Cheese Days are over - it's time to take a break and head to the Southwest, visit some friends along the way, and check on my house in old Mesilla, New Mexico. Late September and early October can be our nicest weather in Cheeseland - not sure it's a good idea to leave now, but October is nice in the Southwest as well.
It's across the Mississippi at Dubuque - the story is that when Fr. Julian Dubuque left he said, "Don't change a thing till I come back." They didn't and he didn't.
Actually, it's a scenic river town. It and the river are picturesque on this sunny autumn day. Instead of my usual U.S. 151 southwest of Dubuque, I take U.S .20 straight west, past Dyersville and the Field of Dreams. I had visited it some years ago, but not this time.
As I roll past ripened corn and beans, a few combines are kicking up clouds of dust in the bean fields. Soon they will be harvesting the drought-diminished corn crop.
I'm heading for Cedar Falls on the invitation of some friends. I never cease to be amazed at how these links and connections come about - improbable, incredible, these links and connections. Fate, coincidence? Maybe. Pre-ordained? No, I can't go that far. But I'm convinced that we are all more closely connected than we can ever realize.
A couple of years ago, former Marine Frances Beers of New Glarus kept asking me to write a column on the Atomic Veterans. I finally decided to do a column. That "column" turned out to be a series of 15. I felt that I had to do some background, and got into some interesting stuff. That resulted in columns on the importance of Tinian and the Marianas, the rationale for the bloody battle of Iwo Jima, its controversy and tragedy related to the flag raising, and the resulting movie that propelled a "B movie cowboy," John Wayne, to superstardom.
I delved into the Manhattan Project and the nuclear physicists, the first atomic explosion at New Mexico's Trinity Site, and the atomic explosions that ended the war. Then followed the post-war controversy over nuclear testing, and the actual testing for which innocent veterans paid such a terrible price. Finally, it was Oppenheimer's opposition to continued nuclear development that motivated the political conspiracy that ended his career.
A few months after this series, in response to some stuff I had written on green chile cheeseburgers, friend and former colleague Jim Peach of NMSU's Economics Department, sent me an article on how the nuclear scientists in 1945 had patronized an establishment, the "Owl Bar," while they were preparing for the world's first nuclear test at New Mexico's Trinity Site. Furthermore, there was a connection of the Owl Bar to Gus Hilton and his son, Conrad, the future hotel magnate.
As I had found these connections interesting and had not known of some of them while writing the Atomic Veterans series, I wrote a few more columns connecting the nuclear scientists, Gus Hilton and son Conrad, and the Owl Bar to each other and to green chile cheeseburgers.
Some time later I was surprised to receive an email from one Aleta Anderson, inviting me to visit her and her husband in Cedar Falls on my next trip west - and have a real green chile cheeseburger. How did this come about? What was the connection, or should I say, multiple connections?
Aleta and her sister, Hawley, had graduated from Monroe High School. Their mother, Jenny Franklin, was a friend of my mother. Aleta received an advanced degree in library science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and landed a position at New Mexico State University's library. While in New Mexico, she married Richard Price, an El Paso, Texas native, and grandson Robert B. Price, founder of Price Dairy enterprises. The elder Price was one of the original investors that enabled Conrad Hilton to purchase his first hotel.
Among his varied skills, Richard Price once owned a restaurant a couple of blocks from my adobe in old Mesilla - the restaurant now known as El Comedor. So Richard, a native of El Paso, and having restaurant experience, knows his Mexican cuisine.
Richard and Aleta moved from the Southwest to Cedar Falls a few years ago. Upon seeing my columns connecting the nuclear scientists, the Owl Bar, and the Hiltons to New Mexico green chile cheeseburgers, Hawley, who lives in Monroe, forwarded my columns to her sister, Aleta, in Cedar Falls. And those are the improbable multiple connections that get me on the road to Cedar Falls on a sunny late September day.
Under blue skies on a classic Midwest autumn afternoon, I arrive at their house in a wooded setting north of Cedar Falls. Richard is already preparing his special blend of cheeses and chopped green chile for the best chile con queso I ever had. But that is only the appetizer.
On the deck, Richard fires up the grill and prepares some hamburger patties. Then he adds cheese and chopped green chile that he had brought back from Hatch, New Mexico, the world chile capital. All this on a bun, with some fine wine - what more could any chile lover ask?
We spend the evening reminiscing about improbable events and connections, past and present that brought us to New Mexico and back again. Next morning was another bright autumn day. After a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs with green chile and bacon, I bid adieu, and drove through Cedar Falls to hit U.S. 20 once again.
I tune the radio in my GMC to NPR as is my custom. The usual morning national public policy-oriented programs are focused on - guess what - the officiating fiasco that cost Green Bay a victory - something on which all Wisconsin cheeseheads can agree - a welcome change.
