10/14/2009 - Iowa & more SNOW!

Wake up at 5 am and tried to go back to sleep, but the cats were “obsessed” about something! I finally gave up at 7 am and got up….of course, with some “dozing” before I finally got up!

I heard “thumping” on the roof toward morning so the first thing I did was open the shades……MORE SNOW!!

After getting out of bed and brushing my teeth, I grabbed my camera to go outside and take some pictures of the motorhome and the snow. To my wonderment, I startled two deer that were nearby. I stopped soon enough for them to stop also and stare at me while I took their picture. Pictures turned out a bit dark as it was too early yet for bright enough light…but I did get some!

Once I was sure the deer were gone, it was time to "record" the snow & the motorhome....:) Opened mail and processed before leaving at about noon! I turned to secure everything, looked at the couch across from where I was working and this is what I saw......

FOUR CATS ALL PILED INTO ONE "DONUT" BED!

Since the snow was melting pretty good, I took a secondary hwy (69) south to avoid back-tracking (about 14 miles) to the east to catch I-35 again! I have found that the secondary roads are nearly deserted with only the slow downs in “some” towns, so my speed is about the same as on the interstates. Near Blairsburg, I was only 4 miles from the I-35 instead of the 14 miles and I got to see the countryside without the stress of the freeway and also avoided all the highway construction on the interstate that was going on when I drove north a couple of weeks earlier.

On the drive down Hwy 69, I noticed a lot more wind turbines than I had on my drive north. I did alittle bit of research on the internet to answer my previous question of why there weren't more of them since Kansas & Iowa seem to get so much wind. Well, the cost alone would answer the question….“$1 to $2 million dollars per million watt of nameplate capacity“. And for those of you who may be even more curious about the design, here is a website that I found really interesting….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_turbine_design

I arrived in Des Moines about 3 pm and wasted over an hour looking for a post office. I wanted to mail a package of the “fresh orchard” apples to my mother for her birthday, but Des Moines was determined not to be “responsible” for my precious cargo! I had even called ahead to explain that I was driving a motorhome and wanted to know the easiest postal location for parking. Can you believe they told me the “downtown” location! I truly believe that many of the employees of the US Post Office forget to put their heads on in the morning! But I didn’t know for sure, and maybe, just maybe, this employee knew what he was recommending and so I tried!….and I do mean tried!

I not only went through the downtown area to find the 2nd Ave station, I even drove along Grand Ave only to find an “annex” station and to be told that I couldn’t mail from that location...and after driving through not only the busy streets, but construction and narrow streets! I was told to go to the Ingersoll Ave & 35th because it would be easier for me than the downtown location. I had no idea where Ingersoll was!….so I left thinking I would mail the package in a smaller community and hope the apples would arrive in an “eatible” condition!

As I was trying to find my way back to I-235, I came on Ingersoll, so I decided to follow it to 35th after all. Luck would have it that 35th and Ingersoll was in a college & residential area that must have been at least 100 years old!….I not only couldn’t find any parking if I knew where the post office station was, but it was in a hilly area where the driveways and some intersections had “dips” in the road that make for scrapping the tailend of the motorhome as the front tires to up hill! However, I was lucky.....I didn't scrap.....I just slowed down and let everyone around me slow down with me!

So now I’m sure the US postal employees in Des Moines aren’t any different than many other places! Now it’s time to forget this!!…..and head for the interstate. But which direction should I go? Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), earlier I turned left when I should have turned right! However the residential area I went through was really quite beautiful…..even when I came to the dead end!

Thank goodness, I have become comfortable enough with the size of the motorhome that I no longer panic when get into these kind of situations. I turned around, stopped to take a better look at a map that didn’t have enough street detail on it to tell me where I was, but looked for the larger streets that I had been on to see which direction I needed to head. I discovered the wrong turn and headed straight ahead to find that I-235 was only about 4 or 5 blocks from Grand Ave in the “other” direction!

After today, I decided it was time to buy that GPS book for my TomTom and use it for times like today!

Once back on the interstate, I looked at the time (about 4 pm) and decided how far could I go and still have enough light to find another state park for the night! Since it’s getting pretty dark by 6 pm, I decided that I better stop at Lake Anita State Park ( http://www.iowadnr.gov/parks/state_park_list/lake_anita.html) as that would give me a little more daylight in case I needed it!

Once at Lake Anita State Park, I discovered my furnace wasn’t working. But by this time, it was too dark and also raining to do anything! So I decided I would have to check my furnace manual in the morning to see if it’s something I could fix or it needed servicing by someone else.

To keep the motorhome warm until I went to bed, I decided to bake some apple pie cookies. My brother, Bob Jr, had given me the mix, which reminded me that I was long overdue to give him a call!
About 150 miles again today.