Fort Sill, Lawton, OK

Our Business Women's group was given a tour of the Fort Sill Base. Our tour guide was wonderful. She was in a medical company and had been to Iran. We started our tour with the educational center. They really want our troops to have their education, they will even help them to plan a small business for when they leave. Leaving there we went to the parade grounds where the Field Artillery Half Section, gave a demonstration. They even fired the cannon for us. They did a wonderful job. We then went to the mess hall for lunch with some of the women officers. They were very good about answering our questions. After lunch we toured the barracks, where we saw the art work that they had on the walls and floors. They have some very talented people there. We then went to visit the dogs. They train the dogs in taking down a fleeing person, bomb detection, and drug detection. These people do a lot for us that we don't know about. Thank you goes out to our troops.

Bridges and a Castle

One of the places in Iowa that I had long wanted to visit was Madison County, home of the famous covered bridges. The movie brought a lot of attention to this part of Iowa and it was a place I had never visited. Winterset is also the birthplace of John Wayne, and I had been to that house once before, but it was winter time and not a good season to go exploring bridges!

June, however, is a perfect time to go exploring and great weather for a drive in the country. The sign said it was 7 miles to the Rosemon bridge and after what seemed like 17 we did find it.

The view down the river was pretty cool! At this location there is a gift shop and the most impressive thing I saw was the vehicle license tags from so many different states and even Canada in the short time that we were there. The movie is history and so are the bridges, and it seems like lots of folks are still interested in seeing them.

We returned to Winterset and found another bridge that had been relocated into the city park. and when we drove past this bridge we found a one way trail that appeared to lead into dense trees and then we saw a sign telling us that we would find a castle on this trail. So being adventurous people in a Dodge pickup (this trail was really rough!) we headed up to see the castle.

The castle was erected in memory of Caleb and Ruth Clark who were pioneer settlers in Madison County in the 1800's. the most impressive thing about the castle was the view from the top! I did go up and take a look out one of the open "windows".

And just when we were thinking we really accomplished something getting up that winding rutted trail and dodging tree limbs and navigating hairpin turns, we found these two couples who made it to the castle on their Harley's'! So much for our skills!

You can find history of Madison County area at http://www.madisoncounty.com/

There is a Madison County Covered Bridge Festival October 10 & 11, 2009

Arnold's Park IS Amusement!

Arnold's Park Iowa was a favorite place for me growing up. The park is now 127 years old and still one of the most popular attractions in Northwest Iowa and Southern Minnesota. the famous Roof Garden is home to many summer time concerts and shows. The park hosts rides and amusement games as well.

From the roller coaster to the fun house with its tilted floors and magic mirrors, it was a great place to go with friends when you were a teen. the roller coaster was built in 1927 and is the 13th oldest in the US. It is like Coney Island in the middle of corn country! Something for everyone seemed to be the theme of this park, young children and adults alike enjoyed a day at the park.

The miniature golf course was always a hit and you can see why from the photos.

Once I was grown my favorite was a trip on the Queen II. lake Okoboji is amazingly deep in spots and the entire Great Lakes area that includes Big Spirit Lake is a tourism mecca. the QueenII cruise around the lake is a refreshing trip and the view of all of the lake properties something you won't want to miss.

Built by Palmer Johnson and launched in 1986, the Queen II looks and feels like the steamboats of yesteryear. Tours last one hour and fifteen minutes, and include narration on various historical landmarks around the Iowa Great Lakes. A full bar and snacks are available on board.

You can find out more at http://www.arnoldspark.com/ where tickets are available online! This is an affordable family vacation spot so keep it in mind for your next summer vacation.

Pleasant Valley Christian Church Est. 1884

On our recent travel through Iowa we spent a night with my brother in law, Jim Cole near Thayer Iowa. A couple miles from his house out in the country is this old church. I have driven by it many times in the past 15 years when I have visited with Jim but never stopped.

Sunday rolled around and this time we were determined to attend church services. We were welcomed by about 25 people in this amazing little church. After services we stayed to visit and learn a little about the history. The church was actually organized in 1875 and services were held in a country school prior to building the church. Named Pleasant Valley because it was near a river noted for scenic beauty, they celebrated 100 years in 1984.

Church member Don Bowman put together a little history called Fragments of the Past in their centennial booklet. Things I found interesting to read included: the cost of insurance in 1901 was $5.40 and they took a collection to raise the money; in 1938 they hired a pastor for the coming year. His salary was$10 from the Sunday School treasury, $20 from the Ladies Aid treasury and this is the good part; each family would donate what eggs they gathered on Easter Sunday to the pastor’s salary and each family was asked to donate one hen for the same purpose. In 1948 the church got electricity and in 1954 the pastor’s salary was raised from $56.50 per month to $75 per month.

