She said; “So...?”

Yankton, 2001: view from our house

A lot of my pictures on the blog have water in it. I like water! We sailed Lewis and Clark lake, near Yankton SD, for twelve years. Whenever I was in the water, however; it was mainly by choice. I do remember an early sail, when I lost my sunglasses overboard and promptly dove in after them, leaving the boat under the command of two rookies... Fortunately there was very little wind and the boarding ladder was available for me to climb back on board. I must say, though, that I never did that again. (The plaque on the boat stated: “ I am the Captain of this boat and I have my Wife’s permission to say so.”) All kidding aside, she did make an excellent mate!

We also love visiting the ocean. In Hawaii on previous mission support trips we usually spent the weekends at a beach. Mostly every night we watched the sun set over the ocean whenever we were there. Vacations in Florida were very frequent as well, when we used available timeshare events. Again most of these times we got wet by choice, wearing appropriate attire.

On August 28 we were visiting with my bride’s relatives at the usual gathering place for this family reunion. There is a lake adjoining the back yard. The kids, grand-kids, and even great grand kids enjoyed the fun of playing in the water. As in previous years, there was some “horse-playing” by the adults; it is just great fun to dunk someone in the readily available lake. I thought that as an older person I would be safe, but when my daughter came to admire my watch and even asked me if she could hold it, I became “wiser.” I did say to her, “but I have my bill-fold in my back pocket.”

She said; “So...?” “I am also wearing my cell-phone,” I retorted. She said; “So...?” “But I am also carrying the camera on my belt.” She said; “So...?”

I did not take very long for me to dispense with these items, but I had one last hope: “But, I don’t have any dry clothes to change into.” She said; “So...?"

So! My brother-in-law, the one from Colorado, and his son carried me bodily to the lake and dunked me. They went down with me, I guess, it was to be sure that I would get really soaked. I’d like to think that I pulled them in with me, but they were wet already anyway. Next time I’ll bring a change of clothes, if I don’t forget in the meantime.

Iowa does not have many large bodies of water, at least not in our back yard. The rain tried hard this year, but we stayed dry. We do enjoy the weather when it is dry, so we can continue to enjoy riding our motor bike to local and distant sites.

We try to always find a winery and it is a lot of fun finding them and getting to know the vintners. There are many recent additions in Iowa, so we keep right on going.

Seeing Iowa

Celebrating the 65th Birthday of my bride, yesterday, August 12. I gave her a “renewed computer.” Her computer was confused; it had Windows XP twice, due to a previous attempt of restoration. Some of the applications were flip-flopping and some could not be reinstalled. With today’s memory hungry programs a 60 GB drive seems small and two full operating systems and some areas of the hard disk unaccessible, we were wasting space . But this computer has excellent speakers and a good screen. What’s even more, she likes it! So, we “killed” the hard-disk and completely overwrote it with 0s. Then we went on to a clean reinstall of only the system and programs she wanted. It moves great again and there is room to spare! We could have upgraded to Win7, with a new machine, but there are many older programs we like that work in XP or earlier only, so we went the restoration way. I like my 18.4 screen and Win7 works OK for me. And, I now also have access to some of the older utilities, on the other computer.

Some of you, who follow us on face-book, know that we went on a four day motorbike trip with our local children, Rick and Monique. We went to North East Iowa, because the roads there are more curvy and it is also more hilly. Even though the skies were threatening rain, we only experienced about 3 minutes of rain during our entire ride. There was some local flooding, but not as much as now.

During the last few days we had state wide torrential rains and many roads are now closed, even a part of the interstate just north of Des Moines. Ames is flooded, many small low-lying areas are dealing with feet of water and some residential areas are flooded.

During our trip we spend our nights in selected Bed and Breakfast locations and tried to visit some wineries on during each day trip.





This gave us great goals for each day and we also did some unplanned things. Like eating lunch in a “Schoolhouse Cafe,”on the way to Fredericksburg, where we spend our first night in the Farm House B&B.

The next day we visited the great little town of Spillville, to look at marvelous clocks carved by the Bily brothers and museum items regarding Antonin Dvorak.

We also stopped in Marquette, McGregor and Garnavillo, names which seem out of place in Iowa...



Let’s not forget the motorcycle museum in Anamosa which we visited after spending the night in Maquoketa.

We put over 700 miles on our bikes and saw a lot of the local small towns, the Mississippi river, Pike’s Peak (yes! In Iowa), and lots of corn fields as well.

