It's Iowa!

We're in town at a Culvers Restaurant to get a snack and use their WiFi.  The weekend has flown by, and we find ourselves getting ready to leave Decorah tomorrow, and needed the WiFi to plan our next stop.  We need to be in Moscow, IA, on Thursday for an appointment with HWH, the manufacturers of Nessie's hydraulic jack system, so we have a couple of days to kill.  We think we'll try to get a spot at the Amana Colonies RV park near Iowa City for Tuesday night.  Unfortunately, our ATT cell phone service is still non-existent, so we'll have to wait until we have reception to call them. Well, it will all work out, I'm sure.

The last two days have been fun in Decorah.  The Hutchinson's have a great family park, with lots of kids, dogs, and cats running around.  The farm dates back to the early 1800's when "Mom's" husband Georges grandfather bought the land from the government.  Mom has been a frequent visiter to the park over the last few days, checking on "things" to see how its going.  Mom's daughter Dixie runs the rv park, and lives onsite, while Mom still lives in the 100+ year old farmhouse that she and George shared 74 years of married life.  Mom grew up a few miles away in Bluffton, IA, and her husband was born and raised on the same farm that they lived in after they got married.  What a wonderful all-american story!

We decided yesterday to explore the countryside a bit.  Our first stop was Malanaphy Spring, a stream of water that comes out of the bluff a few yards above the Upper Iowa River.

We parked along the river and took a 1 1/2 mile long trail to the spring, through a cool, shaded forest between the bluffs on one side and the river.  The bluffs were created from layers and layers of deposits  laid down during the ice age according to local lore, and then sculpted by the water runoff, of which the Upper Iowa is a remnant.  The erosion left some interesting columns along the trail.

After the Spring, we started north.  There was a sign advising of an historical marker some 10 miles north of Decorah, so we wanted to check it out.  Never found it. But we did pass by the Seed Savers Exchange, where heirloom seeds are preserved for future use.

A few miles north found us back in Minnesota, in the town of Mabel, which is the Steam Engine Capitol of the country.  Next weekend will be the annual Steam Engine celebration, which we'll miss, unfortunately, but some of the equipment has already been moved out of the museum and lined up for the festivities.

Along with the big tractors, there are numerous small steam engines for sawing wood, running threshing machines, and the like.  I'll bet it's going to be noisy next week!

Donna got a kick out of the old fire engine, particularly because of the name...

On the way back to Decorah, we were impressed with the views of Iowa corn.  One of the camping neighbors drives a truck for a large farm (4000+ acres) where they grow "corn on corn", meaning that they don't rotate crops, but plant corn season after season.  They have arrangements with local dairies and hog operations to pump manure that they use for fertilizer on the fields.  They do there own spraying for insects as well as fertilizing, harvesting, planting and cultivating.  A good sized operation, for sure.

Here's to Iowa corn: