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| On Thursday 4/19/12 we left the Prairie Oasis in Nebraska and we headed east on I 80 |
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| We crossed both the Platte and Missouri Rivers and entered Iowa. |
Shortly into Iowa we came to Council Bluffs Iowa. Gramma found us a beautiful place to spend the night. This is us in The Iowa Arrowhead Camping and Fishing State Park
This an important place in Gramma's family history. Three generations of her family lived here, including the Kippen, Heatherington and Schultz families. Gramma contacted the Pottawattamie Genealogical Society to get directions to go there.
As it turned out their office is "dark" on Thursdays. But when they heard Gramma's story they sent their cavalry pictured here to open up only for her. Doloris Mauer is on the left and Marilyn (what are the odds?) Erwin is on the right. Even though it was a rainy, dreary day in a musty library setting these gals were bright with enthusiasm and happy to help Gramma. Found were records which only exist here--birth places and marriage data. We returned home wet but grateful to those ladies and the spirit of Elijah.
The next day (4/20) we left Council Bluffs and headed east again on I 80. Around Des Moines faulty signage caused us to miss our turn south. To be honest, getting lost in an awkward 50 foot rig raises the anxiety of both navigator (let me be clear here--this was in no way the navigator's fault. Seriously) and the driver. So, for those trying to follow our trek on a map we drove the long way around Des Moines--a really big city and were on these highways: 35, 5, 65 and 34 to The Indian Hills RV Park in Albia, Iowa
This was a nice full hook up park near the eastern edge of Iowa. The strange and unique thing about this park was their office was elsewhere. We registered by phone using this yellow phone. Strange or not it was a relief to be back on course and stopped for the night. The next day (4/21) we were to travel to Nauvoo, Illinois. We'll talk about that one in our next post.
P.S. Our Blog service has changed stuff. Let me know if you noticed/have comments
P.S. Our Blog service has changed stuff. Let me know if you noticed/have comments
3 comments:
that is cool those ladies opened up just for mom. glad she was able to get things done. I noticed a new background.
Congrats for adapting to the changes and for navigating Des Moines. We have friends there and I know how (not) fun it is driving around there :)
Glad to hear that you are doing lots of family history. We are wanting to do more of that so would love to be of any help we can.
Christopher has read every blog post from this trip and he loves looking for all the highways on his map. He is asking me daily for updates. He wants to know what state you are in, and how many more states you have to cross until you are at Megan's house.
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