Marengo, IA for the weekend

68degrees and bright sunshine here in Marengo, IA (Eastern Iowa)

Since I am at decent Wi-Fi will post some
photos of this last week.

These are at Maquoketa Caves

Some exercise in climbing the steps
and irregular rocks on some
inclines.

One day this week

we stopped at Lock #12 at

Bellevue, IA

Click here

Well, I must interrupt this - family wants to head out to Cedar Rapids for shopping and lunch so will pick this up later.

Lynn

Great weather!!

Near Maquoketa, Iowa. Yesterday we hiked a long way and then drove to north of town to the Hurstville Interpretive Center.  A very interesting place. Will show pictures when I get to a Wi-Fi. Ate lunch at a small café on Main St and walked to a really old Hotel and looked at the lobby with all wood from the 1800`s and then drove to Clinton Engine Museum.  Millions of small air-cooled engines were made here from 1950 to in the'80's.
We then went to the Jackson County Museum.  After a LOT of walking, we drove over to the Mississippi River at Sabula, then Northwest to Bellevue where there is a lock on the river.

Scenic drive back to the park.
Planning on driving to St.Donatis,a"picturesque Luxembourg Village "north of here,then return and walk in Dance Hall Cave and some more trails.
Later, Lynn

In Maquoketa Cave State Park

59 degrees in this Park & getting dark.

Had lunch with Lolla in State Center at noon.  Last night we ate super with Bill & Twilla near Boone & stayed overnight in their driveway.

Are set up here for 3 nights & will do some hiking and exploring caves.  Will explore some towns in this northeast corner of Iowa.  Can't get hotspot to work so doing this on phone, a bit tedious.

More later, Lynn

38 days since in the trailer, but back in it next week

60º in Clarinda, IA.  Have had all sorts of rain go around us, but nothing here and no storm.

Not a lot gone on this week -- several storms came near and we did get a little rain.










Here is a  Baltimore Oriole

 that was on our feeder - actually there were two, but I couldn't catch them both with the camera.

Bird feeder on the left, old hummingbird

feeder on the right,

and the new super, duper hummingbird

feeder in the center.

This hummingbird hovered

over the feeder for some time,

but do you think it is easy to 

get a photo of a flying hummingbird?

.

Mowed the yard yesterday and finally gave in and bought a new battery - had jump started it the last 4 times I mowed and finally decided it wasn't going to heal itself.  Had 5 years or so on it.

 Wednesday night was the
last night of choir practice
until fall and we all went
out to Jay's Pizza and Steak House
for supper afterwards.

Spending time on getting the booklet ready for print for the 1961 Callaway, Nebraska High School 55th year reunion.  Sent out e-mails and some snail-mail the other day and got several replies.

Will be good to get it done and printed; but, this next week we will be out with the travel trailer, so will have a delay in that.  Got 2 more stories, though.

Pumped up the tires on the pickup and the trailer today.  Plugged in the trailer so whatever Phyllis puts in the refrigerator will keep and she is starting to put things in for our week on the road. 

Later, Lynn

more rain, but no storm right here

60º here in Clarinda, IA and partly cloudy.

Had very heavy clouds

yesterday evening, and watch on Phone Radar and on TV many cells of heavy rain running north just to the west of us.  One finally rained

here.  Just dumped .4" rain out of gauge.

Yesterday morning I dumped .8" rain from that gauge.

Watched a lot of reports of tornadoes south of Lincoln, NE and as much as 6" of rain in that area.

Rode 3.75 miles on trike Sunday and had ridden 2 miles day before, but quit account the smoke in the air from the fire in northern Canada was pretty thick.  I have meant to write down somewhere - will do here - had 1,765 miles on odometer on my trike when we got back to Clarinda early April.  Have 1,785 now, so not putting on as many as when we were in Texas.  Lots bett
er place to ride there!

