Heading Out To The Badlands

OK, the title is a bit misleading.  We will get there eventually, but the joy of the trip is smelling the roses along the way.  We left home on June 3rd after attending two K-5 graduations and a 5th grade graduation of our great-granddaughters.  We visited family and friends in Georgia and North Carolina, then on to our daughter and son-in-law

in Mt. Zion, WV.  June 9th we left there and traveled through Ohio and spent two nights at Indian Lakes near Batesville, IN.  After traveling the curvey, hilly roads in WV, we needed to rest up a bit.

Next stop was Peoria, IL at Millpoint Park.  A nice perk was the receipt was also a 20% coupon  for Peoria Pizza Works.  A delicious Chicago-style, thin crust, 6 topping pizza satisfied our pizza craving.

We had made reservations at Wallashuck Recreation Area, a Corp of Engineers campground near Pella, IA.
What a delightful surprise - a nice clean site with electric and very nice bathhouse.  In addition, we were
serenaded by the cicadias.  They have a 17 year cycle and this is the year!   Our trip into Pella to the
Vermeer Windmill Museum was extraordinary.  Our guide, Virgil, is from one of the families that came to
Pella to settle, therefore, was a fount of information.  This windmill was built in Holland, dismantled and shipped to Pella and rebuilt.  We were shown how the "sails" can be turned so they can always be in the wind.  They grind wheat flour there and we later bought a loaf of bread (and other goodies) from the
Jaarsma Bakery. 

Our next COE campground was at Saylorville Lake north of Des Moines.  Another lovely spot in which to relax.  The only drawback to COE's is no wifi.   I don't miss it too much except I can't post my blog.

Yesterday we stopped at Cedar Valley Arboretum near Waterloo, IA and then at the Little Brown Church in the Vale in Nashua.  Last night we stayed at R Campground in Charles City, IA.  There was a very bad rain & thunderstorm with high winds - rocked our RV a few times.  I kept waiting for the tornado siren to sound, but thankfully it didn't.  Today we're off to Decorah to do some more sightseeing.  We are definitely smelling the roses!