Day ONE | Gary's Crazy Fishing Story

 On the first day of our trip I think we were all excited to FINALLY  be on the road. However, I know many of us were sad to leave some friends and family behind. The trip started off with an entertaining fishing trip tale by the one and only Gary Hightshoe involving a minnow and a pike. Lets just say it was a little far fetched. After a short meeting we headed to Mason City for a tour of the recently restored Park Inn. It was one of the first Frank Lyod Wright structures in Iowa and a perfect example of prairie school architecture, which emphasizes the horizontal lines of a structure. Like all of his designs this hotel was "Frank" size; in other words, it was designed for shorter than average human beings

After our informative tour, we caravanned on to the Stockman House and Rock Glenn. After a quick ten minute exploration of the bluff and creek, we did a one hour sketch of  a prairie school style house near the bluff. After a lay down of our sketches we took a much needed lunch break. We had one more stop before Minneapolis which was a State Park known as Pilot Knob which is the second tallest kame in the state of Iowa.

  After a couple of ten minute renderings at the top of the lookout and the rolling fields, we walked or ran back to the van and drove straight to Minneapolis. Where we checked into the Comfort Suites and met back up with Mindy. Finally we were dismissed and were free to explore the city, eat dinner, and relax. It was a great start to what is sure to be a great adventure.

Erin and Aziz