A Whirlwind Tour Of Iowa - Part 2

The folks visited the Amana Colonies on Sunday.  The Amana Colonies are a group of settlements of German Pietists in Iowa, comprising seven villages.  For eighty years they maintained an almost completely self-sufficient local economy, importing very little. The Amanians were able to achieve this independence and life style by adhering to the specialized handcrafts and farming occupations which they had brought with them from Germany.

The folks began their visit by eating at Ronneburg Restaurant. Mama expected the lines to be long because Maifest was being celebrated at the Amana Colonies, but they only had to wait about 15 minutes.

Music was played for diners.

Mama ordered Weiner Schnitzel which is veal and it was served with Spaetzle, a German type of noodle.

Dad ordered the sausage platter which had a variety.

The food is served family style. They had coleslaw, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cottage cheese, pickled beets, sauerkraut, stuffing, vegetables and bread.

 The folks said the food was really good. This was Mama's third time having German food.  Her Great Grandparents came from Germany, but she did not eat in a German restaurant until last year. She even liked the stuffing and normally she hates stuffing.  I cannot tell you how the food tasted because leftovers were not brought home!

After the folks ate lunch, they shopped at some of the stores.  They bought bacon, German mustard and popcorn.  I will give you a full report on the bacon later this week after I try some.  BOL!

There were carriage rides.

The leather shop?  Mama can't remember now.

There were dancers.

 Mama said she enjoyed visiting the Amana Colonies, but it was very crowded due to Maifest.  The stores were all crowded, so it was hard to shop.  They have cheese shops, wine shops, general stores, meat store, coffee house, various gift shops, etc. and that was just in the small section they visited.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Anxious To Try The Amana Bacon

A Whirlwind Tour Of Iowa - Part 1

We left Missouri yesterday and arrived at our new campground outside of Iowa City, IA yesterday afternoon.  Our campground is small, but nice and quiet.  It is a family owned business that opened in 1988.  The owner planted each and every tree as this was a pasture from their family farm.  Sadly, the husband died in 2010 and his wife and daughter just sold the property.  The campground will close next month.

The office building was built (in 1988) from parts of one of the old barns on the family farm.

Our site.

Back view of our site.

This is not a great picture, but there is a maze in tall grasses.  It is really fun to walk through.

The folks visited the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum.  Mama bought the Passport To Presidential Libraries today.  It is like the Passport to National Parks which she already has.  You get it stamped when you visit the Presidential libraries.  Now, they are going to have to go back to get them stamped at the four they visited before today. BOL!  It will be easy to get Truman's and Eisenhower's, but the Bushs' may be more difficult because we don't know when we will be in that area again. Once you have it filled up, you receive a crystal paperweight as your prize.  The folks did a passport camp program in Missouri many years ago and had a fun time doing it. 

The folks enjoyed the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library. Mama said she learned a lot.  Did you know that he didn't collect any pay while he was in office?  Instead of having a regular inauguration party, the party raised money for charities.  He and his wife actually donated over $450,000 to charities while he was in office. Pretty amazing.  He was always giving back to people.  Unfortunately, the stock market crashed just months into his term and people blamed him and called him a bad President.

 

 The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library 

He and his wife, Lou, are buried up the hill from the library.

His childhood house is located near the library.

Herbert Hoover's childhood home.

Hoover's Father's Blacksmith Shop

The grade school that he attended.

He was a Quaker and this was the meeting place.

On top on the hill is where he is buried.  It can be seen from his boyhood home.

The folks left the Hoover area and drove to the Amana Colonies.  I will tell you about that tomorrow.

Joey,

The Greyhound Who Thinks Iowa Is Pretty Nice

Has Someone Turned Back Time?

Our campground has been invaded by the Midwest Gampers!  It looks like someone has turned back time.  This is a fun group!  They really know how to decorate their sites.  We look so boring compared to them.  They are very friendly too.  Scout and I have gotten a lot of attention.

Love the chairs!

This is a new camper that looks old.  We talked to the lady who owns it for quite a while this morning.

 

Scout is feeling much better.  She was sick for about 12 hours, but seems fine now.  We took a walk through the woods and saw a turkey.

Do you see him?  He is the black thing in the at the end of the path.

  

We are hitting the road and starting our three week vacation.  We probably will not be around as much as Mama says we are going to be really busy.  We will take lots of photos and will post when we can.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Going On A Long Vacation!

Playing Second Fiddle

I am usually the center of attention, but Scout is sick today. I am her side kick today instead of the leader. She got Mama up every two hours last night.  I went out with her all but one time.  She hasn't been out for the past four hours, so we hope she is feeling better.  I know she is tired because going out that much tires anyone one out.

Yesterday, we talked to a family that used to have a greyhound.  We had met everyone but the Dad before.  When he saw us, he was really excited to meet us.  He told us to wait and he would get his wife.  Do you know what I did?  I said "A- ROOOOOO!"   It is not something I normally do, but I knew they were greyhound people and I really liked him.  He said I was a HOOT.  BOL!   He said he has never met a greyhound like me.  Yeah, I get that all the time.  I tend to get very excited and I have a lot of energy.

