September 11th, well I think we made it through this day without any major disasters. I didn’t listen to much news today and of course the Sunday paper came out early with most of it dedicated to 9-11-01. Such a terrible, terrible day, even the cartoons were about it. All the gang in “Beetle Bailey” were at a memorial and all crying, even “Alto” the dog. I love that cartoon. For a change I’ve got a little bit of news from other people.
August 1st, my daughter, Anita (Twitty) Kelly, her son Jared and his wife and daughter went up to Prairie DuChein, Wisconsin (that’s where my sister-in-law, Marlene is from). They spent the night and then came back down the Iowa side of the Mississippi Rover and went through the Yellow River State Forest, went to McGregor and Pikes Peak Park and it’s the highest outlook in Iowa. I’ve been there and it is really high up, you can see Prairie DuChein from there and also see where the Wisconsin River runs into the Mississippi River; there’s some Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in that area (or was that on up in Winter Green, Wisconsin where the “house on the rock” is?) I think it was, I really like Frank Lloyd Wright’s work. Somewhere they rode a small boat through a spook cave. I liked the one we rode at Silver Dollar City with Claude and Marlene, we had laser guns to shoot at the spooks when they popped up and a sign or something came up if you hit them, that was fun.
I went through one at the Iowa State Fair with my fiancée, Vern (that passed away) and I assumed it would be the same as the one in Silver Dollar City, but I assumed wrong. I will never get on that thing again. They didn’t even stop the boats to let people on or off. You just had to jump on them as they went by and jump off when you got back. It was a big step up to get out of the boat. I think some spooks popped up once in awhile but they didn’t scare me, I was too scared thinking about getting back off when we got there. I guess a person is always worried about being embarrassed, like if I fell in the water or something, me with bad knees too. I got our tickets so I wanted to be a good sport. To make it worse Vern had to get in the back of the boat while I got in the front so I had no one to hang onto. I did survive. When we got back out into the daylight I told a girl that was working there (before I got to her) that I needed help getting off because my knees were bad, so she helped me. What a ride! I don’t know how they did it, but there were people who looked older than me just jumping on and off of it like they did it every day. I’m sure they did it more than me. Now back to Anita’s news again. Anita’s daughter-in-law, Carrie’s birthday was August 29th, so for her birthday she wanted to camp at Salisbury Park Friday and Saturday nights. Anita went there Saturday night and she said it was really nice. The Cedar River that comes by here goes through the park as well and she said they sat by the river and campfire, Jared and Anita’s grandson (Lisa’s son) Jacob played their guitars and sang. She said it was really nice. Carrie’s mom and dad and aunt were there, makes me wish I had went. Salisbury Park is a nice park, there’s an old bridge that goes across the river, but closed to traffic. I used to go there a lot on my way home from work and fish in the summer, of course. I would just walk out on the bridge, drop my line over the side and the current would carry it on down. I didn’t even have to cast out. I sure do miss fishing. I’ve got a lot of favorite places, but just don’t seem to get around to fishing anymore, too bad. It sure is a relaxing past time. The last time I fished there I think it was a sturgeon I caught. I don’t know of anyone catching one around here, but maybe they have, it was a good size too. They sure are an odd looking fish; like something prehistoric, I have some pictures of it somewhere. I have so many pictures I probably won’t ever see all of them again. I need to go through them and toss a bunch of them that aren’t very good. I used to get them printed where I got doubles and then a third set for just $1.00 more so I got three sets and lots of them weren’t any good. Thos I need to toss, of course before I got my digital camera I never knew how they would turn out. I got some really good pictures with the camera I used just before this one, but some of them were bad too. One night I was on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River and I sat that camera on a concrete flood wall and took a picture of Davenport across the river and it turned out just beautiful. The buildings all lit up bright and all colors shining in the water and across it. One time I was fishing in Davenport in the river on Concord not far from the 280 bridge, it has a big curved part that goes up high over the bridge in the middle, it’s painted blue and gold, the sun was just right when I took the picture and the reflection made it a perfect circle. There’s even an eagle there over the water, I bet I could never get another one like it. I like to take pictures of reflections.
