Arrived Tuesday at Big Cat’s Cafe just as owner Duane (aka “Big Cat” pictured in Strava link) was opening up in Muscatine, Iowa. He greeted me warmly with a big smile. It didn’t take long, while barista Anna was pulling espresso shots, to find out Duane was from Bayonne, NJ. First, the NJ connection immediately broke the ice and, second, my late father’s name is Duane. Duane said his mother encouraged him to leave Bayonne for greener pastures…college in Iowa certainly qualifies! This mountain of a man, in all respects, has many layers. He met his future wife in Iowa, raised two daughters here and served as a probationary officer in the Iowa justice system. Once again, you can’t make this stuff up and the CRI link to my trip immediately resonated. After a 20+ year career working with both juveniles and adults, he had an entrepreneurial itch that had to be scratched (he is the Big Cat after all!). He opened up this beautiful cafe in 2020 and is expanding into other businesses. Duane is a community guy who is right at home in this Mississippi River town. Now for the clincher, he lost a brother (David) in 2024 and has memorialized him with a version of My Brother’s Keeper on the inside of his forearm. Huge exhale. Energized by this chance meeting, I made it over 100 miles to Dyresville, home of the movie set made famous in Kevin Costner’s ‘Field of Dreams’. I couldn’t help but think about what motivated character Ray Kinsella to build a beautiful baseball park in an Iowa cornfield and the parallel to what motivated me to do this solo cross country journey for CRI. Meeting people like Big Cat and listening to my brother’s voice to follow my heart helps answer it for me.
