Day 12

Hello folks,

Today the weather has finally become what I remembered from last year's trip: mild, breezy and clear. I'm sitting at the breakfast bar at the Vineyard eating home-made fresh-picked blackberry pie and fresh brewed coffee. Not a bad start to the morning. John has already gone downstairs to secure the bannister rail, spindles, and newel post in the bed of the truck so they don't roll around for the next 2000 or more miles. It's packing day and time to start on our westward journey home.

We take a last tour around the property and talk about doing this someday: having a vineyard and a bed and breakfast. It only takes a bit of time to come to our senses and say, "NO!" let's spend our retirement traveling to vineyards with bed and breakfasts. There is such a big world to see and experience while we can stay on our feet.

We had lunch with Cay, got ice for the cooler, and then as we walked to our truck, there was Don Schmidt-the Master Genealogist himself walking down Main Street! So, with hugs to Don Schmidt, Connie, Fred, Cay, and Terri, we said good-bye to Toulon (pronounced, by the way not as the French Toulon, but as TOO Lawn), not knowing when we will return. I hope it is soon: people here know how to laugh and care about their families, friends, neighbors, and welcome strangers as new friends. Point in fact, we had realized as we finished lunch that I had left the ice pack that I use for my neck at the Vineyard, and, right on cue, here came Fred, driving up and handing the ice-pack to us before we could go back to get it. How many Inn Keepers would do that?

We drove 225 miles into West Des Moines, Iowa, passing the Mississippi River and the World's Largest Truck Stop. We crossed the Cedar River and saw the work that was being done and the residue in the fields as a result of Iowa's floods. The late start to the planting season is significant and easy to see: Illinois corn is about 5 feet taller than the stalks in Iowa.


Before I stop for the night-we are, by the way, in a very chi chi Holiday Inn that had actual goat cheese on bruschetta-I would like to bring up the topic of rest stops. Iowa and Nebraska know how to do rest stops; Illinois and Utah barely do, and California's are a disgrace! I am including some photos of the Iowa Welcome Center rest stop. It is on the border as you cross into Iowa. It is clean, maps are posted, and there are lovely picnic areas with shade trees and flowers. The Welcome Centers at each end of the state have tourist information, free maps, and brochures. They even have agricultural scuptures! Other Iowan rest stops are equally clean, safe, and hospitable. In Nebraska, the rest stops are like food courts with a variety of fast food joints that maintain the facilities-not as nice as Iowa, but clean and safe. Just think of the revenue stream that California is ignoring by not re-configuring, and adding to, its rest stop facilities! I have to be desperate to stop in a dank, smelly, grafittied, and dirty rest area in California. Schwartzneger needs to take a road trip. Obama does too. (That has been another interesting mid-west topic. It is fascinating to hear what middle western Democrats think about the presumptive candidate and why they won't vote for him.)

Tomorrow we are on the road to Lincoln, Nebraska to delve into the lifetime genealogical research of a far distant cousin that was donated to and currently housed in the Nebraska Historical Society. I know it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I can't wait!

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