Here, There & Everywhere

It’s been a week since Hall and Sara got married. We had such a fun time at the Bridesmaids’ Luncheon at the Swan House. Here I am with Amanda, Doris, Abigail and Anne. I don’t have a picture yet of us taken with Sara.

Amanda and I left the luncheon and headed to Marietta. We had to stop and get 25 balloons to decorate the room at the Strand Theater in Marietta where the Rehearsal Dinner was being held. It seemed as though when we’d put 3 balloons in, 1 would pop. The van was smack full of balloons.

We were pretty tired from the day.

On Saturday, we got up and dealt with a nervous groom-to-be. Most of us were wishing that the ceremony would have been during the day rather than a 7:30 start. There would have been less dealing with the pain in the rear. I do say that lovingly, but Hall could not sit still and was a bear. :)

Here we are — the Penns and the O’Tooles. What a happy day it was for us!

In case you didn’t know, the 100th Meridian is at Cozad, Nebraska!

We continued on Highway 30 through Nebraska from Cozad to Roscoe. We stopped there to get pictures of these old buildings.

I wonder what Chamberlins was–a restaurant, a general store?


While I was trying to find the right place to take pictures of the above buildings, I found this cool looking thistle. I’ve never seen one quite like this.

The sign says, “World’s Largest Purveyor of Vintage American Windmills and Parts”. Just in case you need parts for your windmill.

We drove by this school and turned around to go back and take a picture. The big white “tube” at the rear of the building was the fire escape. In the case of a fire, people would slide down the shute to get out of the building.

We saw some places where they didn’t actually bale the hay. Rather, they put it in big round things. Tommy kept asking (to himself), “How do they get the hay to where they need it?”

We stayed on Highway 30 for a long time and decided to drive up and around Lake McConaughy. On that drive we came across a farmer who was out working on his irrigation system. So Tommy stopped and talked to him about their process of irrigation for a while.
When we finally arrived in Wyoming we saw some windmills that were actually working!

We got to Laramie around 3:00 p.m. local time. Unfortunately it was just a short time after that we got the sad news that Terry had been in a serious swimming accident. After staying only 18 hours with Evan and Amanda, we turned around and headed for home.

Day 2 ended for us in York, Nebraska. We had stayed at the same hotel (Palmer’s Best Western) several years ago (maybe 5?) in York. We had left Laramie in the morning and went to Alma (Hardin County), Nebraska to do some genealogical research. Or as Tommy says, “We’re going to look for dead people.” We sent several hours at the courthouse and driving around the county before he headed back east. If I remember correctly, it was really cold and there was snow on the road all the way through Nebraska. We wound up in York because we couldn’t go any further. After asking the hotel clerk for a dinner suggestion we ended up at the Chances “R” restaurant. It was absolutely wonderful! Because we had Bubba with us, we weren’t able to go again.

Here are the guys getting ready to get back in the truck for Day 3.
The decision was made to stay on Highway 30 for a while in Nebraska. Breakfast at a little cafe in Iowa was so good that we decided to try it again. We stopped at Ginny’s Cafe in Wood River and got Breakfast Sandwiches. They were every bit as good as the morning before.

As you have probably figured out by now, I’m always on the lookout for flowers to photograph. This thistle (others may call it a weed) was so pretty.

And yet another barn in the middle of corn!


This was probably my favorite of all the barns we saw. But not because of the barn itself, it was the American Gothic painting on it. Pretty cool, huh? Just to the side of the barn was a ladder which led Tommy to believe that they are possibly going to paint something on the side. It might be worth another trip next year to find out.

The sky was so cool as we stopped at this barn. We stayed here for about 20 minutes to let Bubba stretch his legs. It was so quiet here.

Tommy said he saw several of these “quilt” barns. This was the only one I saw–and it wasn’t because I was sleeping.

Tommy wasn’t sure what the purpose of this “pillbox” is. So I took a picture of it. Maybe someone from Iowa could let us know.

