Hello from Brush, CO

Hello from Brush, CO

Friday morning  June 1, 2012   (Third travelogue of this trip).

We are at the Shell truck stop in Brush Colorado (map).  Wednesday night we stayed at another Shell truck stop in York Nebraska. 

It is impossible to detail all of the activity that took place in Iowa.  Pat's brother Jeff and his wife Julie were there for a few days as was our daughter Lisa and her family.  We all went to the auction on Sunday (5/27) and had a great time.  Monday night we had a mini-family reunion at Pat's cousin's (Danny and Terri) house.  It was great weather for the picnic and we really got a chance to visit with some relatives that we don't get to spend as much time as we would like.

Saturday night we went out to eat at a favorite restaurant – Pizza Ranch in Creston.  After dinner we toured Creston to see the huge amount of damage that a tornado caused a few weeks ago.  The hospital and college had major damage and many houses, apartment buildings and businesses were extensively damaged.  Many will have to be torn down.

Pat and Jeanne did quite a few family things while Bill and I did some farming.  For two days I ran the hay baler.  This baler produces the 6 foot round (1600-1800 pound) bales.  During the two days, I made over 60 bales!  This part of Iowa is quite hilly and a couple of the bales rolled down the hills or followed me as I tried to close the rear door and start back on the windrow.  I think I took about 10 years off of Bill's life, but he did not yell at me {grin}.  We also did some other repair work.  Kind of felt like a real farmer (yeah, right). 

As usual, the meals were fantastic.  We ate out a couple of times, but most of the meals were home cooking with great Iowa pork and beef.  Lisa's husband Dan even introduced the Iowa folks to his great green chili.

Wednesday we reluctantly left Iowa and headed towards Colorado.  We had planned a three day drive to Pueblo.  We ran into some pretty good rain after we left Prescott and decided to cut the day a bit short and stop in York Nebraska.  Yesterday we drove a bit over 350 miles and ended here in Brush. 

From here we will take Colorado 71 south almost all the way to Pueblo.   It will probably not be the best highway, but we will avoid all of the traffic on I 25 through Denver and Colorado Springs.  Besides, we like to get off the interstate highways once in a while.

We are heading to Pueblo so that I can serve as a volunteer at a major vintage car event      (http://rmvr.com/event/2012-trans-am-invitational/ ).  I used to attend these races with a good friend and really missed the events.  I decided to volunteer as a “corner worker”.  In preparation I attended a two day “Crash and Burn” training class in March and did some training at a drivers training class at Pikes Peak International Raceway in April.  I really enjoy this kind of racing and being a corner worker puts you right in the middle of the activity.  I listen to the race control radio channel with my scanner and that really adds to the experience.  Besides, they desperately need volunteers.

That is all for now.