October 12, 2014
We left home Thursday the 9th after mowing the
lawn. Zach our yard guy showed up
Tuesday and treated the lawn. Wednesday
I had to hustle out with the hoses and sprinklers to water it in before I could
mow. Of course the weed treatment had to
work for at least 12 hours before I could start to water. I know it sounds like I’m whining but our
yard has never looked so good. Getting
treatments on time and above average rain, it was late September before I could
mow just once a week.
We left home about 11:00 and had a leisurely drive to
Hawkeye Point Campground. It is the
highest elevation in Iowa. Sort of
similar to being the deepest point in the Platt…. J! Anyway it is one of those places that we’ve
driven past for years and we decided to spend the night there. There is a little monument across the road
from the campground on private property and a marker for the high point. The real advantage is we didn’t have to
arrive in the Twin Cities at the peak of rush hour.
Friday morning I made coffee, fed Darby, took her for a walk
to see the monument and drove to The Blue Line Café in Worthington for
breakfast by 9:30. Then we stopped at
the quilt store in Windom (I know I was all aquiver too). We stopped at the kid’s house to top off the
water tank and were set up at Bunker Hills by 3:30. Just in time to start a weekend of hockey
practice and swimming lessons. I’m just
glad someone tells me where to be because I could never keep track of all of
it. Friday evening and Saturday we made
three trips to hockey practice at three different facilities with more to come
today. There is school Monday and
Tuesday so Grandma and I can catch our breath.
The kids are off Wednesday thru Friday so it will be a busy week.
October 14, 2014
Sunday we watched Connor practice hockey. We met him, his
mom and Hailie at the rink. 4-6 year
olds on ice skates are a hoot. There was
one little guy that never made it more than 15’ from the door but he was
grinning from ear to ear. At the other
end of the spectrum there were kids who could skate, stop, skate backwards
shoot and handle the puck. They worked
lots of drills to teach hockey skills. The
learning to fall down and get back up are a hoot to watch along with moving the
puck through a series of cones then shoot into a little net.
After Connor’s hockey practice we went to their house and
watched football until swimming lessons.
It was real hard to stay awake in the new recliners in the basement,
they are real good napping chairs… J
Then it was off to swimming lessons. That was two hours in the junior high
pool. The chlorine smell hits you while
still in the parking lot and I had flashbacks to swim meets past. The swimming lessons were not as much fun as
hockey but the kids wanted us to come and watch.
Monday while the kids were in school we visited the Duluth Trading store and the
Rockler store. Then a late lunch at the
Shortstop before Debbie picked up the kids, took them for a snack then home to
do homework. I stayed at the camper and
took Darby for a long walk before Connor’s last soccer game of the season. It was cold and a light rain was falling
while he played. They don’t “officially”
keep score but he informed us after the game they won 3 – 2, which is what I
had.
We’ll pick the kids up from school this afternoon and they
are spending the night with us. They are
out of school the rest of the week so we will get to see a lot of them. Makes me tired just thinking about it…J
October 22, 2014
Thursday Leslie and I played golf at the executive course at
Bunker Hills then had a late lunch at the Shortstop. She needs to play more than once a year, I think
she’d be a pretty fair player with a little practice. It was fun to get a little alone time with
her.
Hailie had dry land practice that evening and there is no place
for spectators so we met for diner after at their house. Friday was paintie toes day so Connor and I spent
the time together. He didn’t want to go
to the tool store so we played Bumper Cars, Spoons, and Old Maid. That evening we went to our last hockey
practice for Hailie. Paul is helping
coach this year so he met us there and broke in his new skates. Conner had the weekend off and Hailie had a
7:00 AM practice on Saturday.
Paul and I watched the Gophers play the early game on Saturday
then slept through most of the Ohio State game.
P&L went to Chris’s 40th birthday party that evening so
we watched the kids. Well Debbie watched
the kids and I watched the Huskers. Hailie
was already in bed when the game was over.
