Life on the farm

Daryl and I haven’t been able to spend a lot of time together lately and it isn’t even harvest season yet! He’s been so super swamped at work that he hasn’t been getting home until later in the night and he’s also working been working the past weekends. So today we were determined to do something together no matter what!

The morning started out with a bridal shower that I was invited to. I knew that I couldn’t stay for the whole shower and I was just hoping that my friend understood. This wedding is in October and that will really come up fast. I wish I would have thought about the card more when I was making it. I don’t normally do a pink wedding or shower card, but for some reason today I did.

Bridal Shower card

It turned out OK, but I’ve got to remember the season that we’re in for the next ones. And I don’t know about you, but I always feel my age when I go to a bridal shower lately.  I mean did I honestly look that young when we got married?

When I got home I did a quick clothes change and then we were off in the Chevelle. We weren’t sure where yet, but we were going to go somewhere. We ended up going to a local college town to a restaurant that we haven’t had a chance to eat at yet. With all the football games on this afternoon, the restaurant was pretty quiet. Yea, like we were the only ones in there. It was kinda weird to be the only ones eating, but man we sure got our food fast.

Then what to do? Well we decided to find a road that we’ve never been on before and see what we find. It was one of the scenic highways and it was fun to be on an adventure. After checking out the town of Volga City, (which we’ve never been to before either) we kept driving to Elkader. And by some coincidence there is an antique mall there. Shazam right? I even got Daryl to go inside. When I found him later standing by the door I asked him if he made it to all 3 floors of the building? He said that he only was in the first room with me and that was it. OK, at least he gave it a shot right? Well, back home we went and now it’s time to get ready for the work week ahead of us. We both have busy schedules this week at work and it’s hard to get excited at all about starting it tomorrow morning. I normally don’t want the days to go by fast, but I’m making an exception for this week.

So this is the picture of the day. It’s literally a shot on our drive that Daryl pulled the car over this afternoon and after I rolled down the window, I took the picture. If I had to name it, I think I would call it ‘Iowa In Her Glory’. You kind of think you should see that farmer with the pitch fork and his wife standing somewhere right? 

The temperature is about 20 degrees cooler than it’s supposed to be, but the sun was shining and a group of us decided to spend the day kayaking. We weren’t sure until the morning if this was going to work or not because it pretty much rained all day Friday. So first things first. We had to meet for breakfast and Bloody Marry’s and then discuss our plan. With our bellies way too full, we were going to head to the river. And when we got on the water, I’m telling you that it was perfect! Like I said the sun was shining and we had a great time! We spent the day just kind of floating down the river and catching up with everyone’s lives. Some of us haven’t seen each other for the whole summer and to a girl.. well you know that’s a long time! We ended up boating on a different part of the Upper Iowa  and I don’t know if it was because of the cooler weather or if it was the location, but us five girls had the whole river to ourselves. Score!! But also with all the rain that we have had these past few days, we knew that we didn’t want to tip because the water was really cold. Luck was on our side no one did tip their boat. Now Decorah is kind of famous for their bald eagles and not only can you see them flying around when you’re in the area, but you can usually see one or two when you’re on the river. Today we had one flying around in the trees and then he took off right about our heads. I grabbed the camera and literally just hit the button to take a picture. One of the girls said that this should be a great shot, but honestly I didn’t even know if I got the bird in the picture. You know it was one of those times when you think – that really could have been a good picture but I’m not holding my breath? Yea, one of those times. But I did get the bird in the picture and it’s the photo of the day. Check it out

Isn’t that crazy how those numbers have changed how we think about everything now? I mean in the past we would think of 9-11 as being some crazy signs that we had to put up on our farm in case you would need an emergency vehicle or help. But then everything changed.

Now we think of 9-11 as more of a day that was so surreal. And I can guarantee you that you remember just what you were doing when you heard the news and who you were with. For me, I was at work in my previous job and was on the phone with a coworker from another one of our facilities. Then someone said that a plane hit some building in New York and they’re not sure why. It didn’t take long and soon we pulled the TV into the break room and was just memorized by the whole thing. It was like some kind of crazy dream or something and you just couldn’t believe it. As the morning went on, we found out that one of the guys in our office had a daughter that he didn’t know if she was on the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania.  Everyone was trying to figure out how to help him to find out where his daughter was and with the chaos of the situation, we had no luck. At the end of the day, he finally was able to reach his daughter and she flew on another plane. I’ve never seen the look in anyone’s eyes when he found out the news and how grateful he was at the time that she was OK and how sad he was for the other people. The day was a somber day for our country and it will be one that no one will ever forget.

