Rolling with the winter weather

     It was Veterans Day, November 1997. I was on a cross-country trip with my brother in his semitruck hauling furniture for Mayflower Van Lines.
       I had just wrapped up my college degree that fall and was looking forward to spending some time with my brother and family.
       We had been in Denver, Colo. and Omaha, Neb. and then drove northeast through Iowa and Lake Okoboji into Minnesota. After making a stop in the Twin Cities to pick up a load, we were staying a couple days in Minnesota to pick up a second load before heading east to the State of Maine. Then it was off to New York City and West Virginia before heading home to Oklahoma.
      We pulled into a truck stop in Southern Minnesota after our stop in the Twin Cities and there must have been a foot of snow on the ground.
       My first thought, “Who the heck wants to live in a place like this?”
     In Oklahoma, I might still be wearing a T-shirt and no coat on Veterans Day. Not in Minnesota or even Iowa.
     A few weeks later in mid-December 1997, I was riding in the back seat of Ford Focus on my way from Williamsburg to North English while being interviewed for the editor job at the NE Record. 
      I had interviewed that previous fall for the Williamsburg Journal Tribune editor job and didn’t get hired. This was my second try with Marengo Publishing Company and a newspaper job in North English.
       I was hired on Christmas Eve and landed in Iowa on Dec. 28, 1997. And of course, it snowed my first week on the job.
      It’s not quite as cold and snowy in our neck of the woods as it is in Southern Minnesota, but the weather here can still be quite frightful at times.
     I witnessed some big snowstorms, ice storms and some 20 plus below zero nights. And I remember the time I parked my company Geo Metro on Main Street in North English and it snowed overnight. The next morning, my car was buried in a pile of snow and I had to dig it out with a snow shovel.
      I wondered why there was no parking on Main Street after 2 a.m.
     And the wind, it’s crazy how much it blows around these parts. There’s lots of wind in our Nation’s Capital and Iowa has lots of wind, too.
​     No wonder we have windmills all over the place.
    Some folks love the cold and snow. I’m not one of them. I’ll trade a snowstorm for a beautiful spring day anytime of the year.
   And to make matters worse, not long after moving to Iowa, I discovered the road closing gates on Interstate 35 outside of Ames and further north. 
    “What the heck,” I’m thinking. “If it gets that bad to close the road, that’s too far north. Take me back to the south.”
    I may have moved back south, but God had other plans for me. Not only have I enjoyed and continue to enjoy a rewarding career, I met my beautiful wife, Debbie, at the Iowa State Fair in August 2003. And she just happens to be from Montezuma.
     I once drove through Montezuma and stopped on the south edge of town to grab a Pepsi out of my cooler.      I never knew that I would work at the Montezuma Republican, met and marry Debbie, buy a house and much more.
     Life is good!
     I am more than happy to send this winter weather north to Minnesota. They love it up there.
    Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day and always.