Barbee, Denise, Teresa, Sara,Henry
We left Omaha about 7:30 a.m. to get to the Iowa Machine Shed Restaurant near Des Moines by 9:30 for brunch. It is a really beautiful place, country store and restaurant with that rustic atmosphere. They sell all things John Deere and the dining room had a big sign with that name on it. Barbee and friend Denise came a few minutes after us, we hugged and greeted each other, then were seated for breakfast. Again, the choices were wonderful. We each ordered something different, except Denise as she works night shifts at the hospital and is not used to breakfast. I had an omelet with has browns and sausage links. Enough for me. Henry’s portion was big. He shared a slice of real smoked bacon and small piece of country fried ham. Sara had three big pancakes which she could not finish. Teresa’s plate had hash browns, toast and country fried chicken. Barbee had bisquits and gravy. Neither could finish their plates. And plenty of coffee. Water and juice for me.
One of the other customers had ordered the cinnamon rolls. This is not your ordinary roll. It was more like a quarter of two-layer cake. That would add a few calories to your diet for sure.
This is a cinnamon roll....
We noticed that when the staff prepared for lunch, they moved an old wood wagon to use for the salad bar. Unique. When we paid the bill, one of the ladies asked where we were from and I told her Japan and why we were here. I was standing next to a tray of those cinnamon rolls that were wrapped in plastic. She said to pick out two—for our travels. Thank you so much! I chose one with pecans and a plain one. Mind you, we really did not need to have one of these, but, after all, she insisted. We thanked her and I gave her one of our prayer cards.
We got back on the I-80 East to Illinois. Along the way we ran into two rainstorms, complete with lightening and thunder. The first one was before we crossed the Mississippi and we had a detour to take. After getting back on the main highway we ran into another severe storm. This time we had to pull over because we could not see. After a few minutes it let up a bit and we started out slowly again, only to come across a semi-truck that turned over in the left lane.
The rain was so hard, we could not see.
It did not look as if anyone was hurt but a few hundred yards down the road we saw a police vehicle that looked like it spun off the road onto the grassy median. Just a lesson in how to drive carefully through a rainstorm.
We got to our next destination about 4:45 pm, which is the Coon’s house. We know them from our days at Independent, but they left there about the time we came to Japan, so we have not seen them in 20 years. They live on a family farm out on a country road. The house sits on three acres and they own 17 additional ones they lease to a local farmer who is growing soybeans this year. Last year it was corn. This man is a Christian and plows their driveway when it snows heavily. We showed David and Debbie photos from IBC and the Shuffields and our kids when they were much younger. There are several pictures in my book with their girls and our boys together. David made spaghetti for dinner, with fresh radishes and home-canned green beans’ quite tasty.
The youngest daughter, Jesse, is 21; her two older sisters Jackie and Jamie are married living in different states. Their house is a family heirloom, several generations old. Family live nearby. It is a very nice place to rear your children.
We are staying here on Wednesday because Dave called his pastor and told them about us, so we will be going to church with them on Wednesday night.
