Small towns, trains, and flags

And you thought I was done but I told you that I took over 2000 photos and I had lots of time to think and see and experience as we spent the week on the roads of the prairie states.

SMALL TOWNS

As I was driving through Iowa, I wondered if we moved to a small town in the middle of nowhere would life really be simpler  and slower paced and I wouldn't worry about all of the bad and scary things that happen to people around the world and want to make a difference in a tiny way.

Then I noticed the community mental health agency in Ft. Madison, Iowa, and as we traveled west, I noticed signs for "free summer lunches for children" advertised in local schools or parks.  I realized that the problems of poverty, hunger, and other issues do not skip little towns---in fact they might be even more difficult to manage because of the lack of resources.  Where ever we live, we have to try to make that spot a tiny bit better for those we share this planet with.

Some of the houses and buildings in these small towns were very old and fancy.

And then there are just the funny things you notice.  This was in Garden Grove where someone decided to make an old dead tree into a pistol-toting cowboy. Who thinks of these things??

Some farming equipment along the road.....

FLAGS

We like flags and it was fun to see flags being flown throughout the countryside as we traveled along. Here are just some examples---

I wonder what they would think if they knew that their houses
were now on a blog?

TRAINS

And Gary and I also like trains and loved to see the many trains traveling the tracks from here to there and back again.  Someone else must like trains as well as in Garden Grove they had placed some old time railroad crossing signs in the park.

 This train was at Montross Crossing.  We waited for it just to get pictures.

While at Scott Bluff, we mentioned to our tour van driver that we had noticed the large number of coal trains going back and forth near Chimney Rock.  It turned out that his dad was an engineer on the trains.  They were coal trains taking coal from Bills Valley (something like that) in Wyoming to be processed in Nebraska.  It was a 12 hours journey one way (a bit faster on the way back when empty).  I guess because the large number of trains in the area, someone posted this grim reminder: "More than One Track, More than One Train".

Here is one of the coal trains heading back to Wyoming.  (We didn't get to the crossing fast enough to get a picture of the front of the train.

And if you like trains and flags, how about a train with a flag:

Double score for that!!!

Of course, not all people travel by car or train--

This was taken as we were driving 60 mph down the road and passed this young boy with this team of four horses.  It was a pretty sight.

And although I have some beautiful pictures of sunsets, flowers, and prairie lands, I think I am really done posting about our trip on the blog (I know, you feel like it has taken longer to read about the trip than actually doing it yourselves.  I hope that you all will take this trip sometime.  It truly was amazing!)