Iowa

From Michigan we drove about 400 miles to get to IA the same day.  Made it to West Liberty which is about 30 miles west of Davenport and 30 miles east southeast of Cedar Rapids.  We picked this area to stay because I have relatives in Cedar Rapids and we have friends in Davenport.

Along the way we saw this car (Edsel) - looks to be in pretty good shape!

Crossed the Mississippi.

Our campsite was nice.

On Friday afternoon we drove over to Cedar Rapids to visit my cousin, Paul, and his daughter Whitney and Matt and their daughter, Marisa.  It was great to get caught up with them because we had not seen them for many years.  Judy has kept up with them thru Facebook so we have been able to follow them somewhat.  And Marisa is a Girl Scout so we are always reminded when the cookies come out!!!

Here are several pictures - you can guess who is who!!

 We took this picture of Paul and Whitney.  They wanted to re-create a similar picture that they have when she was very young with the same doll.

This was on the wall of their dining room.  Very appropriate.

Marisa showed us her climbing skills.

 Anyway, we had a great visit and had some great food after Matt got home from work - several varieties of brats on the grill, etc.

On Saturday we had made arrangements to meet up with friends, Dennis and Mary Beth in Davenport for supper.  (Dennis and I worked at Deloitte in Dallas for several years).  Anyway, we got to the restaurant called the Machine Shed:

Busy place but Dennis and MaryBeth weren't there.  So I texted him saying that we were here!!  Got a phone call about 2 minutes later - said they forgot we were going to meet and they had just finished eating.  So, we ate and they came when we were about finished with our meal.  For dessert, we had a piece of carrot cake and the four of us could not finish it!!
We did have a nice get together and found out that they are in the process of moving to Green Bay to be closer to their daughter and family.

On Sunday we drove to West Branch (about 8 miles from the campground) to go to church.

After the service we visited the Presidential Herbert Hoover Library here in West Branch.  Very interesting.

The view from the cemetery to the house they lived in.

Later we had lunch at a great little Mexican restaurant in town.  It looked almost deserted when we first arrived but by the time we left, there were alot of customers there!

After lunch we drove back to the CG and got ready for our trip across the state to Nebaska.