Residence Inn By Marriott Cedar Rapids

... this sort of feeling, and many people find it as empowering.

I spent the day today at the Civic Engagement Poster session in Iowa City, trying to network the Bplans project and Red Voluntario research to needy volunteers. From the feeling of things, I think people got pretty excited. Of the 20 people that I was able to talk to, 18 gave me their emails for further information.

Only 6 more days until our flight to RIO DE JANIERO!

Thank you everyone for your support!

A clip written by David Burgess (U.Iowa) for the group at the Civic Engagement Poster Session 9/2/09:

"Red Voluntario ʺVolunteer Networkʺ is collaborating with
BplansForHumanity to be the first University of Iowa semester‐long
study abroad social entrepreneurship initiative that integrates an onthe‐
ground team of students working with virtual teams at the UI
through ...

... while in NY), and we were back on the road.
Des Moines and Iowa City were our primary destinations. Given John’s eight-year residency in Iowa City, he still has many friends living in the state, and I was privileged to meet many of them. Penny and Morgan, a terrific couple, whom I greatly enjoyed getting to know, provided us with accommodations for a couple of days while in Des Moines. They fed us, entertained us and listed to us ramble about our journey to ...

... Iowa City has had some devastating floods in the last few years which have caused the City to regroup and rebuild, the area itself is very beautiful.

We all went for a day trip to the nearby Amana colonies, 7 villages of communities that have lasted for nearly 200yrs, with a faith based way of life not dissimilar to the Amish (though they are different groups - yes it confuses us too). Amongst other skills, they have ...

... get hair cuts,  we fueled up the truck and got a local company to change the engine oil, using a synthetic and pricey( or as they say over here "spendy") oil. Gotta look after the chevy. So far she has been very good to us!!  
Our RV park although called Sleepy Hollow was right on Interstate 80 but it was surprisingly quiet.
Our RV neighbours were from only a short distance away and were very friendly and we enjoyed talking about Iowa.

  

We spent the last 5 days with my sister and her family here in Marion, Iowa. I am always amazed with how quickly 'little people' change and grow. We haven't seen Sydney since Christmas last year and she, as expected, has changed quite a bit.

We have taken to calling her "Boogie". She informed us during our Iowa visit last year that ...

... br>
Making the decision easier for us was the fact that both sets of parents lived the fulltime lifestyle for a number of years. Yes, we are 'second generation fulltimers', which I think makes us a bit unique in this lifestyle. We had originally planned on staying out here on the road for about 5 years and than re-evaluating. Well, that 5 year mark is coming up in March and we can honestly say that we have ...

I bid Doug a reluctant goodbye at 4:15 a.m., French Standard Time, and took the shuttle to the airport for a 6:15 flight to Amsterdam. This trip through Schiphol was a bit more harried, as the line to get through passport control was quite long and very slow, and then one queued up again to go through some questions and passport review before lining up to board the plane. This plane was much less crowded than previous ...

Amana, in the middle of nowhere, but it's a cool stop when you have nothing to do between Cedar Rapids and Des Moines. It is a German village. There are 7 villages as a whole, Amana, West Amana, Middle Amana, High Amana, South Amana, and Homestead. Amana is the biggest.

... evening, it was still hot!! We finally finished transferring everything out of the RV and into a 12 ft. cargo trailer that we bought to tow behind the SUV that, thankfully, wasn't damaged, so we could leave. The things that I was saddest about, that we couldn't take with us, were the beautiful murals painted on the RV. So, of course, we had to cancel our plans to head west, and started driving east and eventually south, back to PJ's in Florida.