Don and Gail Travel Update #8

Well, here we are in the middle of Iowa with the wind blowing and the sky raining. Not good driving conditions, so we will sit here for a few days. I am still looking for a good place for Dixie and I to pheasant hunt. Pheasants are scarce due to several years of harsh winters, spring flooding and then followed by several more years of drought conditions in summers.

While traveling through Idaho heading east we endured the smoke from many forest fires, especially going over historic Lolo Pass. It truly was intimidating to see fires burning low and close to the highway.

We had great fun “playing” music with our rock hammers at Ringing Rocks in Western Montana with our friends. Twinkle, Twinkle and Jingle Bells sounded splendid!

We had a terrific re-visit to Mt. Rushmore (still in perfect pose) and Custer State Park even though temps were in the 20’s every morning. The many animals and fowl we viewed were lovely to see out and about during a snowy, cold day.

In eastern South Dakota we paid a visit to the actual Little House on the Prairie where Laura Ingalls grew up. It was a lovely place to visit with lots to see and experience. Old buildings restored to original condition and furnished with period pieces as well as some of the Ingalls family pieces, a farm planted and worked by neighboring farms, fields of prairie grass which is seldom seen nowadays, and hands on tools and machinery to try. The only thing missing were the Ingalls themselves (though now and again I expected to see Michael Langdon, himself, round the corner!).

And heading east again, we just happened to come across the “Ice Cream Capital of the World” in Le Mars, Iowa. I think Don must have had some sort of magnetism to the place, perhaps his “ice cream gene” at work again! Yep, we had to have a luscious sundae there before leaving! “Yum!”

In Iowa we entertained ourselves traveling the “Barn Quilt Trail” one cold and damp afternoon. We sleuthed out over 30 unique barn quilt designs in just one county that had a total of 60+ to see. Great fun to see and read about their origins, patterns, and the families, farms and buildings themselves. We have seen them in other states as well.

There’s lots more to share but it will have to wait for another time. Hoping all is well with each and everyone of you. We miss you all.

-Mom and Dad/Don and Gail