You talk in your sleep, too, Fish.

Waterloo, we'd heard, was one of the larger cities along the route, and Mel promptly called to warn us to stay away from the "bad part of town." Waterloo is the equivilent of Pennsylvania's Harrisburg, and after sitting outside a sketchy apartment building (Kristen speaking: More aplty, the crap-partment). We sat in the parking lot for ten minutes, arguing about what creepy personalities our host family would possess, Kristen and I made our way to downtown Cedar Falls in search of a coffee shop, which we later found had moved (YAY for GPS, the same thing that led us to the ghetto of Waterloo, the very place Dr. Mel had warned us about). (Kristen speaking: Here's a shout-out to the lovely couple we met at lunch in Charles City yesterday. Thanks for letting us share your table, and Monika most certainly thanks you for that piece of pizza. You were right--Cedar Falls is better than Waterloo!) Yes, Kristen, it's amazing how free everything is in Iowa: free pizza, free grotto tours, free Devonian era fossils...

Anyhow, we fed our Blue Bunny ice cream obsession (literally) and then headed to a nearby art gallery (which eventually led to more post cards. Katie, Holly, I hope you like N.C. Wyeth Indian fight paintings). Hesitant to return to the crap-partment, we went downtown in search of more art galleries.

Downtown Cedar Falls had a multitude of shops that we perused, desperate to pass as much time as we could. At one high-end jewelry store, a snobby saleslady criticized Kristen's woven Costa Rica bracelets, meanwhile trying to sell her troll beads. As if she would ever be interested in Norweigen-made Troll Beads. (Kristen speaking: They were nice, but wow--so expensive).

We returned to the crap-partment, unwillingly, and realized that our GPS had, once again, led us astray. Discovering that our host family was actually a nice couple with an affinity for cats, we settled in at the end of Day 5(?).

(Kristen speaking: A shout-out to Sandra Fish: "Don't forget to mention that my butt hurts." Monika may mumble in her sleep, but you sing. And it's certainly not anything resembling "I Want To Be Sedated." I'd say you're subconcious is more in-tune with a creepy nursery rhyme. I'd love to psychoanalyze that, but it's late, and you're snoring...)