WANDERINGS FROM YOUR PRESIDENT
BY GAYLE STUART
It’s not my age that bothers me; it’s the side effects.
We took a bus tour of Eastern Iowa in September. We started in Des Moines by having lunch
with a couple that we traveled with in Europe several years ago. It was fun to catch up with each
other on what we have been doing.
We spent some time in the Amana Colonies going to their wood working buildings and ate at the
Ox Yoke Inn at noon. We listened to a lady talk about her flight from Austria to the United
States after Hitler’s rise. Then we had dinner at her place.
We visited an Amish farm and heard how they live. Next on our tour was the National Toy
Museum in Dyersville. At the Basilica of St. Francis, we learned about the renovations that had
been made there; it has many, beautiful stained glass windows. Leo and I had the chance to
attend a Stuart wedding in this church several years ago. Next was the Field of Dreams, where a
person who was in the movie talked to us. He came out of the cornfield for pictures.
We spent a day on a Mississippi River cruise with three meals provided; we went thru three
locks. Our last day was spent at Cinnamon Ridge Farm, a very large farm, where they do robotic
milking and lots of experimenting in growing crops. At Stone City, we saw a Freedom Rock and
went down into the deepest rock quarry in the Midwest.
I have a cousin whose daughter is taking her to France to see where her father, who was killed in
WWII, is buried. Lorraine American Cemetery and Memorial at St. Avold, France. She did not
really know her dad (we were several cousins all about the same age of 2 – 2 1/2) at the time. Her
dad was my dad’s youngest brother.
Another cousin had been the one that gets the notice if someone dies and we have had a couple
more in the last month. We are now down to on the last count of the Olson side (7 girls) 9 of 23
grandchildren and on the Larsen side (10 children) 8 of 46 grandchildren. Each side has 4 on
both sides the same.
gbs