June 10, 2005
Travels with Tiger the Goat
Tiger the Goat raised $1,000 for the ACE Development Fund at the 2005 ACE Conference, thanks to the auction generosity of ACE members led by Kevin Gamble from North Carolina.
But when it came time to leave the party, Tiger couldn't find anyone who wanted to take her home. So she decided to spend the year in scenic Iowa where the grass is greener.
Tiger traveled 1,000 miles by charter bus with 18 Iowa ACE members.
A good selection of snacks and drinks is essential to a bus trip.
Lunch stops are a welcome break in the routine.
After lunch, time to rock.
Access to the latest magazines makes a long ride go faster.
When the humans take a rest break, Tiger doesn't have to interrupt her movie-watching. Five movies in 1,000 miles.
After a long day on the bus, Tiger tries to get some sleep.
Back in Ames, Tiger settles into the daily grind. Breaks only twice a day.
June 06, 2005
The Saga of Yoga Dave
To hone our writing skills, the communication staff likes to do "bar napkin" stories, where each person writes a sentence and passes the story onto another to continue. On the way home from San Antonio, while stranded at an Oklahoma ice cream store, the ISU communicators took to their writing. One of the other stranded travelers, a writing prof from University of Oklahoma, even took the time to write a paragraph.
It was a dark and stormy night...
Yoga Dave was in a motorcoach full of beautiful women when the Oklahoma troopers shut down the interstate. He took them all into a dairy cooler, with a few more folks. However, the goat was forgotten on the bus.
One of the beautiful women, Esmerelda, was dressed in a light summer wear, so Yoga Dave bravely removed his jacket and encircled her shoulders with its warmth. The frost from his kahlua soaked breath brushed her neck.
The combination of his musky male scent, his kahlua soaked breath and the chill of the dairy cooler made Esmerelda’s knees weak.
Just then, the chief of police called the dairy store manager on her cell phone. “It’s all clear for now, darlin’. However, there’s another on the way, Let those people out of that cooler for now.”
“Well, all right – I was fixin’ to do that anyway,” the brave and able manager replied. “You’ll get out of that cooler now.” And with that, Yoga Dave, Esmerelda, the throngs of beautiful women, and the other folks ambled out of the cooler and made their way back to the convenience store. Suddenly, Esmerelda screams, “Oh my God, There goes the Goat.”
“The what?!” asked a wandering Okie writer who, with his tornado-loving wife, was fortunate enough to be trapped with the Yoga-Ezzie and company folks. Instantly, graciously, and with a hint of malicious glee, one of the beautiful women explained that the goat was but a statuary surrogate for an actual goat, soon to be purchased for a third world family. “I thought the tornado was confusing,” murmured the Okie writer, and fled muttering into the night.
We made it home
We left an hour a head of schedule Saturday. We were all ready to head back to Iowa after a great week at the conference. Stay tuned to the blog for more conference notes.
Only trouble coming home was a huge storm system, which provided lots of lightning, a closed interstate, and a brief period in a cooler at an ice cream store...not a bad place to be in a storm. Only a little chilly.
We saw five movies on the road home: Shrek 2, Airplane, Meet the Fokkers, Napolean Dynamite, and Fletch. FYI, we are starting the list for the next bus ride.
May 31, 2005
We made it...in record time!
Arrived in San Antonio about 10:30 a.m., an hour and a half ahead of schedule.
And yes, we are still talking to one another...the bus trip was great. We watched three movies: The Incredibles, Office Space, and Anchorman. We are saving Napolean Dynamite for the return trip to Iowa.
Tim met us in Perry, OK...and we exchanged bus drivers there also.
It was smooth sailing most of the way. And yes, we have been working on the bus. Much problem solving has been accomplished. Yippee.
May 30, 2005
B-Day is here
That would be bus day...we leave in an hour. There are so many unanswered questions.
Will we all make the bus? Who will be late?
Will we still be speaking to one another by the time we reach Texas? or Oklahoma? or Kansas? or Missouri?
Will we do a side trip to Luckenbach, Texas?
Will the DVD player work (since we have to rewire the VHS player)?
Will we forget someone at a rest stop?
Will we watch movies as planned?
Will we actually work on the bus? (Of course we will)
Will we beat Floyd to Texas?
Will Brian's plane actually drop waterballoons on the bus?
May 26, 2005
Bus updates
For all of you who want to know, the bus pulls out of Ames at 4 p.m. on Memorial Day. We'll stop at the Machine Shed for our Des Moines riders, and head south on I-35. We're considering stopping in KC for dinner, and then on to Perry, OK to pick up our last passenger, Mr. Eggers. We should arrive in San Antonio by noon on Tuesday.
And the good news: we can watch DVDs on the bus...through magic we will disarm the VHS machine and watch as Jed and Loren make the DVD player work.
May 25, 2005
Who's minding the store?
Catherine, Jane, Steve, Lisa, Doug, Hazel, DeeAnn and Jeanette plus all of our student interns: Brianna, Brittney, Kara, Carly, Amy and Kiley are working at the office this week.
Who's on the bus? And why?
Barb Abbott
Jon Anderson
Keven Arrowsmith
Elaine Edwards
Jed Findlay
Del Marks
Jean McGuire
Daniel Ossian
Carol Ouverson
Dave Pavlik
Loren Porter
Laura Sternweis
Lynette Spicer
Barb McBreen
Jessica (Barb's daughter)
Willy Klein
Tim Eggers
And the bus driver
Why? It sounded like a fun, bonding time for the communications crew. Can you say organizational maintenance?
It could be the bus movies ... Office space; Network; The Incredibles; Anchorman; Napolean Dynamite; To Wong Foo with Love, Julie Newmar
Not on the bus or Who else is attending from ISU?
Micki (traveling with a 3-year-old and a husband)
Extension IT staff including Floyd, Deb, Jeanne, Brian, Darin, Robin, Nicole(prefer wings to bus)
Becky Nibe
Krysta Nibe
Brian Meyer
Alyx Bigelow
Allan Schmidt
Jason Ellis
Tatyana Abbott
Eric Abbott
Others???
Clarification: That would be Micki Nelson, who like Cher, only needs to be known by her first name. Son Max, husband Ben.