It's Fiesta (ware) time again

"Let's go to Lafayette and take a bike ride with Ali," I said.

I'd envisioned a trek through Celery Bog, maybe some other trails in and around Lafayette and West Lafayette. She's starting her senior year at Purdue, so she's got a far better sense of the local geography now. She neglected to remind me that the western portion of Indiana isn't as flat as central Indiana.

It was in the mid-80s with a slight breeze as we pedaled from her new studio apartment following her. It was super pleasant, and then, she took a turn through a residential area muttering to herself about how she thought this was the top of the hill. 

We dutifully followed her and then were flying down a mile-plus long, gorgeous, curvy strip of Happy Hollow park, braking to avoid the families and walkers who were also out enjoying the weather. It was just  dangerous enough to be exhilarating without scaring the pee out of you. 

We survived to the bottom without injuring anyone. And then, she said, "We have two choices to get back up."

"Back up? Do we have to go back up?" I asked, thinking that there had to be a different route back home, perhaps longer but certainly not back from whence we came. I mean, that trip down had wind whistling through the holes in my helmet. We were FLY-ing. With the brakes on.

"Yup," she said. "We can go back how we came or got this way. It's steeper but shorter."

I've never had delusions that I'm an athlete, but there was no way I was going to make it back up the way we came. It was fun going down, but it was a looong route.

We turned left. Jeff quickly outpaced us. I should have taken a picture. Ali and I we about a third of the way when she hopped off and decided to push her bike. In her defense, she needs some gear work on that bike, which is my old one.

I struggled onward. Slowly but still aboard. At one point I called out to ask if we were close to the top. She said, "Can you see the top?"

I peered up. It looked like the end. But it also looked like it might curve. "I think so," I said.

"That's not the top," she said.

I got there, but it was touch-and-go. We very much deserved the ice-cream that came after.

After we'd recovered, we spent more than two hours at a flea market-antique shop Ali had found where we discovered some Fiesta dinnerware amongst an enormous collection of detritus that ranged from clothing to rugs to beautiful furniture to books and records and anything that someone found in their father's garage and decided there was a chance someone in the world might find it useful. I quickly get bored shopping for new things, so it was a shock to all of us that I was still upright after the first few rows. 

We've been collecting Fiesta for 24 years, a milestone I can point to because we bought some plates that I was certain were not authentic "old" Fiesta but Jeff insisted that they were. He dug out our official Fiesta book to settle the argument and in it, we found a hand-written receipt for our first ever purchase of the stuff.

We weren't yet married yet but had decided we didn't want to register for china as we had been instructed was expected of us by Jeff's then-law firm co-workers. We did register for wine glasses and a bunch of other stuff, but for china we opted for Fiesta - a line of Depression-era dishes.

My dad found a few pieces of it at an auction, which he and my mom gave us for Christmas the year before we got married. Months later, he was getting a haircut on Main Street in Jasonville when the auctioneer he'd bought the dishes from was stopped at the traffic light. Johnny Swalls, the auctioneer, spied my dad in the barber's chair. He pulled over and went into the shop.

"Hey, Don," he said. "A few months back, you bought some Fiestaware from me. You've never bought that before, what made you do it?" 

Dad told him about Jeff and my plan, and Johnny told him that he'd just signed a contract for an estate sale that included nearly an entire collection of the stuff, and if we wanted it, we could have it if we bought the entire collection. In our Fiesta book was the receipt from that purchase, which set us off on a hunt that lasted a few years and has left us with a solid collection but with lots of missing bits. 

Also in the book was proof that Jeff was right about the plates we found in Lafayette. We scored three dinner plates that are slightly larger than the plates we've been using for years and are much more commonly available. 

We also found some other fairly uncommon plates. It's been a long time since we worked at finishing out our collection, but it might be time to take it up again.

One of the most fun pieces we have is a relish tray that Jeff bought me for Christmas one year. It arrived with some of its pieces broken. In our book was the paperwork Jeff used to collect on the insurance and get the replacement parts. 

Back then, I think we were  hesitant to use it because of all the trouble to get the parts. Now, we're determined to have people over so we can use it.

Who's free? No biking will be involved.