Sept 29 thru Oct 1 - Des Moines, IA

Thursday brought us into Des Moines after stopping early Wednesday night due to the strong wind gusts coming off a lovely cold front sweeping the state and beyond. 50’s at night and 70’s in day - life doesn’t get much better than that. Although it did get down in the 40’s one night and our heater came in mighty handy.



Why Des Moines, IA you might ask. My friend, Louisa, transferred to Des Moines from Texas last year and it was about time for a visit. Here you see me sitting in the fabulous chair she gave me for my times of relaxation.

Mom and I were very pleasantly surprised by the Iowa landscape of rolling hills, beautiful fields mixed with fabulous trees all around. We saw our first real pumpkin field. It is a beautiful area and Des Moines has shown itself to be a very nice city. Lot’s to offer such as lakes, rivers, hills, trees, bike paths, nature trails, theater, an interesting downtown, beautiful architecture, and oh yeah, a horse racing track!Yep folks, we finally got to see our first Harness Races in Des Moines, IA. Who knew!? Photo is horrible but it proves we were there. The Race Track also had a casino which we visited but resisted investing.





Louisa was a fabulous hostess and we had a great time. We ate, toured the city including their gold topped capitol building, ate, attended a hilarious presentation of “Shear Madness” at a downtown theater, ate, attended a local arts and crafts show, ate, watched the harness racing. Did I mention that we ate?



Mom had a chance to do some gourding and play with the assortment of cabachons (facetless gems with a flat side) while we stayed at a nice park called Adventureland Park conveniently located near the race track. It is quite large but well laid out with lots of green space, a lake which attracts canadian geese winging their way southward which, we noticed most other RVers are doing as well.



We decided we shall not be detoured from our destination of the Mohawk Valley in New York state. So onward we go on Interstate 80 skirting Chicago and the great lakes until Mother Nature turns us southward into the Appalachians.

Until next time, love to all.



P.S. Bonnie is really starting to get the hang of this traveling thing. Here you can see her and Mom enjoying morning coffee. She wasn’t too keen on her stroller until she received all kinds of attention at the arts and crafts show. “Ooooh, how cute. May I pet her?” was the theme of the experience. You see why she might find it a bit more acceptable now.