Back across the Mississippi

Synchronous fireflies?

Saturday morning we got the oil changed at the Nissan dealer in Billings, MT, then headed out across several Indian reservations on two lane roads through eastern Montana and finally into South Dakota. It was an enormously long day. Sunday was spent crossing South Dakota on the Interstate along with everyone else headed home from their weekend or holiday week. 

We'd left the mountains and not quite entered the rich farmland further east towards Iowa. It's a very open landscape with little population evident from the road. For miles in advance, though, "tourist attractions" made their presence known with eye-catching billboards. One local brewery paired each sign with an antique fire truck. There must have been 30 of them. They were interesting to see but it made me sad to see them weathering rather than being preserved.

Because we were not near population centers, we saw almost no churches (we

clearly were not in the south...) but someone had built this tiny meditation chapel on private land bordering a rest stop. You can see we have left the Rockies and are clearly deep into the Great Plains.

It was another long, hard day of driving. We were headed to our campsite in West Des Moines, IA when we drove at dusk through one of the many extensive wind farms. The vanes were all turned away from us and large red lights mounted on the backs of the rotors were all blinking in unison. It looked like I imagine the synchronous fireflies look and I was almost as excited to see these lights as I would be to see the firefiles. They were everywhere and eerily beautiful. Ruthie tried to catch a picture, but this gentle blur is all she could get.

We have only driven a couple of hours today. We got groceries this morning and at 2:30pm, met our old friend, Barb Swanson, in the historic village of Amana, IA. Amana Colonies includes 7 villages, Amana among them. They were founded as a communal colony of Lutheran "Pietists" who were driven out of Germany by mainstream Lutherans. They first settled in Seneca, NY, then migrated to Iowa in search of a larger, more isolated location. Their communal tradition ended in 1932, but their

None of us are good a selfies...

corporation still holds the original 26,000 acres of land they lived on and many of their communal buildings are preserved as part of the Amana National Historic Landmark. And yes, Amana appliances are part of this history, though the business has been sold several times. 

We had a great time enjoying each other, catching up, and checking out the lovely shops. Of course, we had to visit the local bakery, a chocolate shop and a shop selling goods made at the Amana Woolen Mills. My holiday shopping is now complete...

Electric clothes dryer

We left Barb around supper time and headed further east, finally crossing the Mississippi River near Rock Island, IL where we are camped for the evening. We are still exploring aspects of our new camping set up. Washington and Montana were so cold at night, we learned to use the propane furnace. Tonight we are trying to master the air conditioner, which is wonderfully cooling but loud as a jet engine. We are also trying out a new contraption I purchased to deal with wet towels. It is a portable electric clothes dryer. I have no idea what my camping neighbors will make of it but it has saved us a trip to the laundromat and we are pleased. 

Two hard days of driving ahead of us and we are home. The last challenge will be getting our new friend into my narrow driveway. Ben has been trimming shrubbery and Jessie says the gravel person did a nice job of improving the grade and the surface. I'm hoping the last picture of this trip will be LibraryAnn II parked cozy in her carport (undamaged). Until then, this is how we ended today.