Iowa Connections!

April 19 - May 9, 2021

We are officially headed north!  Our route took us through southwest MO where we spent a couple of nights at Bennett Spring State Park mainly as a stopover on our way to Iowa.  We were quickly reminded we were no longer in the south, as we received a couple inches of snow our first day there!  Good grief! I felt a little bit like the mail carrier as neither rain nor sleet nor gloom of night is going to keep me away from those grandchildren up north!  Fortunately, it was a short-lived snowfall.  The temperatures melted the snow almost as fast as it fell.

Bennet Springs State Park

Bennett Spring State Park is a lovely park!  It has a fish hatchery located within the park which stocks Bennett Spring with trout.  I wish I had fishing gear!  Our neighbor told me he caught 40 -50 trout that morning!  He catches and releases, so hopefully it wasn’t the same fish he caught over and over again!

 

Our next stop was at Walnut Woods State Park in West Des Moines, Iowa!  This is another gem of a park!  It’s a small park and campground with a few trails and picnic areas.  The best thing about this park is that it is located 5 miles from Maggie and Luke’s home!  


Walnut Woods State Park - Site #11

Our time with Maggie and Luke was filled with so many fun activities!  Their daughter, Norah, is now 6 months old and is busy noticing all of the small details of her world.  Between COVID and winter, her world has remained pretty small.  Home and daycare have pretty much monopolized her days to this point.  It was fun to be part of her first official outing on a trip to Blank Park Zoo!  The lions were out and showing off for her, as well as the giraffes, flamingos, sea otters… but the penguins were her absolute favorite!  


Norah meets a goat!

Blank Park Zoo, Des Moines, Iowa

Maggie and Luke scheduled a 6-month photo session that included family photos of the three of them. Weather cooperated for the most part, as the photo shoot took place at an outdoor location, Rose Park.  Rain threatened but didn’t materialize!  It was a little chilly but for April in Iowa, it was pretty darn nice out!  Dick and I tagged along on the outing to hopefully entice Norah to smile as well as tote items from spot to spot.  The outdoor scenes along with this beautiful young family was a strong reminder of just how very blessed we are!  Side note:  I was completely caught off guard when the photographer asked Dick and me to join Maggie, Luke and Norah for one of the photos.  Oops! Had I anticipated that, I would have paid a little more attention to my makeup and hair!  Regardless, it is such a priceless memory!




Norah is 6 months!

Luke is very much a master of the grill and we were treated to several of his creations!  I have to say, his burnt ends were my favorite; however, none of his dinners disappointed!  We did bring some frozen shrimp back from the gulf and we returned the favor one night by making our favorite version of shrimp and grits for them.  I would never have thought I love shrimp and grits, but trust me, this southern dish is wonderful!


Luke and his smoker!  Yummy!


I was reminded how a 6-month-old requires lots of sleep (it’s amazing how much of young parenting I have blocked from my memory!).  Keeping in mind that Norah needs to rise early to get to daycare in time for Maggie to get to school, Norah’s bedtime is at 6:00 pm.  This actually worked out to our advantage for a couple of evenings, as Maggie was able to feed Norah and get her settled in bed and then we were able to babysit and let Maggie and Luke go out for a “date”!  Please be clear, the responsibilities of babysitting pretty much were watching a monitor and listening for signs of Norah awakening!  Easy duty if you ask me!


We were able to go to mass on Sunday morning at St. Francis of Assisi in West Des Moines.  I love going to St. Francis when we are in the area.  The layout of the church ensures wherever you sit, you have the best seat in the place.  Their crucifix is an icon cross which, in addition to the main figure of Christ, contains images of other saints and people related to Christ’s crucifixion.  It is stunning and provides a beautiful reflection piece on just how very much each of us is loved by God.


Each evening, when we returned to our RV, we found we had one, very tired Frankie!  Pippin gave Frankie plenty of exercise each day.  Turns out Maggie and Luke had the very same report for Pippin.  The two dogs get along well!  Even though Pippin has no interest in playing frisbee, all Frankie had to do was glance at the frisbee and the completion had begun!


Frankie and Pippin battle over the frisbee!

Once the weekend was over, Maggie and Luke were back to work and we were left to explore on our own.  Now that we are fully vaccinated, we are still careful of where we go and continue to wear masks; however, we did find that we felt comfortable enough to go SHOPPING!  It has been well over a year since we have done little more than going to a grocery store! We found ourselves feeling like kids in a candy shop as we went from department to department in REI!  We walked out having selected new sandals, hiking shoes, camp chairs, shorts and pants!  Wow!  That was fun!!  (What a weird world COVID has given us!)

