Downed Trees and Repairs

The weather that drove us to stay Monday night in Elkhorn turned out to be a disaster for eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. Although we didn't witness firsthand the tremendous damage to Pilger (about 75 miles north of where we were staying), driving northeast on Tuesday took us past hundreds of downed tree limbs, uprooted trees, mangled farm equipment, roof damage, and flooded rivers, creeks and farmland. Residents were cleaning up for hundreds of miles. Fortunately for us, the thunderstorm that hit Tuesday night didn't start until after a hot but clear day of driving.

Our route took us from Nebraska into Iowa at Missouri Valley, which is part of the Lincoln Highway, America's first transcontinental road, built in 1913.

We passed thousands of acres of corn fields. Luckily, I can happily gaze at them for hours (and I did.)

We took Route 71 north to the aptly named Storm Lake, where we ate a bit of lunch by the water before continuing to Okoboji/Spirit Lake, where we stopped for two hours while John led a board meeting via phone for Soldier's Heart. I ate a piece of blueberry pie in the local diner and talked to a woman who worked in the quilt shop about barn quilts.

The rest of the day was spent traversing Minnesota, including a stop for beer, burger and baseball at Big Dog Sports Bar in Mankato, where the burgers were buy one/get the second half-price. Today, we got settled in a Minneapolis hotel so John could get ready to teach tomorrow and through the weekend. The trailer is spending the weekend at Reid's house. Here are a few pix of John and Reid fixing the hitch wheel stand that got bent during the trip.

Now it fits again.

All this, and it's not even the first day of summer. And more rain is predicted for tomorrow. 

For those of you in sunny southern California, Happy Solstice!