FISHING IN FITZ' POND

We were invited to Fitzgerald's for dinner-delicious, I might add. Heidi, Steve and Lucas came out and joined us for dessert, after doing a little fishing. Here's a picture of their pond.

Steve helping Lucas get ready.

Success already!

Heidi showing Larry Wilson a picture of the fish.

Another nice evening!

MORE FLOODING

We walked around the corner, closer to the bridge, so we could see better.

Lots of water moving rapidly.

The Old Mill has water coming through the windows.

The little Amish kids were adorable-I had to get a picture.

It's hard to believe the force of water until you see it close up. Hopefully the rain will stop for awhile.

FLOOD IN INDEPENDENCE

I put some pictures of water we saw along the way which was the result of all the rain we've had. We heard about the dam at Delhi breaking loose causing terrible damage around there and further south. When we got to Independence, on the way back to Grinnell, we came upon more flooding in the downtown. Here's one business with a problem.

Water, water, everywhere!





Some businesses on the main street had a basement problem.

The Old Mill had a problem.

NORDIC FEST

Next, we ended up in Decorah at the annual Norwegian festival. It was at a down time around supper time, but before we left, the crowd was regathering. Colette is Norwegian, and was happy to get rommegrot and some bakery items. We saw a few people in costume.

This is a new couple in town since we lived there.

Aren't they cute?

PRAIRIE DU CHIEN, WI

We eventually got to Prairie du Chien with Wilson's, to take advantage of a sale at Cabelas. While we were there, we had lunch at a place called "Simply", that Kathy Fitzgerald told us had great sandwiches with wonderful bread.

I loved the tin ceiling inside.

Kathy was right-the bread was great. We were all happy with our choices.

WATER ALL OVER

Iowa had some huge amounts of rain in a short time, after having many, many storms this summer. The streams and fields can't handle much more.










Hope it stops for awhile!

DAY TRIP

On Saturday, we took a day trip with Wilsons, and we stopped in Iowa City for breakfast at an old gas station called Lou Henri's restaurant.

It has lots of plants inside.

It had a real interesting wall in the bathroom, with broken plates on it-I had to take a picture.

I had a ham, cheese and mushroom omelet-it was delicious!!!

If you find yourself in Iowa City-give it a try!

WILSON FOR SUPERVISOR

Our friend Larry Wilson is running for county supervisor in Grinnell. His shirt says it all.

LUCAS

From Amana we went to Grinnell to see our daughter's family and our grandson. We missed him last time because of our mishap the first night, and then he was golfing out of town. Heidi invited us for dinner and we got to see some of Lucas' latest tophies.

He's played in several tournaments this summer and came in first or second in all of them. This was his latest until yesterday.

Yesterday, he shot a 41, and even though he's 11, he played with the 13 year olds, and won. the oldest kid was 14 and shot a 47, so Lucas won overall also. He has good reasons to like his new Ping clubs and new bag that he got for his birthday.

He's been beating his mother for awhile, but he's pretty proud to have beaten his dad twice in the last couple weeks. Last Saturday at Hyperion in Des Moines, he beat his dad and Steve's two friends. Good job, Lucas!!!

THE AMANAS

We spent two nights in the Amanas and visited Joe and Linda Evers, who are our neighbors in Arizona. It was a nice visit. That evening we ate at the Ox Yoke Inn, which has been one of our favorites through the years. It used to be family style dining, but now they give you a choice. They had some pretty sweet potato vines and petunias on the back porch.




The food was good as always!

BACK IN IOWA

We went on to Sioux Falls and had a visit with our insurance agent, and then headed to Iowa.

Then to Clear Lake for several days and relaxed after all this sightseeing. We then went on to Dubuque to meet with the claims adjuster and let the body shop figure out an estimate. We don't have a number yet, but we'll have it done in August and it may take two weeks. This afternoon we drove to the Amanas and will stay until Thursday, and then head to Grinnell. I've been amazed at the amount of wildflowers this year along the highways. Since I'm always showing the ones in the desert, I thought I'd show you the Queen Anne's Lace around Dubuque. I've seen it bigger, but not as many.




It's so dainty!

Don says it's a weed-I say it's a beautiful weed!

THE CORN PALACE

We stayed overnight in Mitchell, SD, so went on a tour of the Corn Palace.

It was interesting to see the pictures and hear how they cut the corn ears in half and nail them to a paint by number type picture.

This is the stage surrounded by the corn pictures. The auditorium is full of South Dakota products for sale.

This is another example of, "If you build it, they will come." All you need is a gimmick!

LEWIS AND CLARK AGAIN

I know we're not following Lewis and Clark, but it sure seems that way. We stopped at a rest stop near Chamberlin, SD, and we ended up on the trail yet again. Here's the Missouri River where they paddled west.

They had some nice exhibits in the visitors center.





Now it's not that I'm not impressed-I just have Lewis and Clark overload.

HAIL STORM

While we were waiting to leave the Badlands, (kind of appropriate), it started getting dark. We were barely down the road and the storm hit with hail, some about the size of a dime. We couldn't pull over because we were in a construction zone.




The pictures don't do the storm justice. Don was cool, calm and collected even after going through the accident beforehand. We made it to Murdo and decided to call it a day and count our blessings!

END OF FUN FOR THE DAY

I've been trying for two days to get caught up on the sightseeing part of the blog, so I could catch you up on news, which happened last Saturday. It's Wednesday now. We had just come out of one of the driveways at the visitor center.

As we went past the other exit, a man in a blue car that was stopped, suddenly drove out and ran into us. I saw him coming, and screamed, "Oh my God, he's going to hit us. There was no place for Don to go, because there was a car in the other lane. Thank God, we weren't hurt, and neither was the man. He not only hit my side at the front, but somehow scraped all the way down the side of the RV.

A closer look.

There are a couple small holes in the fiberglass.

Here's the cop from the Park Service taking pictures.

One good thing that happened-a man immediately came forward to give us his name etc. because he witnessed it. Apparently, it's also good to be big-wait till you see the guys car.

Doesn't he look like Cliff from Cheers? He was very nervous and upset and not very sharp. He gave us a name for his insurance agency, but didn't have any papers. At first the park ranger didn't think we needed to file a report, but I kind of pushed Don until he finally agreed with me that he probably didn't have insurance-and he didn't. He was just too worried about his car. We were headed for Sioux Falls and that's where our agent is, so we took care of it. Now we have to figure out where to get estimates and have the work done. Another good thing-our insurance provides $750 for a motel room during the repairs.