SO LONG CENTERVILLE, IT'S BEEN GOOD TO KNOW YA!

When you are in a place that holds your interest and the campground is not crowded, time passes so quickly.  

I took my last sunset walk and finally had my camera with me. Note how crowded this campground is! 



Except for last Friday and Saturday nights when two other families were camping across the way, this is how the campground has been.  Sheer heaven! 

This is tonight's sky!  The most beautiful photo of the lake I have taken.

And this is how we have seen the sun set each evening.  I think without the trees, we would have had some spectacular ones.  But, that's okay, I like the trees.  

Oliver and Olivia have had fun chasing the squirrels.  All we need to say is squirrel alert and they come to attention then run from one window to the other.  If we are outside and they see one, they instantly become deaf to my call.  Just like little kids.

Tomorrow, we head sixty-eight miles northwest to Des Moines.  I need to visit the Verizon store and John, of course, wants to stop at Bass Pro Shop.  

After those two stops we head to Saylor Lake COE, north of Des Moines and on our way to the big city of Monteith, Iowa. Stay tuned, folks.  There is more to come.  

My Amazon shopping link is lost in cyberland.  I have worked all day trying to reestablish the link for your convenience. Maybe I can discover the problem tomorrow.  

In the meantime....travel safely and God bless.....

TOURING CENTERVILLE

Centerville, Iowa, have you even heard of the place?  I have because my father was born here. Also, one of our dear friends, either Bob or Pat Parks, from our church twenty- something group at church grew up in Centerville. 

Bob and Pat moved away from Indianapolis.  We moved to a little town in the country called Bargersville, Indiana.  We lost touch.  What a shame. 

But, let's start our tour of Centerville.  


We start with the typical county court house.  Centerville Square seems like nothing special, but at the courthouse, a wonderful group of people who work in the recorder's office help me with my family history search.  Thanks to all.

This is not a typical town square, but one that is reported to be the largest town square in the world. It has eleven streets that intersect  the square!  ELEVEN!  It also has four rows for parking all around the square which makes driving a challenge at first. 

I believe that the only time I was here in Centerville, I was quite young.  We came to visit my dad's aunt, my great aunt.  

It was a terribly hot day, of course there was no air conditioning.  It was as hot as it has been this week.  My older brother by eight years took me for a  walk around town and the town square.  

Big brother could not remember the way back to the apartment of our great aunt.  I led him right back there with ease.  

Why do I share such a silly anecdote?  Because for the week we have been here, I have had no problems navigating the streets in and around this town.  It boggles my mind.  

I wish my brother could have been here with us.  What a wonderful experience it could have been for both of us.   

Okay, I digress .... already! And today's blog has just started.

On the courthouse square is the Continental Hotel, built in 1865 when Alexander and Susannah McKee traded forty acres of land, four horses, one wagon and a harness for a 

The Continental

store house and lot where the Continental is located.  It was originally arranged as a hotel and residence and was known as the Jefferson House or Wagon Home in 1866.

The building burned to the ground but was rebuilt within a year and is the superstructure of what now is called the Continental Hotel.  

The hotel continued to serve weary travelers until the early 1900's when it fell to decay and ruin.  A portion of the  roof collapsed.  Raccoons, mice, squirrels, rats and skunks became the new residents until 1966 when a successful, local businessman, Morgan Cline, had the building restored to it's original grandeur.   

Today, the building is the home to a popular restaurant and a hotel  for weary travelers that also has apartments for seniors.  

The suites consist of bedroom, sitting room and a small eat-in kitchen.

For Fourteen hundred dollars a month a senior has a suite, one meal free the others at half price, all utilities paid and a small garden to enjoy.  

I looked at their menu and found that one could eat a different free meal for 34 days without a repeat!  

Now, if they could get rid of the cold temperatures ad snow in the winter, that would be one great deal! 

The entrance

 Main desk and lobby

Portrait of Morgan Cline, benefactor 

Behind the front desk sits the switchboard

Permanent residents enjoy a cool summer evening together.

Not far from the hotel is the library.  Can we say another gorgeous building interior?  

Looking up from the second floor genealogy department

The "guard rail" around the opening from the stained glass to the lobby on the first floor of the library

At the library, I found a photo of my grandmother.  She passed prior to my birth and this is only the second photograph I have seen of her. 

My grandfather sucummed to the flu pandemic that ravaged the United States in 1913 and 1914, leaving my grandmother with four young children to raise.  My father was the oldest. The youngest, my uncle, was only six months old.  

There is also much more to see in the Appanoose County Museum.  We found a photograph that my grandfather, a professional photographer took! 

I did not know that Centerville was a coal mining town.  The museum has an entire area designated for coal mining.  

Other sites we enjoyed were: an old filling station from probably the 1940 or early 1950's.

The Burlington and Northern railroad station.








The old very Centerville Jail

Ramsay House that now serves as a gift shop.  We did not go in since I am not much of a gift shop person.  

Just eight miles from Centerville is Rathbun Lake.  There are eight campgrounds located around the lake.  Five of the campgrounds are Army Corps of Engineers managed.  

