SharivilleLife stories from Shari

Today I finally fulfulled a  long time longed for destination.  The St
Louis Arch.  What an amazing monument. It’s 630 feet high, with a ride
to the top, in an itty bitty little closed in car, well those who know
me might guess that I didn’t ride it up. I did take a picture of the
little carriage they use to transport people to the top, not me.  It
was a hazy day out so I tell myself I wouldn’t have gotten a great
view.  Claustraphobia can be a setback.

To me, an earnest history buff, it’s always represented the jumping
off point to the Westward expansion of our nation.  Louis and Clark
started their expedition here in St Louis and finished their travels
in Oregon along the Columbia River.  Now I have visited, the alpha and
omega, the beginning and the end of their journey, with some other
areas along the way.  These men have always been my heros.  Louis and
Clark and the 30 some men and one woman, on the expedition, had to
have been the bravest souls ever.  Beneath the Arch, underground, is
the Museum of Westward Expansion.

Good news and bad news.  Bad news, another glitch in our getalong.
Our truck has spent 2 days in sick bay.  This time it’s the lift pump.
Can’t begin to say how disappointed we are, but the good news is a
motto from Angie, “Never Give Up”.

We have to have a Guardian Angel riding with us, and we found a real
live Angel, named Michelle.  There we were standing in the driveway of
a cemetery with the hood up, and this very sweet lady stopped by to
see if we needed help.  Here we were in a strange little town in
Illinois, heading for St Louis when the fuel pressure dropped to 3 ,
Jerry immediately pulled off the road.  Michelle called around and
found a tow service and we took it to a Garage.  She drove up 30 miles
back up to our trailer and arranged for her father to come and get us
the next day and go to the garage and get things lined up.  All I can
say if you are going to travel with a diesel, take a suitcase full of
money with you.  So we now have a new fuel system.  And a rental car,
courtesy of the Pontiac dealer working on the truck.

Sure thing, Michelle’s dad picked us up at our trailer, mind you 30
miles from his house, and took us to the garage and while they were
working on our truck , he took us site seeing.  This kind gentleman,
Bill Hammons, turned out to be some kind of big wig for the city of
Alton where the garage is.   We got to see all kinds of things regular
tourists miss.  The town of Alton Illinois is at the confluence of the
Illinois and Mississippi Revers , and a couple miles south the Mighty
Missouri joins in.  Can you imagine the scenery around here?  In 1994,
I remember flying over this area on the way to Louisiana to visit
Angie.  I remember the captain of the plane calling our attention to
all the water on the ground.  We could see house tops only.  That
flood completely wiped out this little town.  It took 4 yrs to  put it
all back together.  He showed us the high water mark along the
buildings.  This is truly an old town with lots of beautiful brick
buildings and brick pavement.  He showed us the old area where all the
mansions are and some of them are pre 1861, pre Civil War.  They have
all the ornate gingerbread and wrought iron embellishments and
columns.  They have the lovely ornate iron fences.

He took us to a park in the middle of town, where there is a statue of
the tallest man ever, he was a member if this community and lacked one
inch of being 9 ft tall.  amazing.  He took us down to view the only
bridge of it’s kind in the world , the Clark suspension bridge.  Its a
cable stay bridge, fantastic.  Got lots of pictures of all of this.
We watched a tug boat pushing a huge barge upstream, all I could think
of was, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.  Splendid reading.

We wanted to take Bill to lunch, he would not accept anything for all
his trouble, so he took us to this really cool sports bar, and had
barbecue.  We returned to the garage , picked up the rental car and
headed back up to the trailer at Pere Marquette RV Park and our feline
family.  You will find these entries late because I’m having
difficulty getting out on the Internet form this park.  We also drove
to a Wal Mart and I developed 401 pictures.  I got to thinking , if I
somehow lost my camera my whole trip would be down the drain.  More
later.    Hugs, S and J.

Jerry gently woke me up this morning, it’s always better to do it that
way, with a cup of coffee in hand, thats good too, and said ” we got
to get going”. I looked out the window and it was snowing.  The snow
was lovely, big fluffy flakes floating down.  As we left the RV park
the trees looked like someone has sprinkled powdered sugar all over
them. It sure got the cats attention, they were looking out the
windows trying to figure out what that was floating down.  Judy Lou,
you were right, we needed to hitch up and head out, and we did.  We
headed south and drove out of it within an hour.  Needless to say we
forgot the scenic route and just hit the interstate. We have been
trying to out run winter since we left home and it finally caught up
with us.