Over Labor Day weekend, Walt (Bob) and I “pet set”, Candi and Jarred’s two dogs and two cats so they could to Missouri and visit her folks in Ozark, Missouri, Bob and Mona Stephens. We stayed there from Friday until Tuesday and enjoyed it. I got to pet and spoil Chesney, spoil him just a little anyway. He used to get on my lap, turn over on his back so I would rub his chest and tummy and I would kind of massage his little shoulders too. I think he would just about lay there forever like that. He hadn’t forgot about it and did that the first thing. It had been a long time since we had done that too. Toby’s a really friendly dog and sweet natured, but he’s a white lab and I think his head would fill up my whole lap. Ha He sure is a pretty dog. Jarred had gave Chesney a bath and cut his hair real short and he looked so cute, it made his eyes show up. We went on Sunday while we were there to finally get to see Walt Bob’s little great-granddaughter, Savannah, and is she ever cute. I don’t think she or her big brother could be any cuter if they tried. Her “big brother”, is a year and a few days older than her. Rylan was born the first part of January and Savannah was born January 11th, right after his first birthday. I’ve been crocheting her some cute little dresses and caps to match, but I need to make them a little bigger (the dresses). She sure did look cute in them though. Now I want to think of something to make Rylan. He’s really into trains right now so I want to make a train for him or make something and put a train on it. When he hears a train he says “choo-choo.” Anyway I’m so glad we finally got to see her and see Rylan again and of course Amber and Ryan, their mom and dad. Berta and friend, Joe, was there too so it was good to see them again. Berta said she was feeling a lot better now and the doctor had adjusted her medicine and got it straightened out, I sure hope she continues to do well, she’s been through so much. The reason we haven’t seen the baby girl yet is because we are always in the cities on week days and everyone’s at work. So since we were there for a few days we got to see them on Sunday. Then on Monday, Walt (Bob’s) son, Robert (Rob) came to visit us and we had a very good visit with him as usual. Then we three went to Hy-Vee and had a delicious meal from the “all you can eat” salad bar. Rob got some groceries and we gave him a ride home. Rob’s friend (I can’t think of his name right now) is a trucker and he bought a house in Seymour, Missouri and is getting ready to move down there, so Rob is going down there with him in a few days and kind of help him get settled in I think. We came back here on Tuesday and went on up to Tipton to gas up because Walt had to be at the VA clinic in Bettendorf the next morning at 7:30 to give blood for his yearly check-up, so we had to get up before breakfast that day. Ha, then we stopped at McDonald’s in Walcott on the way back and he had a Sausage McGriddle and I had a Bacon, Egg and Cheese McGriddle and it sure did taste good. Thursday we had to go back to Tipton to do some shopping and pick up some prescriptions for me and get my mail at the post office because I had it held while I was gone and I think we’ve stayed home since then and still enjoying sitting out in the yard. It has been so nice we just hate to come in, I take my crochet work out there with me and we even take a little cooler with ice froze in juice bottle and our bottles of water and my root beer and I always have my camera and both our cell phones and my wireless house phone in case anyone in the families need to call us, especially after what all happened to Berta and she is only 52, she’s still a kid (nearly). I told Walt it’s just like we’re camping except when I used to go camping we didn’t have those portable phones and the first thing I did was take off my watch and put it in my purse and if I wanted to know what time it was I looked at the sun and I could usually tell just really close, close enough for me anyway since I really didn’t care. I was camping on the Iowa River down by Wappelo, Iowa when Jimmy Buffet was going real strong with “Margaritaville” and it was on the radio all the time and there was a sandy beach along the river and I was fishing and caught a big cat fish and every time I hear that song I think of that camping trip. I have a lot of good memories of my camping trips and fishing. I’m just an outdoors person and always have been.
