Touring Jefferson

1. Belltower- May go up to the top anytime, contact the Chamber office Ph.515-386-2155
2. Courthouse- If you go up in the Belltower first they will give you info about the courthouse or for a guided tour of the courthouse step into the engineers office and someone will assist you. The engineers office is located in the southwest area of the first floor.
3. All Abilities Bikes-As the name implies they have bicycles for anyone regardless of physical conditions.
4. Jefferson Gardens- A tribute to our namesake
5. Sally’s Alley- Sally White from Churdan was a great nature photographer. Some of her pictures grace the boarded up windows of the Lincoln Hotel.
6. RVP 1875-Woodworking done in same way as was done in 1875.  http://rvp1875.com/
7. Angies Tea Garden- A great place to eat and the gentlemen should not be intimidated by the name. The food is done with care and the amounts are hearty enough to fill most men. Excellent! Hours: Tue - Fri 11:00 am - 2:00 pm
8. Greene Bean Coffee House- Well liked stopping place https://foursquare.com/v/greene-bean-coffee/519c1dd4abd8e5210eea3207
9. The Printers Box- located on the south side of the square and a great place to browse for unusual items.
10. Ben Franklin- an old fashioned dime store and a great place to spend some time shopping.
11. John:15 Vineyard- Not a winery but a vineyard and so much more. Like the treehouse and the golf course and the barn-www.john15vineyard.com/  
12. Squirrel Hollow Park- http://www.mycountyparks.com/county/Greene/Park/Squirrel-Hollow-Park.aspx
13. Pleasant Hill Cemetery near Pleasant Hill Church and Squirrel Hollow Park.
14. Spring Lake County Park- http://www.mycountyparks.com/county/Greene/Park/Spring-Lake-Park.aspx
15. A & W root beer stand
16. Dairy Queen
17. The Hill Golf Course-Single annual membership $150
18. 209 Main- Paton Iowa- a great place to eat with a fantastic entrepreneurial story.

Lost

I lost a small coin purse containing a credit card, my drivers license and some cash. I lost it last Saturday somewhere on our biketrail adventure. I am bummed out about it big time. Yes, I will get over it. Yes, I am apprehensive about repercussions, Yes, I cancelled my credit card and duplicated my drivers license. I want to put it behind me and I will in time...I hope.

Recipe Goldmine

What a super duper recipe website. It was mentioned in one of our RV newsletters and I was certainly impressed with their initial offering of recipes. It is a recipe goldmine!

http://www.recipegoldmine.recipes/

Knee Deep

Colleen's computer crash has effected our lives. At least Mickey's, mine and a guy named David. The old computer has now been turned over to David, who may know more than we do,  to see if he can retrieve a very important file that Colleen had 95% percent completed at the time of the crash. In the meantime Colleen and I are working on alternative solutions for the future to insure this does not happen again.
This whole thing is more exciting than a mystery novel, at least to all but Colleen. She hopes she never sees this kind of fun again in this lifetime.
For me it is a challenge to see if I can configure the Chrome operating system to satisfy an editor. I will let you know when and if I am able to so. But I am learning many valuable things along the way.

When faced with a new way of doing things people will take different paths. I am pretty much a rat terrier in that I hate to let it go until I know it is dead or at least a dead end. This morning I decided to sit with this chromebook and not revert to the path I know best to get things done and you can bet I have met with more than a few obstacles. One of which is posting pictures on the blog. My old method on my big old laptop is so easy I could do it in my sleep. And it would be easy to fire it up and go that way. But what fun would that be, I ask? I have discovered about a half dozen ways to accomplish the picture issue of course and you will notice I did get it done but I want the quickest and easiest way. I am close.
I will stick with this until it becomes habit. That is the only way I will know it is securely wrapped with shrink wrap and stored away in a corner of my mind for quick and easy retrieval. So now for a nap...my brain is taxed.

Our Navy "Brats"

Our southern relations have become our northern relations. Granddaughter Ann and her husband Anthony are now a Navy family and live for the time being near Chicago. I snipped from facebook some great shots of their 3 daughters, Nina, Scarlet and Skylar. Skylar recently celebrated her first birthday.

And on Monday we...

Our friends Bill and Bev Gunderson drove from Atlantic Iowa to get caught up with what is happening in our respective lives. We first met Bill and Bev at the golf course in Atlantic and paired up with them many times in tournaments and also in regular everyday play. The first year we met them we invited them to join us for square dance lessons and they agreed. This added another layer to our friendship and made our friendship a year round one. We have enjoyed their friendship for many years and yesterday was no exception.
We toured the town, made an appointment for the belltower and then went to Paton Iowa and the 209 Main restaurant for lunch. One of my lifelong friends, Jean Bartley's (maiden name) daughter waited on us. Jean died very young but many of my childhood memories include Jean so it was a pleasant surprise to see her daughter Penny.
After a very delicious meal we returned to Jefferson and the Belltower.

                                  Bill, Bev, Barb and Butch

And then we got half goofy!

 Views from the tower...Looking northeast

Looking south

And these are a couple of people hanging out in the backroom at 209 Main
in Paton waiting for their big day!

