This morning we said goodbye to Chicago and headed out for Des Moines - the birthplace of both Melissa's Mom and Dad. The goal was to make dinner with Melissa's Dad's cousins that night - none of whom Melissa had ever met. They had arranged a reunion of sorts with whatever family could be assembled. Everyone there was salt-of-the-earth born-and-raised Iowans. As you might imagine they had a hard time understanding how one might quit one's job and head out on a sailboat for Central America. Stories of shoot out's in Mazatlan and snakes hidden in the engine didn't exactly help their view of whether we are completely crazy.
None the less, they had gone to a lot of trouble fixing a big dinner for everyone.
On the right is Dad's cousin Sandy and on the left cousin Bev. Apparently they think Dad is funny.
This is Sandy's husband who fixed all the food and argued for quite a while with Dave about why the heck you would sail a boat to Central America when you could have a truckload of white sand dumped in your driveway. Dave finally won the argument when he pointed out it wasn't 85 degrees in Iowa every day of the year.
On the left is Bev's husband Mike. After the snake in the engine story he said Bev wouldn't be allowed to drive out of the neighborhood much less the country ever again.
And here's the whole crew - cousins, their kids, and grand kids. A motley looking crew to be sure.