A DAY FULL OF LUCK! (READ THIS AL!)

Since we acquired all this knowledge the last couple weeks, we decided to stop at Ameristar for a couple hours. Wow, I had something really unusual happen! I played one of the new Zeus games and got a bonus. If you get all four Zeus' in the first row, it respins twice and you try to get as many Zeus' or wilds that you can. During the bonus, I got them all for $75. I was happy! I kept playing, and decided to splurge for a couple spins and play two bets instead of one (80 cents). On the first spin, it happened again. This time I was amazed and I took a picture! I came home with a couple hundred bucks! Those slots saints were working overtime!

Isn't that Zeus just one of the cutest fellows you've ever seen?

ON TO BLUE SPRINGS

We drove about 65 miles today, to the Blue Springs campground in Lee's Summit, MO, a suburb of Kansas City. We'll be here all week with the SKP Genies working on our family histories. We took a ride this afternoon and I had to take pictures of these pretty roses at the information center.

Remember, you have to stop and smell the roses-if you can!

OUR TURN

To say Don was nervous would be an understatement-he developed a serious fear of tow trucks the past few days! However, he was able to hit the pedal and drive right out. Skillfully done! He's really proud and has been talking about it all day. I'm sure he'll share his story with everyone. Here we are on the road!

We left a few tracks.

We made it! Yea!

TIME TO LEAVE

After worrying for 24 hours, it was time to leave this morning. Many of our neighbors were having major problems, especially trucks without 4x4. The guys were really getting creative-anything to save towing charges. One guy pulled out his neighbors truck, then hooked his truck to the 5th wheel to get him to the road-then they switched. The one below took a lot of time and a lot of opinions. They used boards on the ground, and the men climbed in the pickup to add extra weight, but that didn't work. It finally took two trucks. It was fun to watch.

A LOCAL PLACE

When the mayor welcomed us to town, she mentioned her husband owned a restaurant, so, in order to help the mayor, we went out to eat. We had a delicious steak sandwich. Here's the Little Big Horn Cattle Co.

MUD, MUD AND MORE MUD

As I mentioned, we got a lot of rain, which became a real problem by the end of the week. The tow trucks were really busy. Here's our neighbor to the right-he slowed down when his front wheels were on the road-that was a mistake!



Here he's being towed.

The fairgrounds will need some repairs.

Our neighbor on the left was rather creative-he used rubber mats-and he made it.

Some of the men panicked on Wednesday night and tried to leave early-they boondocked in the parking lots.

ESCAPADE IN SEDALIA, MO

For the past week we've been at the Escapees rally in Sedalia, MO, where it rained all but one day. Otherwise, it was fun and informative. The entertainment in the evening was pretty good, especially the New Odyssey-3 guys who played 30 instruments. One of them was pretty funny and here he's playing his Sargeant Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Bands coat and shoes which were filled with cymbals. Quite amazing!

One night we saw the Brett Family from Branson, but we had seen them about a year ago, so some of it was the same. The next night we went to bingo and probably because Al Ludeking wasn't along-I won one game. We opted to skip the Ham-O-Rama, the members talent show. We also learned a lot from the various seminars we attended. Here are Jim and Chris Guld, better known as the Geeks On Tour, teaching about Picasa, which is the photo program we use.

Barbara Nuehring, (on the left), gave a talk on digitizing your genealogy information. It was very helpful. We'll be lucky to have her and Lee and Connie and Peter Bradish along at the Genie rally-they have a wealth of information and are very willing to share.

Mike and Terri Church are the authors of seven travel books for campers. They give great information and are very nice. We won one of their books, and bought two more.

Closing ceremonies were Thursday afternoon where we found out there were over 1300 people there. They gave away a trip worth $3700, and one of our genealogy group won it. I'm sure we'll hear more about it at the rally.

OSCEOLA AND SEDALIA

On Friday, we drove as far as Osceola and did some catch up work-cooking and cleaning. We got a new chair before we left Omaha, so we got that together and got rid of the other one. Saturday we drove to Des Moines and did some research at the Historical Society Library-

And the Iowa Genealogy Society Library (we used to be board members).

While we were in Osceola, we went to the casino to use our comp points and Don ended up even and I was $200 ahead. We then drove to Sedalia on Sunday to attend the Escapade Rally. Looks like we're going to have a week of rain, but it shouldn't matter much. I doubt it will dampen anyones spirits!

BRIAN'S BAND PERFORMANCE

On Thursday, we went to the mall to see Brian play the snare drum-the kids were picked from several schools to play in a combined band. He did very well! He surprised us with his ability, but even more, because he was so serious. Brian seems to enjoy life and is usually smiling or laughing-he was all business! We enjoyed the performance. He also played the base drum, a wooden block, a cowbell and a tamborine. Don told him he played a nice 2x4-that brought a smile.

SINCE SATURDAY

On Sunday after church, we drove to Omaha. I say we, because I had to drive the jeep behind the rig-we had a loose connection plate that hooks up to the hitch. We weren't able to find a place to weld it in Winterset so took it in Monday morning. When we saw that it wasn't going to be done in time for Jenna's track meet, we tried to rent a car. The guy was going to call us about one between five and five thirty. No call. At six, Don called and they were closed. He wasn't happy! So, we waited until morning and found out we'd get the jeep back around eleven-so, we waited. It cost us $630-then we were both unhappy! Since the day was ruined, we did five loads of wash. Then Russ called and invited us for grilled hamburgers, which was nice. In the week we've been gone, Russ took the La Crosse team to Kansas City for a tournament, and his brand new team came in second out of ten teams-and only lost the championship game by one goal. Jake and Dan each scored and did very well. Good for them! Jenna did well at the track meet, but even better- she was inducted into the Jr. National Honor Society! Brian was cutting grass and is going to play in the band at a mall tomorrow and we hope to see him. Joe (age 10), has been distributing flyers around the neighborhood to walk dogs for $1 a half hour. So far he has one client. This is the last week of school so they needed to study for finals, so we left after supper. Tomorrow I go to the dentist and then we have to look for a new chair. Don broke the arm off of his. We leave Thursday morning to head south to the Escapade at Sedalia, MO for a week, and then to Kansas City to the Genealogy rally for a week. These should be fun!

MORE FAVORITES

Another neat place is the Glockenspiel which opens on the hour and plays music with dancers.

The canal is interesting.

One of the sculptures.

There are several windmills around town.

Part of the downtown square.

Even the WalMart on the edge of town has Dutch architecture.

FAVORITE PELLA PLACES

We had a sandwich at Smokey Row.

Then on to Ulrichs Meats.



Our absolute favorite is Jaarsma's Bakery.

A TRIP TO PELLA

On Saturday, we took a ride over to one of our favorite Iowa towns-Pella, home of the Dutch. It's a week or two after Tulip Time, so the tulips are about done, but some were still pretty.

There were many signs around, but this one seemed serious.

WINTERSET, IOWA

Although we've been to Winterset many times, we took a little drive downtown to see the tourist spots. The town square has a courthouse in the middle with stores around it. Here's part of it.

Two of their famous "townies" are Fons and Porter who have their own quilting shop, magazine and TV show. Liz Porter's dad used to go to coffee where Don went in Decorah, because she's from there.

Their most famous citizen became a cowboy. He has a street named after him.

Here's his birthplace.

The well known book and movie "The Bridges of Madison County", was written about this county. Since it's a rainy day we went to the closest covered bridge in the park. They're all similar so this will give you an idea what they look like.

It's a neat little town!