Too much to ask

I like that commercial that says, "Wanna get away?" and the remaining tag line, "You are now free to move about the country." Love it. My husband and I had a deep urge of wanting to get away and move about the country years ago. We planned a trip to the Mid-West.

Halt!!! The Mid-West? You have this deep urge to get away and you chose the mid-west out of sites like Hawaii, California, Florida or New York?! I know, but it was perfect; a road trip quest with our children, soon to be 6 and 4, was the best vacation we ever planned. The kids were too young to roll their eyes, flip an attitude, and be stoned faced while we flew them over and pulled them through three states. They appreciated the change in scenery from where we lived, they loved the hotels and room service, the rental car was "cool", and we did kid friendly events like the American Girl store in Chicago, and a Royals game in Missouri. We had no iPods, no Nintendo Ds, no car movies. Just us four, all day 24/7, and it was the best!

All summer leading up to our journey we talked to the kids about Iowa; the main subject that our trip was built around. Being true baseball fans, we were headed to The Field Of Dreams. Corn country. Hmmm, the kids love corn on the cob and were so excited about eating fresh corn. Yum. We talked all summer about seeing lightening bugs and eating fresh corn, out in the middle of the Iowa countryside. We couldn't wait.

When we arrived, we realized that we did not have a clue about harvesting, because all the corn stalks were up and alive and looking great. Which meant that we got to get lost in the corn fields, but it also meant, I guess, that there were no corn on the cobs to eat. No veggie stands on that country road we had pictured in our minds. We checked out this great, country restaurant in Dyersville, Iowa, hoping for sure that corn was on the menu. None to be found. I even asked, "May the kids have an ear of corn with their meal, please?" She looked at me puzzled and said, "Well, I'm not sure if we have any; but I'll be sure to bring whatever vegetable or fruit that we have back on their plate."

Our home state is apple country. Our children's plate was returned with Applesauce. The defeat in our four faces told the entire story. I guess it was too much to ask that on our quest to "Wanna get away" and "You are now free to move about the country" we could not get fresh corn on the cob in corn country ... oh, and the lightening bugs apparently turned off their lights before we arrived. We didn't see any of those either.