Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Oh, I forgot to mention that Monday afternoon, on the way home, we did get to go to a Very Super Art Shop!!! It's entitled Studio of Good Earth, owned by William and Annette Gudim. Annette does the pottery. I have always wanted a handmade soup tureen, and I found a very nice one (and brought it home with me!). I also brought some cards by an area calligrapher. Our daughter is a professional calligrapher... I'd like to brag, but I'll try to restrain myself! (However, you'll find her website on my YardisGreen site!)

Annette mentioned that her husband does the woodworking... it is very high quality. They also show artwork created by 45 artists and craftspeople. You might see if you can't find it!

There wasn't a real hurry to be up and out of the motel this morning, but we did have to be back home by 6:00 p.m. (A meeting).

By the time we had driven an hour or so, we called some friends (what nice people we know!!) and found they were both home! So we visited for a couple of hours and had to leave before we wanted to.

It was another beautiful day! We'd been blessed with great weather this entire trip. Wisconsin's fall weather has been like ours... a nice one with prolonged mild weather. No freezing temperatures to create the intense reds you might expect to see at this time of year.

These photos were taken (from inside the car) as we drove along the Mississippi River in Wisconsin.

Not much color, but I took photos of what I could.

Here's the "Mighty Mississippi."

We drove quite a number of "back roads"in Wisconsin, driving into Iowa at Prairie du Chien. We stopped in Mcgregor where we found a nice little place with wonderful ice cream(!). We walked out of the store with such generous "double dip" servings. Mine was in a bowl, and (really, she served us two dips of each kind!)I had two dips of huckleberry and two dips of mint chocolate chip. Strange combination, you say? Well... only if you're being too critical! ;-)

We were able to drive through Manchester, Iowa on the way home. We'd lived in Manchester for one year (not long enough). Our son was born there 28 1/2 years ago. It's a very nice little town within 1/2 hour's drive to three nice large metropolitan areas... Waterloo/Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids and Dubuque. We drove past "our old place." We actually found it. Things looked good.

Oh, well. Living in SE Iowa is nice, too.

You just can't beat a nice little trip to almost anywhere when you have no absolutely specific moment-to-moment agenda and you have "all the time in the world!" Very relaxing and fulfilling. While I'm ready for another trip (anytime!)... it IS good to be home.