Last stop....Iowa (Part 2)

So as I was saying, I was expecting a nice relaxing weekend of eating, gossiping and card playing but my family had other plans.....

My visit was timed with an important event in the area - the town my Grandma grew up in, Dedham, was having its 125th birthday. A parade had been organised through the town along with games for adults and kids, including tractor pull, dunk-the-spunk (I made that name up, but its where someone is sitting above a pool of water and you throw a ball at a target to dunk them in), bingo and giant inflatable jumping castles. It was my first experience of this kind of event and I was a little unsure what to expect given that the town's population is around 250.

So my Grandma's side, the Tunning's along with the Dopey's, had put together a float for the parade with the theme "Tunning back into Dedham" and had converted a large flat bed truck into a giant radio. They also had really attractive lime green T-shirts made up for us all to wear. For those of us that decided to walk the mile long route (had to work off the carmel rolls somehow!) it was our our job to hand out the beer.

I was really impressed with the turn out as there were about 250 entrants in the parade and the mile long route was lined with people. My favourites were the old fire engines with matching not-so-buff-possibly-too-many-donuts firemen and the old John Deer tractors.

1946 Fire Engine

Dedhem parade - John Deer tractors

Dopey Aunt Joan

Unfortunately a rogue group of Tunnings had decided to make their own float with a very similar theme! Disaster!

Nevertheless, the parade was a success and great experience, made even better by the grilled hamburgers afterwards.