Czech Village is an amazing place with lovely stores and a huge museum. We purchased a cookbook that will be shipped to our home. We walked a little further and were greeted by an accordion band. It was like Groundhog Day with the Beer Barrel Polka playing and people dancing. We ate more kolaches!
We headed out of town on our nice easy ride. WRONG! When you go down into a river valley you must ride out. It was a super steep ride out. There were many people walking their bikes but not the Nelsons... We ride!!
We headed to Mt. Vernon. We enjoyed some wonderful egg burritos sold by the local high school. Mt. Vernon is the home of Cornell College.
We met Marilyn in Springville. She was sitting her porch waving to the passing riders. We walked up and asked if we could sit on her cool porch. She has 5 children and was from New Jersey. She once lived in San Diego in the 50's. She was in the Navy and met her husband there. She said that for some reason her husband wanted to move back to Iowa. We said we needed to be going and she said to make sure we stop by the fire department because her son was the chief. It turns out her son was not the chief but her grandson was. It was a super visit!
As we left town we were greeted by a slip and slide, free beer, and a pet raccoon. Passed on the beer but the slip and slide was great. I got grass way down my pants. I got to hold the raccoon. It was a lot of silly fun.
We then rode into Anamosa. Which is the home of the Iowa State Prison. We rode through town trying to find our camp site. We went past the freeway and made right turn toward Walmart. Where were we going?? As it turns out right behind Walmart. It a pretty good place to camp. After setting up camp and taking showers we headed back to town for dinner at the Methodist Church.
We ate dinner with to lovely ladies. Ethel and Alice. Both are retired and had never been married. We talked about all kinds of wonderful things and the shared their stories. We leaned that Anamosa is famous for there pumpkin festival in the fall. It was a lovely meal but the women made it special. I had a apple pumpkin pie! Yummy!! It was a apple pie but instead of the top crust it had pumpkin pie filling. When I went to the kitchen to get the recipe no one knew who made it? I think they didn't want to share their secrets with an outsider. :)
We then walked over to the penitentiary. We met up with a nice local couple and walked and talked and got some more history. He was wearing a Giants hat so I had to say something about that. He laughed and said he got it a thrift store in Hawaii. It was a 7 and 3/4 when he wears a 7 and a quarter. Wonderful! We made it to the prison and were awed my its beauty. Strange how that could be.
We walked to the tram stop and were waiting when a woman came sat to wait too. Laura is from Minnesota and we started talking (duh). She shared that she has 2 children. Her you gets is only one and was born with Down's Syndrome. This was the first time she had left her with someone else. Jeanne was really able to share some hope with her. It was a wonderful moment to watch my wife really connect with a person that needed some hope! We told Laura we would keep her family in our prayers.
We headed back to our campsite and got into bed. Tomorrow was a 70 mile ride and we needed to be done by 1:30. This meant waking up at 4:15... Got to love vacation!
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