We were lucky to be able to travel to New York last year and below is a picture that Kyle took of Daryl and I at the 9-11 memorial.

Daryl and I at the 9-11 Memorial in New York

And the next picture is the picture of the day. Pretty cool and strong! 

We knew that we didn’t have much time before we had to head back home from the Dell’s today, but I also knew that we really should do something since we were in the area. I’m pretty sure that I was the only one in the group that wanted to go to one of the Water Parks, so the next best thing on the list was to take a Duck ride.

Now if you’ve never been on the Wisconsin Ducks before.. we’ll you just will have to add it to your bucket list. It’s kind of like seeing the Grand Canyon or the Statue of Liberty.. OK  maybe it’s not that big of a deal. But you probably should do it if you have a chance.

The Ducks are army vehicles that go both on the land and water. They were used in Sicily, D-Day Invasion, and the Pacific Theatre before they were retired. Our trip started by getting on board the Duck in our resort parking lot and off we went. The driver said that they can get up to speeds of 55 miles an hour on the highway and I’m thinking the way the wind was blowing – it was a good thing that I didn’t spend too much time on my hair this morning. (OK, I never spend too much time on my hair any mornings!) We went to another hotel with this resort and picked up a bunch more people and then we were off on our adventure. The tour started out with driving through a small winding path and we found out later, that these paths that we were taking through the woods were the paths that were originally the roads cut by the primitive city of Newport’s streets, old stagecoach runs, and roads cut by the rivermen. In 1956 the woods that we were in was transferred from the owner to the Dells Boat Company with the stipulation that the land must be left in it’s natural state. And you know what? That’s exactly what they did and the scenery was really cool! Below is a picture to give you an idea on what the land looked like when we were driving it it. There were a lot of trees and cliffs. The temperature was a lot cooler that it was before we got into the woods and we were told that the sandstone cliffs kept the moisture in and with the trees shading the forest, it was like a natural air conditioner.

Heading through the forest with our Duck

Then as you come around the corner all you can see is this huge river and the driver steps on the gas and goes in!

Duck people

You are now driving around in the Wisconsin River. There are beautiful sandstone ridges all along the river and man they are old! It turns out that the river area started 500 million years ago as the Cambrian Sea.  But glaciers came through and the climate warmed up and now we have this beautiful and historic part of Wisconsin right in front of us. After reading up a little bit more on this area, it was really home to Native Americans and they moved the tribes a couple of times to other states. But our guide did mention that some of the rock formations are named after some of the Native Americans which is pretty cool. So we hang out of the river for awhile and then off to Lake Delton. We needed to get back on land and then inch our way through this one pass which we literally had only inches on each side of our Duck before we would hit the rocks. It was really fun to listen to some of the little boys on our trip and I was wondering the time that we took our boys when they were little if they asked as many questions as these kids did? I’m guessing that they probably did. Now to get into Lake Delton. The driver asked if we wanted to go fast or slow into the water. So duh…everyone said fast! Then he said that the back people were probably going to get wet and about now everyone looked a little nervous. And they did get wet when he floored it! A huge wave came over the back and came into the boat.  But we didn’t get wet, so we thought it was kind of funny. We spent some time on this man made lake and then back on land.  On the way out of the forest we came across this one reforestation project area that the owner started back in the 1940’s. It was pretty cool looking and it’s my photo of the day.

Photo of the day

As we were getting close to the highway, I saw a bunch of old statues that went a long way on both sides of our road and our guide never mentioned anything about it. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I never took a picture of them either. I found out that they were gargoyle statues and columns from the Chicago Board of Trade Building when it was being demolished back in 1932. The owner bought them and had them placed on her property. It didn’t take long and we were back at our hotel and getting in our car for the drive home. What a fun thing to do on a Sunday afternoon!