Iowa

First we went to visit the Amana Colonies.  They were a German  Religious Group who believed in communal living.  They came to America in about the 1850's.  Religious freedom is what they wanted.  The colonies ( seven of them) lasted until about 1930 or so.  

This looks like one of the buildings that held a communal kitchens.  We ate lunch in one that day.  Good German cooking.  

Now most of the buildings are shops now that sell hand made stuff or ice cream and candy or wine. Most of the wine is sweet fruit wines.  Ugh 

The next day we drove up the I 80 to revisit the Herbert Hoover Museum.  We spent a lot more time there this time.

I hadn't realized that he was a geologist who studied at Stanford.  I think he was in the first or second class there.

He did all kinds of charity work after he made his millions just like Gates is doing today.

More good works

He was in the White House for only a few months before the Wall Street Crash.  Of course he was blamed for it.

After FDR passed away presidents looked to him for advice on things he had worked on before.  He was in public service until he died in 1964 at 90 yrs. old.

He and his wife Lou are buried here on top of a hill overlooking the prairie.

Iowa has left this plot of land to look the way it did in the early 1900 century.

We're in Newton, Iowa now.  Today we went to the Maytag Cheese factory and took a tour. I didn't take any pictures there because I couldn't inside and the building wasn't all the interesting.  We think the tour was better than the last time we were here.  The blue cheese tastes just as good.  We got more crumbles to bring home again.  They're in the freezer as we speak.  

 We head for Missouri Monday morning.  There are some things we would like to see there about Lewis and Clark that we missed last time we were there.  We should be at Aunt Bev's by the 19th.

We'll send more pictures next time.

Love Mom and Dad