Meet Me In St Louis

Amazing to think this
was made by a 90 year old
- it's huge

Still in the Des Moines area we did a day trip to Pella.  On the way we found this sculpture made with wagon wheels in the middle of nowhere.  Of course we had to stop and discovered it was built by a man in his 90’s.  Gotta be impressed with that.  We followed this up with a bit of hide and seek in the corn.

Who can spot the Mills sisters hiding in the corn?

Vermeer Windmill, Pella

Finally got to Pella.  Pella is famous (world famous in Iowa) for having the tallest working windmill in the USA.  The town itself was founded by a group of people from Holland seeking religious freedom back in the mid-

How many of you with Dutch
heritage remember carpet
on the tables?

1800’s.  The townsfolk are very proud of their Dutch heritage which is reflected throughout the town.  We ended up spending several hours wandering around both the town, the mill and the historic village finishing up at a steakhouse for tea.  We even brought some buns baked with the flour ground at the mill.



Someone left these clogs outside - Jean's
trying them on for size

"Check out my new shoes" Sue appears to be saying

Leaving Des Moines we first went south then headed east to visit the 

Who remembers this face
from Sunday evening
television in NZ?

small town of Marceline in Missouri.  Marceline is where Walt Disney grew up and he had a real affinity for the place – kinda like the two of us and Westshore.  Main Street USA in Disneyland was even modelled on Main Street, Marceline.  We called in at the old railway station that has been restored and turned into a museum honouring the Disney family.  Completely lost track of time and almost got locked in for our troubles, eventually leaving almost half an hour after closing time.  I’m sure we would have coped.

M - I - C (see you real soon)

K - E - Y (Why? Because we like you)

M - O - U - S - E

  Spent the next two nights in Walmart car parks – love their hospitality and we do get our groceries from them from time to time.  

All this touristing
is thirsty work

Not so keen on being joined alongside by trucks who leave their rigs idling all night long so they can have air con but, hey, it’s free so who’s complaining.  In between these Walmart stops we were in Hannibal, the home town of Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain. 

Even Jean got suckered into
painting

Spent the day wandering around the town taking in a lot of the Tom Sawyer sights including re-enacting the famous painting the fence scene.  Almost went for a dinner cruise on the riverboat but it wasn’t a genuine paddle steamer so we just took photos instead.



We'll find a genuine paddle steamer one day