Back From The "Belt"

--the corn belt, that is.

Spent the weekend with the rellies in Iowa. We went for "Lytton Gala Days" in the teensy tinsy townsy (keeping with the "sy" theme) that is Lytton Iowa.
First, a picture of Lytton:
For you Hudsonites, picture a twelfth of your high school class--maybe less. A town of about (my estimation, if I'm wrong you rellies will just have to comment and set me straight) 250 souls, all gathered in an area of about 1.5 square miles. One factory, a bank and a bar, two churches and a school. Yep, you guessed it K-12 all in one building. The graduating class generally has between 25 and 30 students. A place where you aren't afraid to send your children to a carnival by themselves. Now that you have a view of what I am talking about here, I'll go on.
They set up the carnival right on Main Street, and the whole town turns out for the party. I was amazed by how much "family" feel the celebration had. The games included races with heats for ages from crawlers to seniors, a sack race, a three-legged race, trike and bike races, and a raw egg toss contest.
As an aside, please allow me to congratulate my cousin Sheryl and her teammate on winning their heat of the three legged race for the 35th year in a row--whatta coupla women.
We had a great time watching most of the races--it was so cold I had to go home early--and playing the "whoo-hoo" game (one of the carnival games).
Eli won a few prizes at the pop the balloon with a dart game--he hit 8 in a row--and he and Taylor caused a lot of stares with their hair--all spiked up in the true Mohawk style.
We ate and talked and played dominoes and had a blast.
Beaucoup thanks to the McKinney rellies for a wonderful weekend and a relaxing family time.
More on the trip tomorrow...