Josephine's Journal of the Trip to Iowa

We got started this morning at around 8:00 — really got going on the highway at 8:45. It takes that long just to get out of Tucson. We have driven just one and a half hours and stopped at the Texas Canyon rest stop just to get out and test the weather. There is a lovely cool breeze. When we left Tucson it was already 91 degrees with a forecast of 110 for the day. Tucson's elevation is 2,500 feet and we are now at 5,000 feet. I'm ready to move our home here — but then I guess the winter months wouldn't be what I like about Tucson.

George says we're in Cochise's Chiricahua Mountain Territory now. Lovely large rolling mountain ranges. Fort Apache is where Geronimo was captured and then put on the Southern Pacific train and sent to Florida as a prisoner of war — later Georgia — and finally Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where he died. All of this took place in the late 1800s.

The area near Bowie, Arizona has acres of pecan and pistachio trees that are fertilized with hazardous waste from the east. Hard to understand how that could be allowed.

George has just pointed out a mountain range that, at its peak, has an image resembling Cochise's face. Up ahead he points out Steins Peak. During Cochise's time there was an Indian trading post there. At one time the Army talked Cochise into coming for a peace parley, but when he arrived the soldiers captured him — putting him in a tent which he slit open with his knife and escaped. There are still a couple of little shacks on the low mountain. We can just barely make them out from the road.

Large wide open spaces here. A road sign points to Douglas, Arizona, and I remember that grandson Tim was born there some 27 years ago. Tim now has a son of his own — Tristen Mabon Borchert. We plan to see them in Omaha at some point.

You can see for miles. It's not so nice now — just dry-looking shrubs and desert. The only thing that has life is the highway. The big semis are zooming by constantly.

The wind has started up, and as we went through a sheltered area between two hills I got a good scare — I felt like the motor home was going out of control. I just closed my eyes and prayed. George said everything was under control, but it certainly hadn't felt that way for a minute or two. It looks like rain ahead. We haven't seen rain for so long in Tucson that we'll enjoy it. But not the wind, thank you!

We spent our first night in San Antonio, New Mexico. It was so cool that no air conditioning was necessary. It rained really hard for a while. We went to bed early and didn't hear the 3:00 a.m. train that came through close to our court.

On the road by 8:00 Tucson time — probably 7:00 New Mexico time. No sun, nice driving weather. Albuquerque is our next big town. We are following the Rio Grande river bed. It is the third longest river in the United States, emptying into the Gulf of Mexico from Texas.

We spent Friday night in Liberal, Kansas. The old Southern Pacific had tracks running alongside the court — a very active run — and we heard train whistles at all hours. But we felt rested in the morning. We're on our way again at 9:00. We'll be going through Russell, Kansas to see where George lived for a spell at age 13. It's 61 degrees and foggy.

It's now 2:00 in the afternoon and we're at Russell — George and Bob Dole's home town. We've decided to stay overnight. Met some nice neighbors from Texas. We checked out the library, which closed at 4:00 — we had planned a longer stay. Drove to a neighboring town where George had also lived. Had a good dinner and watched three good movies.

We slept in, had our showers and decided to stay another day and rest up from driving. However when we checked in with Mike we were told there was an offer on the condo. Our realtor Rose confirmed that a young couple had made an offer with $2,000 in earnest money. We gave a counter offer and told Rose we would be at Thom's the next day to handle the paperwork by fax. This meant hitting the road again. By 1:00 George was behind the wheel and we were on our last stretch to Iowa. We arrived after 9 hours of driving — really tired and hungry.

In the morning we had just 36 miles to go. We arrived at a nice KOA, got our papers signed, and spent the week visiting with Thom and Barb. We also drove over to Omaha to meet Tim's wife Tina and their 6-month-old son Tristen. We had dinner together and he was such a very good little boy — a joy to watch. Sure wish he lived closer so I could play the part of great-grandma.

The week has passed and I need to record our goings-on or I'll forget what happened. They call that a Senior Moment.

It was so nice to spend the week with Thom and Barb. They fed us some delicious meals, took us to church and a band concert — Thom and I had chili dogs one day and some time to ourselves. The park we stayed in had an ice cream social every evening. Thom and Barb came out for one, and I must say we missed very few.

We left the Sioux City area Monday morning and headed for Tripoli (pronounced "Tra-po-la" by the locals) and Fayette. We had planned to see Jeannine, my high school friend, around 3:00 — but on the way the fan belt on the motor home broke. It seems the pack rats back home had been chewing on it. This caused about a three-hour delay. We were very fortunate to get it fixed as easily as we did, but we were not in the mood to stop in Tripoli late that afternoon, so we continued on to Fayette to park for the night.

But this was not to happen. The hookups at Klock's Island were not sufficient and the ground was too soft — so at 5:30 we continued on looking for a place to park. We headed for West Union, only to find nothing better. Finally in Oelwein we were able to stay at the city park. It was so good to finally stop, and we signed up for two days.

The fun began the following day. We headed back to Tripoli in the car, and got a chance to visit with Jeannine who was sitting on the election board. It is wonderful to be received with such warmth. We took pictures of the hospital, which has now changed owners for the first time since we sold it to the Bungers back in 1949.