Now back to my news from other people, Bill Merritt of Ava, Missouri was nice enough to send me that picture and obituary of Lewis Heatherly and I’ve been thinking about how we’ve got pictures here of other family members of his too, because he is Bob and Dee Allison’s cousin. I tried to call him a couple times to see if wanted me to send him some pictures. We went to visit his mother, India, when we were in the Ava Nursing home to see my mom, Mary Maggard. I took a picture of India so I will try to find it and send him a copy. She sure was a nice lady and I’m glad I got to meet her. Anyway I called Bill this evening and we had the nicest visit and I’m going to send him some pictures and he is going to see if he has more to send to us. Bill said he had been sitting out in the yard the first time I called is the reason I didn’t get him. He said he’s got some little critters out there to watch too.
Then I called Frank Dee and he had some news for me. He said two weekends ago his seven little great-grandkids were there and they took them to Naobi Zoo in Coal Valley, Illinois. I’m sure that would have been really a cute sight to watch all those cute little kids looking at all the animals. He said the giraffes came over and put their heads over the fence and let the kids pet them and then they walked away just like they had done what they’re suppose to do. I really like giraffes; they’re so big and so gentle and got such cute faces. I was on Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs and feeding the giraffes, they were such likeable animals. They’ve been showing a baby one on TV that was just born at Naobi and it is so cute. I hope I can see it when I’m back over there. We go real close to it when we go back and forth, of course I’d like to take pictures of it. They’ve got elephants and all kinds of animals in there now. I haven’t been there since my kids were little and Anita is my oldest and she’s 51 now. Even though it doesn’t seem possible, I still think of her as in her thirties or maybe 40 and I still think of her daughter, Lisa as a teenager or maybe early twenties and she’s 36 as of this past June 30th.
Well back to other people’s news again (I sure get “side-tracked” a lot), that’s one of the reasons I don’t get much done at home. Dee said his late brother, Dale Allison’s son, Mitch came to see him a few days ago. We had just been wondering about Dales boys. We hadn’t heard anything about them for such a long time. He said Mitch asked about us. He said Mitch had brought a great big house down there near Ava, Missouri and where (close to) he lived with his dad and the rest of the family, pretty close to the Star Church. He invited all of us to come and visit him after he moves there. I would love to do that and of course see lots of other people too. Bill Merritt invited us to come and see him too when we’re down there. I know he and Bob and Dee would really have some catch-up talking to do, I told Dee maybe he could go with us and help drive as Bob (Walt) doesn’t know if he can drive all the way down there and back anymore. One thing that helps is the way we go down through Monroe City, Missouri and stop there and spend the night with his sister Hazel. She’s so nice and really treats us good. They’ve got those KFC buffets there so we always go and eat there, the three of us; I wish they had them here. They used to have one in Coralville next to Iowa City, but they took out the buffet. Hazel’s only child, her son, lives in St. Louis and she’s retired now so she spends a lot of time down there with him and she told us to stop and spend the night at her house even if she wasn’t home. Now how nice is that? Dee also said Mitch had been to see his brother, Mark, at Woodhull, Illinois and Mark had extensive surgery on his back not long ago and was sore and in quite a lot of pain. That comes from when he was on his motorcycle and a guy came over the hill in a pickup on the wrong side of the road because he was going to turn left and hit Mark head on. How can these kind of people even be allowed to drive. He should have known other people might be on the road besides him. Mark had just retired after twenty years in the Airforce and as far as I know he wasn’t wounded or anything, then this guy does that to him and he’s suffering from it. That’s too bad; he’s such a nice guy too and doesn’t deserve it. Dee said Mitch treated him to breakfast at the Deerfield Inn while he was here and I think he said Dee’s daughter, Cheryl cooked them a good meal too. Mitch brought Peggy up here with him to visit her sister June cross, so that was nice. I’m afraid if I write more, they won’t have room to print it. Take care of yourselves and bye bye for now.
