Iowa
June 15, Thursday: St. Louis, MO to Amana, IA
Spending the afternoon in Hannibal left us with a longer drive than we liked to reach the Amana colonies in Iowa, but it was well worth it – we really enjoyed Hannibal.
The drive in northern Missouri was pretty, with rolling hills flattening out to monotonous fields of 2’ high corn in Iowa. We pulled in about 6:30pm to a small, grassy combination motel and RV park with full hookups for $19 about 15 minutes from Amana. The campground right in the Amana colonies was full with a rally for two-piston tractors.
June 16, Friday: Amana, IA to Des Moines, IA
The Amana colonies were settled by German immigrants who left New York State to find open land and religious freedom. Their lifestyle was communal, with the church owning all the land. This morning we drove to the Amana villages, but although the shops were open at 9am, the main museum didn’t open until 10am, so we killed a little time checking out a couple of yard sales as the entire community was having a giant garage sale.
The main museum was in one of the original homes, but there were very few displays. It did have a slide show that illustrated a little history, using pictures from the 1800’s and early 1900’s. We drove around, stopped at a couple of shops and went to the church museum when it opened at 11. An elderly lady gave a great talk about the history of the church, its beliefs and its central role in the Amana way of life. We learned more about historical and current life in the Villages in her half hour talk than anyplace else. 
We had to rush back to the campground after visiting the church because we needed to check out by 12. We had lunch and moved the RV to a parking area next to the campground and returned to Amana so we could tour more of the Villages. One building that was open was a communal kitchen where the women fed 39 people every meal. There was no talking allowed and only ½ hour allowed to finish the meal – strictly eat your food and get out. We also stopped at an agricultural museum in a barn and visited a couple of shops and a bakery.
We returned to the RV around 2pm and got on the road to Des Moines, arriving at the campground at the State fairgrounds by 5pm and checked in with a woman who knew Carla and Floyd. It took us ½ hour just to figure out how the campground sites were set up and which one we wanted. Just as we were getting settled, Bill called because he knew we had arrived and was wondering why we hadn’t called him. The lady who checked us in had called Carla who called Bill who called us. News traveled fast! We went out to dinner with Bill and Linda at a nice local restaurant and caught up on family news.
June 17, Saturday: Des Moines, IA
Bill graciously offered to drive us down to the Dutch town of Pella, so we headed over to his house around 10, even though the weather forecast called for nasty thunderstorms. Pella was settled by the Dutch and has a small, preserved village with old Dutch furnishings and lots of wooden shoes and Delftware. They had a great miniature village and a huge new windmill built by engineers and craftsmen from Holland that is used to grind specialty flour. While we were in the windmill, the lightening started zigzagging across the sky, so they had to shut it down. Then the rains came – in buckets!
We tried to wait it out, but got too hungry to wait longer and ended up getting soaked running through the rain and puddles to a local restaurant. Then we stopped at two bakeries because Dutch pastries and bread are supposed to be really special. We weren’t overly impressed, but that didn’t stop us from buying a few goodies…
We returned to Bill and Linda’s to relax and do our wash, but it was getting late and had to bring home some clothes wet – not much room in an RV to hang wet clothes!
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We got ready and went down to the fairgrounds building for Carla’s reception. They had a huge crowd with food and music – a very nice evening. Carla looked beautiful in the dress she wore at the wedding that had taken place a few months earlier and Floyd and Carla were obviously very happy.
June 18, Sunday: Des Moines, IA
Happy Fathers’ Day. Carla and Floyd stopped by to visit for a while at the campground.
Afterwards, Bill and Linda had us over for a nice afternoon dinner with Carla and Floyd. Jack did his computer stuff at Bill’s and we returned to the RV to relax. We walked around the campground just to get a little exercise, had some spinach balls for a light dinner and I went to bed early. Still haven’t adjusted entirely to the time zone and we’ll be changing again tomorrow – I’m way behind!
June 19, Monday: Des Moines, IA to Trenton, NE
Took I80 to get through Omaha and Lincoln, then we dropped down to follow routes 6 and 34 – corn fields and silos for hundreds of miles. We drove 450 miles to Trenton, Nebraska and stayed at a recreation area campground. The campground had no water or sewer, only electricity; and we were the only ones there. Rabbits and a fawn roamed the field next to us at sundown. The one TV station had nothing of interest, so we played cards. When we were going to bed, it was still 80 degrees, so we had to leave the air conditioner on. When we woke up, a front had gone through and the temperature was in the low 60s. The campground was a little pricey for having only electricity - $20.
