With a capital T and that rhymes with P…

The day after the 4th of July, Brandon and I ended up in Iowa on a little trip for his job.

Every time we go to Iowa, I sing to Brandon, “We are in I-o-waaay,” which is from the musical, the Music Man.

This trip, we stayed in Mason City. I had plans to visit the cute downtown of nearby Clear Lake, Iowa, when we discovered, much to my surprise and excitement, that Mason City, Iowa is Meredith Willson’s hometown, and was the inspiration for River City, Iowa in his musical…you guessed it! … the Music Man!

So we ended up here:

The Music Man Square in Mason City, Iowa!!

Inside was a recreation of downtown River City from the movie, Meredith Willson’s boyhood home (where I wasn’t allowed to take pictures), and a museum with Music Man memorabilia and history, as well as an exhibit from the National Music Museum with band and instrument history.

And now for some photos. :)  (These will be fun for you if you are a Music Man nut, or at least enjoyed the musical/movie.)  :)

There was a recreation of the Billiard Parlor in which was installed infamous pool table that was going to bring trouble to River City. You bet your buttons I kept singing, “Oh we’ve got trouble! Right here in River City! With a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for ‘pool!’” :)

Inside the billiard parlor, at the pool table, Brandon and I tried to make faces that looked like trouble. :)

I had to have Brandon take a picture of me in front of the recreation dressmaker’s shop!

(Why do I always have to take this picture? I made my friend, Jessica, take a picture of me in front of the dressmaker’s shop at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, too.)  :)

Then, we went inside the museum.

There was Music Man memorabilia.

And seventy-six trombones in the Wells Fargo wagon!

Again, you know I was singing both “Seventy-six trombones led the big parade! With a hundred and ten cornets close at hand!!” and “Oh-ho the Wells Fargo wagon is a-comin’ down the street! Oh please let it be for me!”  At this point, Brandon was walking away from me, taking “work phone calls.” I’m pretty sure he was just embarrassed. :)

Here’s a cut-out of Meredith Willson on the radio, in case you were wondering what the man behind the music looked like.

And of course, we just had to take this picture:

So there’s my post-4th of July excitement involving the Music Man.  I hope you enjoyed it. :)  I secretly (or not-so-secretly) love this kind of stuff on a road trip! :)

Have you had any fun adventures lately?