Ah yes, flowers, rhubarb, mushrooms, gas prices UP, Coralville streep sweeper creating more dust than good....SPRING!! A sure sign of Spring when I was a kid here in Coralville was 'messing' around down at the Iowa River.. Yep, same spot as you see today. The old 'catwalk' was cool. Kind of shaky, but nobody seemed to notice. The catwalk today is new, sleek, strong, and serves as a nice trail link with Iowa City.. Before this new one, the old one served as a great fishing platform. On a Saturday morning in Spring, Summer, there would be AT LEAST 10-15 guys lined up along the catwalk, fishing. They all had their tackle boxes, minnow buckets, poles, etc. They would lean forward on their elbows on the steel rail, and 'watch' their line! ALL SUMMER LONG.. When you walked across the catwalk to the east end, you had to be careful not to trip over their gear, or touch their pole. YES they caught fish. The fish of choice was the channel cat, with great hopes of landing a big flathead. IT happened all the time. Now, at the east end you could make your way down to the river. The water swerved around to the east and created a real shallow, ripply, water flow. You just walked out into the water with your boots on, or most usually just your tennis shoes and got wet, (who cared) and walked out to the "Island'. The Island was south of the catwalk, (down river) about 30 yds. LOTS of kids (mainly) would wade out there, cast our bait up TO the water coming over the dam, and let our bait sink, HOPING to get a big cat or flathead. The island was all rocks. We would turn over rocks and grab little shellfish for bait. We did this ALL the time. We caught lots of carp, cat, flatheads, maybe a striped bass once in a while, AND some walleyes! Caution.. On the back side of the Island (which was about 50' by 100', was a deep hole. It was deep!..More on the Iowa River soon!

Here it is, the day AFTER tax day.. And to think, the paper says I have been working for Uncle Sam full time since January 1..Makes me sick!....Finally some nice weather. Actually it has been nice for a couple weeks. Lots of buds, birds, dust, green grass, golfers, a few convertibles, etc. Get out and get the 'stink blown off' as my Dad would say. I gotta tell ya, the BIG hole a the corner of 5th street and 12th ave IS A HUGE HOLE! I guess that is what a $20million dollar hole SHOULD look like. Park in the Library lot and walk to the edge of the hole some evening and take a look down inside..WHILE you are there, TRY to return a book to the handy dandy 'driveup book return' at the newly remodeled Coralville Library. Impossible. I HOPE the Library Committee and our City Council has NOT paid for this. NOT good. Clearly sold to the voters as part of the $8million bond issue was a 'driveup' book return. YOU be the judge. Now 1st avenue bridge over Clear Creek is half demolished. We have to weather the construction to get to the new bridge..Just think, people will come to a game this year and say, 'geez, they 'got a new bridge',,,, NEVER having to suffer thru the traffic snarls like the rest of us! Coralville will ride herd on these guys and get it done. MORE shuffling coming on the Strip and on 1st Avenue. UIHC has announced a HUGE new hospitial project in River Landing. If I recall 2 large hospital buildings with a total of 200,000sqft. (a HUGE amount) will be built, and the City of Coralville will build and leaseback ( I think) another parking ramp on that site. ANY town in Iowa or even the Midwest would do this in order to attract a rock solid business like a huge hospital. IT is time to ENJOY summer in Coralville. Have you eaten at the Brown Deer Golf Course? Take some friends some evening and have a cold 'drink' and a burger on the BIG patio, or get in the carbon burning ( I love it!) car and head to C.R. to see a Kernel's game. WE go there a lot! E-Z to go and also enjoy baseball....Walk across the Iowa River at the Iowa River Power Restaurant. STOP in the middle of the bridge and envision the 'long ago' grist mill on the site of the restaurant, horses, men working, etc.....THIS is the epicenter of the City of Coralville. ..Drive out to IHOP on the west end of the Strip, park your car, and walk part of the Clear Creek Trail System. ..Walk from Hy-Vee east to 1st avenue and back....Long walk, but this is Old U.S. Highway 6, Boston to L.A., right thru Coralville..Take time to see the Old School, the 'bend in the road' , the 'Mormon Rock', the Duck Pond, and more!! ...Open the windows in your house and let the wind blow thru!!!

IT is a great day in Coralville!!.........ALL days are great in Coralville.