Boulder to Iowa

We headed to Boulder via US 160 and I-25. The speed limit on US 160 was 75. (We just love these speed limits out west. Too bad they don’t have these in VA!) Just outside of a small town called Larkspur (south of Denver) the weather took a turn for the worse and storm clouds loomed on the horizon. To the left of us – in the mountains - we could see dark clouds, lightning, and what looked like rain. Wayne turned on the NOAA weather radio and tuned in to a newscaster telling residents to take shelter in basements away from windows because of the tornado. Oh my! We continued to listen, trying to figure out where exactly this tornado was. It was in the area of Westcreek in northern Teller County and southern Douglas County, Colorado. I quickly pulled out the Colorado map to pinpoint the location and discovered Westcreek to be about 30 miles west of us, in the mountains – right where we could see that terrible storm. The weather radio said the storm was tracking SE, and we were already north of it, so the kids were reassured that they would not be in danger. Apparently the tornado made national news, because my sister called me on the cell phone to see if we had encountered it and to make sure we were all right.

We spent two wonderful days in Boulder Colorado at the house of our dear friends Mike and Reggie. Mike was actually out of town at his family’s farm in Pennsylvania (we’ll see him on the last leg home) but Reggie was incredibly hospitable and we had a very relaxing break from the road. She even had a Wii (video game system) which made Adam (and the other kids) extremely happy! She and Adam consulted quite often on how to get through the Zelda game, and the kids created some new Miis for her (don’t ask, because I don’t know). We also got to do laundry again. It was fun for me to explore my old college town and see how it changed from what I remembered from 25 years ago. I did drive past my old church building (Cornerstone Foursquare Church) which had been sold to an architect who converted it into offices, but left much of the churchy structure. It was kind of unsettling not to have it as a church anymore. I took some photos to send to my old pastor who used to preach there. We left Boulder and started the trek home. We had lost a day, so we decided that the route would have to cut out Mt. Rushmore this time (one day’s drive due north from Boulder), but maybe if we did a northern route sometime, we could see it then. With that, we headed through the northeast corner of Colorado to Nebraska. Once we got past Denver, it was amazing to see how flat the Colorado countryside was – like night and day! We kept thinking we must have gotten into Nebraska by now but still had 100 miles to go. One good thing about heading into this part of the country was that that the kids were no longer affected by the nosebleeds that occasionally plagued them in New Mexico (each one of the kids got at least one nosebleed, and Jordan and Adam had several).

We drove on through Nebraska and made it into Iowa where we spent the night at a private campground in the town of Newton. I didn’t really think there would be much to see in these few states, and that it would be rather boring, but was pleasantly surprised at the landscape. True, it was certainly the great plains, but the fields were green and there were beautiful wildflowers everywhere. This was definitely farm country, and we saw many small windmills dotting the countryside. Turns out they are used to pump water out in the fields for the livestock. We also saw lots of grain silos and various pieces of farm equipment. You see, I have become very knowledgeable on the subject, because I picked up a brochure from the last welcome center entitled “What is that farm thingamajig you see out your car window” (I kid you not!). We got up the next morning and wanted to see some local sites. The Danish Windmill was recommended. That sounded kind of cool so we decided to check it out. I told the kids what we were going to see, and one of them could not understand why someone would want to make a windmill out of danishes! The windmill was fascinating, and an excellent example of those made in Denmark from earlier centuries. On the way out, we saw a few modern windmills as well. We made one more stop in Iowa at Winterset City Park in Madison County Iowa. This was one of the locations for the filming of “The Bridges of Madison County” and had a covered bridge in the park. There was also an old stone tower to climb in as well as an English hedge maze. And to cap off our time in this small Iowa town, just several blocks away was the birthplace of John Wayne.

We finally got back on the road (speed limit was 75 again!), although we made a side stop on the interstate to visit “the Largest Truck Stop in America. This place was like a mall! It had a food court, and about 6 separate stores inside, as well as the Truck Museum. I embarrassed the teen girls by trying on black leather fringed motorcycle jackets. We then crossed over the Mississippi River (return trip this time) into the land of Lincoln and headed on to Chicago, where hopefully we could stop and see my cousin Kathryn before settling into our next campsite in Indiana. It was getting late, and we weren’t sure if we would be able to stop, but Wayne was saying that we have such little opportunity to see relatives that live far away, that we shouldn’t pass it up. He was absolutely right! So we pulled into Chicago and were greeted by Kathryn and her husband and kids and actually stayed at their house that night. It was such a treat for the kids to meet their cousins for the first time, and it was so nice to renew our relationship. The last time I had gone cross-country on a trip like this, it had been with Kathryn and her family (I was 14 or so, and Kathryn was about 3 at the time), so it was fun to reminisce. I had a lot of great memories from that trip that spilled over into this trip.