The Arrival...

We made it safely today! It was a stormy night last night, and several huge storms came rolling through Des Moines. We were very grateful that it quit by the time we were ready to go. There were a few sprinkles, but by afternoon, it was beautiful.

We finished the trip in Iowa and hit Nebraska about 11 AM. I was surprised to see how Iowa's topography changed again. It really reminded me greatly of Pennsylvania, or parts of Virginia. There were more areas that had the 'terraced' fields. They were not really terraced, but the farmer would build a huge mound of dirt and then leave it wedged up to stop the erosion of the water as it runs down. I have some photos and I am hoping you can see it. We also got to see the birthplace of the great John Wayne! Another surprise is how many DIRT roads there are! We will be driving along the highway and see what looks like smoke and realize that it is dust from the cars zooming by on the gravel/dirt roads that are off to the side. Amazing. I wonder how they are in the winter?

Anther really interesting thing that we saw were DOZENS of huge wind turbines! They were all over the place! Adair (I believe) had 36 that I counted. They really seem to be ahead of the curve in using them out west!

The trade fair starts tomorrow, but we went and set it up today. Patrick set up one of his Baker windmills. That is the movie I embedded above. It sure attracted a large crowd when he let it run! Take a look closely and you can see the gears moving behind the windmill 'sails' and you can see how it pumps. This windmill is a rare edition from 1912, and it has an open top so you can see those gears. Usually they are covered by a 'helmet' and you can not see them working. Everyone really loved to see it! There are all sorts of folks there, and all sorts of parts and whatnot as you would imagine. Some of it is really pretty cruddy looking. But then again, what do I know?