We had brunch in Missouri.  We also found the mighty Mississippi.  I
forgot just how big and beautiful that river is, but then I love
rivers most of all.  Like all states the landscapes change soon after
crossing the boarders. We left the evergreens behind in Iowa, and
replaced them with decidious hard wood trees.  They are just now
beginning to change color.  The roadsides have rocky banks, just like
in the Branson area, oh, thats right , Branson is in Missouri, but not
near here.

We needed to fuel up so we found a Pacific Pride station where Jerry
likes to fuel up. It happened to be on the Illinois  side of the
river.  So while Jerry put on 100 gallons of diesel I found a state
park called Pere Marquette on the Illinois side. So we decided to go
there.  We are going to take on St Louis from behind, the approach
that is.  This, of course, meant taking the scenic route along the
Illinois River, through lots of charming little towns.  Still lots of
corn fields, but now lots of pinto bean fields.  I had just said that
the Mid West seems to grow lots of animal food while California grows
lots of people food.  Now we have pinto beans. I can say I really do
miss the warm Calif weather.  The locals everywhere we go, are
complaining about the unusal cold weather.  We left the Amana Colonies
in Iowa this morning and it was 28 degrees and the highest it got here
in Illinois was 50 degrees.  Burrr!!

We drove into this park, and were ready to stop for the day and Wa
La, we got the very last spot. It’s a really nice place, lots of
people here, they even have a lodge.  It just happens to be where the
Illinois and Mississippi Rivers converge. We will be staying here for
at least 2 days.  The scenery is totally beautiful. Tomorrow we will
sightsee in the big city and maybe even ride the Big Arch, can’t wait.
From here to where, we are not sure.  It’s suppose to rain for the
next week from here to the east coast. Guess we will figure it out in
a couple of days.  More later,    Hugs,  S and J.

You see…while on vacation you never really know what day it is.  I
thought yesterday was today. Does that sound like me?  We ate
breakfast in this morning, mainly because it was about 40 degrees
outside. In fact tonight they are shutting the water off at this RV
park too.  Seems we are running just ahead of the winter. Tomorrow “ON
THE ROAD” again.

Today we had the best time checking out the largest colony, Amana,
that seems to be where most of the best shops are.  Liz you would have
THE best time here.  It’s definately a super place to shop.  They have
everything a person would need or not. The best part is that
everything here is quality, hand crafted. Naturally we started the day
at The Sandstone Winery.  They make their wines from whole fruit.  But
have you ever tasted Dandelion wine?  It’s very different, it would be
considered a dessert wine. Angie, I bought both of us a bottle, because
I bet you have never had Dandelion wine either. The winery is housed
in a 150 yr old house, with the winery in the basement. In the General
Store I found just the right  cookbook for you Renee.  A thank you for
all the wonderful meals you have cooked for us. I thought The Amana
Colonies would have the kind of cookbook I know you like. We visited
the Old Lace shoppe, but nothing caught my eye, and also the Kitchen
Sink, nothing there either.  The  Amana Furniture and Clock shop was
really a wonderful place.  The clocks were incredible and kept Jerry
busy for awhile, he really likes clocks.   We watched some of the
craftsmen at work and took some photos.  They make large and small
items, mostly out of local hard woods, cherry, walnut, oak and maple.
Georgous items.  The Woolen Mill was another wonderful place to see.
They had all kinds of wool items and some cotton woven items too.  I
broke out in a sweat just touching all that wool.  Jerry found a
cotton throw he wanted, like I said its cold here, and I won’t share
mine. The mill has been in continous operation since 1857.  Just the
vast number of years these places have been doing business is
incredible.

Then we went to The Ox-Yoke Inn for an early dinner.  Served family
style, Jerry ordered baked steak and I ordered Jagger Schnitzel.  It’s
a breaded pork loin with mushrooms and spatzel,  Delicious.  First
they brought chive cottage cheese, and a bacon broccoli salad.  Then
the entree, with mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, the ever present
sauerkraut, and  two kinds of homemade bread with preserves. We
ordered the half serving entree and still rolled out of the place.
One special thing about The Amana Colonies is that they serve
wonderful food.

