Jonathan Meyer.

“I feel like you could write about this for your column,” — you know what, I probably can. Here is the story of my Sunday, showing off my hometown(s) to my dear roommate.

I hadn’t been home much since Christmas break, that really eats at me, who is going to pet my dog? I missed my parents too, of course, but they can drive…Anyways, with the excuse of wanting a traditional St. Patrick’s Day meal of corned beef and vegetables, I decided to take my roommate Chris back with me to Tama-Toledo.

Our drive was an adventure as always. With coffee in hand, we made decent time coming from Waverly.driving in on 63, the first thing Chirs asked made me laugh out loud, “Is this Tama or Toledo?” I took great pride in explaining the boundaries and the way our two separate towns function sometimes as one and sometimes as two. What seemed like a silly concept to a guy from Califionia, was a sacred and just the way of life I was used to.

I pointed out the carwash where I used to work and weathered the Derecho (I should write one of these about that day), our idea of severe weather compared to his is quite funny. While he’s worried about forest fires we have big wind storms and feet of snow, a fun perspective to think about.

Showing off all the businesses in Toledo was fun, the lack of fast food was something he noted really quickly. We got to the border of the two towns and Chris was amazed that they just bleed together with nothing looking any different.

I pulled into the high school, showing our roundhouse and sharing a little history of the building. We found ourselves back by the track, a place the both of us are very familiar with. We talked about how nice our stadium is and how well it’s tucked away, providing privacy and a good atmosphere for track meets, maybe you could mention football or soccer too.

From there I showed off the prairie by the elementary school and our beautiful rec trail. Eventually getting back on 63, we made our way to downtown Tama. He had picked up on our abundance of Mexican restaurants and he asked which one was the best. I laughed and said “depends what you want,” certainly the best answer I could give in that moment.

Once we made it to Cherry Lake, or what the cross county team had renamed Cherry Dessert. That whole situation of losing the paper mill and eventually having the lake dry up irked Chris quite a bit. I showed him pictures of all the fish lining the dried lake bed from last spring/summer.

After showing him the dreaded pool hill, a place I told him we’d run sometimes, we made our way back to my house and took it all in.

“It seemed like a chill smaller town(s) that has enough businesses, but it’s not big enough to fine dine.” Chris made that comment with a breakfast sandwich in his hand. I’m guessing food was on the mind.

Until my next adventure in Tama-Toledo, I’m Just Jonathan.