On our way out of Iowa we passed this place, these are drive-by shots.

It didn't look like it was open, so we just kept heading on down the road.

Maybe next time we head by this place it'll be open so we can stop in and take a look around.

I told you in a few posts back that I would post about watching the barge heading down the river.

We stood on the river banks and watched the barge go by.

Finally it made the turn.

The barge was on it's way and so were we, heading on down the road.

Sunday we took a drive, hubby wanted to go to Farm and Fleet and one of the nearest ones is in La Crosse Wisconsin.  We always take different routes especially on a nice day.  Realizing our route will take us near the bridge that will take us over the Mississippi river we decided to take it.

Crossing both bridges landed us in...

We saw a barge heading down the river, and since hubby loves water and boats we had to stop and watch it go by.

I'll show you more of the barge in another post.

Today is voting day, I'm going to head out this morning to vote, it's snowing right now and let me tell you the snow is not going to stop me.

Hope y'all have a wonderful day.

One of our sons had seen this hamburger stand on the Travel channel called Pete's Hamburgers.  So, we took a drive to Prairie du Chien last Sunday and stopped by for a burger.  We actually have seen this before but never stopped, but now we did.

We walked up and saw the line was pretty long, but we figured we came all this way we were going to wait.

Waiting in line we could see the cook working hard.

So, after we got our hamburgers we went by the river to eat them.

One bad thing about this place is, the hamburger stand is only open for 6 months out of the year.  But, if we don't get there by the time they close next month, we'll visit there next spring.

 At the Amish tobacco farm the men were cutting the corn for silage.

Turning back I spied the wagon coming into the farm yard.

I did ask permission and was granted it to take these photos.

We headed to Illinois for the Labor Day weekend.  On the way we took a different route, though it took a bit longer we found some new places.  If you remember I did a post about a tobacco barn last year this time.  I've been wanting ever since to see a tobacco field.  Well, this past weekend I got my wish.  Jim actually spied the tobacco field first and stopped so I could snap some shots.  This field is getting cut and stacked like this to dry.

Then Jim went down the road that runs in front of the farm.  I stood up in the van to get higher so I could get a better shot of the farm.

Jim decided to drive up the driveway to see if anyone was out to ask if we could get a closer look of the place, I was hesitant going into someones yard.  Going down the road I commented that it looks like there are Amish living in the area, because I could see the buggy tracks on the road.

The farm turned out to actually be a green house where they sell mums and it also turned out to be an Amish farm.  There was an Amish woman out tending to the mums so Jim got out to talk to her.  She was very happy to let us look around.  I asked her if she minded me taking pictures and she told me that it was not a problem.  I also asked her if the men would mind if I took pictures of them working and she told me that would be just fine, so those photos I will share later.

The barn where the tobacco is being dried.  The barn was not your typical tobacco barn, it was a dairy barn at one time that was re-vamped to a tobacco barn.  We were able to walk inside and the smell that was inside the barn was wonderful.  I don't smoke and neither does Jim, but we both loved the aroma that filled the barn.

After leaving the farm I spied another tobacco field as we were heading down the road.  This one I took on the fly, so sorry it's not that great.  The lighter green is the tobacco.

I'm glad we went this way and I hope we go back this way again.

Hey Y'all, I hope you are doing good.  I can't believe that it's been so long since I've posted.  I've just been a busy girl here.  I've done lots of quilting, and we've been working around Gentle Hearth getting is all spruced up.  We finally got rid of our rotting railings and finished installing the new ones and here's how they look.

Can you believe we have green grass???  It was brown and crunchy not long ago and it needs a mowing BADLY!

I'll share with you some shots we spied on our way to and from LaCrosse to get some stain for the deck and railings.

Had to turn around for this one that Jim spied.

I've entered some of my photos in the fair for the very first time ever, so I've been busy going through them.  We also entered our maple syrup.  Wish us luck.

The Wisconsin High School State Rodeo was held this weekend and loving rodeos as I do we had to go.  It's been a long time since I've been to one and I really have to say that this was the best rodeo that I've seen in a very long time.  These High School kids were awesome and I had to keep telling myself that they were just kids.  They worked hard trying to make it to Nationals that is being held in Wyoming.  The participants were not only from Wisconsin, but Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and Michigan.  I didn't get any shots of the bull riding event, but one of the kids was just a freshman.  These young men and women were simply amazing.

The winner of each event wins a saddle.  How awesome is that?

The rodeo barley started and this little one was yawning.

Our son came on Saturday to visit, our daughter-in-law had to work so he just came.  So what did we do? We headed back to the fair grounds to see another round of rodeo fun.

Only Bob wasn't there, just his music.  It was a hot one with the temps in the 90's.

Did I tell you it was a hot one?

Hope you all had a wonderful Memorial weekend.

We went to Iowa for a Sunday drive and went to Pikes Peak.  I've been to another Pikes Peak years ago and that one was in Colorado.  This Pikes Peak and the Colorado Pikes Peak are named after the same fellow.

We had a really fun day getting out and seeing the countryside.