September 12th – 20th • Creston Hot Air Balloon Days

I know the blog has been bouncing around dates but, I don’t want to miss all the things I skipped past to get you caught up on our life. Now I will start going back and filling you in on our home life and the mini-adventures we have taken over the last year. As of today, we have been on the road for 13 months and I think we forget how many things we have really done over this year. Although we have a place to call home in Iowa that doesn’t mean we are stuck here we are still exploring and traveling through the year.

September was the first month we lived in Iowa and there were so many events that took place in Creston that we were excited to be part of. During the first few weeks of being in Iowa, we were still recouping from being sick as you would have read in Alternator Altercations. But we were finally feeling better we did walk down to our neighbor’s house to help feed his cats and the kids were super excited to see the new kittens. We were getting into the living in the country life and moving what little we had from our camper into our new home.

Kevin and I also went uptown to the local brewery Hot Air Brewing for a night. Got to meet some locals and explore the community. There was a parade on main street we took the kids to for one of our first outdoor encounters after getting healthy. We all enjoyed finally getting out of the house and exploring our new community.

Malachi, Lita, John, and I went to the Creston Hot Air Balloon Days while Noah and Kevin went to pick up a tractor. Creston has an awesome community and at this point, we didn’t really know much about it but we did head to town for the festivities and during the day. I purchased a bunch of homemade cards for our birthday cards we mail out and got some coffee at the local coffee shop Adam’s Street Espresso which is amazing and my favorite place in town. Creston is a small town in Iowa with a great sense of community the longer we live here and the more people we meet the more I appreciate where we have landed even if it will only be for a little time.

One thing that is great about living in a house instead of a camper is it’s a lot easier to make food creations. Malachi was so excited to have a real kitchen again that he was making all sorts of fun recipes for us. He makes this amazing Chicken Piccata w/White Wine dish that has become a family favorite. He made Shakshuka for us one morning which is a “Maghrebi dish of eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes, olive oil, peppers, onion, and garlic, commonly spiced with cumin, paprika, and cayenne pepper.”(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakshouka) If you want a great meal next time you see Malachi make sure to ask him to whip you up one of his masterpieces.

Here is Noah and Kevin’s Journey

My Dad and I were going to be spending a couple days driving down to Little Rock, Arkansas, for a tractor, so why not make it worthwhile? We had an extravagant idea to find as many go karts as possible, we made it our goal for the trip to fill all the excess space on the trailer up with go karts. We actually didn’t start the day until around 3 o’clock, it was a late start, but we found the first deal to be made in Kansas City, Missouri. It was a blue Manco Dingo that came with a motor that was worth nothing, we did some bartering and eventually we agreed on a price. I also was looking for a guitar amp as I had just bought an electric guitar and I needed an amp. I had found a Boss Katana amp in Kansas City as well before we headed farther south in search of go karts (and tractors of course). We continued our trip south as I continued to search far and wide for deals to be made and found one in Arkansas, North of Little Rock. But, it was already getting late, so we planned to pick it up in the morning. We found a hotel that was near the go kart, and we didn’t get in until around 2 am. We woke up and started to head out, but the kid who I was messaging ghosted us. Luckily he had given me a phone number the night before. We called the number and the father of the kid answered the phone and told us that his kid got grounded and ran off to his mom’s house last night. He gave us an address and we drove to it. We arrived and talked to the guy about the go kart and was telling us that he felt bad for his kid “ripping us off” so he ended up giving us a killer deal! On top of that, his son had a moped sitting around, and the dad sold it to us as well for an amazing deal. We left successfully with 2 go karts on the trailer and a moped, but we still felt that we needed more. We found a guy who had 2 go karts for sale and we went to his house to see them. Low and behold, the 2 go karts are the worst things imaginable! He has 2 kids, and his daughter had a red Manco Dingo that was in good condition, but she didn’t know if she wanted to sell it. We spent around 2 hours at the place watching this guy try to get a rototiller started (who knows why), finally, his daughter comes out of the house with a pitch. So we agreed to buy this go kart and we loaded up and headed out to pick up the tractor we came all this way south in search of. We drove to the house for the tractor and loaded it up, and the guy had one more thing for us, he was going to give us a go kart for free! We went back, and sure enough, he just handed it off to us, free of charge. At that point, the trailer was almost overflowing with go karts and tractor additions, so we decided it was time to head home. We drove all of the rest of the day and didn’t get back until around 1 am, ending the biggest go kart run of the century.

Noah Misiurski – The Kart King