Right now I am sitting at a drafting table in Louise's and Joe's apartment at The Lodge. They own the apartment. I must say I love the different living arrangements I have had during my travels. This is by far the most posh, in terms of living. The Lodge is a seniors retirement "village", with four separate building attached to the main lodge, where there is an indoor swimming pool, dining room, for evening meals only, which are quite good, and there seems to be something going on everyday. This week was the Olympics, with each building competing against the other three. Joe and Louise love it here, and know everyone. There are about 120-130 people living here right now. It is fun to visit, and everyone has been quite wonderful to me. However, even if I could afford it, I couldn't see myself here on a permanent basis. However, I am perfectly content to come here and spend a few days.

I left Nevada, Iowa on Monday, headed for Fort Dodge, and the Fort Museum. The director there, Alan, could not have been nicer, and took me to where Major William Williams things were, and let me photograph them. Then we found what mother had donated to the fort regarding William H. Hawley, our Civil War uncle - five pieces of shot, balls, and bullets. That was it.

From Fort Dodge I took old Rte 169 straight south to Des Moines, passing through tiny towns, and lots of farms. The sides of roads were covered in yellow, purple, and pink flowers. There were Scottish thistles waving to me, and the seed in the fields is rapidly growing. I passed Doliver Park, where we used to go and have picnics, and I started singing 'THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD' from WIZARD OF OZ, as I can remember skipping down the paths there and pretending it was the road to Oz.

I got to Des Moines in the early afternoon, and there were Louise and Joe waiting for me. It was so great to see them. We have talked and talked and talked. Caught up on our families, ancestors, books, movies, finished several crossword puzzles, and laughed and laughed over our memories of Fort Dodge. Many times Joe would just leave and go sit in another room and read. And Louise and I just blabbed and blabbed.

Yesterday it was Olympic sports trivia, and I didn't really help since I am a guest and couldn't show favorites, but I did tell Louise to tell Joe one thing, and she did, very quietly! Louise had an appointment and I had a long distance phone call coming at 2:30PM, so I just hung out read, looked over papers, answered email. The phone call was about an hour long, and very interesting. Possibly more about that another time. After dinner, we went to Baskins-Robbins for real ice cream cones.

Today it was off to get shoes at SAS - I bought myself a pair of sandals and a most comfortable pair of good looking dressier shoes. I needed both very much, as I do get tired of wearing sneaks all the time. Then Louise and I went to the Iowa State Historical Building, and first went to the top and had a nice lunch. Then to the reference library, where very kind women helped to find William H. Hawley's letters, which one of them brought to us. I have to say that opening that file case, and pulling out manila folders with his REAL letters in my hand, put a huge smile on my face, and made my heart flutter. Yes, really flutter. It was nothing less than awesome. To have been looking for ten or more years for the real letters, and to find
and to find them in Iowa...wow! My mother had had them all this time. Also, enclosed in its own manila folder, was a very fragile diary, loose leafed, with cover missing. Tiny writing. Since it was loose leafed, I had one of the staff copy the entire thing for me. It will be my job to transcribe it, after figuring out the numbering, as there are two or three numbers on every page and the back of every page. And each page was about at the most 3 inches by 5-6 inches. Not a blank space to be seen. William wrote a number of diaries, and sent them home. This one seems to have been dated in mid-late 1863. I am happy as a clam!

Tomorrow I leave my dear friends, and run back up I35, to U.S. Rte. 20 east, passing by Dyersville and the Field of Dreams, to Dubuque, on the banks of the Mississippi, where I will be spending the night. I plan to go to the museum there built by the Smithsonian and all about the mighty Mississippi.

And, by the way, I watched NASCAR race Sunday, with Dick, and even asked him questions, which he very happily answered. NASCAR you say???? Yes, once in a while, I can make a change!!!

Adieu, Adios, Mahalo,
Love to you,
Sally