous Buddy Holly glasses are pretty cool! 🙂
They are awesome!! Chris took my picture with my head sticking through one lens but my eyes were closed…..:-)
I think that’s a pretty strange place to want to visit.
yep! It certainly is but when you live where we live it is a big deal! Plus my kitties are named after Buddy Holly so it seemed like a place we needed to visit!
I’m not sure I would leave anything behind either… but what great pictures you took.
I LOVE the daffodil!
I, too, would probably just leave footprints. Thanks for sharing!
You are very welcome!!!