Worship, missionaries, horses, storms and more

On Sunday morning, we went to church with our daughter's family.

They had a video about their missionary of the month.  They serve in Alaska. 

Adam had a really good sermon.  

So many people make decisions in their lives based on their feelings.  He said that we should not let feelings be the engine and beliefs the caboose.  Rather, Biblical beliefs needs to be our engine, feelings our caboose.  Don't bow to the culture.  Don't let culture drive your beliefs. 

We had a restful Sunday afternoon.

We worked on this puzzle over the weekend.  Incredibly hard!  We did not finish it before we left.  Don't know if they gave up on it or not.  Sophia had done it once before with her Arkansas cousin Eli and had told herself she would never do it again.

One of the reasons we came to Wisconsin was to visit with a missionary couple from our kids' church that serve in Nice, France.  We take each of our grandkids on a missions trip or on a trip to encourage them in seeing the world from a Biblical view vs. a world view.  It is Claire's turn for a trip so we were visiting with this couple, to plan that trip for next year.

We finished the evening with worship.

They were gifted this piano from a lady in their church.  Wow!  So very generous!  Her children had left the home and were not interested in it so she decided to find a good home for it!

On Monday, we went with Claire to a farm to see "her" horse.  

We were greeted by these little pooches.

A lady in their church rescues horses.  She purchased Penney with Claire in mind.  She has taught Claire how to do English riding and also how to care for horses.  Penney is Secretariat's granddaughter and used to be a racehorse herself.  

I was bumbed that my camera settings were off.  Didn't realize it until after we left.  It was so sweet to see how much Penney loves Claire.  She loved being rubbed down and being fed treats!

The other horse is also Secretariat's granddaughter.

I think Penney was jealous.

We went to a coffee house for lunch.

Sophia has worked here for quite a while.  But not for long.  She will be heading to college this week!

In the evening, we celebrated Sophia's 19th birthday and played games afterwards.

This wasn't the best game for Papa who is colour blind!

We left on Tuesday morning before the kids woke up.  The iconic blue Culver's barn by Beaver Dam had been totally demolished in a recent storm. This historic 1901 structure had already been weakened by an April tornado earlier in the year. 

Here's a picture I took of it back in 2019.

We ran into a storm ourselves and had to slow down to 45mph to keep from hydroplaining.  I have to admit it was a little frightening!  I was reminded of the verse "Do not fear. I am with you."  "I will trust You, LORD! No matter what happens," I prayed.  Luckily, we safely made it.

Close to Cedar Rapids, we decided to take another route; we'd be able to highlight in yellow a new road in our atlas!

This was Highway 1, the state of Iowa's first primary road numbered on July 1, 1920.

This is Mt. Vernon, a small historic city about 15 minutes east of Cedar Rapids. There is a private liberal arts college there, Cornell College.

It was founded in 1830.

Another town I'd like to visit when Al is retired and we can spend more time doing those kinds of things.

Jill got us a package of these goodies for the road.

Interesting colour of car.

And here's a portion of a car.  Hmm.

 I keep a list of places that might be good to visit along the way.  And I had posted that we needed to stop at Taylor's Maid-Rite in Marshalltown.  So we stopped for lunch.  It was awesome!!

I think we were the only ones who weren't locals.

There were no tables, just this bar that wrapped around the cooking area.

Oh YUM!  Worth the stop!

It happened to be our daughter Mindy's anniversary so we called to tell them Happy 8th Anniversary!  I LOVE their wedding photos!

It was also the first time Sophia voted!