Saturday, June 21, 2014

Bob Feller Museum, Van Meter

    I started the day in Omaha but plan on being on the road soon. I made it to the Bob Feller Museum in Van Meter, Iowa, before making it to Newton for a quick visit and finally Des Moines. It looks like there is a hypnotist scheduled for the Funny Bone in WDM tonight. This doesn't appeal to me much. I heard from a classmate who is training for a marathon and I did see him before evening, in Des Moines where he is a judge. I told myself I wanted to see a comedian at the comedy club, and not a hypnotist. So I decided to attend the Iowa Cubs baseball game after seeing my classmate. The Iowa Cubs lost to Albuquerque 4-0. I got a general admission ticket as that is all that was left when I showed up at the stadium. I did spot my dad after the game ended, in the concourse, but I didn't say anything.
   It was my first visit to the Bob Feller Museum since its first year in operation, in 1995. I got a little annoyed with another patron there as he didn't have his facts straight about various things. I liked seeing a copy of a book about Feller that I read in elementary school in the displays, it was by Gene Schoor. His bat that was in the iconic Babe Ruth photo from 1948 was on loan to another museum. I did get some souvenirs there, two postcards and some baseball cards. The trading cards were five for a dollar, and one was actually a football card- depicting Heisman Trophy winners from Notre Dame.
Many of the cards in the basket were of Gaylord Perry, and when I picked five just two were of Perry. One mentioned how he played for a minor league club in Minnesota- St. Cloud. The other cards were of Jim Bunning, and Ralph Kiner. One souvenir was free- a big card depicting Feller, and it was an ad for DuPont farm chemicals.
   I really liked seeing my classmate. When I arrived we went into the back and had a beer. His young son, 22 months, also made it outside. He told him to stay out of the kiddie pool, as he wasn't dressed for it. I liked how we spoke about various subjects, including his line of work. He said that in child custody court- as well as criminal- there are many cases involving methamphetamine. I said it was sobering to hear this, since it is scary to hear what meth does to users as well as to property when the labs explode. Another big topic was sharing notes about what our classmates were up to. He was surprised how no one noticed me during my quick Newton visit in the afternoon, but I wasn't looking anyone up either. I ate at Maid-Rite, a loose meat sandwich shop, as well as Dairy Queen. I also got a look at the Emerson Hough School grounds, getting photos of the brick path leading to what was 'The fort', a children's playground. It said 'Welcome to the fort' and 'In memory of Emerson Hough'. My final stop was at Maytag Park before I stopped for fuel and left for Des Moines. My classmate did say he hoped it would work in our schedules to meet up in Iowa City during football season, where we went to college. I had dinner with him as well outside, lasagna and salad.
   At the Iowa Cubs game I was standing for a while, but eventually I found a place to sit, it was at a picnic table. There was a big crowd, announced at over 11,000. After the game, I drove to my hotel in West Des Moines. It was in the newer section of the town, near Jordan Creek Mall.

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