Waterloo--Combine Rides and more

How can I describe today? It started simple enough, roll out of bed at an RV park, rub your eyes and realize you didn't' get anything for b-fast the day before. So you pack up and get going stopping by the nearest store...in this case a gas station with a mini-mart, and overspend for donuts, milk, coffee and such. Then back on the road for a 5.5 hour drive from the middle of southern Illinois to Mid-central Iowa.
A mid-day stop at a Hy-Vee (a Midwest grocery chain) and we had lunch and snacks. The drive was mostly uneventful. There were corn fields and soy bean fields and then more of both. Sayako up to now had seen the hills and forests of Kentucky all the way up to upstate New York and even Maine. Now she was seeing the farmland, the heartland, the plains.
We arrived at the National Cattle Congress and discovered that we would not be sharing our stage with the great Johnny Pierce and his Muttville Hounds. We would be in the same old beautiful building we were in last year, but he would be on the other side of the grounds. Too bad. Hopefully we will see him and his show. We bumped into him walking his dog. he was happy cheerful man today. It was nice chatting with him.
A friend we made last year, the magician, Eric the Extraordinaire, met us down at the fairgrounds and took us down the road to his house. He lives smack dab in the middle of corn fields. The property around his home has been in his family since 1859. The luck of it all was it is corn harvest time and his uncle, Jerry, was about and allowed each of our gang to take rides on the combine. In groups of two by two our group got to harvest corn. Mami said it was the best part of the tour so far. Sayako said it was like a dream. All the kids loved it. Amelia even got to keep a couple coronals of corn.
Afterwards we had an awesome meal with Eric's mother, father, grandmother, and dog. Coco is a very large older female that I am told is a big scaredy-cat. But she was miffed a bit by Belle's presence. It took until nearly leaving time that they finally tolerated each other. AS for the humans, we all got along swimmingly. It was wonderful. Everyone had a great time. Eric has a wonderful family. He also has a million legos and the little ones spent a ton of time in the basement playing with them.
I think the pictures below tell the story.








Lool closely at the picture of the driver below. That is James. He got to drive the tractor with the hoppers that carry the corn. How cool is that.

Sayako and Amelia were the first to get a ride and learn a bit about farming.

Jim follows the combine as it gathers the corn.


Here is the corn. It will be used for feed, syrup, oil and ethanol.

Eddie and Olivia were round 2.

Notice the combine gathering in the front.....




and spitting out corn in the back .

Victor Inspects his ride. he and Nick would ride next.

Mami gets the last ride.

And there is Mami and Jerry, Eric's uncle riding along.
An Iowa Sunset.
That is Eric running from the tractor....I would too...James is learning to drive it.

This is Vaughn, Eric's dad. I admire the way he listens and talks with people. He is a true gentleman.

I have two regrets tonight. One is I had no present to thank Eric and his fmaily for the wonderful meal. Second, is I didn't get pictures of the gathering at meal time. Maybe Sayako or Eddie did and I can get their pikctures put into my computer. I will check...so stay tuned.

Another good thing is that eric and his fmaily are believers and a Christian family.