Friends and Family Tour 2017


The Franklin County Fair, Hampton, IA

The Franklin County Fair kicked off with a parade on Tuesday evening.  Afterward we went to Jamie and Mindy’s house for dinner.  We met even more of the family that evening. Corky made my favorite rice dish which unfortunately I had to share because it is quite popular with others as well.  Oh, and don’t forget the jello cake!

As with most every parade, there was a lot of candy thrown.  The boys were generous in sharing.  I found a cherry tootsie roll pop which is one of my all-time favorites.  This is where Lena and I became best friends.  Apparently, she likes them too.   

We attended the fair the next afternoon.  We had some lunch and then went over to the popcorn stand for guess who.  In all honesty, for all the popcorn Kurt ate I was right there with him for the most part.  This time it was caramel corn and it was really good.  That evening we went to the rodeo thanks to Nate and Haley after stopping by their house for a visit.

Thursday was Grandpa’s Farm where they had a steam engine running a thrashing machine.  The straw was thrown into a hopper where it was bailed by a JD 40 baler run by a JD 520.  That brought back a lot of memories of the farms around us and making hay in the summer when I was growing up.

The big finale for us was that evening at the concert.  The Bellamy brothers led off and were very entertaining.  The next act was Sammy Kershaw.  Although he had a case of bronchitis he managed to put on a great show.  It was all good music and a good ending to our visit in Iowa. By the way, Kurt had another bag of popcorn.

We had a wonderful time in Dumont Iowa.  We met many new people and it was great to see those we met in Florida in their own homes.  We were treated with good ole country hospitality and will have many great memories.
Tim and his new BFF Lena


Good Bye to Iowa. Great Times!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dark Sky Riders 2018

June 27 th and 28 th We finally got on the road on the 27 th and spent an uneventful night at Cecil Bay RV Park where we stayed one year ago to the day.   From there we traveled to Cherokee, NC nestled at the foot of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.   We stayed at Cherokee Great Smokies KOA.   A large park with lots of amenities and full hook ups although we did not have a sewer hookup and had to use the dump station.   You would think for $61 you would get a sewer hookup.   The park as well as the town is located on the Cherokee reservation.  Signage is written both in English and Cherokee.  At the Park we paid a tribal fee and at the gas station we paid a service fee amounting to a couple dollars.  While we were there we met a couple that had a Trend, the same RV as ours only theirs was a year older.   We made contact and chatted quite a while, swapping war stories and exchanging ideas.   When we decided to stay in Ch...
Read more

Dark Sky Riders 2018

July 19 thru 21 We continued our travel from Beckley WV to Gatlinburg TN.   The RV park where we stayed was the nicest we have experienced yet.   And although nestled in the foothills of the Smokey Mountains, the sites were nice and level.   Just outside the entrance was a trolley stop you could use to get most anywhere including Dollywood in Pidgeon Forge, TN.   We had no interest in Dollywood, but we did use the trolley to go downtown a couple times.   Gatlinburg was more touristy than what I had imagined.   Plenty of eateries, wax museums, and fudge shops.   Lots of people too.   We walked the main street, ate a Cajun dinner looked at some shops but no wax museums or fudge. We went to a steak house one other night called The Alamo and had a very good dinner.   I suspect we will come back as there is a lot more to do in the area especially in the mountains.   When we left on Sunday morning, we paid a visit to Matt, our nephew wh...
Read more

Dark Sky Riders 2018

July 27, 28 At this point we are ready to go home but we had two more nights planned at Silver Springs State Park near Ocala, FL.   We decided to cancel the second night and arrive home a day early. We arrived at Silver Springs, a huge state Park with lots of activities.   We didn’t do much there but we will be back for a longer stay soon.   The next day, Saturday, we arrived home about 1pm.   Here are the stats of the trip. 3457 miles traveled at an average of 47 mph 249 gallons of gasoline at an average of 14.3 mpg $688 for gas at an average of $2.74/gal (We averaged $2.18/gal last year) $710 for campgrounds for 17 nights 9 days at Katie and Frank’s and 5 days at Dan and Jane’s It was a good trip.   Next trip this fall to see new grandbaby and a Trend rally in Arkansas.   See Ya Out There!
Read more