Hello from Prescott, IA

Hello from Prescott, IA

Sunday morning,  August 10, 2014   (First post of this travelogue)

Sadly, Pat’s aunt Jaris passed away on Monday (8/4) in Corning, IA.  We left Evergreen on Tuesday in the bus and stopped in Kearney, NE for the night. 

Wednesday, as we approached Corning, we encountered road construction on US 34.  It was asphalt grinding – a situation we have encountered many times.  Just before the highway that leads to Corning (Pat’s home town), our tire alarm went off.  We turned towards Corning so that we could stop at her cousin’s tire shop.  By the time we got there, both of the tow dolly tires were sending alarms and both tires were nearly flat.  We unhooked the PT cruiser from the dolly and left the tow dolly at the shop.

Jerry (Pat’s cousin) determined that fairly large slivers of asphalt had punctured both of the tow dolly tires.  Jerry was able to fix them.  I had a mounted spare and an additional un-mounted tire.  I ordered an extra rim and now have two spares (who would guess that both tires would go flat at the same time?).  All the other tires seem to be OK.

On Thursday there were family events related to the funeral.  Friday was the funeral, along with other related activities.  Thursday we had a family dinner at the Hoerman’s (family tradition of beef and noodles) and Friday we had another family dinner at Mona and Terry’s.  Both were great events where lots of family stories got exchanged.

Two of our daughters were able to make the trip.  Lisa flew in with Pat’s cousin Linda and all of Kelly’s family drove back.  Pat’s sister and her friend changed their travel plans for a Minnesota trip and drove to Iowa.  After the funeral they continued on to Minnesota.  Lisa flew back to Denver Saturday and Kelly and her family left Saturday afternoon.  Pat’s friend (since early childhood) Linda came down from Des Moines for the Friday events – it is always great to see her.

After the various activities on Friday we needed some “happy time”.  We went out to a family farm to see some day old piglets - most of the Denver folks got to hold them (see photos).  It does not take much to entertain the city folk {grin}.

Molly

Madison and Kelly

Lisa

 

 

 

Kelly

 

Damon

We were worried about going to Iowa in August because of the heat and humidity.  We are connected to a normal 20 amp outlet for our power and that is not enough to power an air conditioner.  It turns out that the weather has been rainy and fairly cool.  Aside from the humidity (somewhat damp sheets), the sleeping conditions have been great.  The rain was great for the Iowa folks as it has been dry and they need the moisture for the crops.

We will start home today.

That is all for now.