PENDER, NEBRASKA-------LITTERALLY THE MIDDLE OF NO WHERE

 We came to Pender because it was sort of on our way to our next stop Lincoln, Nebraska. We have a Blue Ox tow bar that we use to tow our car. It is supposed to be serviced every so many years or miles. We have had it for several years and it has never been serviced. It can't be done locally so we would have to mail it in and it weighs a ton. So, when we were planning our trip David scheduled a time to get it serviced. As it turns out, they have a campground on their property for their customers or any one else that would like to use it. It is very nice, but does not have a bunch of amenities like pools, showers or laundry, but it is FREE for Blue Ox customers. So not knowing how long it would take for service we scheduled 3 nights. 

Getting here was no an easy ride. The roads were small and rough, thru a lot of little "townships", not really towns. Lots of dried corn in the fields, wind turbines. John Deer and International Harvester seemed to be the bigger businesses. 

                                                  

                                                   

It was a short distance to drive, but took a long time due to the roads. I noticed on the map that Pender is sitting in the middle of the Winnebago Indian Reservation with the Omaha Indian Reservation next to it. There were several tiny towns like Pender all around the area with no grocery store, no Walmart, and only a couple of places to eat. etc. The only place to shop was Cubby's which was a gas station with a convenience store. They had a fast food counter and actual groceries in the back. We bought some cube steak to make country fried steak which was delicious.

                                                 Pender | Cubby's Convenience Stores (cubbys.com)

                                                   The Blue Ox campground was a surprise.

As it turned out, it is very nice. Full hook ups with some wifi and a concrete pad. We let Rebecca know when we arrived and the next day they came over, took off our tow bar, serviced it and brought it back in a couple of hours---very fast. There were only a couple of other MHs here and we didn't have any issues with it,, so it was pretty quick. Had we known how fast it would be we could have scheduled less time here. It did give us a chance to sit outside with the kitties and relax.Our last day here it po\ured rain all day. Not that it mattered since there was NOTHING at all to do while here. It gave me a chance to work on the sweater I'm knitting. The body is done now and I'm working on the sleeves now.

                                                            Views from the campground

                                          This is a VIP RV site, which unfortunately wasn't ours.

                                                    There was a beautiful sunrise the day after we arrived.

All round this little township there were quilt blocks and quilty things on businesses. This one was in the town area by the hardware store, tin ceiling tiles made into quilt blocks.

Almost every business including gas stations, John Deer, and others had quilt blocks on their building. I would have expected that in Iowa more than Nebraska, but I was glad to see it. Wish I had taken more pictures. When is the last time you saw a Sinclair gas station? Notice the quilt block.

                                                                            Next stop Lincoln, Nebraska.

WINTERSET IOWA, THE HOME OF FONS & PORTER QUILTING, THE IOWA QUILT MUSEUM, JOHN WAYNE AND THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY

 We have been in this area for 3 days and I think we have seen everything there is to see. I didn't realize initially what was here. I knew the Fons and Porter Love of Quilting Magazine was published here and there was a small quilt museum, but for such a tiny place there is much more.

The countryside was littered with farms, windmills, corn fields and lots of dusty dirt roads.

We arrived on Saturday, Sept 25th. The CG is the KOA West Des Moines, IOWA and it was jammed packed. It turned out they were having a Halloween event here with a party, treat or treat, costume contest and more. It was full of kids and parents and there wasn't an empty site any where. I was a fun event for the kids and fun to see the kids all dressed up.

We decided to go out to eat at Brickyard burgers and Brews. I had a great hamburger and David had a chicken sandwich that he said was very good.

The next day in the afternoon we went to the Iowa Quilt Museum which was housed in an old J C Penney store downtown Winterset across from the Courthouse.

They had some beautiful quilts hanging, mostly antiques that were hand quilted.

This exhibit was owned by Mary Barton who was not a big quilter herself , but she was a great collector. Most of them were made by one person, but hand quilted by a group.

                                                This Hawaiian quilt was beautifully done.

                                This one looked very familiar. I think I've seen it in a magazine before.

                            They had a bed turning where you could put on a white glove and look thru the quilts.

This log cabin had 1/2" strips and it's another one I have seen in a magazine.

After the quilt museum we walked around the corner and visited the John Wayne Museum.

It was a very nice museum and they were in the process of adding a new area.

They had a nice gift shop, a movie about John Wayne's movies and the actual museum.

They had lots of memorabilia, including the wagon from the movie The Quiet Man and Maureen O Hara's beautiful knitted shawl.

After the museum, we went around the corner to his birthplace. He was born in the house that his parents rented and lived there for 2 years before moving to a nearby area called Earlham. His father worked in the pharmacy in Winterset and due to problems with his lungs he decided to move west to California when John (Marion Michael Morrison) was seven and his younger  brother Robert was 3. His dogs name was DUKE.

 

It was a very small house, but they had lots of pictures and info on John Wayne's life here.

On Monday we drove to 6 of the covered bridges in Madison County. Only 2 were on paved roads and it was pretty dusty.

This is the Hogback Covered Bridge and you can see it has the original floor.

                                            This is Cedar Bridge. The original was destroyed and so it was rebuilt.

This is the Cutler-Donahue Bridge built in 1870 and sits in Winterset City Park.

The Holliwell  Bridge, built in 1880 and 110 ft long.

                                                                  The Imes Bridge is the oldest.

Look what we saw in St Charles. Of course it wasn't really open.

 The Roseman Bridge, the most popular due to the movie Bridges of Madison County.

After looking at bridges we went for lunch at a downtown Winterset Mexican restaurant and the food was good. Across the street was a Ben Franklin variety  store. They did indeed have everything, including fabric. I needed a zipper and some ric rac and they had it.

When we walked back we got a good look at the car. YIKES!!!

We needed a car wash.

Tuesday, we leave for Pender, NE.