Just a quick note to let you know whazzup with us here in Illinois. We’ve had a great time getting to know our fellow Sowers here along with other volunteers and staff workers here. Aside from having devotions together, working together, and eating some meals together, we’ve also had lots of fun playing cards together and sharing each other’s “stories”. We have been truly blessed to be able to move from place to place and yet to find “community” at each stop. (Plus, we’ve learned a couple of new card games!)

This weekend Gary & I are heading into Chicago for an anniversary Get-Away! We’re not really city folk, but I’ve heard that Chicago is a pretty neat city, so we’re giving it a shot. I did “Price-line” for our hotel room – and think I got a pretty good deal. We’ll be right downtown. Whoeee! Quite out of our comfort zone, but I’m looking forward to it. Any suggestions?

The other night we were sitting out (with our Illinois community) and enjoyed this sunset.

We are so blessed!

Just a quick note – no internet (even the cell phone has failed me) at our Illinois project. There’s this great cafe in town, though, so I’ll be stopping in a couple of times a week to catch you up on our adventures (and do other internet stuff!). It will be a test of my patience not to be able to get on-line every day, but I’m sure I’ll manage somehow! Our “team” at the Cedar Creek Retreat Center seems to be a good one. We’re looking forward to getting started on whatever the Lord has for us to do.
My Iced Latte is done – must be time to move on to explore the rest of the town (Ottawa, IL)!

So we’re driving along a good country road (a nice change from the endless interstates) when suddenly the road we’re supposed to be turning on is posted with a huge ROAD CLOSED sign. They obviously weren’t expecting anyone from out of town on this road ‘cause there were no detour signs in sight. We pulled out the old GPS and map program and found our own alternate route…. And after about a mile it looked like this….

Corn on both sides and gravel road off into the horizon.
Ah, the beauty of making it up as you go! =)

I’m sure you all know what historic significance there is to West Branch, IA. It’s the….you know…..I’m sure you’ll get it……the Birthplace, Gravesite and Museum and Library of Hubert Clark Hoover, the 31st President of the United States (and also the first president born west of the Mississippi!). It’s beautifully done, and we learned a great deal about this president who had the misfortune of being in office when the Great Depression hit. It was a good stop.

We almost stopped at the Buffalo Bill Museum – but we checked about parking before we went, and when we heard the words “parking on the street” and “construction”, we decided that would just have to wait for another time (or another tourist).

Tomorrow (Friday) we head into our next Sower Project at Cedar Creek Retreat Center in Marsailles, IL. Don’t know a thing about it – so those details will have to wait. Right now we settled at a Flying J Truck Stop about 25 miles from the project and getting ready to hit the sack. No internet tonight, so these posts will have to wait until we find some internet.
Till then…

Well, some of it anyway! On Monday we headed into Minneapolis where we visited some additional “phone friends” at Banner and Turck. It was not only fun to meet folks I’d been talking to for years, but it was also fun to give them a tour of our home. (Especially since most of them had heard me talk about it for years and years!)

From Minneapolis we headed south to Iowa. We stopped at the Winnebago Factory in Forest City but missed the tour. It was interesting though to see how that growing industry impacted that area. The reason we missed the tour was because we decided to stop for breakfast along the way (Leland Café – Home Cooking by Marcia), and were treated to seeing a group (covey?) of homing pigeons being released. It was pretty cool – the bird handler told us how the timing is all done electronically these days. Here’s a shot of the release….

From there we were on our way to visit friends we hadn’t seen in probably 30 years. Dave and Becky moved to Iowa in the mid seventies, and none of us can remember if we ever saw each other after that. Needless to say, we had a lot to catch up with! While we were parked in their neighborhood, we took a trip to the Amana Colonies that is nearby. The “Amana’s” were a religious sect that believed in communal living. They maintained that lifestyle until 1932 when a huge fire along with growing dissatisfaction with communal living necessitated a change to a private ownership corporation. If you are ever in this area I recommend a visit here. We only got to see a small part of the community, but it was very interesting. There’s a 160 acre lake there (Lily Lake) that is just packed with pond lilies – and in the fall is a major spot for eagles. The water is very low this year – but here’s a shot of Lily Lake.

And here we are with Dave and Becky – I’m sure we’ll keep in touch better now!