Next week: On to Colorado.
It's across the Mississippi at Dubuque - the story is that when Fr. Julian Dubuque left he said, "Don't change a thing till I come back." They didn't and he didn't.
Actually, it's a scenic river town. It and the river are picturesque on this sunny autumn day. Instead of my usual U.S. 151 southwest of Dubuque, I take U.S .20 straight west, past Dyersville and the Field of Dreams. I had visited it some years ago, but not this time.
As I roll past ripened corn and beans, a few combines are kicking up clouds of dust in the bean fields. Soon they will be harvesting the drought-diminished corn crop.
I'm heading for Cedar Falls on the invitation of some friends. I never cease to be amazed at how these links and connections come about - improbable, incredible, these links and connections. Fate, coincidence? Maybe. Pre-ordained? No, I can't go that far. But I'm convinced that we are all more closely connected than we can ever realize.
A couple of years ago, former Marine Frances Beers of New Glarus kept asking me to write a column on the Atomic Veterans. I finally decided to do a column. That "column" turned out to be a series of 15. I felt that I had to do some background, and got into some interesting stuff. That resulted in columns on the importance of Tinian and the Marianas, the rationale for the bloody battle of Iwo Jima, its controversy and tragedy related to the flag raising, and the resulting movie that propelled a "B movie cowboy," John Wayne, to superstardom.
I delved into the Manhattan Project and the nuclear physicists, the first atomic explosion at New Mexico's Trinity Site, and the atomic explosions that ended the war. Then followed the post-war controversy over nuclear testing, and the actual testing for which innocent veterans paid such a terrible price. Finally, it was Oppenheimer's opposition to continued nuclear development that motivated the political conspiracy that ended his career.
A few months after this series, in response to some stuff I had written on green chile cheeseburgers, friend and former colleague Jim Peach of NMSU's Economics Department, sent me an article on how the nuclear scientists in 1945 had patronized an establishment, the "Owl Bar," while they were preparing for the world's first nuclear test at New Mexico's Trinity Site. Furthermore, there was a connection of the Owl Bar to Gus Hilton and his son, Conrad, the future hotel magnate.
As I had found these connections interesting and had not known of some of them while writing the Atomic Veterans series, I wrote a few more columns connecting the nuclear scientists, Gus Hilton and son Conrad, and the Owl Bar to each other and to green chile cheeseburgers.
Some time later I was surprised to receive an email from one Aleta Anderson, inviting me to visit her and her husband in Cedar Falls on my next trip west - and have a real green chile cheeseburger. How did this come about? What was the connection, or should I say, multiple connections?
Aleta and her sister, Hawley, had graduated from Monroe High School. Their mother, Jenny Franklin, was a friend of my mother. Aleta received an advanced degree in library science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and landed a position at New Mexico State University's library. While in New Mexico, she married Richard Price, an El Paso, Texas native, and grandson Robert B. Price, founder of Price Dairy enterprises. The elder Price was one of the original investors that enabled Conrad Hilton to purchase his first hotel.
Among his varied skills, Richard Price once owned a restaurant a couple of blocks from my adobe in old Mesilla - the restaurant now known as El Comedor. So Richard, a native of El Paso, and having restaurant experience, knows his Mexican cuisine.
Richard and Aleta moved from the Southwest to Cedar Falls a few years ago. Upon seeing my columns connecting the nuclear scientists, the Owl Bar, and the Hiltons to New Mexico green chile cheeseburgers, Hawley, who lives in Monroe, forwarded my columns to her sister, Aleta, in Cedar Falls. And those are the improbable multiple connections that get me on the road to Cedar Falls on a sunny late September day.
Under blue skies on a classic Midwest autumn afternoon, I arrive at their house in a wooded setting north of Cedar Falls. Richard is already preparing his special blend of cheeses and chopped green chile for the best chile con queso I ever had. But that is only the appetizer.
On the deck, Richard fires up the grill and prepares some hamburger patties. Then he adds cheese and chopped green chile that he had brought back from Hatch, New Mexico, the world chile capital. All this on a bun, with some fine wine - what more could any chile lover ask?
We spend the evening reminiscing about improbable events and connections, past and present that brought us to New Mexico and back again. Next morning was another bright autumn day. After a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs with green chile and bacon, I bid adieu, and drove through Cedar Falls to hit U.S. 20 once again.
I tune the radio in my GMC to NPR as is my custom. The usual morning national public policy-oriented programs are focused on - guess what - the officiating fiasco that cost Green Bay a victory - something on which all Wisconsin cheeseheads can agree - a welcome change.
Next week: On to Colorado.
