Creation tour trip - Day one

6 am: Rolls, donuts and coffee at First Baptist in Baxter.
After getting oriented and loading our baggage we headed out at 6:40 under a clear sky, fog and 39 degrees. Our long awaited trip was underway. Day one is now behind us. What kind of a road trip would it be without "technical difficulties"? Before I tell you of our day's adventures I must apologize that there are no pictures tonight. Our two resident techies hope to fix that for tomorrow and you can see some of what we saw today, then. That was the second glitch of the day.
The first was the failure of the blower motor which caused us to need a replacement bus before breakfast!!! We began waiting in Monticello for the new bus from Glenwood. Forty-five minutes later we decided to return to Clearwater instead and were treated to a delightful truck stop complete with gift shop, bookstore, bakery and restaurant. We transfered everything and continued on our way in the new bus.
Now that is the last time I will use that forbidden word, "bus". Don, our director exceptionale, strictly cautioned us in orientation that we were only to refer to our transportation as a motorcoach or coach. NOT a bus!!! Anyone who used that word from then on was "penalized" by paying 25 cents into a large Tootsie Roll tube bank. The good news is that the fines collected will be given to Aaron and Mandy Braaten, our missionaries in Israel. So no more mention of the "b-word"!!!
10:32 am: Depart Clearwater under scattered high clouds and 52 degrees.
11:32 - 11:45 am: Rest Stop (RS) and take on an additional passenger at Plymouth Fourth Baptist continuing under partly cloudy skies and 55 degrees we were dubbed "dinosaurs" by our devoted driver, Jim. We must indeed be southbound. It's getting warmer each stop.
'Ere the sun reached its zenith the formerly mostly paired off couples were becoming thoroughly intermingled. The quiet murmur with which the morning began had grown to just under a low roar by midday. The Tootsie Roll jingled with the weight of many quarters. "Sins" could be remitted at the bargain price of five for a dollar if paid in advance. Having slept off the early morning fog in our brains as well as out the windows, everyone was busy with crafts, reading, music, movies and games mingled with lively conversations touching on thousands of topics.
1:45 -2 pm: Grab-n-go with a quick fast food lunch from Lake Mills, IA in our laps. It MUST be Iowa. All we see for miles around are windmills, corn and FLAT.
3 pm: We were treated to a movie biography of Billy Sunday, the famous evangelist of a century ago.
3:58 - 4:12 pm: RS and a fast snack (Wendy's, Subway or McD's) in Waterloo, IA with partly cloudy skies and 66 degrees.
5:54 pm: RS at a very interesting rest area in Wilton, IA. Historical markers told of the journeys on the underground railroad. The floor featured an inlaid map of the 15 stops in the area. Quilt patterns on the walls and in the floor hinted at secret signals and instructions for escaping slaves to follow to safety. Quilts were hung in a seemingly ordinary fashion "to dry" secretly sending the messages to initiated observers.
6:08 pm: Depart for Peoria, IL. Next stop our special Italian dinner at Basta's and the night's lodging at Holiday Inn Express.
As the sun neared the western horizon a fight nearly broke out over language and interpretation of words. Cindy, keeper of the "penalty box", jumped to her feet cheering, "Fight, fight!!!". With clouds left over from Ike growing thicker peace settled over the dinosaurs as we rumbled across the low bluffs down to the river (Mississippi) by the Quad Cities. Coming through the bottomlands we were saddened to see acres of trees and tree farms under leaden skies still drowning from the spring floods.
7:15 pm: As the sun dipped below the horizon it gave us a final many fingered wave across the bottom of the cloud bank silhouetting the farms and trees in its last hurrah. We trust a red sky at night will hold true to its promise of delight on the morrow.
9:45 pm: Delicious dinner over and checked into our rooms we will see you in the morning. Nitey nite!!