Return To Fort Madison

Greetings from Amish Country in North-Central Indiana. Tomorrow we make land fall in Lansing, and then off the Port Huron for 5 more days. Yesterday, we stayed over one day in Iowa City, and that permitted a side trip to Fort Madison. I have not visited since 1972, so I was looking forward to seeing how the town had changed. I am pleased to report, that the Pen City looks just about how I remember it looking.

I did not run in to anyone that I remembered, but we could only spend a couple of hours looking around. Main Street still looks the same with many of the same business still there from when I was a kid growing up in High School. The old drive-in theatre where I used to work was no longer there – just an empty field with some trees.

There is a riverboat casino in Riverview Park now, and the old train station is a museum. Amtrak had built a new passenger station in Shoptown, but it is just not the same. Fort Madison is still a railroad town, and is still a major stop on the old Santa Fe line on the way from Chicago to Los Angeles.

While passing through Omaha, we were able to stop and visit with my nephew, Adrian Thomas Enzastiga. We toured Boy's Town and were quite impressed. The museum was a trip, and quite impressive. Today, Boy's Town accepts both Boys and Girls, and still has a sterling reputation. We were sorry we missed Tammy as she was in San Diego running a race for charity, but we were able to visit with my grand niece and nephew - so that was very pleasent.

Tonight we are near Elkhart, IN – The RV capitol of the world. More than half of all RVs come from this spot. Well, I will drop a few lines when we reach Port Huron, MI.

The Bonneville Salt Flats and Beyond

Hello again my friends. I write these lines from West BumF**k, Wyoming. This morning we headed out from Wendover, NV across the Bonneville Salt Flats towards the Great Salt Lake. The flats were quite impressive (Just look at the Salt Flats Sequence in Independence Day), but the Great Salt Lake was breathtaking. You think the Salton Sea smells?

Salt Lake City was very green located at the foot of the first Mountain Range of the Great Rockies. That took us up to well over 7,000 feet, and now here Rock Springs, WY, we sit at about 6,300 feet in a very high area of the Central Plains. I think we are through with really high mountains until we reach Cheyenne. This little Hell Hole has a good WiFi connection – go figure.

Sorry, no pictures of the flats since I was driving. Until next time, hope you are all enjoying these little postings.

Anyone Like Pink? 

Bodega Bay

Wednesday, June 02, 2004

Hello Everyone – sorry it has taken me so long to write a few words about our trip so far, but Bodega Bay did not have Internet Service, so we had to wait until we got to Reno.

Bodega Bay is a charming location on the coast about 40 miles from San Francisco. Alfred Hitchcock chose this location to shoot his mystery film “The Birds”.

The Rainbow RV Rally was a huge success. The campground was sold out for the Holliday weekend, with many of us choosing to stay a couple extra days. There was a get-to-know-you get together with drinks and snacks on Friday, a Pot Luck Dinner Buffet Saturday Afternoon, and a collective Rummage Sale on Sunday. We sold all of our Animated Digger Dogs (all 5 of them). Of course, we kept the one that started it all for ourselves. I have included a picture of one rig with dozens of Pink Flamingos scattered about to give you some idea of the colorful nature of the assemblies.

Being mostly an older crowd, some of these guys had been together for many years. We met many new friends at the social gatherings, as well as just wandering around or sitting under our Patio Awning and socializing. We were able to drive up the coast and see some of beautiful Sonoma County. Just 30 miles up the coast is the Russian River Area which is located in a beautiful rain forest area – as opposed to the semi-arid nature of the coast closer to San Francisco.

On Tuesday we pulled out and started our Trek East stopping at the KOA campground at the Hilton Hotel. Our path took us over the High Serrias through the famous Donner Pass. We climbed to 7600 feet before we started on down to the high plains of Reno, Nevada. We arrived here about 2:30PM, and were able to enjoy the Buffet at the Hilton, and then drop some nickels after dinner. We have WiFi here, so we were able to catch up on our Email and such. I had 270 messages in my inbox, so it took me a while to catch up. Tomorrow we head East once again for Salt Lake City and beyond.