I really need to get better at posting more frequently. It is so fun to read previous posts.

Clay County Fair - the Granddaddy of them all!

September 17-18, 2022 

It was time for another bonding trip with Terry and Rhonda.  We decided to check out the Clay County fair; none of us had been before.  We left Saturday morning about 8ish.  TerryM had a breakfast suggestion of the Hobo House in Britt, but we needed to get going since he said they closed at 11.  With TerryM driving and TerryD as co-pilot, Rhonda and I enjoy the backseat.  Brother Terry has eaten at probably every restaurant in most of the surrounding counties, so he had a few suggestions.  First we checked for a restaurant in Bradford; nope, not open.  Then over to Coulter; nope, not open.  So we headed west.  By this time it was decided that we were not going to make it to Britt before closing time.  Dudley's Corner at Hwy 3 and I-35 gained our business for our morning appetites.  The menu was small, but we each had an omelet which satisfied our hungry bellies.  

With paper map in the co-pilot's hand, we meandered along two-lane country roads, TerryD's preference so he can enjoy the field after field of corn and beans at a more leisurely speed than interstate speed.  We got to Spencer about noon and had to locate the fair grounds.  Which street "looked" like it might be a good choice?  Or maybe the cars in front of us were going to the fair too, so we should just follow along; Rhonda and I are just chuckling in the backseat at their choice of which car appeared as though we should follow to get where we were going.  Yes, we do realize that we are in the age of cell phones and google maps, but what is the fun in that??!!  The carnival rides were finally in sight.  We found a place to park, FREE, which is right up MY alley; I love that four-letter word!  The shuttle service, aka golf carts, picked us up and away we went paying our entrance fee along the way, $10 each, not bad.  We were dropped off at the Events Center.  We found the Information Booth first and the wonderful

volunteers there explained the lay of the land to us.  They had run out of "First Timer" buttons; we were not sure if we were sad or glad at that.  We walked along the dust-covered trails, taking in the sights of the fair.  Not unlike other fairs we'd been to, there were many food trucks and booths of folks sharing their wares.  We watched the draft horses for a while.  They are such a sight to see!  My favorite was a black pair with what I called 'fuzzy feet'; technically the feathering. 

Disc-Connected K9's was fun to watch for a few minutes, too.  We enjoyed a tenderloin sandwich and fries from a nearby stand for lunch.  We met up with a retired auditor friend of Rhonda's, Marge.

  She was a joy to visit with and gave us a few must-dos before we left.  The cut apples and caramel from one of the vendors was delicious!  Nitro ice cream was on the list of must-haves, but we didn't easily find the stand, so we opted to skip this treat.  Maybe next year Nitro IC!

Our evening was spent watching the horses in different competitions.  We had a snack of Tater Ribbon Fries smothered in cheese sauce.  It was delicious!  For supper we enjoyed sandwiches and fries from the Beef Producers stand.  About 9pm we decided it was time to head out.

Getting to our hotel; another adventure.  TerryM had made the hotel arrangements.  We left Spencer and headed to the Emmetsburg Super8.  We got there and No rooms for us??!!  Well, it would help if we'd been in the right city!  Back on the road to Estherville!  It was a long day and we were glad to get into our rooms and fall into bed.

Sunday morning we enjoyed a nice breakfast at the hotel. We nixed the fair and decided to take in some of the sights of Estherville.  First up with the Historical Museum.  It was a complex of various buildings.  It wasn't open so we just walked around looking for ideas for our museum in Wellsburg.  There was a gentleman there that we talked with a bit.  We told him about the connection of Wellsburg and Estherville, George Wells and his foreman, Robert Hamilton.  He knew a Mike Hamilton, but wasn't sure if he was connected to Robert or not.

Next up was the Oak Hill Cemetery.  George Wells' right-hand-man, Robert Hamilton, is buried here and I just had to visit and snap a few pics.  It was a big cemetery and we didn't think we'd find his grave; there was no directory that we could find.  A contributor on FindAGrave had the GPS coordinates which appeared to get us close to the gravesite.  We all walked around a bit and TerryD was able to locate it.  After a few pictures, we headed to the car.  But not before I had to pickup some of the fallen acorns.  They had a kind of fuzzy cap which I thought was kind of unique.  I'm sure I can figure out something that Audrey and I can do with them.

Then off to the Swinging Bridge.  Rhonda LOVED the swing in this bridge!  Ok, maybe she wasn't that big of a fan.  We enjoyed several laughs and some more pictures here before we headed out.  Rhonda had many tears of joy and laughter in her eyes on this bridge!

Now off to home.  Again the pilot and co-pilot, with his paper map in hand, charted our route on the back country roads of Iowa.  We took a short tour of Lakewood and Badger, a couple of towns where Terry resided for a few years in his youth.

Miller's Sports Bar in Algona was our choice for late lunch on Sunday.  Delicious burgers!  I had one with onion rings and barbeque sauce - yummmy!

We stopped by the old country school north of Wellsburg so Terry could check its "bones" to see if it would be worth us to pursue for the historical foundation.  He thought we could give it a go.  Would need to find a spot on main street and a mover.

We stopped at Trent's and met the newest addition to the family.  Bear joined the family yesterday.  He is such a cute and cuddly ball of Saint Bernard fur.

We had Terry and Rhonda back home by 6.  What a great weekend - again - with my brother and his wife.  Love love love spending time on the road with them.  Laughter is so good for the soul.

