Missouri Valley, IA

Sunday & Monday, Sept 18 & 19, 2016

Sunday, as we headed to Tic's brother Darrell & sister-in-law Lila, we drove past this school that trained linemen.  The day before we actually saw them on many of the poles.

Notice some of the pole have wires and others don't.  We saw men on both kinds of poles.  We did not have our camera with us at the time.

 After lunch, we left Sheldon, IA headed to Wilson Island State Park near Missouri Valley, IA.  We are here for 2 nights so we can visit with Tic's aging Uncle Court (81) and Aunt Norma (80).  Court has gone blind and Norma has dementia which the family tells us is progressing quickly.

We made it to the park about 4:30pm.  We talked to Tic's Aunt and Uncle and they had just gotten home from a family get-together and were tired.  We plan to see them about noon on Monday.

This is our site at the park.  We have 50 amp electric but no water or sewer.  Both are available but not at any site. 

There are only us and one other parked in this loop of the park.  We feel like we have the park to ourselves.

The Missouri River runs along the outer edge of this park.
 

The picture above and the 2 below are sunset on the Missouri River.

Monday morning we decided to walk through the park.  We saw these mushrooms growing.  Below is a top view.  Cool pictures!

Above is a common Northern Flicker.  The birds below are Starlings.

Below are more bird pictures from the DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge.

Looks like a painting.

Tic's dead tree picture.  In case you have not read before, Tic finds dead trees very photogenic.  So do I.


The sun is starting to set.  The clouds are very interesting.

Lake  in DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge. Almost looks like an alligator.  Ha Ha

More beautiful sunset pictures.

We finished the day by a campfire.  The mosquitoes were bad so I hoped a fire would keep them away.  That only worked if you were close to the fire.  Well I enjoy campfires anyway.  




  

Celebrating Tic's Birthday in Sheldon, IA

Friday, September 16, 2016

Today is Tic's birthday. He does not like people to treat him special, so it is a challenge to do so.  

We started our day with another walk near Floyd River in Sheldon, IA.
It rained over 5 inches here in Sheldon yesterday.  Flood warnings were out for hours.  We aren't sure what to expect on our walk.

Here is the start of our walk.
 

When we got past the trees and corn fields we saw the Floyd River. As you can see it is definitely out of its normal path and has created an additional flow path.   

Here's another view showing the low areas around the river under water.
 

We like this huge tree along our walk.  The flood waters were almost to the edge of the sidewalk at the curve in the sidewalk.
 

After we got past the huge tree, we came upon this flooding.  As you can see the water is way out of its banks.  You can see the walkway continuing on the other side of the water.
 

Looking back from where we are looking at the flooded sidewalk, you can see the river flowing fairly rapidly.  See the currents in the river?
 

There was a patch of flowers along the walkway.  Tic did a great job catching the butterflies and bees. See above and below.

A friend of ours called this picture "Flight of the Bumble Bees".
 

The fungus on this tree is unique.  The same friend named this picture "Spiral Staircase for the Fairies". 

After our walk, Darrell & Lila (Tic's brother & sister-in-law) and I "took" Tic to lunch as a little celebration.  

This is Darrell and Lila.  We have been here since Monday and have really enjoyed getting to spend time with them.

The Old 60 is in Sheldon, IA.  It only serves lunch on Wednesdays, Thursdays & Fridays.  Tuesday through Saturday it serves dinner.

We had a great lunch.  Forgot to get pictures of our steak sandwiches on square ciabatta bread.  However, we did get pictures of our celebration desserts.

Darrell and Lila shared this huge brownie with ice cream and whipped cream topped with a cherry that is already eaten.  

Tic and I shared a bread pudding with ice cream.  Yummy!!! 

Darrell and Lila came back to the coach with us and visited a large part of the afternoon.  It was a good day! 

Walking around Sheldon, IA

Wednesday, Sept 14, 2016

We spent all day with Darrell and Lila at their house.  We spent the morning taking photos and preparing a kit car for sale.  Here it is covered to help protect it.

Lila fixed us a fantastic chicken lunch.  She had a hair appointment and had to take her mother to the doctor.  We stayed around visiting with Darrell until Lila got back and stayed a little longer. We left so they could have their evening together.

When we got home we decided to take a walk from the city RV park to the Floyd River that runs through town.

The city had this really nice wide walkway / bicycle path. As we left the RV park this was the route.

Our route took us beside some corn fields.  We noticed there was only 1 ear of corn per stalk.  That is what the farmers told us was ideal because the single ear would then be larger than if there were 2 ears per stalk.

About 1/2 our 2.5 mile walk was tree-lined.  It was very pretty. 

Our path took us along side a cattle yard.  P.U., it stunk.

 

Have you ever seen a curve warning sign on a walking path?

When we got into the open, this is the cloud formation we saw.  There is a storm moving in tonight.  Awesome!

We made it to the river and it was so unimpressive that we did not even take any pictures.

We are on our way back home.  Part of the tree lines path goes by the cattle yard.  We hurried through this part of the walk.

I stopped by the corn to give some perspective as to how tall the corn is.  I always am amazed at how tall the corn is.
 

Tic got some cool pictures of some ears of corn.  We did not peel these back, someone else had done so, we just took advantage of it.

We had a good walk.  It has been nice to have time to visit with family.  It seems when we are together I don't remember to take pictures.  Oh well.  We are enjoying visiting and that is the important part!

Clay County Fair, Spencer, IA

Tuesday, Sept 13, 2016

Today is Senior Day at the Clay County Fair in Spencer, IA.  It is the largest county fair, I think in the US.  We went today and it was almost as big as the Texas State Fair.  I used to go to the Texas State Fair with my good friend Kathy every year.  Well since we are on the road now, Tic gets to go to the various fairs with me.  

We started with the vendor buildings.

When I saw this booth, I was excited. I got a new basket for my fresh fruit. You can see my choice in the chair center bottom of the picture.  The current basket I am using is starting to fall apart.  

As we walked out of the 2nd vendor building we saw this Spudnuts booth.  Tic introduced me to donuts made using potato dough.  OMG they are DELICIOUS!
 

Let me introduce you to Hillbilly Bob and Old Ruthie. Lots of funny stuff on his Ford jalopy.

Corn is a huge crop in this area.  This vendor is showing the results of their various corn seed.  We learned that corn stalks are developed to grow one large ear of corn per stalk.  That blew my mind.  No wonder we see so much corn being grown.
 

This porker is Billy Bob (not Hillbilly Bob). I personally had never seen such a huge hog. See his info in the picture below.

I thought these sheep were pretty.  I did not include pictures of the goats, cows, poultry, and foul we saw.  
 

This is only one picture of the huge model train layout.  It filled a building.
 

One of the buildings housed several old wagons and buggies.  I'm just putting one picture in.
 

Both the picture above and below are prize winning vegetables on display.

Of course I have to include a couple of pictures of the agricultural equipment on display. The wagon above is the largest one I've ever seen. Can you imagine needing tracks like below to get your equipment around and take care of your fields?

There was a whole building on photography.  There were tons of outstanding pictures by both adults and youth.  Many times I could not tell the pictures were done by youth.
 

Lunch time!  Brats are not one of my favorite foods, but these are definitely an exception.  They tasted so good I'm actually going to see where I can buy some.
 

Grandpa's Barn was the petting barn full of baby animals and many children.
 

There was even a display of antique cars.  Tic's father used to own a Crosley similiar to this one.

I've given you an brief look at our fun day!  If you are ever near Spencer, IA during the Clay County Fair, it is a must see!