Day 11 Rural Iowa and up to Clear Lake

Woke after a great night’s sleep, breakfast then Noreen from next door came over for a visit. After her visit Brenda and I set off to drive around the area near Grundy Centre where her parents owned the family farm.

The family home

Luckily I had my passport because our next place was Holland- as you may have guessed it was Holland Iowa. We drove through Wellsburg and back to Aplington. Some of the small towns had a collection of houses and no other businesses- called “sleeper towns” ie people live and sleep there. There is no business in the town. The countryside was just beautiful. Green lush undulating fields filled with corn and soy with some large areas of water from yesterday’s storms. Bonus for me were the barns with quilt patterns in the doors.

When we returned home we had a fast lunch, grabbed some supplies, including the peanut pie Brenda had made. We drove north through miles of corn and soy to Clear Lake to visit with some friends of Gordon and Brenda’s. (Clear Lake is where Buddy Holly last performed. They have several places named after him)

We visited with Julie and Tom, other friends there were Jack, and Lola and Joe together with my new furry friends Coco and Bandit. We sat on the deck and chatted until the boys left for a boat ride leaving the women to solve the problems of the world and share our adventures of life. (Much the same as happens in the rest of the world.)

We had to dash inside when we were hit with a sudden downpour and the boys were caught on the Lake. They returned quickly but went back on the deck while we stayed inside. The weather wasn’t sure what was happening with occasional showers and at one stage a double rainbow!

It was a lovely afternoon of sharing stories, listening to political views about the upcoming elections, spreading the news about Australia as a tourist destination and finished for us by an early dinner. Joe had prepared (pork)

, potatoes, corn and the hottest beans ever. They had Brenda’s pie for desert. We left soon after the pie because Brenda prefers to drive in as much daylight as possible. Another lovely sunset, but the car was not facing that directions for long. One issue of driving at night is deer. Luckily none felt the need to cross the road while we were driving.

We arrived home about 8:30 and I printed out my boarding passes and paid for my bag. Apparently an over booked flight again and two window seats! Washed a few clothes and then sat down to type.