 

Exciting News

 

We are going to the Heart Of America Greyhound Gathering in Abilene, KS at the end of June.  Scout and Jack went to a greyhound event in Abilene several years ago.  Scout said it was a lot of fun. There are a lot of events to attend.  We are going to camp right at the event this time.   They will be closing registration soon because it is almost filled up, so if you are interested, sign up NOW.  We would love to meet you.

Cooking With Mama

This week the folks really liked a meal that was on our Emeal plan.  It was breaded chicken tenders over biscuits that were smothered with sausage gravy.  Mama said it was so good.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Hopes His Sister Is Feeling Better Soon So He Is No Longer Second Fiddle

Two Years Ago Today!

It was two years ago today that left our stick home behind and hit the road.  We were so excited to start our HUGE Adventure.  Here is our first post from the road - Our HUGE Adventure Has Begun!  When we started out, we planned on being on the road for six months and coming home for the winter.  It turned out we were on the road for five months and we had to go home because Dad was sent to Jamaica.  We were so disappointed, but then we found out that after Jamaica, Dad was being sent to Houston for three months. Since he was being sent someplace we could stay the winter, we decided to put our plan in high gear for selling the house and becoming full-time RVers.  Mama had about a month to get rid of almost everything we owned and get our house ready to sell.  It was crazy, but we got it all done.  We were back on the road by the end of November and received a contract on our house just a few weeks later.  In February, we traded in our motor home for one that was better equipped for the full-timer lifestyle.  That in a nutshell is how we became full-timers.

Here I am waiting for our Huge Adventure to begin. That's are old house in the background.

Scout is happy to be on the road.

Our first night on the road. We were in Alabama.

Our current home.

In the past two years, we have been in 22 states.  (Mama needs to update our map.)  Lately, we have been visiting the same places.  We hope that changes because we want to see new places.

Memorial Weekend 2013 - Us In Dallas

June 2012 - The Woodlands, TX

We are going to celebrate our two years on the road by going on a three week vacation!  Yep, starting this Saturday, Dad is going to be off work for 23 days!  We will be staying in four different campgrounds Our first stop will be to the Herbert Hoover's Presidential Library. The folks want to visit all the Presidential Libraries.  Our vacation will then focus on RVing.  The folks will tour RV assembly plants and surplus stores.  Theys are then headed to RV Boot Camp where they will learn "everything" about RVs.  It is 2.5 days of classes.  Mama says the days will be long.  I guess that is why they call it a boot camp.  After the boot camp, the RV rally begins.  Mama is excited about that because there are all sorts of classes that she can take.  There are eight pages of classes.  Some of the classes are RV related but others are craft, computer, etc.  There will be vendors selling their goods.  It is will be crazy with people, according to Mama.  After all the RV stuff, we will head home to visit family and doctors.  Scout and I have to see our vet to get our shots.  BLAH!  I am not looking forward to that, but it is necessary.   After all our visiting, we will head back to this area for another month.  If all goes well when we come back here, we are going to camp in a county park.  It will be a different way of camping for us because we will not have full hook-ups.  We will go into more details about that later, but Mama thinks she is ready to attempt it.  It should make for some funny blog posts.

We have enjoyed our first two years on the road.  We have learned a lot, but there is always more to learn.  We have made some friends along the way and hope to make more!  Cheers!

Celebrating 2 Years On The Road

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is A Retired Racer And A Full-Time RVer

Truman Family Farm

Saturday, the folks decided to visit the Truman Family Farm. This is where Harry S. Truman grew up. Unfortunately, the house is no longer open for tours.  The folks were the only ones there.  Mama knew it was a self-guided tour, but she thought a ranger might be there or maybe some other tourists.

Truman's Boyhood Home

A groundhog now calls the farm his home.

Chicken coop is one of the out buildings

Back view of the house.

The farm started out as 600 acres.  All but ten acres of the farm have been sold.  The National Park Service now owns the property.

Sunday, the folks planned to stay home with us since bad storms were predicted.  Mama thought they might go out to lunch, but the storms came sooner than she expected.  She was busy frying hamburgers when the first round of storms hit.  It was wild.  Hail was hitting our roof and the wind was howling.  Our smoke detectors went off.  Why did they go off?  Dad said it was because Mama was cooking.  BOL!  She doesn't think that joke is funny.  She had the vents open in the RV, but when the rain started, she shut them and she forgot to turn the exhaust fan on.  After the storm ended, Mama went outside to check for damage. She saw what she thought was a floor mat in the street.  It was one of our tire protectors!  The wind blew it right off of our RV.  Mama is glad she saw it before it blew away.  It was custom made for our RV, so it would have been a pain to get it replaced.

The campground had a little bit of tree damage.

What were we doing during the storm?  Well, Scout saw that Mama was distracted, so she took a big bite out of the raw hamburger that was on the counter.  BOL!  Other than that, we did this:

We had a second round in the evening that were supposed to be worse than the first, so Mama was nervous.  It got bad in some areas around us, but we just had heavy rain.  We were lucky.  We know that others did not fair as well yesterday.  :-(

Dad and Scout taking a walk after the storm.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Was Shocked To See His Sister Steal Hamburger From The Counter