Road Trip

WARNING:  LONG POST!!

We took a little road trip this week.  We started out by heading to Northwest Iowa--Fort Dodge.  We had to take an antique music library up to be worked on, we hung around all day waiting for it, but it didn't get done. (long story)  So, we headed for Des Moines for the night.  Our first stop, of course, was:

Oh, the things you do for your hubby!  But then he returned the favor as our next stop was Homemaker's Furniture where we purchased a new 8 x 11 area rug for the living room.  Both of these stores are usually on our list when we are in Des Moines.  We crashed at a motel for the night.

Thursday morning we headed west to Walnut, Iowa, billed as Iowa's Antique City.  We browsed around town checking out all of the many antique stores and one little disappointing quilt store.  If you love antiques this is a great town to visit.  We added a 5 gallon Red Wing crock to our crock collection.  As we headed east we decided to trek down to Winterset to visit John Wayne's birthplace 

 and see a couple of covered bridges.  

These are on the National Register of Historic Places.  They are most famous for being in the movie Bridges of Madison County. While we were in Winterset we stopped at the Fons and Porter Quilt Shop.  Fons and Porter have had a show on Public Television for years.  It's the first quilt show I ever watched!  I was a little disappointed in this store.  I guess I expected a huge store with tons of fabric--that's not what I found.  I did manage to purchase a few fat quarters and a pattern while I was there.  Madison County Courthouse is in the middle of the square downtown.  It is a beautiful building. (I love big old courthouses)

We hadn't eaten since breakfast so next on our agenda was a little lot of food!  We headed for Joe's Crabshack by Jordan Creek Mall in West Des Moines.

We started with this scrumptious crab dip.  YUM!

Between the two of us we had crab stuffed shrimp (my favorite), a crabcake, coconut shrimp, haddock, deep fried shrimp, fries, onion rings, rice, and broccoli.  This was all in just two dinners!

It was FANTASTIC!  I highly recommend it if you like seafood!!  We rolled out the door and back to the motel.

The next day we started out at:

The Brass Armadillo is also a frequent stop.  We found that they had done some rearranging and cleaning up since we had been there last.  It is full of antiques and some collectibles.  Check it out if you are in Des Moines!  After that we stopped at another antique shop which I can't remember the name of.  I was tired of antiques by then so I sat in the car and messed with photos on my computer!  

Finally some 

Creekside Quilting was well worth the stop!  It is full of great patterns, Moda bolts and precuts, Robert Kaufman fabrics, notions, and Baby Lock machines.  Since I didn't have unlimited spending at my disposal, I had a hard decision.  I did manage to purchase a few things.  Then we went to Ankeny to Quilter's Cupboard.  This store also had a lot of fabric to choose from.  Since there was a quilt show in town it was rather crowded, so we didn't spend much time there.  (And, no, I didn't get to go to the quilt show.)  In between quilting stores and antique stores we did a little shopping at Kohl's, Younkers, and Catos.  

We headed to Pomeroy to spend the night so I could attend two wedding showers for our nephew Kevin and his fiance Kristen.  Bud visited other relatives during the showers!

We arrived home late Saturday night and got up early this morning to head over to spend a little time with Travis, Kerry, and Chance.

He was lovin' those Cheetos!! (And see those two teeth)

It's nice to be back home to sleep in our own bed.  I have a busy day tomorrow to get ready to leave again EARLY Tuesday morning.   Thanks to all of the relatives that put up with us for a few days, and to Trilby and boys for taking care of the dogs and cattle while we were gone.