The drive from Branson to Amana was a beautiful drive. We took secondary roads, now that we are more confidant driving them. Because the road was very hilly and went through many small towns where we had to slow down, our fuel consumption fell to 5.7 mpg. Yuck! But it was an interesting drive.
Friday night we stayed at our first Moose Lodge parking lot. We became members of the Moose last year through the sponsorship of our good friends Mike and Sharon Garbarz. Both Moose and Elk lodges allow members to overnight park on their properties. Some even have full hookups with water, electricity and sewer. This one, in Moberly, MO, did not--but we did not need them. We came in about 9 pm and were looking forward to dinner. Unfortunately, this lodge did not serve food. So, dinner consisted of a bag of chips and a drink. Dave ordered a Marguarita, which he enjoyed (as he did his second!). As we munched, we chatted with the manager and barkeep, Glenn. He was a great guy! Glenn's best friend is the sheriff, so he said he would call and make sure we were kept safe all night. The lodge building was huge--they could handle 300 people for a party. One of their very successful events were monthly teen dances--open to all teens in the community, including non-Moose teens. They have over 100 teens at each dance, and it is growing. They are going to twice month because the teens are begging for more days. Great community service.
As we drove into Amana, we noticed that they also have flooding. Many acres of farmland near the Iowa river were under water up to the top of the fence posts.
After we parked, we drove the country roads. Dave can't resist these kind of roads!
We were glad we didn't have the trailer in tow on these narrow, one-way bridges.
Several times we saw cows that were out of their pastures and walking down the road. When we stopped to take a picture of this one, she ran as fast as she could into a corn field away from us, then turned around and gave us a very wary look!
The back roads were beautiful, dotted with farm after farm. When we saw this one, all we could think of were paintings by Andrew Wyeth.
Tomorrow we plan on exploring the Amana Colonies. The Colonies were founded in 1854 by immigrants from the Pietist movement within the Lutheran Church in Germany. They lived for almost 100 years here in communal life. The area is rich in history and hand crafted artistry. Signs everywhere say "Willkommen!".
No comments:
Post a Comment