Next we went back to Fayette and saw the Maple Motel in complete ruin. About a month earlier the Volga River had flooded, leaving 3 feet of water in our house. This seemed unbelievable. The new owners had flood insurance and will rebuild the motel along the highway. That is the end of an era for me. We had built the motel in 1959.

Our next stop was Upper Iowa University. This place holds so many dear memories. We found Mary Kimball, who was a very good friend during those college years — Mary is now Vice President of Upper Iowa. The campus is absolutely beautiful. Later, visiting with Vic and Gussie Crafton, we were told that Upper Iowa is the largest private college in the United States. It is a joy to see it doing so well.

We got in a good visit with Bonnie and Verdell Schmalle. Bonnie remains such a dear friend. Ernie and Joyce Dahlquist had left the day before to visit California — that was my only disappointment in Fayette. We also got to visit with Margaret Henry. After two days in that area we left for Iowa City.

Again we had trouble finding a full hookup court, and with the constant traffic around cities this gets to be a difficult situation. Finally we were settled, but with the understanding we could only have the spot for two days. We spent the first day resting and letting Arlene know we'd arrived. Everything worked out really well. She has recovered from her back surgery so completely. We had said we wanted to take her to lunch, but in true Arlene fashion she had to treat. We went to West Branch to see the Hoover Library and stopped to leave a note at Jeremy's — only to be pleasantly surprised when he answered the door. That was really a plus. Then on to the Hoover Library, first a soft ice cream cone — so good.

That evening Arlene had prepared a casserole dinner — delicious — and rhubarb pie! Mindy and Kevin came over with her great-grandchildren. Arlene enjoys them so much. We visited until 9:00 and went back to the motor home. It had been a good visit with Arlene. I only wished it could have been another day.

The Fourth of July was the following day and we needed to find a place to park. We drove a long time on Friday — it had gotten really hot and humid. I'm so thankful for the beautiful weather the day we spent with Arlene. It had been perfect. Today it is close to 100 degrees with very high humidity.

We are heading west with no particular destination. Rose phoned four times so I did business with her while George drove. When we stopped at 6:00 p.m. we were both tired and hungry. We had a delicious chicken salad, watched TV, and were in bed by 10:00. We needed the air conditioning on all night.

Got a slow start. The heat, humidity, and wind were unmerciful. We plan to go only as far as Russell, Kansas and stop there over the weekend — a nice court and not expensive. The KOA courts are $26.00 per night; this one, even with cable, is only $10.00, and it has sidewalks, paved roads, grass, and shade.

The motor home started popping as soon as we began driving — acting as if it wanted to stop every time it popped. George just drove on as though nothing was wrong. The wind was against us and it was hilly. We only made it because George put the motor home in second gear, and when he did it stopped popping. Many cars along the way had to stop and retie their camping gear as the wind was so strong. I'm glad we don't have a long trip today. We'll be in Russell by noon.

July 3rd, 4th, and 5th we were parked in Russell. We waited out the storm of heavy winds, rain, and heat. It would have been impossible to drive the motor home in those winds, and we wanted to have her checked out by a mechanic. We had gotten an appointment for Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. and were at the station by 7:30. George had diagnosed the trouble himself — and he was right. By 1:15 we were on our way again.

During our stay in Russell we entertained ourselves with some excellent programs on C-Span reviewing Presidents Washington, Jefferson, and Adams. We drove over to Abilene to visit the Eisenhower Library and also visited an old fort. Got to see the school where brother Ted and George had attended in their younger years. Got some groceries and did some laundry. We are headed for Tucson — we need to get back to sign papers for the condo sale and remove the last of the things still in the garage.

We're thinking about taking the motor home on to California and leaving it there, as it is 15 years old and George doesn't feel we should be driving it on long trips anymore. I'm in agreement. I know I would never get out on the highway with all the big trucks and this large vehicle. So we'll see. If we can find a place to keep it there we can still use it in summer to get away from the heat.

Boy, when we decide to go home it reminds me of a horse we had. It was so hard to get the horse away from the barn and down the road — but if you turned it toward home it took off like a streak of lightning. This old motor home is off for Tucson! Of course we've had to set our watches back an hour, so we've got an extra hour. And since the motor home had its problem fixed it's just purring along.

Today we had around a 500-mile trip that was trouble-free. When we crossed the Arizona state line we were pleasantly surprised by a cloud-covered sky, one deluge of rain, and a couple of smaller ones. The beauty of it was that the sun wasn't shining, so we missed the 5:00 to 6:00 western glare that always accompanies a late afternoon return to Tucson. We drove into our driveway at 6:05 p.m. on Thursday. We had been gone three weeks, and our flowers had really taken off. I guess it had rained every day for the past five days. The lawn and everything looked just beautiful — a welcome sight, because usually when we're gone in summer everything dies.

It is so good to be home after a successful trip. I was so happy to see Arlene doing so well after her back surgery — she's going strong. The great-grandson was such a picture of peace, and his mom and dad were appropriately proud. Thom and Barb made us feel very welcome, and it was good to experience their love of home and family. They will all be going to a lake in Minnesota in a few days — Annie from New York, Lyn from Tucson, and Tim, Tina, and Tristen from Omaha. It would have been so good to spend a relaxing week with all of them together, but the condo sale seemed to be something we needed to get back to and settle.