From The Good Life -

Over the 4th of July weekend, Tim and I camped at Prairie Rose State Park, one of our favorite state parks. Friday was hot and humid but Saturday brought cooler temperatures and the rest of the weekend was beautiful.



On Saturday, we took a drive to see the Bridges of Madison County. You know the ones from the movie with Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep. Tim was disappointed, he said he expected them to be larger, functioning bridges. After seeing the birthplace of John Wayne, we enjoyed a picnic lunch at the park in Winterset.



From Winterset we headed east to St. Charles to check out the Madison County Winery. It so happened on this particular day they were celebrating the grand opening of their brewery. Despite the crowd, we managed to belly up to the bar. We were served by the owners daughter who shared with us the bar was made from the crushed wine bottles her father had saved for 5 years. After tasting seven wines, we purchased a bottle of Summer Blonde, a semi sweet white wine.

Our travels then took us north to to Adel and Penoach Winery. The tasting room is in a 1917 barn. Not sure how many wines we tasted, our cordial host just keep saying oh try this one, now this one. We chose a Windmill Red, a red that reminded us of a Pinot Noir, which is quite unusual since Iowa wines tend to be sweeter. The last wine we tried was an apple wine made from local apples. We've tried apple wines before but this one had a touch of cinnamon. It will be wonderful to enjoy this wine, warm around the campfire this fall.

The balance of our holiday weekend was spent enjoying the beauty of Prairie Rose State Park!

From The Good Life - There's a Tornado Coming!

Last Fall I blogged about some of our camping adventures. Camping is great...except for one or two things. Sleeping on the ground, even if it is on an aero bed, it's still not like sleeping in a regular bed. It's really hard to get up off the ground in the mornings. Also, you can't regulate the temperature in a tent, unless the weather is just perfect, it's either hot or cold.

We've been keeping our eye out for a used camper! A few weeks ago on the way to the winery in St. Paul, Nebraska we passed a small used car and rv lot and decided to stop. We were greeted by an elderly gentleman named Joe. We told Joe we were looking for a used Class C camper. He said oh do I have a "beauty" for you. Tim and I both just looked at each other. The beauty he had for us really was a beauty. The camper is a mint condition 1982 Fleetwood Jamboree. It's almost like it's been frozen in time for the past 30 years. The interior colors are retro and I mean that in a good way. After doing some research, we decided this was a deal too good to pass up.





Joe, who reminded me of my own father, has had his dealer's license longer than anyone else in the country, 60 some years. He was a wonderful reminder of times gone by (yes, I am dating myself here). Joe is an honest, hard working gentleman, who as it turns out is 91 years old. He told us he's going to retire this year. I think it's about time!

Last weekend, we went on our first camping adventure. Our destination was Lewis and Clark State Park in Onawa, Iowa. The forecast was for a humid and warm Saturday. For those of you who aren't from the midwest, warm and humid spells the chance of tornadoes. Tim and I had just finished dinner when the wind started to pick up. The clouds were swirling. I could tell by the way Tim was watching the sky, he didn't think it looked good. Just to the west of us maybe a quarter of a mile, was the start of a tornado. So what do you do when you're camping and there's a tornado? Most of the buildings at Lewis and Clark were still closed. There was a restroom but it wasn't real close and I knew I couldn't run fast enough to get there. At this point, we were just hoping it would go the other way. Luckily for us, it did. We watched it travel down the side of the lake, over mainly open land. Once we realized we were going to be okay, we grabbed the camera and started shooting.

Check out the guy in the boat, seriously?

Certainly a camping experience, Tim and I won't soon forget. Let's hope the stories I share the rest of the summer don't include any tornadoes.

From The Good Life

Last weekend, we were blessed with the most amazing weather. It was sunny and in the 80's, unbelievable considering it is mid October. We wanted to soak up every minute of it because just around the corner is winter.

Tim and I packed the Escape and headed to Lake of the Three Fires, just north of Bedford, Iowa. Lake of the Three Fires is a beautiful lake with two nice campgrounds. We're tenters, yes I know hard to believe I sleep in a tent! We found a nice flat spot just up from the shore of the lake. The campground was almost empty, only one other campsite was occupied. Friday night as Tim was photographing the sunset, I spotted three deer just about 50 yards away. We saw them again a couple of times over the weekend. We had a wonderful relaxing weekend and will be looking forward to weekends at Lake of the Three Fires in the Spring!