Connor was watching Ghost Busters so I put him on my lap. He sat there until Sigourney Weaver was
levitating above her bed and the spooky music was getting louder, then I poked
him in the back and said boo and he went to bed.
Sunday we broke camp and went to their house to fill the
water tank and eat breakfast. Connor told
his Mom how mean Grandpa was to him but he didn’t get a lot of sympathy. After breakfast we headed for Crystal Lake
west of Forrest City Iowa.
Monday after sleeping in and being slow to get started we
went to the Winnebago Customer Service Center to visit with them about getting
some work done on the camper. We didn’t
know what to expect so it was worth stopping for a visit. We got a lot of good information from Rebecca
at the service desk and picked up a couple of parts that I have been having trouble
locating. We found that if we schedule
our appointment they well have all the necessary parts available to get us in
and out quickly and their shop rate seemed reasonable.
Tuesday we moved south to Nine Eagles State Park near Davis
City Iowa. We found a pile of firewood
that a previous camper left so we had our first campfire of this trip. We’ll spend the Wednesday here then head to
Missouri for a while.
October 28, 2014
We spent two nights at Nine Eagles. It’s a very pretty area but does not appear
as prosperous as northern Iowa. It’s
difficult to understand why but most farm places are run down and the machinery
the farmers are using is much older and often in disrepair. We drove to several small communities and
found much of the same, obviously poor economic opportunities available to the
locals. After our drive we returned to
the campground and Darby and I took a nice hike on the park trails. I enjoy doing this but haven’t had much
opportunity to do it this year.
Thursday morning we packed up and headed for Arrow Rock SHP
Missouri. The town of Arrow Rock has a
population of 59 and has done a tremendous job of maintaining the character of
an old Missouri town. The town is on the
National Register of Historic Sites with the SHP Visitor’s Center located
adjacent to the old business district.
We drove through town Thursday evening then went to the Visitor’s Center
and town on Friday. During it’s heyday
the town was the center of commerce for the area. It was on the Missouri river and the largest
city west of St Louis. The Santa Fe Trail
originates there.
After looking around Arrow Rock we drove to Blackwater. It’s another community that appears to be
surviving. Many of the storefronts are
occupied, there are two banks and although most homes are small most are in
good repair and kept up. This as opposed
to Nelson just three miles away, I would not walk into most of the homes much
live there. The only business is the
grain elevator.
On Saturday I watched the game on my computer; Missouri
parks have Wi-Fi available. After the
game we went to three area cemeteries and saw the names of many people we
learned about. The Negro Cemetery was
the exception. The population of Arrow
Rock was at one time 1/3 black. The
Negro Cemetery has over 350 graves with maybe 20 stones. The latest one I saw was 2012.
Sunday we moved to Watkins Woolen Mill SP/SHP. We visited here in 2009 but Debbie was
hurting and didn’t see it all plus I wanted to see it again. They have a nice visitor’s center and do a
tour of the farm and the mill. I find
each fascinating! For example it took
eight attempts for Waltus Watkins to make bricks to construct his home. It takes months to make them by hand so it
was eight years before he got it right and could begin construction of his
house. Another tidbit was how many hours
of labor were required to knit a sweater if you processed the wool by hand, 100
hours. No wonder his mill was so
successful. The mill is the only
remaining example of a 19th century mill that is still intact, all
of the machines are still there. If you
are ever near here it is worth the stop.
Today we drove to Weston.
One of our favorite wineries is located here, Pritle. They have a Port that is out of this
world. We picked a case of assorted
wines. We also visited McCormick
Distillery store and drove through Weston Bend SP to read about tobacco
production again. We need to make a trip
here sometime other than fall, I’d like to see a tobacco field before it is
harvested.
Thursday well head back home and make some decisions on when
and what RV repairs and upgrades we need to work on. We also received notice that the Blazi’n
Grill we ordered is in and we are looking forward to breaking it in.
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