Back to Des Moines
Well, this is my last post from Springfield, Virginia. Tomorrow I hit the road for Des Moines and home.
Perhaps some day I'll be back in the Washington area with my wife and some constructive life purpose. I'm a city kid, being born and raised in Chicago, and Washington has always appealed to the politician and the historian in me. Lots of stuff I didn't get to see even after eight months; Fredricksberg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, and a whole lot of other Civil War sites still await future trips. And it doesn't look like I'm going to get back to Gettysburg this time (though I did visit Antietam and Bull Run last summer).
But still, it'll be good to be back in Des Moines. It's a reasonable-sized city, and by no means the cultural hole most East Coasters assume it to be. I know my way around Des Moines already- I was just learning Northern Virginia and environs- and of course, Denise is there.
It'll be good to see the folks at the Des Moines Astronomical Society and Ashton Observatory again. Church shopping is going to be a bit of a bear. I had a great church here: Immanuel Lutheran in Alexandria, a fine exemplar of orthodox preaching and thoughtful liturgy that it will be hard to match back in Iowa. But I'm sure we'll manage; Iowa District East is near enough that a search for an orthodox LCMS congregation within a reasonable distance should be easier than it might otherwise be, and there's always a nearby ELS congregaton in a pinch. I'll miss the folks at Immanuel, though, and Pastor Esget's fine sermons. Though I'll still be getting those by email every week.
So we will hopefully be on the road sometime around lunchtime tomorrow, arriving in Des Moines late Tuesday. By Wednesday or Thursday I should be posting again. Now back to laundry, packing... and hopefully, at some point tonight, some sleep. I'm going to need it, given all the driving I'll be doing in the next couple of days.
Perhaps some day I'll be back in the Washington area with my wife and some constructive life purpose. I'm a city kid, being born and raised in Chicago, and Washington has always appealed to the politician and the historian in me. Lots of stuff I didn't get to see even after eight months; Fredricksberg, Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, and a whole lot of other Civil War sites still await future trips. And it doesn't look like I'm going to get back to Gettysburg this time (though I did visit Antietam and Bull Run last summer).
But still, it'll be good to be back in Des Moines. It's a reasonable-sized city, and by no means the cultural hole most East Coasters assume it to be. I know my way around Des Moines already- I was just learning Northern Virginia and environs- and of course, Denise is there.
It'll be good to see the folks at the Des Moines Astronomical Society and Ashton Observatory again. Church shopping is going to be a bit of a bear. I had a great church here: Immanuel Lutheran in Alexandria, a fine exemplar of orthodox preaching and thoughtful liturgy that it will be hard to match back in Iowa. But I'm sure we'll manage; Iowa District East is near enough that a search for an orthodox LCMS congregation within a reasonable distance should be easier than it might otherwise be, and there's always a nearby ELS congregaton in a pinch. I'll miss the folks at Immanuel, though, and Pastor Esget's fine sermons. Though I'll still be getting those by email every week.
So we will hopefully be on the road sometime around lunchtime tomorrow, arriving in Des Moines late Tuesday. By Wednesday or Thursday I should be posting again. Now back to laundry, packing... and hopefully, at some point tonight, some sleep. I'm going to need it, given all the driving I'll be doing in the next couple of days.
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