Amana Colonies, Iowa

The rocking chair in the photo was built in the Amana Colony. It weights over 600 pounds!


We are on the move again after being in Forest City, Iowa for about 10 days. Last night we experienced thunder, lightning and rain starting at about 1:00 a.m which continued through the night and to about 10 in the morning. We left the motorhome rally around noon and traveled approximately 180 miles to Amana Colonies, which is located southwest of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. There are seven colonies that were developed by the Amana people when they moved from New York in 1854. They had been living a communal lifestyle where there was three meals provided each day. Everyones work, without wages, was contributed to the benefit of the community. They worshipped 11 times a week. Even though there was prayer prior to meals and at the end of the meal, there was no talking allowed during the meal. The men and women sat separate, but this lifestyle changed during the 1930's during the Great Depression. The Amana people now live a contemporary lifestyle.

The Amana Colonies should not be confused with the Amish who continue to live a very basic lifestyle. Both groups have a German background.

We decided to take a short walk through one of the colonies before the businesses closed this afternoon . We parked our RV on a side street and when we returned, the interior of the RV was 105 degrees. YIKES! ...the outside temperature couldn't have been that much different --- YUCK!

MOTORHOME RALLY - FOREST CITY, IOWA

Since being in Forest City, Iowa, we have...



...Paddled 12 miles in a Kayak along the Winnebago River

...Attended the Forest City Parade

...Peddled 10 miles on a bicycle, which included a box lunch in a beautiful park.

...Attended seminars related to the motorhome.

....Dress up in costume for "Hollywood Legend Night" --- Eventually I will post a photo

....Taken a number of tours through the Winnebago Manufacturing Plant, the cabinet making

plant and the Stitchery Plant.

....This morning Ron and I participated in a motorhome driving challenge: Here is the story about that...

At approximately 9:00 am, about 10 couples showed up for the challenge. Ron and I were about 8th in line. The "driver" was blindfolded, while their "partner" held a two way radio outside the rig and guided the driver backwards through a "S" turn, a pathway lined by orange plastic cones. The goal was to get to the end of the "S" turn without knocking any of the cones down and in the least amount of time. Well, even though Ron and I do a magnificient job in parking our RV in our backyard --- a tight squeeze through the gates, I am ashamed to tell you that we did not get first place, second place, or even third place. We did win a prize though --- they called us the most entertaining couple. After the first cone was knocked down, I gave up on my "blind" husband, and just directed him to come straight back --- so we knocked LOTS of orange cones down === we had everyone laughing.



We leave Forest City, after being here 10 days, tomorrow afternoon. We will head for the Amana Colonies near Cedar Rapids, Iowa and will probably spend a good part of Friday morning there before heading for Decatur, Indiana and then take a southerly turn to head for Florida.

More Pictures

Next Phase

We are not getting WI-FI very often, so these blog updates are far and few between. Since Yellowstone, we traveled through Wyoming and Nebraska. Very interesting traveling through towns with poplulations posted as "1". What we were wondering is whether that person has a phone book??! Lots of small towns and lots of miles between towns. One of the signs we saw in Nebraska was: "Welcome to the Middle of Nowhere." ...and believe me, we were in the middle of nowhere. ...but did see lots and lots of acres of corn!

Along the way we stopped at Sacajawea's monument and grave (the only female on the Lewis and Clark expedition)

Arrived in Forest City Iowa on Monday July 12, along with many other motorhomes. The motorhome rally doesn't actually start until this weekend. Have been keeping busy by touring the local area. Drove to the SPAM museum in Austin, Minnesota and for the first time in my life I tasted SPAM. For anyone interested, Puerto Rico and Hawaii, by far, consume more SPAM than any other state. ....I guess I won't be helping them out.

Also traveled to Harmony, Minnesota, an Amish town and even traveled to and shopped at a local farm. When asked if they had fresh green beans, lettuce, raspberries, the young girl (probably 14 or 15 years old), barefooted, walked to the garden and picked the veggies and fruit.

