Welcome to (the) Sin City (of the Midwest)

Shortly after I moved to New York City in 2004, my college friend & sorority sister Amanda visited.  We made plans to go to dinner and she asked if I minded if she invited a friend from high school as well.  I said I didn't mind, and as luck would have it, the friend ended up being a cute boy with whom I connected immediately.  I spent the evening working up the nerve to ask for his phone number (Being new to the city I was looking for new friends and had a strict "yes" policy when it came to opportunities to socialize.), and a week or so later I called him to see if he wanted to hang out.  He said yes, and that cute boy I met at Applebee's in Times Square turned out to be My Ryan.


Teresa and I met through work.  A couple of months after I moved to NYC she quit her job in our Boston office to move back to her New Jersey home and be closer to her family.  She quickly secured a job in our NYC office and we became fast friends.  We ate lunch together nearly every day and celebrated happy hour together every Friday (sometimes resulting in sleepovers at my place so she wouldn't have to try to catch the last train back to NJ).  Teresa and Ryan quickly became my two closest friends in New York, and although it was incredibly hard to leave them both behind when I transferred to the St. Louis office, it was almost harder to hear about all the fun they continued to have together after I moved away.


Since I left New York behind and returned to the Midwest, Ryan and Teresa have done the same.  Ryan is finishing up his second year teaching at a small college in Kansas, and Teresa relocated to Chicago last fall.  Since we're all in the Midwest, we thought we should have a little reunion, and this past weekend we did.  Dubuque, Iowa was home of the First Annual Former New Yorker Reunion Weekend.


You're probably wondering why we decided to go to Dubuque.  (So were Teresa and I.)  Ryan suggested the location, saying that it's known as the Sin City of the Midwest, due in large part to the casinos on the Mississippi River.  It also happens to be a fairly central location for all three of us, so knowing that we would make our own fun wherever we met, Teresa and I quickly agreed.  Of course, me being me, I immediately started finding random roadside attractions to visit along the way.  This is what my weekend looked like:

View Larger Map


Since Teresa was taking the train out of Chicago and Ryan and I weren't going to be able to pick her up until late Friday evening, we decided we should meet in the afternoon to see a couple of roadside attractions together.  After a quick look at the map I determined that the obvious place for us to meet would be Ryan, Iowa.  My Ryan quickly agreed and the plans were made!


I hit the road a little early on Friday because I wanted to make a stop of my own before meeting up with Ryan.  My drive took me through some beautiful, rolling hills and gorgeous farmland (No, seriously.  It was incredible.) in northeastern Iowa.  My only complaint about that drive (aside from a couple of dropped calls) would be that there was absolutely no place to stop for gas or to onload/offload Diet Coke, but I powered through and when I found a Conoco/IGA/Subway around 2 p.m. it was like a mirage, and I quickly pulled in to use the facilities and pick up a turkey sandwich.


Just south of my oasis in the farmland I saw this sign:

Channeling my youth and my love for Rose Nylund from The Golden Girls, I quickly pulled over to take a photo, amazed at my good luck.  Then I turned around and saw this sign:

I loved the little gnome, so I took a photo of it too.  (It wasn't until I uploaded my photos that I could read that tiny sign declaring St. Olaf the Home of the World's Largest Tenderloin!)  I got back on the road, excited to tell Ryan and Teresa about my little discovery, when about two miles up the road I remembered that Rose is from St. Olaf, Minnesota.  And I was in Iowa.  So, as if I wasn't disappointed enough already, I looked up St. Olaf, Minnesota and it turns out it doesn't even exist!  You probably already knew that though, so we'll just put this one in the books as one of Trish's Classic Blonde Moments.  (I'd recommend reading up on St. Olaf, MN, though.  It was pretty entertaining!)


Half an hour south of St. Olaf I reached my first destination: Strawberry Point, Iowa.  Home to?  The World's Largest Strawberry, of course!

World's Largest Strawberry

Strawberry Point, IA

I was excited about how big and realistic-looking it was, so I snapped several photos, then got back on the road.


My Ryan was running late, but aside from being his namesake I had another reason to visit Ryan, Iowa, so I traveled the forty minutes south to check it out for myself.  Since Ryan wasn't going to make it, I took photos of all things Ryan:

Ryan City Hall (Which looks suspiciously like The Giant Museum in Blue Earth, MN.)

Ryan Fire Department

The Ryan Pub

The Ryan, IA Post Office

Ryan State Bank

Scoreboard at the Ryan Baseball Field

But the real reason I wanted to visit Ryan, Iowa was this:

Re-Purposed Happy Chef
Ryan, IA

There is a chain of restaurants in the Upper Midwest called Happy Chef.  They're sort of like Denny's or Perkins and they serve breakfast all day.  Happy Chef restaurants used to have giant chef statues out front (a la Big Boy), but several years ago all but the one in Mankato, Minnesota (the first Happy Chef restaurant) went by the wayside.  Apparently Ryan, Iowa purchased one of the chefs and turned him into an umpire for their baseball field.

