Saturday, June 4, 2011
Marion County Park, Knoxville, IA: 5/24-29
We arrived at this lovely county park and found plenty of spots to choose from -- too many really because it took us over an hour to decide on the "perfect" one for our needs. After setting up and having lunch, we made a Walmart run and found a shop that could repair the truck. We settled in to enjoy ourselves and not worry about when we would get the truck back. Of course, this meant they were very fast, and the truck was back Thursday morning around 10.
When we mentioned our location on Facebook, we discovered that Knoxville is where our good friend Jan Redding's parents had lived and that they were buried in the cemetery we could see from our window. This was an amazing "small world" coincidence! We were able to visit the grave, add a few flower garlands to what was already there, and check that the engraving had been done to Jan's satisfaction. It was a nice Memorial weekend activity.
With the return of the truck, we could do some sightseeing. The small Dutch community of Pella was high on the list of recommendations, and we spent most of a day there, looking around at the interesting architecture (lots of windmills), doing a bit of shopping, eating out ("Dutch" seems to not be one of our favorite cuisines!) and visiting bakeries (On the other hand, their baked goods are divine!), where we made many purchases! We missed their annual tulip festival by a few weeks, but with our dislike of crowds, we were not totally sorry. Pella was also the boyhood home of Wyatt Earp, whose cabin was part of the historical village. On the drive up we stopped at the Red Rock Reservoir Visitor Center. This is Iowa's largest reservoir, made even larger this year by the record rainfall & flooding. We drove around and over another section on our way back to Knoxville.
For the actual holiday weekend days, we decided to mostly stay close to "home". The cg had gone from mostly empty to overflowingly full, with many family gatherings involving multiple cars, RVs and even large cooking grills mounted on trailers. Part of the park we were camped in was an historical town & museum, which were open on Saturday, with costumed interpreters and a small bake sale and some very home-spun musical entertainment.
Our last day here we visited the Knoxville Butterfly Garden (on the recommendation of Jan) and also walked around the historic Town Square. The Butterfly Garden has a number of small plots off of the main walk that individuals or families can lease & tend to their own personal likes. Jan's father had one of the plots for a number of years. The flowers were lovely, but it was a bit too early for the butterflies.
When we mentioned our location on Facebook, we discovered that Knoxville is where our good friend Jan Redding's parents had lived and that they were buried in the cemetery we could see from our window. This was an amazing "small world" coincidence! We were able to visit the grave, add a few flower garlands to what was already there, and check that the engraving had been done to Jan's satisfaction. It was a nice Memorial weekend activity.
With the return of the truck, we could do some sightseeing. The small Dutch community of Pella was high on the list of recommendations, and we spent most of a day there, looking around at the interesting architecture (lots of windmills), doing a bit of shopping, eating out ("Dutch" seems to not be one of our favorite cuisines!) and visiting bakeries (On the other hand, their baked goods are divine!), where we made many purchases! We missed their annual tulip festival by a few weeks, but with our dislike of crowds, we were not totally sorry. Pella was also the boyhood home of Wyatt Earp, whose cabin was part of the historical village. On the drive up we stopped at the Red Rock Reservoir Visitor Center. This is Iowa's largest reservoir, made even larger this year by the record rainfall & flooding. We drove around and over another section on our way back to Knoxville.
For the actual holiday weekend days, we decided to mostly stay close to "home". The cg had gone from mostly empty to overflowingly full, with many family gatherings involving multiple cars, RVs and even large cooking grills mounted on trailers. Part of the park we were camped in was an historical town & museum, which were open on Saturday, with costumed interpreters and a small bake sale and some very home-spun musical entertainment.
Our last day here we visited the Knoxville Butterfly Garden (on the recommendation of Jan) and also walked around the historic Town Square. The Butterfly Garden has a number of small plots off of the main walk that individuals or families can lease & tend to their own personal likes. Jan's father had one of the plots for a number of years. The flowers were lovely, but it was a bit too early for the butterflies.
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 1:22 PM 