BUGS, bugs and more bugs

Where do all these bugs come from?  And I'm not talking about the ones that are outside my house!  Every morning when I get up and come downstairs it amazes me how many box elder bugs and bean beetles are laying upside down in the 'I'm dead, vacuum me up' pose.  And I never can find where they are coming in so I can plug the hole.  I just keep my little Craftsman 4 gal. vac (r2d2 as I very lovingly call it) plugged in and sitting next to the kitchen table.  Throughout the day I vacuum a dozen or so as well, including the living ones which haven't succumbed to the residual Raid bombing that we did a few months ago (at least this is the only reason that I can think of that these little buggers are dead within a short amount of time of making their way inside.  If they only knew what awaited them inside, they would stay outside!).  And did I mention those little mexican bean beetles are stinky??  They are not at all like the cute little red with black spotted ladybug.  These bugs are a dark burnt orange color with black dots.  I suck up one with my vacuum and my vacuum stinks every time I use it until I empty it then.  pew!

Our kitchen is in the southeast corner of our 100+ year old farmhouse.  It is white - with that less-than-desirable slate siding stuff.  The foundation, for this particular part of the house, is those brown hollow bricks (I'm sure there's a 'name' for them - I'll have to ask my Dad).  So the bugs love this corner of the house and they are thick on the foundation blocks on the warm, sunny days.  And since the basement is not what I'd call air-tight, they make their way in.  In the basement, directly under the kitchen, is where I find most of them in their upside-down position.  I have a bigger version of my little R2D2 down there for just them.

Box elder bug infestation

I could go on about several other things as well.  It's a rather chilly, drippy day here in central Iowa.  The past several days have been very nice, being in the 70s, with rather high humidity, but still nice for nearing the end of October.  Today the expected high is in the high-50s.  Rain gutters - why is it when a hole develops it is always above the door or sidewalk?  I'm sure these rain gutters haven't been replaced for decades.  There is more rust than non-rust on them, so they are pretty useless.  We would probably be better off just taking them off and let the water drip where it may, at least it wouldn't be funneled to the hole right above the door!

It's our 10 year anniversary today and I've decided to make Terry a chocolate pie.  Chocolate is his favorite.  2 years ago at Thanksgiving I told him I was going to make a chocolate pie.  Well, I still haven't gotten that pie made.  So, figure I'll really surprise him with it today.  Hopefully it turns out to be edible.  I'm even making a home-made lard crust, compliments of my cousins's blog.

Later as I get around to it I will probably try and post 'past' events so everyone knows what we've been up to since moving back to the country nearly 5 months ago.  We have been up to a lot and somethings are pretty amusing.  But for now, it's time to get my work computer fired up and earn that paycheck.

Back at it ...

Well, I've decided to try to write on my blog again.  My cousin, Mindy, has a wonderful blog that I look forward to every week.  I just don't have that writer's gene, so I have to depend on the 'creative juices' to flow in order to be able to write, and those don't seem to come very often.  So we'll see where this leads ... once again ...

Reunion time

It cooled off a bit yesterday. I was able to have the windows open all day without hot air blasting in.

Found out yesterday that our family is in charge of the Deters reunion this year - July 10. Need to get the invites out today!
The Nederhoff reunion is the day before - July 9.

Headin' home

Our 10 days of vacation went by way too fast ... don't they always?

We checked out of our room and headed to the airport to return our rental car. It was bumper to bumper and slow going on I-93. Maybe we would miss our flight and have to stay longer??!!! No such luck ... we got the car returned and the shuttle dropped us off at the Southwest check-in with plenty of time to spare. We even got to experience the full-body scanner!

Bye-bye Boston. It was a great time!


We had never flown Southwest before. It was interesting that there are no seat assignments. It's a free-for-all. There were several empty seats on our short flight to Philadelphia where we had a short layover. From Philly to Denver we were loaded down. No seats to spare. It was a long flight. We were early by about 30 minutes. Yay!

Chad picked us up and we had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in Park Meadows with him and Carrie. It was very good and the company was great. We got home about 7:45. We were beat. Our babies were sure glad to see us! and we were glad to see them too.

Ahhh ... it's good to sleep in our own bed again.

TTFN! Hope you enjoyed our trip with us!

Sunday - Our last day in Boston

Checking out of Manchester we headed back to Boston for our final day of sightseeing. We parked close by the Charlestown ship yard for a tour of Old Iron Sides.


We took a guided tour which took us below to the gun and berth decks.




Please don't let Terry drive this ship ... he's dangerous enough with a car!


There is a walking tour of Boston where you follow the red brick 'road'. Several of these sights we saw on our trolley tour, but this way we could visit them up close and personal.

Bunker Hill Monument. Unfortunately we couldn't walk to the top as it was closed for renovation.


One if by land, two if by sea. The Old North Church (officially known as Christ Church in the City of Boston) was built in 1723. It became famed on the eve of the Revolution, April 18, 1775, when Paul Revere relayed the message to Robert Newman, the church sexton, that the British were marching by sea and he gave the signal of two lanterns.


Paul Revere's house. (Wish it were a no parking zone in front ... would make for a much better picture!)


We ended our day by dining at Mother Anna's ... very good Italian food. Why does it seem the appetizer is always better than the entre? The stuffed Portobello mushroom was wonderful! Delicious meal!


For dessert we had cannolis from Mike's Pastry shop. We had about a 15 minute wait in line, but it was well worth it. Unbelievably decadent!


For our last night we headed to the Super8 in Weymouth, a short drive south of Boston. They must've hired 3rd graders to remodel and paint this room. They had repainted and about a one-inch space was left around fixtures, etc. The furniture in the room was way too much for the space. One of the bedside tables drawer couldn't be opened due to it facing the bed since there wasn't enough room to face it the right direction. It was quite humorous to us.