I walked to a nearby cafe to have breakfast with Chuck Isenhart, Iowa House Representative, and he introduced me to water quality specialists Dean Mattoon and Eric Schmechel of the Catfish Creek Watershed Management Authority, a tributary of the Mississippi River. We talked for a while about water quality issues in Iowa and the Mississippi River, and then headed out for a day of tours: Water Resource Recovery Center, Swiss Valley Nature Center, and the National Mississippi River Museum.
That evening, Eric picked us up from the museum and we went to the grocery, headed back to his house where we had tacos and a really really fun evening with his family (Meredith, his wife, Frankie and Everett, their children, Pam, Meredith's mom, and Nancy, Pam's highschool friend and Meredith's best friends' mom). Dean and his wife showed up later, and they enjoyed a jolly time downstairs with Eric, Jake and Julie, while I stayed up and worked on blogs and drank tea with Meredith and Pam and Nancy. Pam and Nancy talked all about their hobby (scrapbooking), and made me a cool page for my journal! And we got to spend the night indoors. We had such a wonderful time there, THANK YOU, river angels!!!