Getting together with Carol Cuhel and the Schaubs and Taylors

 For I don't know how many years now when we get back to Iowa, we would get the group (Schaubs, Taylors and us) together and visit Ken and Carol Cuhel. Ken passed away after a long illness in 2019    and so now we go to visit Carol. All of us have known each other for years as we all attended church together at First Congregational UCC in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Ken used to sing in the choir with us. When he started getting sick, they stopped coming to church as it really is quite a drive.

Carol has always made a feast for us every year but this year we talked her into going to the Kava House Cafe in Swisher, Iowa instead. We are all getting to the point that preparing these huge meals is hard on us. 

          Here the guys are at the Kava House (Lee, Jerry and Larry)

Here are the gals: Carol S, Carol C., Barb and me

Lee and I both had this as we just love it. Granny Gobbler:  Shaved, smoked turkey, Havarti cheese, Granny Smith apple slices & apple butter on whole wheat bread

Chicken-Pineapple Salad on a Croissant   Chicken breast, pineapple, almonds & bits of pepper & green onion in our own creamy sauce, served up on a croissant

Kava Hot Roast Beef  Shaved roast beef, served on a hoagie with melted Jack, sautéed onions & raspberry horsey sauce …

South-of-the-Border Salad  Our perfect taco salad.  Lettuce, seasoned ground beef, tomatoes, corn, black beans, cheese & sour cream, served with Chipotle Ranch dressing 

These were the desserts they offered tonight.

It was just a fun night with great company and wonderful food and conversations. After we gabbed for I don't know how long, we decided we better not have them throw us out so the Taylors and us went back over to Carol's house. Jerry and Carol headed home because they had to be up early to take care of their daughter, Julie, who has some serious health issues.

The guys must have run out of conversation!

The girls did not! 

We finally decided we had better head on home too! When we went to get to the car, there were a bunch of deer relaxing in Carol's yard.

Here is a link to the obituary for our dear friend, Ken Cuhel.

https://www.cedarmemorial.com/Obituary/2019/Nov/Kenneth-C-Cuhel/

Visiting Graves & Dinner at Barb & Larry's

Today we spent the day doing some shopping and getting flowers for family graves. We always visit my Mom and Dad's graves while we are home. Cedar Memorial lost tons of their beautilful trees because of the Derecho they had in Iowa. There were just so many trees lost and it is heart breaking to see the difference as it is everywhere in Cedar Rapids, Marion and outlying towns. I attended Mount Mercy College and the ground were beautiful with loads of huge trees and there are very few left. The whole town is like that. The huge tree that shaded my parents graves is gone at Cedar Memorial as are a lot of huge trees in the graveyard. They have planted a bunch of trees to replace many of them but in our lifetime they will still be small. We placed flowers on Dad and Mom's graves, Grandma Dolley's grave (Dad's Mom) and Aunt Ruth's grave.

Then we did some shopping. We were looking for a collapsible dish pan for the camper but we had no luck. 

We stopped at Dairy Queen for a treat and then headed back to Barb and Larry's. Larry fixed these enormous pork chops on the grill and Barb had all kinds of side dishes.

Barb had the Purdue Game on when we arrived and it was a cliffhanger. They were playing Illinois and Illinois was ahead most of the time. Purdue scored a touchdown right at practically the last moment  and Purdue won. Larry and Barb both to college at Purdue.

Larry is relaxing as he waits for the pork chops to be ready.

Lee waiting for dinner. And it was worth waiting for. Everything was delicious!

Off to Q Dogs BBQ for Dinner

We arrived in Cedar Rapids, Iowa today (Our home town) and arrived at Barb and Larry Taylor's home. They are always so gracious and invite us to stay at their place while we are in CR. We have an upstairs bedroom so we parked our camper off to the side on their huge driveway until we head out again.

Here's Barb letting us know that she picked up some kolaches from the St. Ludmila's Kolache Festival. They are definitely the best kolaches ever. Also, I (Mary) went to school at St. Ludmila's from 3rd through 8th grade. 

The kolaches have arrived at the table, but, believe me, they won't last long!

YUM!

After getting our stuff up in our bedroom for our time in Cedar Rapids, we decided to go out to eat. The Taylors and us both have a favorite BBQ place - Q Dogs in Marion and so we headed there to dinner.

Larry and Barb waiting for our rib dinners!

That's us, Mary and Lee. Notice that there are no pictures after the food arrived. It was too good to make it wait! lol