Saturday, July 23, 2011

The windmill: Final episode of our road trip

The people in Elkhorn, Iowa, proud of their Danish heritage, have a windmill that was disassembled in Denmark, shipped to them, and reassembled.  You can learn more about it HERE, and even see a couple of videos.  Cliff and I broke up camp Sunday morning and traveled to Elkhorn.  


We had a picnic in the city park.  

I just want to put in a plug for our GPS.  We'd be lost without it (literally) just getting from one place to the other.  But the "places of interest" feature that lets us find the nearest campground, city park, motel, or fast food place is amazing.  When you're traveling by the seat of your pants as we do, it surely makes life easier.  Let's face it, restaurants and city parks aren't listed on maps; and while state parks are listed, they can be hard to locate, not to mention how handy the "places of interest" feature can be when you are looking for Walmart.  We've never yet taken a vacation without visiting Walmart by the second day of the trip.  


 There were no actual plans to go by when the time came to reassemble the windmill; all the people of Elkhorn had to guide them was this miniature model.  


Cliff loves seeing how things work, so he gave the mill a thorough going-over.


Click on the picture to make it easier to read.


 I had to have one silly picture of me with a Dane.  


We also spent some time at the Danish Immigrant Museum in Elkhorn, where I learned that the Danes, who have always been firm believers in human rights, put themselves at risk and helped the Jews in their country escape to Sweden rather than let Hitler exterminate them.  It's nice to learn a little history while you're on vacation.  
I believe I've covered the high spots of our trip.  It was unbelievably hot, but we survived; and we're ready to head out again at the first sign the current heat wave is letting up.

5 comments:

  1. Walmart is listed as a place of interest? Really?

    What is this world coming to?

    I've always wanted to see the inside of a real windmill. Things that big and mechanical and made mostly out of wood always fascinated me.

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  2. LINDIE9:07 AM

    Maybe next week. Thanks for the pictures.

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  3. You did really well traveling in the heat. I don't have a GPS but use map quest when traveling it does the job pretty well. My kids all have them though and used them on our trip making life much easier. Hopefully this heat wave will be gone soon. I'm staying in the house much to much.
    Have a great Saturday!

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  4. Elkhorn looks like an interesting place. The windmill looks beautiful. Loved that photo of you with the Dane.

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  5. There is a whole town in California like that. It is called Solvang. Really neat place. I went there for a day when I was in the Air force.

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