Scoped knee without wrap.  3 puncture woulds with sutures.  Assume he was looking through one on right and using tools on two on the left, which would be under the knee cap, to do the cleaning up of scar tissue and arthritis.

Here are some photos from
a trip we took in May of
2002.

My sister, Louise.  (She
passed away in May of 2008)

Phyllis' cousin Lester Kuelman, his

wife to the left, and our

daughter, Michelle between

Phyllis & Stan.

Later, Lynn

Pella, IA Tulip Time

68 degrees in Clarinda - rain off and on as I start this at 9:30 am.

Yes, we did make it to Pella, IA to the 81st ANNUAL TULIP TIME FESTIVAL last Friday.  I had put a couple posts on Facebook, but none of the parade.

We left Clarinda before 7 am and were in Pella just after 10:00 am.  Took a tour of the city on one of their Trams pulled by big IH Case tractors.

Couple of young girls told about the

sites we were going by.

Most of the tulips were past prime-time of bloom, but thee were several places that were in full colorful bloom.

Pella has one working Dutch windmill

as well as many in various size

that are replicas of windmills.

This is Marion County Bank, built

in base of a windmill.

This is in the back yard

of the residences.

This is the fully operational

windmill in downtown Pella.  The base

is a museum.  There are a lot of museums in Pella, but we didn't take the time to go through them.  Big crowds - maybe some other time.

Here is list of all the museums Pella Museums

 After the tram ride we went to the full
block of vendors.  Lots of interesting
stuff.

Guy above had unique Hummingbird feeder and we got one for Clarinda and one for La Feria.

I did buy an American Flag from 

this booth (at left), but not the post they

were selling.

We got a reserved seat on the bleachers to watch the parade and then went to one of the many food booths and got lunch.  Temperature was in the low 80's but bright, bright sunshine.  At that time there was not much of a breeze and it was really warm.

Later, during the parade a breeze did come up and although it wasn't too bad, we witnessed a lot of sunburn.

 Starting at 1 pm there was program
lasting an hour and a half with many
presentations of Dutch notabilities and
dress.

The queen's court, after they had

participated in program.

 The last part of the program, before the parade, was the "washing of the street" a Dutch custom.

Tanks of water were set out earlier along the street.  Some of the men carried the buckets suspended from wooden yokes carried on their shoulders, and younger kids sloshed

the water around the street

while men and women wielded brooms 

The parade was led by a man
ringing a bell and anouncing the
parade.

Lots of bands.

Bicycle for three!

Lots of floats, old cars,

old tractors, etc.

If you want to see all the photos

I took of the parade, and that day,

go to This Picasa Web Album

Parade was from 2:30 pm to just after

4 pm.

This is just like a pickup we had from 1970 through 1972 when we first moved to Clarinda.  A 1958 Chevy.

Walking the 6-or so blocks

back to our pickup we went by some

Tulips that were pretty.

Think Phyllis is showing a little

tired from the long day

in the sun at this point.

We stopped in Knoxville, IA at a "Mom & Pop" cafe we got from our "Our Iowa" magazine and had great tenderloin sandwich and hot beef sandwich.  Were home about 8:30 pm.  Long day for old people.

Sunday morning went to Church and to the meeting afterwards where final vote was made to begin construction on the new church building to be built.  It passed and things will begin now.

This overview shows where the building will be.  This is just to the north of Iowa Business Route 2 at the west edge of Clarinda.

Got some rain overnight and today and the next couple are to be rain off and on.

Preparing the trailer and our plans to head out next Monday.  Will go to Omaha for knee checkup then to Boone, IA to visit Bill & Twila Oberholzer before stopping in State Center, IA to visit with Lola Schappe.  Then the latter part of week, if weather cooperates, will explore the caves at Maquoketa Caves State Park    

On the weekend we will park at Sudbury Motel and RV in Marengo and be at our Son's for the baby shower for our anticipated Great-Granddaughter on Saturday.

More later, Lynn