Then we resumed touring the shops.  We went to Heritage Wine and
Cheese, and anyone who knows me knows my fetish for all kinds of
cheeses.  Well, I was not dissapointed.  There was over 25 different
cheeses.  Lots of jams and jellies and preserves,  Joann you would
have loved this place, in fact this whole place, especially the General
Store.  When you enter you step back in time to the 1850s, They have
all the old fashioned candy in jars and barrels. Everything is
displayed so nicely – just a beautiful store.  Lots of ambiance. Lastly
we hit the Meat Shop and Smokehouse.  Talk about wonderful smells, and
wonderful things to eat.  They had great looking whole hams and apple
smoked bacon and pepper topped bacon,  I bought some bacon.
Everything is better with bacon. I’m thinking maybe I will actually
get around to cooking in the trailer again after we get away from here
and all the temptation. At the RV park when we arrived they gave us
wooden nickles, good for a pound of sausage with a buck, so I got two
different kinds of sausages, the Bratwurst type, 4 in a pkg for a buck
each.  Good bargains, lots of samples.

Then we returned to the trailer and did laundry, what a drag after
such a truely fine day, but it had to be done.  No telling where we
will be tomorrow, and they have a good laundry room here. Anyway, we
always meet the nicest people in the laundry room.  We usually get
good tips on traveling and share experiences.  Jerry becomes a real
chatty Jerry with other RVers.  Well we are all hooked up and ready to
leave in the morning.  Don’t know what route we are going yet, scenic
or interstate.  Guess we will see tomorrow.
Stay tuned,   Hugs,                S and J.

WILLKOMMEN.  is welcome in German, and the Amana Colonies were started
by Germans from the old country in 1855. How can I even begin to put
into this chapter all that we have experienced today?

We started with breakfast at the Colony Village, family style and
highly recommended.  First came coffee, fresh squeezed orange juice, a
bowl of fresh fruit and home made bread, toasted with strawberry
perserves.  Then came German style pancakes, 2 per plate and covered
the plate, lots of butter and thick real maple syrup, not that
imitation stuff.  Then a plate of 6 overeasy eggs, a plate of crisp
bacon and sausage patties, and a bowl of sliced fried potatoes.
Jerry’s favorite meal was not a dissapointment. Very reasonable prices
and as much as you wanted.  What can I say, we ate and then waddled
out to visit the other 6 villages in the Colonies.

We went to the visitor center for directions and did the drive route
of all the other 6 villages.  They are only minutes apart, 1 hour by
Ox cart in the old days.  The entire Amana Colonies are on 26,000,
acres.  The only housing is in the villages, the rest of the land is
used for farming,  The Colonies presently operate the largest farm in
Iowa,  and manage Iowa’s largest private forest. The Colonies are
located in the georgous Iowa River valley.  The River runs through.

From 1855 until 1932 the Amana Colonies lived a communal lifestyle.
Today they have a group of diverse business’.  There’s a furniture and
clock shop, woolen mill and calico works. Stone Hearth Bakery, where
we had apple struddle and coffee this afternoon.  There’s a General
Store, several restrauants, a few B and Bs, a book store, smoked meat,
cheese and condiment shop, and many other shops, including this huge
RV park where we are.  Theres also a winery, fruit wines and a brew
house where they make beer and old fashioned root beer.

The Amana Colonies are a Nationall Historic Landmark.  Remember the Amana
refrigerators and freezers, thats here. Some of the houses date back
into the 1800s.  They are make of brick, made here too, sandstone and
clapboard.  They were allowed to weather naturally as wood was
plentiful and paint expensive. Most of the private houses have their
own garden patches and fruit trees and grapes.

We spent a couple of delightful hrs at the basket and broom shope.  We met the most facinateing old fellow, 91 yrs old who is the
broommaker.  He kept us entertained and laughing while he worked on a
broom he was making for me.  I even had him sign it.  He was born in
the Colonies in 1918, and was only gone long enough to serve in WWII,
in Germany, as he was fluent in the German language.  There he met his
wife of 61 yrs. I got some great photo’s of him working on my broom
using a hand operated machine over 100 yrs old.   The local paper did
a story on him and I have a copy for my scrapbook.

Got a picture of Jerry in Iowa’s largest solid walnut rocking chair.
Without Jerry it weighs 670 lb, with Jerry………..well, after 3 days
here neither of us are weighing in.  Some of us may remember Edith Ann
in “Laugh In”, that’s what he looked like in that rocker.

Yes, we are extending one more day at least.  One reason there’s still
so much to see and eat and ST Louis is on flood alert, and the
Mississippi is on the rise. So we will have to see how long this storm
lasts there.  And I wanted to take the scenic river route down.  Will
I ever learn? I love scenic routes, Jerry loves interstates, but then
I’m not the trailer hauler either.  More tomorrow.          Hugs, S and J

Hey an amazing thing happened this morning, we got an early start.  It
was pretty terrific.  We drove east for awhile and then cut south mid
center of Iowa.  Immediately the terrain changed.  Gone are the plains
and prairies, and on to the rolling hills, rivers and lots of green
trees. We have encountered two nice rivers, one small, the Winnebago
and the larger Iowa River.  The trees are changing colors, but very
slowly and not noteworthy for pictures yet.  I’m disappointed with
that so far.