When we got home late Sunday afternoon, we were all tired and relaxed, reliving this great trip.



Since then we both got a year older - both 65 now! So, after being retired for 10 years, we have now arrived at retirement age. We did ride our bicycles to breakfast in Adel on my birthday and went to Ruby Tuesday for dinner on my lovely wife’s birthday. It has been very hot and wet in the heartland, the wettest year on record. We have a lot of local flooding, but so far our area is dry, no water in the basement at all.

JULY CAME & WENT

It has been nearly a month since my last entry. July has been a busy month. We celebrated Independence Day with all our friends, in our local community. Rain put a bit of a damper on most of the fire-works displays, but because of the long weekend some of the celebrations were on Thursday, already. We watched the downtown fireworks from a high point near our home. We were not quite in the spirit yet on July 1...



We came home from Glen Eyrie on June 2. We did the family camp the weekend of June 12, we attended one wedding, in Orange City, Iowa on June 19 and visited with friends in the Sioux City area. On June 25 we were in Mt. Sterling, Illinois for another wedding. Coming home on Sunday we were looking for a relatively quiet week, but the Independence day weekend started on Thursday already.

Although June may be for weddings, we also did some great family stuff. A weekend camp-out near Pella at Red Rock lake. The grand-children got washed in their sleeping bags by rain the first night, but we had a great time in spite of some not so perfect weather. Being together is so precious, even on rainy days. We rode our bikes on the beautiful lake side trails. We cooked most of our food over open fire and sometimes got smoked in the process. We ate smores and roasted marsh-mellows. We took shelter under a great tarp when the drops fell. We slept in comfort in the pop-up camper. Others were in nice tents, keeping dry most of the time. Families that accomplish things together in spite of some short comings, are special! We really appreciate our special family.













We celebrated a week with our two grand-sons. We did crafts on rainy days, we rode our bicycles all over Johnston, enjoyed ice cream, and rode the motor scooter too. The visit to the zoo on a beautiful sunshiny day, was a high-point of their visit.

Between volunteering at the local VA, these visits and trips we also needed to shop for groceries, wash and clean house. Oh, yeah, we continued to provide hospitality as a stop over for travelers using “Mennonite Your Way,” a great way to travel and enjoy Christian Fellowship as you go, or as you provide a room and hospitality for “total strangers.” Some of these strangers become new friends, and these friendships grow and grow.


Then the preparation for our wine-motorcycle tour started taking shape, but I plan to highlight that in the next blog.

June is for weddings!

Although the first one we attended was on Memorial Day weekend at Glen Eyrie. A grandiose wedding on the Pink House Lawn. A week earlier there had been another wedding on the Pink House Lawn, but then we were mere observers. The Jessica Graham wedding on May 29 got us very involved. We beautified the rooms, catered to the bride and her attendants and we provided hospitality and service for a formal Victorian tea. We got to know the family very well; all of whom were involved in the wedding in some way. The wedding took place in gorgeous sunshine on the lawn with the reception following at the castle terrace. A great weekend experience!



On June 19 we were invited to witness the joining of Marc Pederson and Anne-Michelle Altena in Northwest Iowa. They both work in Des Moines and we got to know them very well at out Bible study. They have become very dear friends and we attended their formal church-wedding. The reception dinner was scrumptious and the whole experience was very uplifting. The rest of Saturday evening and early Sunday we spend with our dear friends in Bronson, Iowa.

This past weekend we were at another very special wedding in Mt. Sterling, Illinois. Our daughter’s best friend, (since first grade,) finally found Mr. Right! Our daughter had met the Bride while we were stationed in Germany, back in 1979. The last time we had met her parents was in 1985, when they came back to Germany for another tour. We had remained there for all this time. Getting together for this wedding was like a great family reunion! The groom’s mother had arranged for all the “out-of-towners” to be part of the rehearsal dinner, so people could get to know each other and have time to interact before the hustle and bustle of the wedding. It was a great success. We were able to renew our friendship with the parents of the bride and also her brother. We had not seen each other for 25 years, but the time melted away, as we shared many old and new experiences.

The wedding ceremony was held at a local winery, out on the deck; with bright afternoon sunshine and a warm experience. The reception and dance were inside at this rustic location. The whole event flowed on beautifully and ran like clockwork; everyone had a wonderful time. The brides’ maids were all special friends from different times in the life of the bride, so this made for a very special reunion as well. Many events from the past were reenacted, which made for surprising hilarity, and great reminiscence.

