Day 20 Emmetsburg, IA

It's 7 p.m. and the Emmetsburg library is open until 8 so I will take this opportunity to send a few lines.

The land in Jones County was rolling, but the land in Rockwell City, Iowa, was flat and it is pretty much flat here. I stopped in the shade of some trees in Boxholm to eat lunch. These are very nice trees. They do not grow over 40 ft. tall but they branch every which way about 8 ft. off the ground so that makes for a very dense circle atop a slender trunk. Wonderful shade in this land of vast spaces where the sun beats down.

Around Roslyn there was a sign on the road "Be alert for cross winds". I had been aware of them ever since I left Boone, but 'twas true that right there near Roslyn the NW winds were very gusty. I wondered where the windmills were and figured the farmers thought their land more productive for crops, but about 50 miles further on, there was a line of windmills. Paradoxically, in nearly the same place was a whole line of the old telephone poles, the ones with a crossbar on the top with an insulator on each end and one on the top of the pole. I don't know how many years it's been since I've seen those old poles.

The State Park campsite last night near Boone, IA, was one of the best so far. They had sown wildflowers in the park and across from the park was a 30 acre field they had sown to native prairie grasses, very attractive. And on the access road to the park some wildflower had seeded itself in great patches, about 2 feet tall with lovely white feathery flowers that waved with the wind. They had carefully cut around them when they mowed the roadsides. Very pretty.

Today I spent hours in two different county courthouses, plus one library, and several hours driving. Will sleep well tonight. I usually have no trouble falling to sleep about 10 and waking between 6 and 6:30 This is my last stop in east/central Iowa. Will be going on to Minnesota next, but will visit Iowa again later.