Day 10 Aplington / Parkesburg and Cedar Falls Iowa

The day began after another night of tossing and turning despite a very comfy bed. Too hot/ humid so I ended up turning on the fan. After a leisurely breakfast Brenda and I went for a drive around Aplington and nearby Parkesburg. Both towns have such lovely buildings, tall leafy trees and surrounded by fields of corn and soy.

I had a great time meeting some of the locals in the Main St of Aplington and taking photos of various buildings, houses and the river. We drove out to Parkesburg and saw the new homes and public buildings in daylight, which had replaced those destroyed in the tornado. I love the American farm barns with their distinctive shape. Brenda had to stop several times to let me out to take photos of houses. Wolf House was amazing. We stopped at the cemetery and although I tried to find his grave marker I found lots of other really interesting ones. I was amazed to see that some people had put up their markers with space to record their death!

Buy now die later?

I found a few really long names, lots of German names and the strange custom of not putting the surname of some on the plaque- just their first name and dates.

From here we drove the short distance to the incredible War Memorial. What a monument! Possibly the most incredible one I have ever seen in a small town. The engraving was just stunning. What was a terrible feature was the large number of lives that such a small area had lost over time to war. Then we drove to the supermarket and bought supplies for a peanut butter pie that Brenda was going to make. By now the sky was getting very dark and then the heaven opened up and it poured down- one inch in a short time.

12 pm so dark the lights went on.

We went home in the rain to put our supplies in the fridge, waited for the rain to abate before going down to the town again to get lunch.

amazing war memorial

We had a delightful lunch at the “Pepperpot Pantry”. I had a chicken salad and Brenda had the special. Lots of things to see in different sections of the shop and so many taking advantage of a lovely venue. After lunch it was time to return home, have a rest before making the pie, while I started downloading photos.

When Gordon returned, we decided to go down to Cedar Falls for dinner. The sky had cleared but the forecast for another storm belt. We made our way to College Square and “Huhot” Mongolian Restaurant.

What an interesting place/ concept. Basically you select your ingredients which must into a bowl. Some were heaped high.  Perfect for the allergy customer. The food is labelled as are the sauces.  If you warn them, they clean off that section of the hot plate for your food and protect it from contamination. A bit of a show during the cooking process and you walk around the edge to pick up your meal at the end. Quick and delicious. We left there as the sky was once again getting very dark and strange clouds were amassing.

On our way home, the sky opened up, after continuous sheet lightning. The rain was very heavy and visibility was radically reduced. By the time we got home it was abating. Inside to sit and watch tv or for me to type and catch up on my blog. I stopped every now and then to watch some sections of the highlights of the Iowa State Fair.

Bed.

Storm number two with more to come.