The last few weeks in Mesa were so busy, and the internet connection so poor that I didn’t get to write about all the new and wonderful things we saw and did. Now we are on our way home, so I will fill in the other stories later, and complete the trip now.

Winslow Arizona

“Standing on the Corner in Winslow Arizona” is where we were late on the first day of our trip home. After battling high winds most of the day, Jim was ready for a break. It was a Sunday so the streets were nearly empty, but we took pictures of the man “standing on the corner” with his guitar and the “girl in the flatbed Ford,” lines from the popular Eagles tune Take It Easy that put this little town on the map. One shop was open, allowing us to pick up a couple of souvenirs before getting back on the road.

Standing on the Corner

Girl in Flatbed Ford

Amana Iowa

For the last few days we’ve kept on “truckin’”, partly because the weather has been too cold and wet to do any sightseeing, and partly because we have things we need to take care of at home. But today we did make another stop along the way. Jim had read about the Amana Colonies in Iowa, a group of seven villages that were established on 25,000 acres of land by several hundred True Inspirationalists of Germans, Swiss and Alsatians who fled Europe in 1854 to pursue Religious Freedom. They originally settled near Buffalo New York, but when that area became too crowded they purchased their acreage in the Iowa prairies, near the town of Victor. Since we were passing by the turn off from I-80 that would take us to them, and it was lunch time, we decided to make the ten mile detour.

It was well worth the time. We first stopped into the Schanz Furniture woodworking shop in South Amana, where we viewed the beautifully hand-crafted wooden creations and had a peek at works in progress. The friendly staff equipped us with a map and directions to find the several restaurants in the first and largest village of Amana. What a beautiful, old style village! We enjoyed a home-style lunch at the Ox Yoke Inn before climbing back into the already cold motor home, and getting back onto I-80. We managed to get ourselves to Princeton, Illinois before calling it a day.