Speeding into the Heartland

After leaving Niagara Falls on June 29th, we left the smaller highways and put the 'pedal to the metal', traveling south and west via the interstate through New York and into western Pennsylvania. After camping one night south of Pittsburg, we arrived at the home of friends Phil and Judi Engle in Beavercreek, Ohio. Jim and Phil worked together many years ago in southern California. We enjoyed our time with the Engles that included good meals & company and a visit to the National Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base just outside Dayton.

From Ohio, we drove a relatively short distance to Indianapolis, Indiana to see Karen & Larry Zimmerman, old friends from our days in Vermillion, SD. We spent the Fourth of July weekend with the Zimm's and enjoyed seeing some highlights of Indianapolis, including the famous Indy 500 Speedway, the downtown, some beautiful homes on Meridan Avenue and the wonderful Eiteljorg Museum of Western and Indian Art. As a professor at Indiana University-Perdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), Larry is a professor anthropology and museum studies. We were able to see the Zimm's daughter, Ali and met her husband, Ed Maudlin. Culinary highlights included the best Mexican meal ever, Ali's homemade strawberry/chocolate torte and Karen's pasta dinner. It was a nice reunion and we hope to meet up again after Larry retires next year.

From Indiana, we traveled across that state and Illinois. We camped at Nauvoo, located on the Mississippi River adjacent to Iowa. Nauvoo was initially settled by Mormon founder Joseph Smith and others, including Brigham Young. The Mormons were driven out of Nauvoo after Joseph and his brother Hyrem were killed by an angry mob. The original settlement has been restored, including the Temple which had been destroyed by fire and tornado in the late 1800's - and is now a mecca for tourists - mostly Mormons. We joked that we felt like we were in an episode of "Big Love" (an HBO series about a polygamous Mormon family), but it was an interesting place to visit. Jim did all his undergraduate and post-graduate studied in Utah and is well versed in Mormon history.

We crossed the Mississippi River on July 6th and found our way to Iowa City and the home of Lee and Sue Eberly. The Eberly's were our former neighbors when we lived in rural Wakonda, SD and taught us many things about livestock - including how to milk and care for goats. We really enjoyed catching up with the Eberly's and laughing over old times 'in the country'.

We left Iowa City and zipped up to a park in Eagen, Minnesota (just south of St. Paul/Minneapolis) where we met up with our friend, Cathie Bartels, formerly of Pierre. Both Jim and I had worked with Cathie when we lived in Pierre and became friends with Cathie and her husband, Jim, now deceased. We recalled happy times playing cards with them and giving Jim Bartels grief about his (conservative) politics. We still miss him. Cathie moved to Minnesota to be closer to one of her daughter's after Jim died and it was nice to be able to spend some time with her. We hope she'll come out to visit us in Seattle in the near future.

We finished up our visit in Minnesota by spending the night at Pipestone, close to the border with South Dakota. We visited the Pipestone National Monument site and enjoyed learning more about the Native American sacred site and quarry for pipestone. Although we had lived near Pipestone for many years, we had never visited the site. It was quite pretty and we swear we could feels the spirits of the past. It is still an active quarry site, limited now to only Native Americans from tribes recognized by the US government.

And now into South and North Dakota!

National Air Force Museum, Dayton, OH - Air Force One (JFK's jet)