Enjoyable weekend trip

On Friday, June 6th, we drove to Des Moines, IA and got a real interesting 2-hour guided tour of the State Capitol.

Left Clarinda, IA  in the fog and took Highway 2

In the rotunda, just starting the tour.  Listening to the good sound bouncing off the walls (of screaming little kids).

Couple of many photos looking up inside the dome.

In the Supreme Court Chamber.

Still in Supreme Court Chamber.  All the carved wood at front of the Bench was done by one man. 

Very large mural - think it is over 40 feet wide.

 This is made entirely of colored small tiles.

 Paint and tiles.

None of the capitol has wall paper.  All graphics are/were hand painted.  Much of it had been painted over in years past and they are continually working on rooms to remove the paint and/or plaster down to original walls, determining the original painting and then making stencils -- such as at right -- to restore to original look.

 After getting a bite to eat at Altoona we picked up our granddaughter Ashley at the mall on I80 and went on to West Branch, IA and went through the Herbert Hoover National Historic Site and Presidential Library and Museum (Click here for site)

Ashley and Phyllis as we came out of the birthplace home of the President.  He was President from 1928 to 1932 just as the country was going into the Depression.  He passed away in 1964 and is buried on the grounds near the Library.


Saturday afternoon Ashley & Heath came to her folks and then Cam drove us all to Ottumwa where we picked up granddaughter Emily and went to eat.at Roes Sports Bar for a delightful meal.  Afterwards we went to Bridge View Center to Bill Cosby's show.  This was a surprise to us (my birthday) and we really enjoyed this show.  We had seen Bill a few times over the years, and now, as he said, he is 76 and 11/12th years old he sat more and moved slower, but was just as sharp and witty as every.  Most of his 2 hour talk was about the differences between men and women.  He has macular degeneration, which he talked about a bit on a David Letterman show, but performed by himself including walking around the stage many times.  He responded to people from the audience, always looking their way, but when he asked what time it was and he exchanged some quips with someone he suddenly asked if  he was talking to the aisle down the center of the auditorium.

Dropping Emily off at her place in Ottumwa (she has rest of the summer there as she finishes her double major at Indian Hills Community College) we drove the nearly 2 hours back to Marengo.


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  Sunday, after eating at Cam's, the girls went to Iowa City to a movie and Cam, Heath, and I drove to Cedar Rapids Airport to view the B-17 that was there on display.  They were taking people on flights, 10 at a time, for around $475 and had so many takers of that, that instead of starting the touring of the inside of the plane at 2:00 pm they kept up the flights and it was around 5:00 pm before we got a look inside

Monday we drove from Marengo to State Center, IA and spent 45 minutes or so with Lola Schappe.

Lola spends the winters in our RV Park (Kenwood) in Texas and works with Phyllis quite a bit in the sewing stuff they have there.  Here she is showing Phyllis how she has made little girls dresses out of pillow cases.

Lola has made hundreds of these small throw rugs

from tiny pieces of scrap fabric over the years.

She hates to throw anything away and sews about anything.










We went on to Nevada, IA and visited with Earl and Deb Osmond.  For some reason I didn't take any photos.  Deb has had health issues for some time and a few weeks ago fell and injured her knee on same leg that she has had problems for years.  Is in wheel chair and not getting around well.  Had good 30-minute or so visit with them.  We stopped at Pizza Ranch in Ames (had to use up a $5 value they had put on my card for my birthday!), then stopped in Indanola, IA at Harolds RV to pick up a wheel skirt that I had ordered for the travel trailer.  (It had been broken when we blew a tire in Arkansas).  It is of lighter color than the other one on the trailer, but think some spray paint meant for plastic will take care of it.

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Home by about 4 pm and made a quick mow of the yard.  I have fertilized the yard several times, trying to get it to fill in some spotty places and, of course, that causes it to grow vertically quite a bit

On Tuesday my brother Roger and wife Carolyn Miles from Lincoln, NE came for a short visit. After visiting and eating lunch we went to the cemetery to view headstones of Phyllis' family and also our sister Louise Miles gravestone.





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Finished up the day with pie and coffee on the deck.



I don't really do birthdays, but my 71st birthday (Tuesday June 10th) was really nice with Roger and Carolyn's visit and also the weekend with Cam and family.  Besides that I got phone calls on Tuesday  from Cam, daughter Michelle, and brother Don as well as many, many greetings on Facebook.

If you want to read any of my blogs previous to this one just go to "older post" clear at the bottom of the page; or, go to the upper right side of the page and click on any of the dates for postings I have made.

I have put all 640 photos from the weekend on my Picasa page.  Haven't edited them and written descriptions, but will do so as I get time.  If you want to look at any of the photos I have taken during the month of June just  Click Here  I have separated photos of State Capitol Click Here  and of Herbert Hoover Birthplace and Library Click Here

Tomorrow we start our 3-day stint with helping usher for the Glenn Miller Birthplace Festival at the High School and will also be hosting granddaughter Ashley and her husband Heath at our place while they attend some of the concerts.
More later, Lynn