We did drive by Clear Lake, Iowa, and I did not fail to remember, THE
DAY THE MUSIC DIED, when Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper and Richie
Valens all died in that terrible plane crash while on a gig here.
Those of of us of the ’59 era won’t likely forget.  I remember being
so totally crushed, such wonderful talent gone now forever.  Several of
you on my BIG TRIP list are from that era, REMEMBER.

Yesterday, on the local Iowa news and last nite on Fox News, they made
mention of a small town in central Iowa, Ackley Iowa, regarding a very
talented local city visionary who decided to dress up the little town
with life like mannequins. There are now about 30 of them.  Sitting on
benches and standing by their business’.  There’s even a Maytag man.
So I got Jerry off the interstate, so we could do the tourist thing,
and hunt them down.  And so we wandered around and through the small
little towns, and cornfields, delighting me, not so much for the
person next to me pulling this sled.  But the caveat was that in this
little town was also a  nice little soda fountain type place, and
Jerry loooves Chocolate milkshakes. So, frothing at the mouth and
fantasizing about an old tyme fountain chocolate milkshake, he pressed
on. Well first of all the entrance to the town was completely blocked
off with road work, so with much patience Jerry found another way into
town, now visualize this, here we are pulling this 32 ft monster thru
these narrow streets, trying to find the newsworthy mannequins, when
we did, of course,  we found nowhere to park this thing and would you
believe it, no soda fountain shop. After several trips thru and
around the town I finally got my pictures. Jerry did not get his
milkshake and was not a happy trailer hauler. I can only hope he will
be happy with the completed scrapbook of these adventures. They were
terribly cute and so artistic, what a neat idea to promote your town.
To bad the town wasn’t ready for the publicity. Now I have to come up
with a really great chocolate milkshake.

This evening we pulled into The Amana Colonies RV Park and are here
for a couple of days.  There looks like there will be a lot to see and
a lot of history here and that will make me very happy.  More of my
beautiful America.             Hugs to all,    S and J.

Today is pack up day and that’s no small chore after 12 days in one spot. What a pleasure to have been able to stay in such a splendid area with so much to see.  I somehow know that wherever we stay there’s so much more to see and do, but we don’t stay long enough to really investigate.  Here we did it up right.  Not exactly planned that way though.

Our timing could not have been better.  The workers here came by this morning with a note that the weather service has predicted below freezing weather for the next few days, so as of the morn they will be shutting off the water.  So Jerry filled our water tank half full and buckled up the water system.  Like I said, lots of things to get done before we pull out in the AM.  I can’t believe how cold it’s gotten.  Jerry has to keep coming inside to get warmed up while getting ready to boogy.  I think snow is on it’s way.

We made a run to Wal Mart to stock up on some supplies.  Never know where the next one will be.  We put another 30 gals of fuel on board.  It’s $2.59 a gal here.  Jerry is now all hooked up and all we have to do is unplug and hit the road.  We were going to go up to the clubhouse for a burger, but it’s just to cold out there.  So, instead I’m making a hearty roasted garlic potato corn chowder.  I even put bacon in it and everything tastes better with bacon, not to mention the garlic.  Sounds good doesn’t it Kathy?  I have some very nice knives to cut veggies with, thank you Kathy.  You’ve helped equip both my home kitchen, and my very cozy home away from home kitchen.  I think of you so much.

In the morning all I need to do is round up and crate the babies, pull in the slides and we are headed for St Louis, Mo.  It will likely take a couple days.  We do have a fun spot located on the way, will tell you about it tomorrow nite.

Hugs to all,  S and J

It’s been cold and windy and rainy and we find that Denise’s trailer if better able to hold the heat than ours.  I still cannot think of a better person to have that trailer.  We do have a great heat pump it just seems to cool down faster.  Jerry is definitely on the mend, the truck is back to normal, and it’s the first day he wanted to escape my cooking and go to the Omelet House.  I have to admit I was also glad.

