Up to Fort Dodge, we’ve got some people to visit. First is my brother, Jack, who is very involved in his deck project but was able to spend a little time with us. Ha, Ha. Since we all do a daily walk, we decided to take off through Fort Dodge, He has his usual path but, being the contrary souls that we are, we wanted to walk a different way and add a bit to the walk. Poor guy, we really mess with his mind. We circled around, walked over the river, down an embankment and returned through a beautiful walking/biking path that Fort Dodge has recently put in.
Isn’t it amazing how many trails and paths cities are putting in for walking and biking? How many years ago was it when there were not bike trails and you had to take your life in your hands to bike in the city streets with drivers who really don’t want to share. Now, cities are all putting in trails for walking and biking, often repurposing railroad beds and bikers can go for miles. Iowa put in a new trail, not only repurposing an old railroad track but also an old railroad bridge. Funny, businesses are growing along these trails, restaurants, bike shops, ice cream stores, pie shops. 20 years ago - who would have ever guessed this? It’s such an amenity for a town.
Fort Dodge has also built a neat track for quarter scale car racing and they even have official races and judges and all. People come from all over Iowa to race their cars here and, since these are sanctioned races, the winners can go on to other races. I’ve never seen anyone near this track in all the times I’ve visited Fort Dodge. Well, I guess I’ve just been there on the wrong days. I should have been there in 2014 when the National Championship Races took part in Fort Dodge. Oh, well, Meanwhile we did stop to chat with some of the guys that were just practicing with their cars today.
Cool race cars. We were talking about the models he buys and then modifies for racing. Not much can be done to change the actual motor and, in fact, the judges take the winning car apart down to the wires and then hand it back to the owner in pieces. Just to prove that the car had not been modified in any unauthorized way. Then - the owner gets to put it back together for the next race.
Along the new walking/biking paths were some kiosks with posters showing some historic scenes of Fort Dodge. Here’s when the ‘Flats’, a lowland area next to the Des Moines River flooded back in 1947.
After we had walked with Jack and had eaten lunch, we talked some more about the new iPad that he has gotten. He's having a great time with his new 'toy'. And, it's ever so much fun to text and e-mail him with pictures that we have taken of our travels. Then, he gave us some tomatoes and potatoes from his garden, we said our good-byes and headed on over to Friendship Haven where one of Gary’s aunts, Marian, was staying after she had injured her arm. We hadn’t told her that we were coming so surprised her.
We then visited another of Gary’s aunts in another nursing home and then went out to her house to see her daughter, Lin, who was staying for a while. We haven’t seen Lin for ages and what fun that was. She and her husband, who has just retired, have bought a 5th wheel and traveled out to California to visit their daughter who lives out there. We not only talked about the family but also RV’ing adventures. A neighbor of her mother and father had just brought over some apples, some sweet corn and a huge seedless watermelon and, since they could not eat half of it, gave it some to us.
Boy, have we gotten a lot of food from our trip up to Fort Dodge. We’ll have to go more often.
‘Thinking is free - do more of it.’
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