Christmas in Des Moines, Day 8ight

Today is our last full day in Iowa. Tomorrow, we take off for the great unknown of western America. We will be rolling through the flatness of South Dak, hoping to make it to Gillette or perhaps even Buffalo, Wyoming. It all depends on our start time and of course, the car operating properly.

To that end, my goal this morning is to get the car ready for the trip. The temperature is approaching the 40's and the sun is out. I need to check the fluids and vacuum a bit as well.

Tonight is another DM tradition at the Latin King, a great place to stock up on matches. Then Neil has another gig at the Gas Lamp Tavern, which will undoubtedly keep us up after midnight.

10:29PM: The day is now winding down and the reality of everything I wrote earlier has set in...and changed it all. Although the last sentence of the first paragraph turned out to be prophetic.

We all went out for a late breakfast at the Waveland, another DM landmark. Afterwards, I followed Susan and Margaret in my car to some Antique Mall, which I didn't stay at very long. I wanted to get the car ready for our drive back home. Added to my list of items was getting a small crack in the wind shield repaired. 

Neil found me a place that was not far from the Antique Mall and I followed the instructions to a place that wasn't there.

So I abandoned plans to fix the chip and went to get gas and check all my fluids.

It turned out I needed a quart of oil so I went to the Advanced Auto Parts store and bought oil and washer fluid. 

Upon the completion of adding those items, I started up the car to discover the battery was dead. All of the sudden! Just like that!! Spit spot!!!

After a time of trying to figure stuff out, I concluded that I have a bad alternator and $600.00 will fix that...but not until tomorrow morning. 

We left the car at the repair shop that I was able to drive to and they will start on it at 8AM.

By now, it was about 4:30 and that's the time Neil plays at the Gas Lamp. So we headed down there and listened to Neil play with the Bob Pace band until 7:30.

Then we went to the Latin King and had an Italian dinner that couldn't be beat. We also got a bunch of their matches, which should last us for another couple of years.

Now I'm here at 11:58 writing all this down and then I'm going to bed before the clock says it's tomorrow.