Country Inn Suites Ames

... navigating us through Des Moines to the hotel. Tomorrow, head over towards the Quad Cities, see my aunt who just got diagnosed a couple days ago with stage 4 cancer that had spread to the brain, and then work towards home for a late night arrival. Sigh, there have been many things that have made us wonder if this vacation should have occurred, but yet we survived and life with hectic and chaotic once we get home, Sigh

... to sleep and Mark rocked up twenty minutes later very happy and proceeded to dance through the motel room. I tried not to laugh as he was still dancing as he jumped into bed. The alcohol got the better of him though and off to the loo for a hug before settling down for the night. Being the last one up I laughed to myself and reflected on what was the highlight of the trip and a pretty good day for all involved and settled down to sleep.

I can't believe we all go our separate ways tomorrow!

... I were moving to a motel while Alicia had to pack for her honeymoon in Madrid. Nate arrived home around midday so he, Alicia, Nate's best mate Chris (who had come up from Indiana) and myself went down to the Indianola Country Club to set a couple of things up for the reception. An hours hard work and the boys headed back while Alicia took me on the grand Indianola tour to get my bearings. I saw Simpson College where Alicia studied as well as Smith Chapel (where Alicia and Nate were to ...

... it was pretty loud so I couldn't really hear across the table. I was talking to Mark and Stephanie and we all realised way too late in the night that it was Guinness Day, the 250th anniversary of the first batch of Guinness. And Stephanie likes it! Sadly everyone was on their way out and we had to forgo the addition of Guinness for another night.

So that's the end of my first full day in the United States. A good start to the trip and looking forward to what's to come.

... little tougher than I imagined, but not horrible. We then showered and hit the road towards Des Moines. We arrived and parked downtown. After walking around for about 15 minutes, we felt like we had seen all we wanted to see, haha. It was a little bigger than Knoxvilles downtown, but it seemed like noone was smiling and there wasn't anything around except buisnesses. Maybe we were in the wrong part, but oh well. We left after grabbing a bite to eat for lunch and started towards Nebraska...

... middle a gurgling stream is an enclosed bridge (as seen in the movie) stretching across. There are several of the bridges around town, we saw a few but our fav was probably at the town park where they also had a castle like structure and a big garden maze, fun! And to add to the appeal of this town it is also John Waynes birth place. They have the house he was born in ...

Long day of driving today, made it out of Chicago, through Wisconsin, across the Mississippi River at Prairie du Chien (it means prairie dog in French!) and to Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa. The Native Americans many thousands of years ago built burial and ceremonial mounds, many in the shapes of bears and eagles. Many are inaccessible ...

... a long-ago trip to Salt Lake City.
“It was extra nice to have them come here,” she said.
One wheelchair-bound resident, Bob, moved his lips along with every song of the mini-concert, which included such favorites as “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” “God Bless America” and “Come, Come Ye Saints.” “I sang in a Choir for many years,” said Bob, “and this was just wonderful. Thank you so much.”

The ...

What's not to like about a trip to scenic Maine and colorful Nova Scotia. Of course, other than the 6:00 AM flight out of Des Moines to Portland Maine! Not to fear, it was painless and after securing our rental car, provided an entire day to reach our first destination of Bar Harbor Maine. With only 10 days to see and savor each location on our agenda, we hit the road!

The crew: Arthur, Clint, Scottie, Laura, and Me Destination: Georgia Compliment: 1 ISU suburban, 1 wood trailer, 8 kayaks, and a bunch of whitewater gear I'm typing all of this after the fact because we were beyond the realm of the internet these past 7 days. Friday night we took off from Ames shortly after dark and arrived in Ellijay, Georgia around 20 hours later. The drive in question was supposed to take around 15 hours, but the school requires a rest stop from 1-5am. We also picked ...