Pleasant Valley holds Sunday service at 9:30 and visitors are always welcome there. From I-35 exit at Osceola Iowa and go west to Thayer then go south on the county blacktop past the rock quarry and watch for the sign on the west side of the road for the Pleasant Valley Church. And those are Iowa directions, folks!

Frontier Village in Adrian Missouri

Frontier Village, in Adrian, Missouri, is owned and operated by the Western Missouri Antique Tractor and Machinery Association. This park is host to tractor and machinery shows and boasts attendance from more than 20 different states.

We traveled there in late June to attend a Keller et al family reunion, our first time to meet this branch of the family tree. We found this little village a week before their next scheduled tractor event and visited briefly with some tractor enthusiasts who were starting to prepare for their next big event.

A drive down the dirt lane was like a trip back in time with old fashioned businesses and buildings on each side of the road. The old church was modernized with a ramp to accommodate handicapped visitors.

Our reunion was held in a very nice modern community building that was air conditioned, a good thing in Missouri summer humidity!

According the web site I found when I got back home, “The village was a result of interest in preserving history and old agricultural ways and produced its first gas engine show in 1982. The growth continued with the first building, a school, in 1983, a red barn in 1984, and now a total of 20 buildings with 2 more under construction. In addition, there are three county bridges donated to the Village from Bates County. On a state level, the Village has the largest steam engine, the largest separator, and the oldest portable running steam engine in Missouri.”
http://www.batescounty.net/frontier_village.htm

Adrian is right on US 71 in Missouri, the park complex has some really nice shade trees and would be a welcome rest spot on a trip from either direction. See their chamber web site for monthly events listings http://www.blogger.com/.%20http:/www.adrianmochamber.com/

The "Big Mouth"

Vacation time at last! Our first real stop was to see some family in El Dorado Springs MO. We planned to attend a family reunion in Adrian MO and on the way found this small town with a "rich" history.

The Big Mouth resides on Park Ave and 7th St in Rich Hill Missouri. The Big Mouth is a coal bucket that was used to mine coal in this area. Rich Hill is known as “the town that coal built”. Sadly, when the coal mining left the area, the town became little more than a stopping place to take a picture of the bucket.
Big mouth was owned by the Pittsburg & Midway Coal co attached to the Midway Princess, a dragline that was used to remove the overburden (rocks, dirt and vegetation) from the coal deposits. (I sure wish I could have seen this in operation!) To get an idea of the size of Big Mouth, a dump truck that was used to haul out the coal could be parked inside the bucket. It held over 70 cubic feet of dirt and one scoop had a depth of 125 feet. The estimated weight was between 40 and 44 TONS!

The Midway Princes was dismantled and moved to Raton NM in the early 1990’s but Big Mouth is a permanent Rich Hill resident. The Coalminer’s Daughters use Big Mouth to host their life sized nativity scene every year for Christmas.

Visitors may stop by and take pictures and read about the history of the Big Mouth for free. Rich Hill is 20 miles north of Nevada MO on US Highway 71. http://www.richhillmo.com/

An interesting bit of history I found when I did some additional research for this post:

Dateline: Dec 4, 1919; Missouri Governor seizes closed coal mines and vows to operate them because the residents of his state are freezing in their homes due to no availability of heat source. (seems the mines had been shut down)Volunteers in Mo and from neighboring Pittsburg KS worked the mines to provide coal to the state residents and those in institutions.

Elk City Route 66 National Museum

We started out early Saturday from our home in Waynoka and met up with two couples in Woodward for breakfast. Then it was on south about 75 miles to Elk City. While we normally are focused on car show activities, we decided in advance of the road trip that we were going to drive the classics, but be spectators at the show and see what else was going on in Elk City.

We found the National Route 66 Museum Complex just blocks from the park where the car show was being held. After checking out all of the classics and watching the burn-out contest, we took a short rest under a shade tree before heading to the museum.

The museum complex is open to the public from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Since we now classify as seniors, admission was a mere $4 ($5 if you aren't old enough). Seemed like there were about a dozen different buildings on the grounds, some set up as store-front with big windows to see what was inside. Others allowed a full tour in welcome air conditioning. One of the most interesting was the Old Town Museum, a home purchased by the city in 1966 that was the beginning of the complex. http://www.theroadwanderer.net/66Oklahoma/elkcity.htm is the web site I found to get the best information.

We also enjoyed our visit to the Paul Jones Drug Store where old fashioned bottle pop and ice cream were a welcome treat. Oh, and did I mention the chain flush toilet? This was a fun step back in time and brought tears to our eyes as we watched some children stare in wonder!