I was excited. I now had an address to work with. I typed the address into my phone and attempted to find my way through the streets of Cedar Rapids. For those of you who might not know, there are many rivers, creeks and streams in Iowa. One of those rivers is the Cedar River that runs through the city of Cedar Rapids. It is a large river that serves as a natural break creating sections of the city.
We dutifully followed the directions provided by my phone. We arrived at the single story, cream colored house and I snapped several pictures. Here is one.
I later texted my mom and realized that this is actually not my dad's childhood home. Wrong house! My dad grew up in a 2 story home on a corner. The home was supposedly built in the 1800's. As you can see this is not the home. So, what happened with my "made to order" directions found on my phone? As it turns out, the house pictured above is located at 1601 E Ave NW, not the correct 1601 E Ave NE.
The one and only time I have traveled to Cedar Rapids, I don't find the right house. Such are the hazards of the GPS. You never know where you will end up. This is not the first and I am sure not the last time I will end up in the wrong place holding my wonderful GPS in hand. Below is the correct home. It is the light colored one on the left corner. I know, not the same as my own picture. Google Earth did not have a street image of the house, only an aerial image.
Since we are on the topic of my dad's childhood. Here are a few pictures of the school's that my dad attended. First is a picture of Franklin Middle School.
Next is Washington High School.
Okay dad. The middle school looks like it is still the same but I don't know about the high school. I did see on wikipedia that it was built in 1956. So maybe you attended your sophomore, junior and senior years at this particular high school?
