"64 in 64" Will and Kathy Visit on their way to 50th Class Reunion

Will and me at Center Point railroad station. We did a twenty
mile ride on the Cedar  Valley Nature Trail  and a fourteen mile
Iowa City area trail the day before. Will is training to complete
a five hundred mile chunk  of the Continental Divide Trail in
 July.  It looks to me like he's ready to go with zero body fat.
Looks like my fat puts me out of his league. Good luck Will.

Back in February or March we were delighted to hear that our long time friends from dental and medical school days would be back in Iowa for their high school class reunion. Will and Kathy lived directly across the street from us in Stadium Park; a married student housing complex so named because it abutted the football stadium, today known as Kinnick Stadium. On game day it was only fifty steps from our front door to gate 13. We could wait until the national anthem was over and then leisurely walk to the stadium and be in our seats before kick-off. Those were the days, given parking in the spot we had now costs many thousands of dollars. Who would have thunk we were living the good life back then.

In 2004, after hiking to the top of Grays Peak in training for my trek to Mt. Everest Base Camp, Chris, Geoff and I stopped at Will and Kathy's house on our way back to Iowa. Good grief that was ten years ago! It was more than twice as long for Connie. She figured it was nearly twenty years since she saw our favorite Coloradans. They graduated from Sibley High in 1964 with a class of 64, therefore the title of this post, "64" in "64". These guys are incredible, having accomplished so many things in their lives. First raising three wonderful children that have given back so much to society. The concept of Sustainable Living is pervasive throughout the whole family, a way of living Connie and I embrace, but unfortunately don't practice. Will has given hundreds of hours of volunteer doctoring through out the world, Thailand, Africa and New Zealand to name a few. Nate, a Peace Corp volunteer and middle child, has come a long way since the time he tumbled head first into a flower pot. I guess because Nate didn't cry, Geoff thought he would watch to see if Nate would sprout out of the pot. At least that is what Will said in disgust as he frantically turned the pot over and shook out his son. Another Nate-ism was a skiing/tubing trip we did with the family at their ski lodge at Breckenridge. Chris and Geoff were probably age eleven and eight and Nate around four. We went to an awesome tubing run in the forest. It was a fast run with all kinds of moguls and turns. The bigger one was the less out of tube experience you got, but when little Nate hit a bump, he would fly two feet out of the tube and then land back into the tube, just in time to take on another wallop.  The Glenn Maze boys have had many breath choking belly laughs reminiscing  that trip.

A "selfie" of departure day. Hope we can get another selfie
in front of the earth ship.

Connie and I are so impressed with the sustainability concept but it makes us tried just hearing about their family constructing a house with straw bales and then another structure; an earth ship home. Goodness! homes made from bare hands and strong backs. I can't imagine hosting eight hundred used tires over eight feet, filling them with soil to form the main wall of the earthy abode. Eight hundred tires---come on! I am dead tired just thinking about it.