Hello Family

We made it to Branson late this afternoon and Wow! is it good to see my baby brother and his family. The kids, Aly and Cameron, are growing up so fast and they have just started kindergarten. We  hung around, talked, got caught up on this and that, played with the kids, who colored us pictures, and boy oh boy did they have lots and lots to tell us.

We have never heard of Tijuana Willies and Dave described it as a “Mexican Subway”.  You pick the items you want on a flour tortilla like chicken, lettuce, beans, olives, rice, cheese, peppers etc and you build you own burrito. Yum!  Great place to bring kids for a relaxed family dinner. After dinner, Dave and Jackie brought us over to show us a house they are thinking of buying later this year. I hope the deal goes their way. Good school system here in Branson. I was surprised that here it is on a Friday evening in a tourist town and hardly any traffic. Apparently most of the traffic is on one main road, “the strip”, and the locals get to live in peace.  Back for more visiting and then to bed, we have a big day tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Bill

A big Happy Birthday to one of our dearest friends in the world. Bill, we wish you all of the happiness life can offer!

Rolling On Through

Alright, we left Indiana, blew through Illinois, and are in Missouri. Ahh I see it. Way in the distance. Closer. Closer yet. The arch in St. Louis. We hope to come back to see it up close and personal after we leave Branson.

Change of Plans

Wow did we have storms last night! Thanks goodness the campground we were in had a large burm around the one side of the campground that the wind was coming from. I really thought a tornado was coming. The RV was just a rocking from the wind. I do like lightening storms. I like to watch the sky light up and follow the strike. But this was a bit too much.  In the morning you would never have know how much rain came. The pond, that was directly in front of us, was so still & reflecting the sky.      Pretty.

Tommy and I were talking and both felt like Forrest Gump when he was running and running. One day he just stopped and said he was going home. That is kind of how we felt. We  have been gone for over six months and move quite frequently. We realized we are tired and either needed to stay put in one area for several days or head home. So the reasonable thing to do was drive another 600 miles to Branson, MO to see my brother! What’s another 600? We will be there for a bit and that will recharge our internal batteries. We were going to go there on our trip out, but in March the weather was still cold, so we dropped more south for warmth. It will be a couple of long driving days but they will be worth it to see my little brother Dave, his wife Jackie, and twins Aly and Cameron.

On our way southwest we saw more tractor trailers carrying wind mills parts. The amount of our support vehicles needed for transporting the gigantic things are unbelievable. There were at least six. There was a police vehicle, two trucks, one if front and back, carrying the wide load signs, one vehicle to raise the electric wires if needed, and two others to block traffic if the truck needed to turn.                                                                                        What an operation. 

We have been watching the harvesting of the crops in these huge farms. Wonder what they do with all of this corn? They drop some of it in piles. We saw what looked like the biggest circus tent ever and as we got closer we saw it covered these huge piles of corn.   Out here they make lots and lots of ethanol. I wonder if this corn will find its way into our gas tanks soon.  

Welcome Fall

It’s fall as of today but it doesn’t feel like fall at all. Yesterday and today we experienced the hottest temperatures since last summer, 93 degrees. And humidity! Oh it has been unbelievably wonderful not to have had the humidity all summer long. I can tell you I did not miss it, and yesterday in particular, reminded me of how fortunate we were to have escaped that hell for one year. When we were setting up in the campground today, I went straight to opening all of the windows. I was taken aback when I saw this little guy huddling into the corner of the window above my side of the bed. A bat!            I tried to get him to fly away but realized he would when dusk came.  To my delight, he did fly away.

Going through Iowa and Illinois we were still amazed by the size of the farmlands.             I have written before about the acres and acres of farmlands but I need to change it to miles and miles. It is so big and wide open that I think instead of selling property by the acre they sell it by the mile! In Iowa and Illinois you expect fields of corn and soy bean, but here in Illinois the also grow these. Wind farms. As far and wide as your eye could see were these wind mills turning and turning. We saw the parts being trucked in on tractor trailers. I know these windmills are big but when you see the size of the sections close up, you cannot believe how big the really are.           I think they are pretty. I guess because we are not used to seeing them.  When the one fan blade points straight down and the other two are out to the side, they look like angels to me. I think the artist is Steven Lavaggi who designs angels that look like that. I wonder if this is where he got his inspiration for them. Tommy and I figure that outside the few pockets of population dotted throughout the center of the US, most of the people are jammed in on the coasts leaving the rest of the US open for farmlands, ranches, and good living.

Dubuque

It’s Dubuque, Iowa for todays offering. Dubuque sits on the mighty Mississippi and, as many towns and cites along the water have done,  has an active revitalization program in progress. In the Port of Dubuque the river walk offers a nice place to take a lunch time stroll with sculptures to add some interest along the way. The Star Brewery is now home to several businesses including Stone Cliff Winery where Tommy went for a wine tasting. Tommy is definitely a beer kind of guy, but every once in awhile he tries a wine. He found one here that he liked enough to bring home.  The courthouse is on the National Register of Historic places. The 190 ft high central tower is a focal point in the city. During WWI several pewter statues were taken down and melted to aid in the war effort. Shot Tower, now a historical land mark, was the George W. Rogers Co that produced lead shot until 1861, then it was a lookout tower until 1911 when it caught fire and was completely gutted.         The town clock was erected in 1873 and moved to the downtown mall in 1971.       But the neatest place we saw in Dubuque was the Fenelon Place Elevator, also known as the 4th Street Elevator.                        

   This is the worlds shortest, steepest scenic railway. It is 296 ft long and rises 186 ft from 4th Street to Fenelon Place. Oh the views of 3 states, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa from the top were fantastic.            The railway was built in 1882 by a banker who lived up on the hill but worked down in the town. He had an hour and a half for lunch and it would take a half hour to get home and a half hour to get back to work by horse and buggy. The banker liked to have a half hour lunch and a half hour nap before returning to work. So, to solve his dilemma, he built this railway. The cars have burned down on a couple of occasions but were always rebuilt. The railway is not only a tourist attraction but is actually used by the towns people for everyday life.

We read about this apple orchard that offers 23 varieties  of apples and apple anything is Tommy's favorite. So a quick trip there was in order.    I saw they had Honey Crisp apples and you can’t find them everywhere so I was happy. Well I  thought Tommy was going to have a heart attack when we gave the woman a $20 bill and she gave him back $3 for change. Ouch! $17 for a small bag that held maybe 8 apples and one of them was really little. They better be the best apples I have ever eaten!

Cheesey Days

We enjoyed ourselves so much last night in Monroe, WI at their Cheesey Days celebration that we decided to stay here another day and go again. Unfortunately it is raining this morning. We hope it stops for the parade.

We tasted more excellent cheese today. I cannot tell you how good these specialty cheeses are. They are something special.

The rain, for the most part, held off for the parade today and this parade was one of the biggest parades I have ever seen. Cows, of course, are celebrated here as well as the Swiss heritage. We listened to Yodelers. How do they do that with their voices? So terrific and fun to hear.

We tasted a beer today called The Spotted Cow and found out the brewery was only 15 miles away in New Glarus. So off we went. We took the self guided tour around this beautiful brewery and had a tasting. Oh our diets over the last 2 days. Cheese and beer! Life is good!