Centerville Sights

Luckily we were in Centerville on Friday, so we were able to take this tour.
We were the only customers so we had a two-hour private tour for $5 each.
What a bargain!

The driver was very knowledgeable about all things Centerville - history, residents, business - you name it, he knew it.

This is the Appanoose County Courthouse on the Square. They say it's the World's largest town square. I don't know if that's true but it certainly is an impressive piece of traffic engineering. You drive clockwise if you're on the inside lane and counter-clockwise in the outside lane; there are four rows of parking: one by the courthouse sidewalk, one by the outer sidewalk and two between the lanes. Sounds complicated, but it works.








Most towns in rural America have one of these water towers with the town name on it.










This abandoned building was once the Ashby Bakery, owned by relatives of the Husband.
It is in an area of Centerville know as the levee (I hope I'm spelling that right!) I always thought a levee was something built along a river to keep the flood waters from the town. There's no river near this area so I'm not sure what's going on here.








This was the Centerville train station when the Husband was a kid. It's also in the levee area and is now the VFW building.








Many years ago this building was a button factory. According to the husband, they brought in shells from the Mississippi River to make mother-of-pearl buttons.

Back Home in Iowa

This is the house the Husband was born in. He knew he was born in a house not a hospital but never thought about which house. So this time we checked his birth certificate and located the actual place. He didn't remember this house, so they must have moved when he was very young.

One of the special treats we look forward to in Iowa is the Pork Tenderloin Sandwich. It's not something you can find in California so every time we go to the midwest we have one as soon as we see it on a menu. This time we didn't even make it to Centerville. We were heading south on Interstate 35 and stopped at the Hitching Post Grill in a little town called Bevington. Tenderloin was on the menu and we both ordered it. Yum, yum. It's always served with french fries and carries a boatload of calories, but it's definitely worth it!

Two of the Husband's cousins met us in Centerville and we spent a happy day visiting places they'd lived, schools they'd attended and, since at least two of us are into genealogy, quite a few cemeteries. This grave is for an Aunt and Uncle and is at the Seymour Cemetery.

Road Trip 2008 Day 3

Along Interstate 80 in eastern Wyoming, we encountered the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Monument. We stopped here in June of 1967 when we took our family trip to the midwest; and again four years ago. So, of course, it's now tradition and we definitely had to stop again.

The monument is still impressive and the visitor center, rebuilt since our first trip, is quite impressive. There are exhibits about the westward migration as well as Wyoming history and wildlife.


This bear was about 6-7 feet high and looked quite life-like.
The only live animal we saw was a feisty chipmunk which was being harrassed by a small bird.



Day 3 started in Rawlins, WY and ended in Kearney, NE. We had planned to cut south at Laramie and spend the night in Ft. Collins, CO, but decided that it was too long a day. So we changed our route back to I-80 all the way. That means we don't get to Kansas City this trip, which is disappointing but I'll get over it.

We are keeping our speed at 65 mph or under to get better mileage. Up to now we've averaged about 32 mpg which is really good. The downside is that every other vehicle on the road passes us, even the trucks.

Road Trip 2008 Day 2

See that gas price at Love's? The $4.16 is for diesel; gasoline is $3.67. We haven't seen prices like that in California for quite a long time. This station is in Wells, NV. The manager at our hotel in Elko told us that this station would probably have the best price anywhere in the area.



Along Interstate 80 in eastern Nevada. That's a Nevada Highway Patrol car just in front of us. These rocks are a foretaste of the ones we'll be seeing after Salt Lake City.











This photo was taken from the first rest area in western Utah. There is a raised platform overlooking the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Temperatures lower than yesterday but still pretty hot, and very windy.

Road Trip 2008 Day 1

We left Sunday on our long awaited Road Trip 2008 - California to Missouri for the Husband's All-School Reunion which is being held during Labor Day weekend.







The temperatures that day in central Nevada were hovering around 100 degrees so we were really looking forward to a dip in the pool when we finally arrived at the Comfort Inn in Elko, NV. It has been over 15 years since I've worn a swimsuit and I don't think I would have been brave enough to do it now if the pool had been outdoors. Somehow an indoor pool seems more private.






We chose Elko so that we could have dinner at the Nevada Dinner House, which is a Basque restaurant that we had heard good things about. Absolutely super meal! Husband had steak and I had lamb chops, both covered with thin slices of deep-fried garlic. I don't know how they do it but the garlic was mild and sweet, no hint of sharpness or heat. The meal was served family-style, as is customary at Basque restaurants. First a bowl of home-made chicken noodle soup, then a salad with the house dressing, then the meat with a green bean dish and a big platter of crisp french fries. We couldn't resist the flan for dessert. All in all, one of the best meals we've had for a very long time.

And so to bed.

Ingenious Ideas, Part 1

When I was getting things ready for Mystery Stole 4 I realized that, once again, I was going to have to talk the Husband or one of the grandchildren into lending a pair of arms so that I could wind the skeins into balls. But then I ran across this link to instructions for making a yarn swift from Tinker Toy pieces.

It took about 5 minutes to build and it actually works! Thanks, Crafting Jen. You just saved me a lot of money.

It turned a skein of Knit Picks Shadow (Oregon Coast colorway) into a ball of ready-to-knit yarn in a little over 5 minutes.

I was afraid that if I pulled too hard the yarn would stretch so, instead of allowing it to turn due to my pulling, I put the whole thing on the floor and gave it a boost with my foot whenever it slowed down.

Later on I found a photo showing this apparatus with the yarn winding around an empty toilet paper roll. No instructions on how to accomplish this, but I'm going to see if I can figure it out with the next skein. Probably tomorrow, if the grandchildren come over. I may need their help.

Bringing in the Corn

Nine ears harvested this afternoon and served at dinner; they were quite tasty, with all kernels present (unlike most of the local corn we've tried this summer) although one had immature kernels. We have no experience growing corn and have found it really hard to tell when an ear is ready to pick.

The Husband's corn patch is at the north end of our garden area. It topped out at about 8 1/2 feet tall. I almost tried to discourage him from trying corn because I thought it needed a lot more space than we have. I'm sure glad I kept my mouth shut!

He is already making plans for next year: He is going to dig up some of the lawn closer to the house and plant yellow corn, which should be ready earlier than the white he planted this year. When we get back from our road trip, he is going to use this year's corn patch to plant a winter crop of fava beans. We can eat the beans next spring, then he will plow the plants under to enrich the soil and then he wants to plant melons. Variety yet to be decided.





This is a photo of the immature corn that we picked about 10 days ago. It looked good with the kernels all well-formed, but they were tiny, with nothing to them and not sweet at all.