Day 12 -- On to Platte, SD

We left Waterloo behind, and also the major highways to wend our way toward Alta, Ia -- home of Randy's high school classmate, Dave Curbow. When Dave emails, he often says he is writing from "Nowhere Land"...I always thought he was exaggerating, but (sorry Dave & Joan!) I see now he wasn't! Towns are small in this area, cornfields continue to be large. I expected the towns to have little prairie farm houses, but was surprised to see many beautiful ornate brick and Victorian style houses. Clearly, these towns, though small have been around much longer than our little towns of the West! I could have spent a day taking pictures of these pretty little towns and their mansions! Here is one of the lovely little churches along the way...

We got to stop at Curbow's and visit a little while with Joan and daughter Anne. We were sorry to miss Dave and James who were off coaching and playing (respectively) baseball in Sioux City. It was fun, after all these years, to finally see their place and their town.





As we finished our trek through the great state of Iowa, we decided that it is the state of mammoth buildings (which we saw in every major city) and even larger cornfields. My favorite city slogan was "Rockwell: The Buckle in the Corn Belt" : ) Since we were so close, we thought we should see Dordt College, so took a drive around the campus. Then on our way to Platte we missed a turn for our planned route, and were rewarded with an unplanned route that was very scenic -- and shorter!





We arrived in Platte around 7pm... a long day...and got rooms at Dad's cousin's motel, The King's Inn.