Cowboy Church

While we were volunteering at Glen Eyrie we attended church at the Flying W Ranch. The Flying W is a Western hang-out in NW Colorado Springs. It is only about 10 minutes from Glen Eyrie. We were invited by another volunteer to attend church here, with her the first Sunday we were present on the grounds of Glen Eyrie. Although our job of hosting the Pink House usually involves work on the weekends, we are able to break away to attend one of the many churches in the area. The Navigators are not a church, or a denomination. So, they do not operate a church on the grounds.
This does not mean, of course, that one cannot worship on the property.

Obviously many guests do exactly that. The serenity of the place, the peace it exudes, no cell phone signal in may areas, and no TV make you appreciate your surroundings.

The handy work of the Creator is manifest all around. The quiet wild life one may encounter, the rock formations, trees and flowers, and the beautiful sights seen on any of the many hiking trails.


But let’s go back to Sunday Worship at the “Cowboy-Church. The winter dining area is set up as a worship center.


The stage area contains the pulpit and also accommodates the Praise Team, which leads the congregation in singing and helps to focus on God. As you enter the rustic worship center, you are encouraged to take a pillow along. The pick-nick table benches get somewhat uncomfortable after about a half hour.

Old time hymns with guitar and mandolin music accompanying, makes for a great time of singing together. The sermons are very much Bible based, yet contemporary and helpful for daily living. No strange theology here!

We continued to attend worship here, except for our last Sunday. We had a great wedding celebration involving both of us on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Maybe I’ll share some pictures of this in another blog.

The Pink House

We are the host and hostess of the Pink House at Glen Eyrie in Colorado Springs. Many of you may have read last year’s blogs about our duties and activities here. These are still available and you can check last year’s October (and November) blogs.

We have had a variety of activity this time. From an empty house, which allows us to be involved with other activities on the grounds, to a wedding on our front lawn. We have entertained visitors, who just came to check us out, – there are no formal tours of the Pink House, in contrast to the Castle. We did serve a Victorian Tea to a private party in out dining room.




We host many hummingbirds as well, who empty their feeder every other day!

The turkeys have been scarce the past few days, I think they are nesting or protecting their chicks in a safe place. The only Bighorn sheep we have seen were some young males, who transition the premises occasionally.


We did have about 300 boy-scouts here for a great camporee the weekend of May 15. They celebrated 100 years of the Boy-scouts of America and blessed us with a couple of days of trail maintenance at Glen Eyrie.

Although the weather was cool and rainy for their first day, all the tents could dry out on the last day when the sun shone brightly, but it was not too warm for them to continue working on the trails. There was a Civil War re-enactment as part of their camporee experience, and the sound of gun-fire echoed of the surrounding sandstone rock formations. All in all a very pleasant experience for the scouts as well as the other guests here.

Occasionally we have the chance to go for a hike on the property and at is always a thrill to enjoy the quiet nature around us. Blooming trees and scurrying squirrels, weathered bristle cone trees and busy birds, even vintage airplanes flying over, like the B-17 I got a picture of. This week there is a family reunion, which uses the whole house. We should be busy refreshing rooms and changing towels for the next three days. Then on the weekend there will be another wedding on the front lawn with a tea-brunch in our dining room.

Spring Again !

Pikes Peak with fresh snow

It has been cooler here, in Colorado. We spent the first night in Fairplay, visiting Corrie’s brother. Here we experienced snow on the ground! The weather in Colorado Springs has been a little bit gentler, but we have gone from sweaters to shorts and back. I guess we get to celebrate spring all over again. It has been slower in coming than what we experienced in Iowa. Only two irises blooming in a sunny spot.

There is water running in the creek and if one wants to go to Dorothy Falls, wet feet will be part of the experience. The many creek crossings needed to get there, are awash with cool running water.

The Big Horn sheep are in the mountains, probably taking care of the lambs. The turkeys are alive and well, still roosting in the trees every night. They wake us in the morning with their calls and noise, when they come down again. The deer are losing their winter coat and the grass needs mowing.

We do have many new “SOWER” volunteers at Glen Eyrie and the General likes showing them around. We were privileged to show off the “Pink House” to a group of them. Normally the “Pink House” is not open for public tours, but we have the option to conduct private tours while we are hosting here.


It really is a blessing to be able to serve here. We meet many really great people and are able to share many of our experiences.


Not only do we serve as Pink House Hosts, we also help with food service and facilities functions, like helping with landscaping, painting, building maintenance, and other services.