We said our farewells to Jo and Woody and wished them safe
travels as they headed west. We
continued east, through the city of Omaha, over the Missouri River and into
Iowa.
Iowa landscape is similar to back home; rolling hills, deciduous
trees, thick green grass, wild flowers, and cultivated fields, mainly
of corn. Iowa is also known for raising ‘hogs’
but we see no pigs. They are all kept in
air conditioned barns.
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| Cicada Insects |
We spent the night in the town of Winterset, the birthplace
of John Wayne. When we arrived the air
was filled with the sound of thousands of Cicada insects – the noise level was
almost painful. Their ‘song’ has been
recorded at up to 120db.
These insects
have a 17-year life cycle so we are very fortunate to be here at this
time. They spend most of their lives
underground as nymphs and have pupated into flying insects that live for about
6 weeks. They have already been flying
for a month and are nearing the end of their lives and many are crawling around
in the grass dying. Fortunately they do
not bite or sting.
Winterset is also known for its Covered Bridges and the book
and 1995 film "The Bridges of Madison Country" was based here.We took a drive to some of the bridges. The City Park also had a Maze which we had
fun finding our way around.25th June – Winterset to Fairfield, IA
We toured the house where John Wayne (real name Marion
Morrison) “The Duke” was born in 1907 – well it had to be done didn’t it. Then we set off further east towards
Fairfield to meet up with another friend that Alison met when we were in Tucson
in March 2013.
We stayed in the county park just outside of town and again
we were nearly deafened by the sound of the Cicada. However the insects were not in town when we
visited with Levon for the evening.
After our meal we took a drive around the area of town where the
Maharishi University campus is located.
It covered a huge area and we were quite amazed at what we learnt (have
a look on the internet). They are heavily
into transcendental meditation. (Any excuse to get into the US)
We also saw a nice house which had been built years
ago. It had been purchased via
mail-order.
26th June – Fairfield and surrounding area
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| Everything is made of wood |
Levon kindly took us on a tour of some places of interest in
the area. First was Jonny Clock
Museum. This Museum housed around 55
clocks and cabinets that had been hand-carved over the last 40 years by one man. All the pieces were original one-off designs
and represented thousands of hours of his time. |
| Arrow heads mounted in beautiful frames |
Then we visited an Indian Arrowhead Museum.
This collection had been put together by a man who had been collecting the local arrowheads since he was a boy, 60 years or more ago. He had created the display
cabinets himself from local woods.
After a picnic lunch by the river we did some shopping in an
Amish Village store where we spotted a quilt we both liked; the challenge of
getting it home to be solved at a later date.
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| Turtles, these are not for consumption |
After ice creams (it was hot and humid) we visited a Turtle
Farm. Not what we expected to find in
Iowa. These turtles are bred and hatched
here and then about 90% are shipped to China for growing on, ultimately the Far
Eastern turtle meat market. The eggs are
collected and incubated in temperature controlled room. The eggs cannot be turned and must be kept
the same way up as they are laid, otherwise the embryo dies. The sex of the new born is determined by the
temperature it is incubated at. As males
just fight and bite each other it is females that are desired; they spend all
day just floating in the pool, eating.
(Now there’s an idea).
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| This one has been stuffed. |
In the winter the turtles do not eat for nearly 6 months and
stay at the bottom of the ponds and hence are able to withstand the Iowa winter
weather.
In the evening Alison and Levon went to watch a Jazz music
and Contemporary Dance entertainment by the Brigham Young University that was
touring Iowa.
27th June – Fairfield to Amana, Ia
We had said our farewells to Levon last night so were on the
road in the morning and made our way along the secondary roads up to the Amana
Colonies. This is a collection of villages originally founded by farmers from
Germany in mid-1800s.
We arrived at the campground to discover this was a Good Sam
Jamboree weekend. It is a large resort
of over 400 sites and the place was nearly full by the evening.
After a terrific thunderstorm we went for some traditional
Germany cuisine in the nearby village.
28th June – Amana Colonies
We drove the 17 mile circular route through 6 of the 7
pretty Amana villages. The buildings and
gardens are highly manicured, and almost too immaculate. Many of the houses grow vines up the walls as
a means of helping stay cool. Most of
the buildings are made of red brick.
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| Everything is 1" to 1' scale |
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| All made in recycled wood |
We spent time at the Mini-Americana Barn Museum in South Amana,
which is the work of a farmer, Henry Moore, who spent his retirement hand-making
200 buildings to create miniature villages, farmsteads, logging camp and sugar
plantation buildings.
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| Having his lunch |
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| On guard duty. |
There are numerous shops; most selling locally hand-crafted items. We checked out the wine shops and the German
cured meat store.
Back at the camp site
we sat and watched the Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrels (also known as Striped Gopher) diving in and out of their burrows.
Another thunder storm this evening so we are inside the motorhome writing up this blog.
In the morning we head north into Minnesota.
