New people and places to greet and see

Tuesday Sept 11, 2012

A day of remembrance! God Bless America

Been a long time since I have added to my blog. I will blame a lot of it on my high school friend Fred Morrison and his lovely thoughtful companion, Marsha. Fred and I were in school together in Minerva, Ohio way back in the 1950's.

Our lot at West Des Moines was Walnut Woods State Park. What a wonderful place. I could write the whole blog on this wonderful park. It was full of birds! What a sight. We had hummingbirds at our feeder every day. Four at a time would come and you could get within 2 feet of them and they would still feed. The pads are all concrete with a concrete patio with a picnic table and a fire pit. This park is the largest stand of black walnuts in the western hemisphere! Wonderful paths along the Raccoon River! Could have stayed there for a lot longer but we have lots of places to see. I will say West Des Moines is one of the most beautiful cities I have been to. We went to the local Farmers Market (really big) and an antique show that covered many blocks with the streets all closed to traffic.

We played Hand and Foot with Fred and Marsha and Fred and I won more than we lost. We had a really wonderful time here and would recommend it to all.

Driving across Nebraska is a real challenge. As folks who have driven I80 knows, it is a constant wind. The fuel mileage goes way down - we went to 7.5 MPG and it is a lot more challenging to drive and you are definitely tired at the end of the day.

We stopped in Kearney, NE so we could go to Pioneer Village in Minden. What a worthwhile stop. You can see the history of the country there as there are buildings housing kitchens, bedrooms, electronics, cars, airplanes, farm tractors and implements, and clothing and even hobby's from the start of the country to after world war II. I even saw a Frazer from 1951, the year and make of my first car. It was a wonderful day!

We are parked in a Flying J on I 80 (exit 107) for the night. An interesting sight here is 6 Propellers for the giant electric generators going up around the country. The driver told me that these are the smaller ones!! Looked big to me!