Amy and Kurts Wanderings

Slept in a bit and breakfast at the hotel again this morning. After another quick stop at the KwikStar we headed for home. Had lunch at The Sports Page in Spencer. I had the Anytime Burger - burger with bacon, cheese, hashbrown, and fried egg. Was actually pretty good. Made a stop at Arnolds Park and walked around a bit. Just the amusement park and some tourist shops. Got ice cream at the Nutty Bar - cookies and cream with fudge sauce and Kurt got some caramel swirl something. Yummy of course! Walked along the lake as we ate. I noticed they had a bunch of porta-poties and was wondering what they had there over the weekend. We saw the stage in the clearing by the lake. During a stop in the bathroom before we left I was the schedule for performers for their FREE summer concert series. On THIS stage last night was one of my favorites - ELLE KING! I can't believe she was here and I found out THE DAY AFTER! Ugh! Oh well, I'll always have Grand Ole Opry memories... Back on the road f...

 We are staying at the Holiday Inn Express in Fort Dodge. A nice little place, fairly new and it had one of the best hotel breakfasts I have had. They had the typical cereal, breads, etc but also eggs, turkey sausage, sausage, make your own pancakes, biscuits and gravy, and warm cinnamon rolls. The eggs were actually very good and not the rubbery watery stuff you usually get. The sausage was good and the cinnamon rolls were excellent. Good breakfast! Mike and Rita picked us up about 9:30 and we headed for Des Moines. First we stopped at the Kwik Stop gas station across the road for some refreshments. What a gas station! They are talking about one possibly coming to Pipestone and everyone is all excited about it. I didn't understand what the buzz is all about but now I do! They have everything! Did some shopping in Des Moines, the usual Half Price Books, another used book/record store, and a comic book store. One of the stores actually had a section with legos and I picked up a Chri...

So yes, out next vacation was to Iowa.... Kurt's good friend Mike and his wife Rita live in Fort Dodge so we decided to take a little trip to see them. Had to get up and get moving as we had to have Buddy to the kennel down by Beaver Creek by 9am or wait until the afternoon. So we were out the door around 7:30. Drop off for Buddy went smoothly, he never looks happy but he didn't fight it. We don't usually like to take the interstate when traveling but really what's the difference watching the corn fields go by at 80 or 55. I chose 80. Went to the Camp Algona POW Museum in Algona, IA. Very nice little museum. I didn't realize they had so many POW camps around the area. In the Algona Camp system there were like 35 different branch camps and this was just one branch of many. The museum started with a very interesting 10-15 minute video on the history of the camp. The museum had displays about the life of the people that lived and worked there. It is worth a stop if you...