Gone Summer

Summer has gone away.  The cool weather came early this year.  Since my last post we have done many things and gone to a variety of places.  After our “Iowa vacation” and the trip to Yankton, South Dakota, we took some local motor-bike trips.  A day trip to Iowa Falls, a neat city on a rocky place with a waterfall in the Iowa river was one of the high-lights.

  There is an old suspension foot bridge over the river, which we crossed just for the experience. A leisurely ride back got us back home safely, even though we had to go through a surprise rain storm.  Fortunately our “frog-togs” kept us dry. Just riding in our immediate surroundings is always nice.  The weather has not been very cooperative this summer.  We had many rainy days
The Iowa State fair had very agreeable weather this year; cool with low humidity.  We could have taken the bike there, but then we would have been a bit overdressed for the fair. At the fair we enjoyed the celebration of our military heritage. It was military day and we got a discount, because of my veteran’s status on the day we went. 

 
  A nice parade with honors to many soldiers who were serving in the military in the last 70 years of wars; yes, we still had some WW-2 veterans in the parade this year.  Also homage was paid to all the soldiers who died in the last round of armed conflict.  A nice concert of patriotic songs and music closed the day’s events.
Then during the last week of August, we took a houseboat vacation on the Mississippi river.  We went together with our son, his spouse and her parents.  Of the many beautiful nature sights we saw, the visit to the National Eagle Center was a highlight.  Of course seeing many bald eagles in their natural setting on either shore, also was very exciting.   In Wabasha, Minnesota, where he Natural Eagle Center is located we also located “Slippery’s” of “Grumpier Old Men” fame.

Going through the locks was new experience for the Dukes.  Rather impressive to be the only boat in this huge lock, which can accommodate river-barge traffic, three barges wide and three barges long at one time.  Our son, who captained this excursion is very familiar with river traffic, because of his job with the USGS.  This helped us navigate the river safely.  We beached the boat at night and enjoyed a good night’s sleep in the amble berths, on board. We are preparing to go to our volunteer job at Glen Eyrie again.  We plan to take a nice detour to north-west Montana on our way to Colorado Springs.  We hope to see some of Glacier National Park. It gets a little late in the season, but we should be able to access some of the sights especially from the west.
More in later blog.