93º in Clarinda, IA with a "feel like" of 107º at 1:30 pm -- Humidity 60% but intense direct sunshine.
I worked outside until lunch and then showered and will stay in the cool basement here working on the computer this afternoon. Phyllis is up to the Methodist Church to help with the Food Pantry as people come in on Wednesday afternoons and she also will do some quilting, if the ladies do that.
Went out before breakfast and picked up more twigs and small branches
off the lawn. We had quite a storm with wind and lots of rain early
Monday morning. Reports of around 6 inches here in the Clarinda area.
After breakfast I got ladder out and cleaned the gutters on both sides of the big shop building. Especially the west one is always full of lots of leaves, twigs, etc. as it is directly under a large Ash tree.
On Monday morning, we left just before 8 am, in the hard rain, and drove to Omaha. We stopped off to drive through Shenandoah, having heard several remarks about how "cute" downtown Shenandoah was
with the decorations recently put up along the street account RAGBRAI
CLICK HERE FOR WEBSITE will be staying in Shenandoah this Sunday evening after starting their across-the-state bicycle ride on Sunday morning in Glenwood and stay Monday night in Creston, finishing their week-long ride in Muscatine, IA on Saturday.
They painted bicycle wheels and tires and put them up along with their Shenandoah signs.
Sunday - 49.7 miles
Monday - 75.2 miles
Tuesday - 58.5 miles
Wednesday - 65.1 miles
Thursday - 50.7 miles
Friday - 68.5 miles
Saturday - 49.7 miles
We won't be riding any, though I had thought might do some. Phyllis' PEO club is setting up a food/water booth along the route so will be helping with that, setting up Sunday afternoon to be ready to serve/sell Monday morning and through the day as long as food/water lasts, at Bethesda, IA. There is no town, there now, just a church and we will have our trailer set up in one of the driveways.
We stopped in Omaha at
Duluth Trading store and I got some clothes. Had been ordering, occasionally, from catalog, but found that they had opened a store in Omaha just 3 weeks ago. Even had a sale on an item that ended Sunday, but they let me get some at the sale price. Nice guys.
We then headed north and west to Linda Whaley Taylor's farm for a visit with her. She was in my Callaway, NE High School Class of 1961, and had lived on this farm of her husband's family since in the early 1960's. It is almost half-way between Blair, NE and Nickerson, NE.
This is Linda as we visited a bit in her living room before eating a dandy lunch she prepared.
She has quite a few cats that are both indoor and outdoor cats -- you may see one clear at the top of this cat jungle-gym near the window in her living room.
Linda's husband, Howard, passed away several years ago and - her son David farms the ground now.
She still has quite a garden and likes to cook, but usually doesn't have very many people to cook for. She had a delightful sandwich lunch for us.
At right is her farm house that has been added on to through the years.
We headed back to West Omaha where Phyllis had a check-up on an aching knee. Doc said to just observe it and unless got worse would not need attention.
Since we were in West Omaha we stopped to get some things at Costco.
Then stopped in Council Bluffs, IA at some more stores and then ate supper at the Panda Express before driving east on Highway 92, down a county road, then east on Highway 34, and finally coming down county road M-63 at Stanton, IA. Between northeast Nebraska and Southwest Iowa we saw a lot of Corn and Soybeans!
Lawn was getting a little growth to it, so I mowed it on Tuesday morning.
Too bad we can't save the grass and make hay, or something, out of it.
Will sign off for now.
Later, Lynn