Here is a photo of the original Happy Chef statue in Mankato, which Ryan and I visited (and where we ate fried dill pickles) while he was in Minnesota last month:

Last Remaining Happy Chef Statue

Mankato, MN

As a bonus, while I enjoyed a self-guided tour of Ryan, I saw this dog standing on top of his house, barking his head off at me:

Dog That Doesn't Understand How Houses Work

From Ryan I headed to Dyersville, Iowa, home of The Field of Dreams movie site.  I got there nearly an hour before Ryan arrived, so after I wandered around a bit I sat in the bleachers and just enjoyed my surroundings.  I've always been a big baseball fan, but this is a truly special place.  It's quiet and beautiful and, quite frankly, out in the middle of nowhere.  You don't see a bunch of billboards leading tourists to it, so the few people you encounter there have planned the trip in advance.  It was so peaceful that I didn't mind spending a little quality time there.

Entrance to the Field of Dreams Movie Site

Field of Dreams Movie Site

Dyersville, IA

I waited until Ryan got there, then made him run the bases with me.  They let people play pick-up games there and I wished we would have known that ahead of time, as I would have thrown my glove in the car.  I'm sort of amazed at how few people I saw in the hour I was there, but at the same time that's part of what makes it so special.

From Dyersville Ryan and I headed to Dubuque to check into our hotel.  After taking a few minutes to settle in we hopped in Ry's car and headed south to Davenport, where we met up with Teresa and Cath (Teresa's mom) for a great dinner at Granite City.  I hadn't seen Cath in several years (She used to have me over for dinner, but she moved from New Jersey to Illinois just before I moved to St. Louis.), so it was great to catch up with her, and she was so sweet to pick up the tab for dinner.  On the way back to Dubuque, Teresa laughed until she was "crying horizontally" (She claims that tears were literally shooting straight out of her eyes.), and that pretty much set the tone for our weekend.

I won't bore you with every last detail, but there are a few details that you should probably know, and several photos that you should probably see.  For starters, Friday night Teresa played her first game of Blackjack, and on her first hand she hit 21.  Cha-ching!

On Saturday we were up early to grab a quick breakfast before our 10:30 pick-up for our wine tour.  We spent the day visiting local wineries, tasting local wines, oohing and aahing over the scenery, and trying not to vomit while the deathmobile wine bus raced through the windy, hilly, sometimes gravel roads of wine country.

Ryan Enjoying the View

Seriously, how gorgeous is this?!  That beautiful tree near the center is a pear tree.

TJ & T

At the Massbach Winery

Elizabeth, IL

Saturday night we ordered in Chinese food and watched the ridiculous Mets/Cardinals game.  (If you don't know what I'm talking about, it was a 20-inning game.)  I was bummed that the Cards lost, but seeing as we were celebrating Former New Yorker Reunion Weekend, it was only appropriate that the Mets win.  Anyways, when the game finally ended we headed to Cherry Lanes for a little bowling, where Ryan dominated, except for that one game where Teresa kicked his butt.  I was just there for comic relief.  There was much dancing, singing, and of course, there were pitchers of beer.

Beer.

I needed my photo taken with the big winner.

Oh, and at some point in the evening Ryan was texting with his friend Renee, who happened to be in town the night of my 24th birthday.  Apparently she misunderstood and thought we were celebrating my birthday again that night, and she sent Ryan this text:

Renee, you're the sweetest!  Unfortunately your memory is crap.

Sunday we slept in a bit, then checked out of our hotel and grabbed breakfast before exploring downtown Dubuque, which was actually pretty cute!

Dubuque Courthouse & Dottie's Cafe

We wandered over to the Fenelon Place Elevator Company, where we rode the shortest, steepest railroad in the world.

The Shortest, Steepest Railroad in the World

We liked that "Get In and Sit Down" is part of the instructions.  We soon found out why.

About to Ride the Shortest, Steepest Railroad in the World

Teresa & Ryan are ready to go to the top!  (They obviously follow instructions well.)

I took a little video of our trip to the top:

When we reached the top I discovered this tiny Elf Exit:

Elf Exit

And as our last stop before we headed home, we took a few photos at the Dubuque sign:

Masterpiece on the Mississippi indeed!

Iowa!

Oh, and as we headed for our cars to head home after a fabulous weekend of crying horizontally, we happened upon this tiny Statue of Liberty.  What more appropriate way to end Former New Yorker Reunion Weekend?

Former New Yorker Reunion Weekend 2010