Campgrounds contain many level campsites.  Not all have electrical hookups.  Picnic tables and fire rings are at each site.  Shower buildings, dump stations and fish cleaning stations are located in most of the parks.  

Our campground is a lower division of Rathbun Lake, in Centerville.  It is not a COE campground and is managed by the city of Centerville.  We have electricity, gravel parking spaces that a either level or very close to level. Our daily rate here is $15.00.  We consider this quite reasonable.  We have been the only campers here with the exception of Friday and Saturday night when there was one trail and one tent camper! This photo is of the campground taken from across the lake.   

Tuesday, we leave this little piece of heaven and venture toward Des Moines and Monteith, Iowa.  I am just wondering what we will find there in Monteith.  Whatever, it will be another adventure in our Trippin With the Talleys.

We appreciate every Amazon purchase made through our blog.  It does not cost you extra, but pays us a wee percentage.  You can find the gateway in the upper right portion of the blog where it says "year end deals"

God bless you all in your walk....may you come to know Him in a close personal way.  


       

BLING, BUGS, BBQ & BAREFOOT

I have been totally frustrated with the cloudiness of our headlights and tail lights since last June, when I did the three step procedure of cleaning up and waxing our Tiffin Allegro Bus.  

Monday, we pulled into the Rathburn Lake and Dam Campground in Centerville, Iowa.  Tuesday, I attacked the headlights and tail lights with the 3M 39008 Headlight Restoration System from Amazon.com.  

Oh, My!  What a difference a few minutes makes! 

Take a look at this....

BEFORE....

AFTER....

NOW.......FOR THE TAIL LIGHTS!

BEFORE 

AFTER!

AND, do you see the shine on the exterior of the motorhome????  That is all from the use of the Mother's Three Step Clean and Wax System from our Amazon.com location in the top right portion of our blog....even though it says something about year end deals....lol

As to bugs.....we are plagued with what I would call gnats and large gnats!  They are absolutely driving me bonkers.  So if any of you know how to get rid of these critters, please let me know....

Our router to Centerville, Iowa took us through the little town of  Shelbina, Mo and a restaurant, Buckhorn BBQ!

This is exactly why we love to travel the roads less traveled.

Where else can you find an award winning BBQ Restaurant in Missouri or Iowa????  You cannot!

Not only did we eat the best BBQ that we have tasted, but we found a small town establishment that is worth a detour off Interstate 70 on U.S. 36. Shelbina, Missouri is your delectable destination!  Be sure to tell them Nan and John sent you!

The restaurant is definitely not the Ritz!  But is hometown, America.  A business we want to keep flourishing!

On the walls we find the jerseys of local athletes who have "made it big"  in athletics.

This wall represents the two smallest schools in the area that have produced some of the best athletes in the mid-west.  

Displayed are jerseys from high school athletes who have gone on to play at numerous universities, even the United States Naval Academy.






I wish I had taken a photo of our full rack of ribs rack of ribs that  we  shared, but we were too busy enjoying our non-vegetarian meal, once again. Oh, oh, we need to be getting back on the wagon, don't we?  The only problem>>>>the scales are showing the results.

We try to eat the plant based diet for reason of better health and weight loss, but there are times that we slip into the bad, old ways of eating.

We have been staying at Rathburn Lake http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rathbun_Lake in Centerville, Iowa for the last 5 days.  Centerville is the hometown of my father and I have come to learn more about my family history.

I have not learned much about my family history, but the campground is a treat.  What solitude we have experience in the last week.     We have been the only inhabitants of the campground and have the freedom to allow Oliver and Olivia to romp as they will.

One thing I did learn today is that there is a town with my name.  It rivals New York City and Los Angles for size and population.  Here is a photo of the metropolis....

Welcome to the booming city of Monteith, Iowa!

I did not know it existed until a trip today to the Centerville, Iowa museum.

We are definitely planning to tour the town as we head north into Minnesota next week.  Stay tuned for the elaborate descriptions of the town with my family name!

I have visited the county museum, the county courthouse and the library in town.  My research has not produced much that I did not know already, but I have loved walking the courthouse square and surrounding streets that my father must have walked as a teen.

I have learned that my father graduated from Exline, Iowa high school as number one or number two in his graduating class.  But there were just two students in his class. So I am sure he was number one!

My father went on to the University of Iowa to study Pharmacy although he wanted to study medicine and become a physician.  Because his mother had been widowed seven year earlier, my father had to take a shorter path in order to help provide for his younger sibling, still at home.

Oops, I have been providing information to our family that he lefty behind and that I am sure is boring y'all, so I quit here.

Thanks to all for stopping by and sharing our experiences as we travel the roads that most avoid.  May God bless you regardless the roads you take, be it the interstates of North America, or the small, less traveled highways.

Also a huge thanks to you who shop through our Amazon link....

AND thanks to all who shop through our crazy Amazon link at the upper right area of this blog stating "year end deals".....someday....someday, Rick will once again teach me how to update this link.

Until next time.....looking forward to your comments!  And may God bless you as you go about your daily living.....