Yesterday's fun included a kayak trip down the Winnebago River. The river meanders around curves and we traveled about 12 miles. There were 40 people who were in our group kayaking and only two people fell into the water. Unfortunately, those 2 were related to me --- my brother and my husband.

Oh my gosh, the most important thing to tell you relates to the humidity! The day before yesterday was IMPOSSIBLE. It was in the 90's with VERY high humidity and today is not much different. Sticky skin. Sticky clothes. Sticky! Sticky! But in spite of the weather, we are riding the bikes and enjoying the sites and our friends and family.

Grand Tetons & Yellowstone National Park

This is the first wireless services we have had in days. We just experienced four days of awesome views and geological pheonomna seeing the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park. Even though, this was our second or third visit to Yellowstone, the sights are never disappointing. Bison grazing near our motorhome and crossing the river early in the morning, Elk standing along the roadway, deer, etc. etc. Unfortunately we did not see any bear. We were blessed with the eruption of the Old Faithful Geyer, seeing many boiling mud pots and learning that the magma in this area is only about 2 to 3 miles below ground level! Yellowstone is one of the hot spot volcanos in the world and experiences approximately 2000 earthquakes a year.

While in Yellowstone, we seemed to have escaped the hot temperatures experienced by many of our family and friends. Yellowstone's elevation is somewhere around 9000 feet, so when we awakened in the morning, our RV's interior temperature was 41 degrees! Brrrr! One night, we had snow showers! In July!!!! We managed to get in a bike ride while at Yellowstone and also took a boat cruise with a ranger talking about the history, facts and points of interest of Yellowstone Lake.

Tonight we are camped out in Dubois, Wyoming where we have traded our long pants and warm shirts for shorts, T-shirts and sandals. We continue to head eastward where we will meet up with Lynn's brother and sister-in-law and other RV friends in Iowa for a RV Rally.

I am still trying to figure out how to upload some photos on this blog.

Friends and family....

This is our first attempt at a blog, so bear with us.

Finally on June 25, we are once again on the road, enjoying the peace, tranquility, and beauty of another RV trip. Our first stop was in Grass Valley, CA for minor repairs on our new 25' motorhome. Following Grass Valley, we stopped in Carson City, NV to visit our friend Doris, who treated us to a delightful BBQ and introduced us to homemade watermelon margaritas --- YUMMY!

Next stop was to camp out at Washoe Valley State Park in Nevada where we were joined by Lynn's brother and sister-in-law in their RV. Joining them was Amber, her fiance, John and the guest of honor, little Aubrey, the birthday girl. Helping to celebrate Aubrey's 3rd birthday was also Debbie, Edith and Phil. In 90+ degrees, we celebrated Aubrey's 3rd birthday, balloons, decorations, BBQ, cupcakes, ice cream. Once a little bicycle was produced, Aubrey was 100% focused on the cute pink bike.

Our last stop before our big departure was in Reno, NV to visit with family and do last minute shopping that we didn't have time to do at home before we left!

Since leaving Reno, we traveled the width of Nevada, our only 500 mile day and overnighted in West Wendover before traveling to Salt Lake City, Utah. We stayed at a lovely, all grass, no gravel campground in Farmington, near SLC. On this trip in Utah we saw Promontory Point, the location of the first Continental railroad site, where the eastern railroad met the western railroad. The trains from the 1800's were elegantly maintained. From there we proceeded to Devil's Slide and in the evening we camped at Starvation Lake State Campground at Deuschune, Utah.

One of the most interesting sites was the National Dinasaur Park in the area of Vernal, Utah. We saw bones, vertabre, femur, still frozen in rock of mammoths that died 150 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. We are now headed toward the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming by way of Flaming Gorge in northern Utah.

We look forward to meeting up with Rod, Pam and their friends, Steve & Suzanne at the Winnebago National Ralley in northern Iowa in mid-July, where they expect 1500 RV's. Holy Smokes! July 3, 2010.