John Wayne

We headed out this morning after waking up to 26 degs...  too cold.. need to keep moving.  The sun was shining and the roads were clear so good traveling.  We stopped a few times and of course we went to Winterset, the birthplace of John Wayne. 

someone had donated this van to the museum...

we took the tour of the house, no pictures are allowed inside..

the house had been restored to look like 1907.  nice job on the restoration and interesting tour.  this is also the area of the covered bridges in Madison County. but we did not feel comfortable looking for them with the RV behind us..  maybe next time we will stay closer to this area and make a day trip.

Our home for the next three nights..

we seen 3 eagles on our ride into the park, need to find the other 6!

Trains, Dows and Hampton, Iowa

Last night at our small campfire, I noticed a light moving down the road. Well, all of a sudden it blew its horn!  It was a train.  I love trains...  I was so excited to hear the clankity clank of the wheels and especiall the horn as it passed a crossing.  Eric is not as excited, he really likes the peace and quite at home.  The horn did not blow again until about 4 am this morning.  I did hear the trains going by and enjoyed the sounds.

We took a 2 mile hike around the lake.  we spotted a few birds but not any new to us. 

Headed out to Dows Iowa after our hike..

we stopped at the welcome center/historical center that was a refurbished train depot.  After a quick tour with Dick we went across the street to the Blacksmith shop.

The owner gave it to the historical society when he retired.

Dick tried to show me how to use the anvil!

 

6 foot bellows...

 

 

there was a praire house that had 12 people living it it, the house had two stories, one room per floor.  the house was moved to town..

 

 

The mom and dad slept on the top and the children slept in the drawers!  For one the bed is way too small for two people and two, put the kids in a drawer?? 

 

 

We headed to Hampton to the historical museum, they had a lot of rooms and a lot of old and interesting stuff.  we did not take any photos there...

 

lunch was at

 

 

the food was pretty uneventful.. so no pictures..

 

we will leave here tomorrow.  not too much more to see and I am really wanting a bit warmer weather..  60 sounds good right now..



We are off!

We got out of the pole barn at about 9:15 this morning.  The temperature was 26, sunny and lots of frost on the ground.  Our trees were bare, but by just south of St Paul we started seeing trees with some leaves and even green ones..  hoping to see more green as we head south.

looks like last years picture!!

this dam is on our campground.  it is billed as the most photographed dam in the midwest!  A 170 foot long spillway with horizontal layers of limestone drops an abruptly 40 feet

it was not that cold out but I like to be prepared!

beautiful sunset on Beeds Lake

the dam...

Eric comtemplating life?  or "should I get another Beer?"

full moon, what a way to end the day!

We drove just under 300 miles in about 7 hours.  the traffic and weather was perfect for traveling.  not sure how long we will stay here.

Proposed route to Santa Ana

This is our proposed route..  pretty much taking I35 most of the way down.

October 29
From: Birchwood, WI 54817 US
To: Beeds Lake State Park, Hampton, IA 50441 US
To: Nine Eagles State Park, Davis City, IA 50065 US
To: Clinton State Park, 798 N 1415 Rd, Lawrence, KS 66049 US
To: El Dorado State Park, Ks-177, El Dorado, KS 67042 US
To: Coon Creek Cove, OK 74641 US
To: Ray Roberts Lake State Park-South, Pilot Point, TX 76258 US
To: Days Inn Irving Grapevine DFW Airport North, 4325 W John Carpenter Fwy, Irving, TX 75063 US
To: Belton, TX 76513-6522 US
To: Choke Canyon St Pk-South Shore, Three Rivers, TX 78071 US
To: Alamo, TX US
Nov 30th

We will be flying from Dallas Fort Worth to Palm Springs for Thanksgiving, leaving the RV at the Days Inn in Grapevine. 

We are planning on being at Ray Roberts State Park just north of DFW by Nov 16th.  The other stops do not have any dates.... 

two weeks to take off!

Can't believe that we will be leaving NW Wisconsin in two weeks.  The leaves are just about all on the ground, we have seen a flurry of snow and lots of birds are migrating south.  It will be us soon.

We hired a security service to watch over the house this winter. Too hard for others to get here often and these guys will bring chain saws etc...  for any thing that they come across, including removing mouse traps!

The spare bedroom is getting filled up with stuff!  we will bring more stuff but also eliminate other stuff, so it will all even out.   We have been cleaning out the food cabinets and refrigerator and freezer.  lots of odd meals but..  it has to be done.

We plan on being back the first week in March so we need to get our snow stuff staged in the garage!  so much to think about.