When I was a child in Fort Dodge, IA, my grandmother lived about 45 miles north of us in Algona, IA. We would drive up to see her about twice a month and one of the sights we could count on was all the farmhouses dotting the farmland. Just like the picture I've included here, you could see the trees surrounding the farmstead to block the wind. There were several out buildings with a large barn in the middle. Finally the homestead, with flowers planted around it and a garden off to the side. All very well kept: the barn and out buildings painted, the trees trimmed, the flowers weeded and the garden ready to be picked.
Because the trips got long for my brother and me, my mother used to have us count cows or sheep or horses on our side of the road. That kept us busy all the way back home. If we were driving back at night, we used to count the lights from the farms. Luckily, I knew which side of the road had the most so I always won.
Too often the same countryside between our home town, Fort Dodge, IA and where we live now, Des Moines, IA, which is some of the best farmland in the world, is now just fields as far as the eye can see. Oh, there are still farmsteads but we also see plots with a few trees surrounding an outbuilding or two but the rest is all corn or soybeans. You can tell where the farms used to be but so many of them are gone now. Seeing all the farms in the northern part of Iowa and the southern part of Minnesota was a chance to travel in the 'way back' machine and indulge in a bit of nostalgia. Remember when?
We ate lunch at a small mom and pop restaurant called Jerry’s in Belmond, IA. Here are Gary and I being greeted by Jerry as we entered the restaurant. Everyone enjoyed their meal: I had a delicious salad - just right for a day of travel.
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