Day of Rest!

 I know, Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest.... but Maxx was just chompin’ at the bit to get to our home away from home so we kept on truckin’ the 360 miles from Nebraska City to Branson, Missouri yesterday.

We were here, signed in, unhooked, had procured a great site and were all set up by 4:00 pm I think.  There are a lot of beautiful trees here, so the satellite dish set-up may have taken a tiny bit longer but not much!

Before bedtime last night, I had big plans to do laundry, clean house and take Minnie to a car wash!  By the time we got up this morning and I limped and shuffled to the bathroom and we listened to the weatherman, It turned into a rest day!

We have a lovely view out our window!

Minnie is okay to stay dirty another day. It may rain anyway!

We have a spot all picked out for our friends Brian and Kathy who will be here on Wednesday.... if it is available and if they don’t find another they like better!  😂

We had hoped for Kevin and sister Sandy to come join us, too, but they can’t. 😕 

James and Linda are nearby here in the park. 

Bill, Peg, Harry & Linda are in town and will be meeting us at SDC on Thursday.... 

and we hope to see Mike here soon too!

It is shaping up to be a great time as usual!

Nebraska City & the Big 7-0!

My trivial trivia:  Harry S. Truman was President when I was born, and I was born on his birthday, May 8, 1951. Today we celebrated my 70th birthday in Nebraska City, Nebraska on the Missouri River near the Iowa border.

 Lewis and Clark were first to note that the area around present day Nebraska City would be an ideal site for a future city during their expedition to explore the west from 1804 to 1806.  We started the day at the Missouri River Basin Lewis & Clark Visitor

After a stop at the Kimmel Orchard and Winery, we drove over to the Arbor Lodge State Historical Park and Arboretum. 

The 52-room neo-colonial house began in 1855 for J. Sterling Morton, originator of Arbor Day and Secretary of Agriculture in the 1890s under President Grover Cleveland.

We didn’t tour the mansion this trip but we did another time we were here.  Elegant!

Trees were a central interest of J. Sterling Morton. He imported trees from all over the country in order to test their suitability to create windbreaks and otherwise break up the monotony of the great plains. The house is surrounded by 270 varieties of trees and shrubs, including gardens, apple orchards, and acres of oaks, maples, chestnuts, and pines.

Sights and places along the road.  Pretty country.

Nebraska City has Streets and Corsos, not avenues!  What is up with that?!

We don’t recall seeing corsos anywhere else in our travels.

 

The Kregel Windmill Factory Museum is really interesting.  This was our second time to visit!  We were impressed at how well informed the young lady who gave us our tour is!

Birthday dinner was the BEST Gyros and homemade tzatziki sauce I have ever had in my life from the Downtowner Casual Cafe!  When we walked in at 3 pm we found out they were closing but we could get take-out.  We started to leave but I had already read reviews and knew the cook is a Greek with rave gyro reviews!  Eating at home and calling it a day was perfectly fine with me!

We are trucking south now on Sunday heading to Branson, Missouri, our home away from home!

Corny, But True!

 Mitchell, South Dakota would not exactly be called a tourist destination in my book, but it was worth a two night stay there to spend our Thursday exploring.   We had never seen the “World’s Only Corn Palace”!

It is pretty interesting to see this 

convention center’s “corny” mosaic murals!

..... so I took “a few” pictures!

Guess who loves popcorn?!

This is where the “pillow guy” Mike Lindell is holding his rally on May 10.  We would have gone to see him but didn’t want to wait!  They were preparing for a graduation ceremony when we were there!  

“The Corn Palace serves the community as a venue for concerts, sports events, exhibits and other community events. Each year, the Corn Palace is celebrated with a citywide festival, the Corn Palace Festival. Historically it was held at harvest time in September, but recently it has been held at the end of August. Other popular annual events include the Corn Palace Stampede Rodeo in July and the Corn Palace Polka Festival in September. It is also home to the Dakota Wesleyan University Tigers and the Mitchell High School Kernels basketball teams.”

Mitchell is a nice town, and looks like it would be a great place to live!

It was a good day.  We were going to visit the Dakota Discovery Museum at Dakota Wesleyan University but my heel made it clear that we had walked enough, so I just grabbed a picture of this church on the grounds!

Lake Mitchell

Friday.... trucking on to Nebraska!