And after lunch and the tower we came back to the "new room" at our house to play Bridge. Oh yes, I forgot to mention we also were in the same Bridge Club for many years. The guys beat us but only slightly. It was a fun day.

Trestle Trail Bridge Ride

Last week Sherri and I planned a High Trestle Bridge Trail ride but the wind held us back so we planned a ride for yesterday and here are my photos. I will post Sherri's contribution when she finds time to send them my way. We started at the Woodward Iowa trailhead and made our way to Slater Iowa and back for a trip of 25.3 miles. It is a gorgeous trip and very popular. The trail was one of the most crowded I have been on. Sherri and I rode single file for most of it. I think a weekday would be a better choice if that is an option for you. 

We met up with the guys in Boone at Jason and Laura's place. They had opted for golf instead of biking and Randy shot a one over par! He was pleased and Butch was impressed! After meeting up with the guys we attended a going-away celebration for Mike Morlan and his girlfriend Mia. Mike is  Laura's son and he is moving to Naples Florida. Mike is an emergency management associate with the city of Naples.

We decided to see if we could talk the guys into going back to the trail for the spectacular night viewing and they agreed! It is about 3/4 of a mile walk from the nearest parking area to the bridge. The nearest parking spot is on the Madrid Iowa side of the trestle bridge on QF lane. It is a dead end lane off of highway 210 and not all that easy to find. There are porta potties and parking. It would be much easier to find if you could do the finding part in daylight and return later for the night time experience.What I did not know is that not all of the bridge is lit! It would be truly spectacular if it was and I would like to see it that way sometime. As it is, a big section of it is not lit and the lighted section was at least another 1/4 to half mile further.

 Night walking in the Iowa countryside is a different experience and a strange one to encounter. Our ancestors would be puzzled that I would say that but how long has it been since you were away from city/town lights and walking through mostly darkness. It feels a bit disorienting at times. In our modern era it may be something many people have never done.

There were also many couples on the bridge. It would be a very romantic thing for a couple to do

It would be a neat experience for a family outing. We did see many families and I am sure it sparks questions from the youngsters. Walking along as a family in the dark has to be a different experience for both parents and children. 

Bridge entrance from the west.

Looking at a bridge on highway 210 from the trestle bridge.

The picture below is not one of mine. It was taken and enhanced by Jolene Dozier Oyer , a classmate of mine. The Jefferson  class of '61 contained a plethora of talented people. This is one of the finest pictures I have ever seen of the High Trestle Bridge.

Piles up

Sometimes stuff just piles up. I think of all these neat things I can share as I go about my day and then it gets all clogged up in my head and it can be hard to sort it all out.
Sunday- Jerilynn and Pete, Jefferson friends stopped by for a visit. They will be wintering in Florida this year and were wanting a small computer to take in their RV. They spotted my chromebook on the table, asked a few questions about it and ordered one. More on this subject later.
Monday- Butch had a pre-op appointment for his colonoscopy (routine as it had been 11 years since he had the last one)
Tuesday-Cleaned up Colleens computer for her and did some organizing while she was gone. So when she returned we needed to go over a few things and show her what I had done so we spent the morning after our walk doing that.
Wednesday- 2 long distance computer "repairs" one from Canada and one from Michigan. Both were easy fixes.
Thursday- Computer class went well and we worked on moving files in Chrome, downloading and moving files. Spoke of the danger of third party downloads and warned against it. Colleen dropped her computer! Butch was busy doing his prep for his scheduled colonoscopy.
Friday-  I messaged Mickey to ask her if she had the knowledge and equipment to retrieve files from an injured computer if it was at all possible. She said "yes" which was music to our, meaning Colleen and I, ears. This is the sort of work Mickey did on her job with the federal government. She is a hardware person whereby I am more of a software person so at times we make a good team.
But I was Butch's driver for his colonoscopy so I could not get involved with the attempt at resuscitation until Butch was back home and sleeping off the remainder of the anesthetic. So here is what greeted me when I went to Mickey's makeshift computer repair shop.

This picture reflects pretty much what Colleen was thinking. She had stumbled into Nerdville and Geek street neither are places she has any liking for.

But in this shot they both are busy looking for solutions and hoping.

Mickey and I consider this kind of thing fun where Colleen says,"I want to go have fun somewhere else, like my backyard pulling weeds."

On Mickey's counter are 5 computers of various kinds, 3 smartphones and an external hard drive. None of the computers are mine. Yes, that is a screwdriver in Mickey's hands. We had tried all of the antibiotics and it was now time for surgery. At this writing it was partially successful. Some files were recovered, unfortunately not the 3 most critical ones. Last I knew it was still an ongoing process. Stay tuned for further developments.

Next entry will be all about Saturday...

New Grocery store

The new Hy Vee grocery store will be up and operational by the time we return next Spring. 2 1/2 blocks from our house! We are excited about this much more than we are excited by the casino!
You can read about the construction process here:
http://greenecountynewsonline.com/2014/09/24/walls-up-on-new-hy-vee/#more-10404