 

The real world hit us while we were in Des Moines, meaning our “check engine” light came on.  While this caused some inconvenience, we were delighted the Schottenkirk Chevrolet dealer was able to diagnose our DEF heater was broken, do the repair and not charge us a penny!  Our Silverado is a 2016 model and the emissions system apparently is still under warranty!  Just the diagnosis itself was going to be $100.00.  We felt like we dodged a bullet on this one!

 

If you live in Iowa (as we did for, say, at least 55 years) you have undoubtably heard of the Pella Tulip Festival.  Attending the festival is something we have always intended to do, but somehow have never done!  Does this sound familiar to anyone else who lives near a tourist attraction?  Well, now that we are officially tourists wherever we go, we felt compelled to see it!  We had plans to spend a day with our good friends, Jane and Blake, and when Jane suggested going to Pella, it was done deal!  This was a win/win as the tulips were in full bloom and the festival was still a week away.  We were able to take in all the sights, sounds, and tastes without any of the crowds.  The tulips were amazing!  I had no idea there are so many varieties of tulips!  Top tastes of the day included Dutch Letters (an almond flavored pastry), local cheese, and beef sticks!


Tulip time in Pella!

Touring Vermeer Manufacturing

Dutch Letters and assorted pastries


Even better yet, Jane and Blake are good friends with one of the chaplains at Vermeer Manufacturing Corporation and was able to arrange for us to tour the facility.  I have to admit, I had little to no knowledge of Vermeer before the tour.  What an impressive and amazing company this is! It’s a true model of the “American dream”.   Vermeer was founded by a farmer (Gary), whose family had immigrated from Holland.  Gary was a “tinkerer” who was fascinated with trying to find better ways of doing things.  Gary invented several machines, including the round hay baler.  The company puts people first in everything they do including the products they manufacture to the well-being of their employees.  I have to say, if I wasn’t enjoying retirement so very much, I’d want to work for them! 

 

We enjoyed Pella so much that we returned for another day, this time with our bikes!  We met dear friends Brad and Kathy there and took another tour of the tulips and then hopped on the Volksweg Trail.  We only did a short section of the trail; however, it left me wanting more of it!  The winding route of the trail sticks mainly to the rolling hills and scenic viewpoints from Lake Red Rock to Pella.  Dutch immigrants settled this lovely section of Iowa in the mid-19thcentury.  Volksweg Trail is Dutch for 'people’s path', which explains how it got its name!




It's handy when there is a brewery at the trail head!

Brad and Kathy joined us for a couple of nights camping at Walnut Woods.  They are such troopers, as they brought their tent and endured the 35-40 degree nighttime temperatures!  No worries, we warmed up plenty during the day playing pickleball and riding our bikes.  Des Moines has bike trails pretty much throughout the city!  Side note:  some of the trails have better signage than other trails.  We tried our luck at Kubb (a Scandinavian lawn game) and enjoyed campfires during the evenings. 


Kubb - guys won.  I need more practice!

Our last day in Des Moines took us back to Maggie and Luke’s home for more snuggles with Norah and doing a little gardening.  Both Dick and I have to admit that we miss the “playing in the dirt” aspect of home ownership.  One day we will get back to home ownership and have our own dirt to play in but for now, Maggie and Luke were willing to let us dig in their dirt a bit.  We got some flowers planters put together and a small garden turned over, raked and planted.  Fun! Maggie has some of the rhubarb plant that belonged to my mom.  It’s amazing how well the plant is doing!  I did harvest a bit of the rhubarb and used my mom’s recipe to make rhubarb bread.  It’s so delicious!  Mom was a wonderful cook and I treasure having a few of her recipes.  Just the smell of rhubarb bread baking brings back images of my dear mom!






Our time in Des Moines flew by and before we knew it we were grabbing one last snuggle with Norah and giving Maggie and Luke farewell hugs and kisses.  We are headed to Minneapolis next!

Comments

  1. I really enjoyed reading this blog! I've thought about the Pella tulip time (we've never been and would have to time it for a visit) and you are so right about not visiting nearby tourist sites when you live close. We have a Kubb set...it's harder than it looks! Rhubarb crisp is a family favorite...waiting patiently for our rhubarb to be ready here!

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