This was the last barn that we saw in Iowa. The Dunham Barn built in 1870 is on the National Register of Historic Places.

This (photo #1 and #2) barn was so cool. It was also quite large. There were several out buildings in close proximity.

Some of the barns, such as the one below, were in quite good shape.

Then we would see some like the one below which looks like it could fall down at any time. I think I actually liked seeing the really old looking ones.

Traveling along a county road we came across this old brick house. As you can see it had been moved to where it stands now. Tommy believes that it was a pre-1910 built house. He was shocked to see that a brick building had been moved. Pretty cool looking house!

We saw a lot of corn as we crossed Iowa. Some corn fields had barns smack in the middle like these.

Hello Handsome! This good looking fellow was in a field next to the Merlin Hulse Barn shown below him. The information we had on this barn was that Clydesdales were housed there. If you click on the barn photo you can see the Clydesdale name on the horse trail. This place was immaculate.


There were a lot of barns like the two below. The top part of the barn is supposed to help with ventilation.

As previously stated, we saw lots of corn fields!

After spending a quiet night at the Frontier Inn in Clinton, Iowa, we were looking forward to starting our barn tour. We left the hotel, filled up with gas and hit the road about 6:30 (local time). The first barn we came to we couldn’t get up close to.

Some of the barns that we saw and took pictures of were not on the Iowa Barn Foundation’s “official” barn tour. But we liked them anyway.

This is the Donahue Barn which was on the tour. I could certainly see myself waking up and having this peaceful setting out my window!

East of Clarence we stopped at the Arrow Cafe to get a biscuit for breakfast. Instead, we got their Breakfast Sandwich. It was like an Egg McMuffin with lots more taste and really big sausage patties. Yummy!

Sometime over the winter, in anticipation of our summer trip to Wyoming, Tommy found the Highway 30 Barn Tour which sounded pretty interesting. We are trying more and more to get off the interstates and see rural America. So we planned our route (yep–right straight across Iowa on Highway 30), got directions to the barns (so we thought) and hit the road.

We left the house about 6:20 a.m. and stopped in Cartersville for breakfast at McDonald’s. They really do have pretty good chicken and sausage biscuits.

Bubba is such a good traveler! He gets in the truck, moves to his back seat, curls up in his bed and goes to sleep.

Why does it seem like whenever we hit Nashville we get into rain or traffic (usually traffic). This time we were unfortunate enough to get both.

The sign said “American Recovery & Reinvestment Act”:

We drove about 12 miles and saw a gazillion orange barrels. We saw no workers. This was in the middle of the day on Wednesday. I guess the reinvestment and recovery was for the orange barrel manufacturer?

Tommy is always on the lookout for something out of the ordinary. Bubba and I were minding our own business (read: snoozing) when Tommy slowed down and made a u-turn and pulled into the driveway for the EnvoTech-Illinois Landfill. This is right next to a cemetery. Hmmmmmm….
I really think that these windmills are fascinating. I don’t really know why, but I do. But, aren’t they supposed to be moving? We saw lots and lots of these windmills all across Iowa and Nebraska but didn’t see any actually moving until we got to Wyoming.

While Tommy is usually looking for unusual things, I am usually looking for flowers. I found this Butterfly Bush and Queen Anne’s Lace at a rest area.

Bubba looks like he’s trying to keep an eye open, but he lost the battle!

We arrived in Clinton, Iowa at 7:50 p.m. (Eastern time). A long13 hour drive.

My, as I liked to call him, “older” brother passed away yesterday. He was injured in a swimming accident at the beach in Jacksonville, Florida. I never felt the need to have to talk to him daily or even sometimes monthly. We just connected whenever we talked or were together. Even growing up he was the type brother I could, and did, look up to. There was so much good in him and everyone liked him.

Hall, Terry and me at Hall’s graduation.

Terry and Amanda at her wedding.

This is probably my favorite picture of me and Terry. I think it shows the joy I have in seeing my brother again.

I love you Terry.