DAY 4 and 5

We got off yesterday morning (Tuesday) at about 9:40am from Maggie and Jerry's. We took IL Rte 64 to Anamosa, as we have done many times before. We drove by the parsonage where I lived 1946-50 while I was in high school, and I took a picture. It looks much the same as it did then.

The parsonage in Anamosa. We stopped at a little park in Anamosa and had a picnic out of our food box. We had realized pretty early on that we had left our little green cold pack in the frig back at Maggie and Jerry's, and they confirmed that in a voice mail. We'll just have to make do and pick it up on the way back. It basically was for cheese. We had decided the night before that we would try and stop in Turin, Iowa, to see Stephanie Nelson ("Stennie") who we knew back in Vermont at the Guilford Church - she was the founder of the contemplative prayer group we were a part of. She moved to Iowa in June, 2021 and started a little sheep farm in Turin. She brought sheep with her from Vermont, with her parents' help. It turned out that Stennie was not at home in Turin on Tuesday, she was visiting her parents in Ames, Iowa. We were planning on taking US 30 across Iowa, and it goes right through Ames, so we stopped and saw her there, and met her parents also, Gregory and Diane Nelson. We had lemonade and cookies (courtesy of Diana) on the lovely front porch of their charming early 20th century home, with all its original dark woodwork. A step into the past. We had a nice visit and learned about Stennie's move, her courageous decision to start sheep farming in Iowa, her leasing of a property in Turin, and something of her life there. Big coincidence: the next town after Turin is Onawa, where Stennie does her shopping. My father was the Congregational minister in Onawa from 1952 until his death in 1957, and I lived there the summer of 1954 and worked as dad's assistant before going off to seminary in Chicago that fall. I don't know many people today who have heard of Onawa! Maybe no one except Stennie.

Stennie's parents, Diane and Gregory Nelson

With Stennie on the porch.

Stennie with her dog, Ida. After that visit we continued on US 30, stopped in Glidden, Iowa to get a breaded pork tenderloin sandwich and root beer floats, and we waited for the sun to go below the horizon because we were staring right into it and it was blinding. We had a room reservation in Onawa at a motel. Little story there. I had made the reservation online from the car, and had clicked on an $84 room. When I got the confirmation, my card had been charged $131! That seemed excessive. I called the booking service, called "reservations.com" which I had never seen or used before, and was told, that included "taxes and fees." No explanaton as to what the fees were for. I later learned that "reservations" charged a 20% "Service Fee." I won't be using them again, that's for sure. We got to the motel at 10pm - another long day. I have not had a really good night's sleep yet on this trip, and that was true again last night, but Ellen is sleeping well. That is good - she is the driver. I have problems with getting the room temperature just right, the right combination of blankets, etc. Also last night, the clock radio occasionally made funny noises; I finally unplugged it. Right now (DAY 5), it's about 10:30am, Wednesday, we are in Nebraska, on the Winnnebago Reservation. We just got a little lost on a detour. It's a beautiful day, 73 degrees. Almost cloudless sky. I just made a reservation for tonight in Lusk, WY at the Townhouse Motel, where we have stayed many times. $90 total. I used "Expedia," not "reservations!" Today should be a good driving day - "blue highways," virtually free of traffic.