Then we decided to find May City, and the old Mennonite graveyard and barn.  Now that was another hilarious endeavor.  After 2 hrs. and 10 gallons of fuel, Jerry’s version, we finally found this noted landmark.  Around here they have the “best hidden,” brochure noted, must see points of interest.  We never did see a single sign, anyone who knows me knows I definitely rely on road signs. I have even enabled myself to read road signs along the road at 70 MPH. Well anyway after asking 4 different people and getting 4 different directions we finally found a farmer type , very nice man, who led us directly to the barn in question.  Only  to discover that we had already passed it and I had Jerry back up so I could get a picture of the nice red barn.  Somehow I was expecting a really big red barn. Anyway, it is a landmark because Mennonite people built their barns differently than others and although well preserved its one of the oldest barns in Osceola county. At one time near the red barn was a real settlement, a jewelry store, cigar factory, blacksmith shop, and grocery.

The Mennonite barns are distinguished by an overhang, or farbay, on the second story to provide shade for the livestock.  They say descendants occas return to May City area to visit the cemetery. The little cemetery was interesting, very old, the newest date was 1902, and mostly from the middle 1800′s.  There are only 26 headstones.  It seems most of the occupants were young children or babies. It must have been difficult and sad out here on the prairie’s trying to homestead.  It so reminds me of Little House on the Prairie.  I can only imagine the harsh winters and how soul wrenching to lose your babies to the elements and sickness.  It was a small and sad little cemetery.

It’s truly a beautiful part of America here,  There are over 200 different seasonal wild flower species among the prairie grasses.  This definitely adds to the ambiance of this part of Iowa.  I’m so glad we had extra time here, although not for the reason for the delay.  I got some nice pictures of the old barns, the one sad thing that goes with farm life and old barns is that there are far to many cats and kittens who really need someone to hold them and love them and take good care of them.  This is so sad to me and  I know to you too, Liz.   More to come I’m sure.   Hugs,      S and J.

And the thunder rolled, and the lightening flashed and the rain came down.  That’s what woke me up this morning.  It was such a stay in day ,that I actually fixed bacon and eggs, hash browns and toast.  Thanks to Kathy, I have a bacon iron to crisp up the bacon.

Drove into Spirit Lake for supplies, got a thermometer, chicken soup and cold meds.  Jerry is trying to get sick on me.  He so far has a sore throat, hope nothing worse. I just think he’s a bit run down with all that’s been going on. He needs a few days to recoup.  He extended us here until the 7th, then it should take us 2 days to get to to St Louis, we never get in a hurry. Unless the snow starts to fly, then watch him abandon ship and head out.

We may have a few down days here, but stay tuned for further developments.  If anything exciting goes on I will be back on line.

Hugs to all,      S and J

Well happy day, today we have been married 37 yrs and together a total of 38 and a half yrs. Anyone who knows me knows that’s a record event. I would do it all again, we consider ourselves very lucky that we found our soul mate.  Not everyone is so lucky.

We celebrated at a local casino with Melvin and Janola Uden, Jerry’s cousin and his wife. We did the buffet, nothing special, typical casino food. Not much luck either, but it was something we had not counted on doing. Melvin and Janola are newly weds, 4 1/2 yrs in Jan.  She was 69 and he 79.  Soooo sweet. and they just seem to adore each other.  They do have a long history though, they were both widowed, but the two couples grew up together in the same town and socialized together, went on trips, played cards, whatever you do in small towns.  So, it made perfect sense for the last two to stay together.They share  so many past memories and are now making some new one’s together. Its just so natural as each one knows what the other is saying or doing like they have been joined at the hip all their lives.

Well there is a big storm coming in so we may extend a couple more days, I could stay longer but we have to get on our way before we get snowed in. I have gotten some really nice pictures here.  All along the roadways are purple mum type wild flowers in various shades of purple. Of course the harvesting of the soy beans is fascinating, it will have to stop with the rain coming.

So, this computer has really lowered the boom on me.  First of all I am not a techno freak.  It’s mind boggling and I hate it. It’s first one thing and then another. So, today I took my computer to the club house to try to get on line, when I got up there I discovered my computer was hibernating.  Oh well, no matter what button I pushed I could not wake it up. Finally with the help of two ladies who work there, we woke up my computer. I never ever heard of a computer hibernating.  Well it only gets worse,  then I tried to get on line and could not, so this very nice fellow camper came by and told me I needed to have a blue lite on, on top instead of a red one.  After that I got on line and can now ever use my computer from the trailer with my wireless card.  HOOP DE DO.  Then of course I had been having trouble with my cell phone, only Jerry’s was working well with a very simple push of a button by Jerry my cell now works everywhere.  And after about 15 hours of Jerry trying to set up the satellite, thank goodness for cable, he has decided the trees here are to big and has discussed cutting them down.  Good luck with that plan. Well tomorrow is another day.              Hugs,  S and J.