Something to Check Off of My Bucket List

Today I visited the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln. They house a collection of over 4000 quilts. On a typical visit you see only about 40. They regularly rotate shows. The three galleries I saw were: log cabin variations; quilts from kits 1915-1950; and new aquisitions. Here are a few of the ones that particularly impressed me. 

Court house quilt, a log cabin variation. 

Pineapple log cabin variation. 

This is a recent acquisition from Uzbekistan. 

This was my favorite. Here are some close ups fingers are for scale, they are 3"blocks. 

(I didn't touch, btw)

The quilt is an original design. It was the makers first quilt and it won 1st prize at Nebraska state fair in 2000. WOW

After Quilt House we visited the Nebraska capital. It dwarfs Oregon's that is for sure. We took an informative tour but I kept seeing potential quilt blocks where ever we went. 

Here are floor shots from the Saunders County Courthouse 

We spent time in the courthouse looking at records from Dan's great-grandfather's land purchases back in the 1880's. 

His name was Thompson Bissell, and he sounds like quite a guy. After we left the courthouse we drove to find some of the area or at least vicinity of where he lived. 

The land beyond the lower left corner of the sign was part of his ranch south of Ithaca. Later we went to the Homestead Monument south of Lincoln and saw a digital image of Thompson's sister-in-law, Sarah A Bissell's land claim. It is available online through a program called "Fold3.com". I did not realize homesteads were available as recently as 1987. 

We crossed the Missouri today. 

So now we are in Iowa. We are staying in county fair ground park in the town of Missouri Valley. We are trying to decide what route to take to New England. We prefer to avoid major metropolitan areas and freeways. We are very open to suggestions. 

Where is your next journey going to take you?

Guess where we are...

Grand Teton Nat'l Park. We arrived this morning after a few days exploring some nearby territory- upper Green River, Hoback River. We woke to a chilly 34 degrees. Thank goodness for the wool blanket. 

I have been here a couple times before but both times it was treated like a "side dish" to Yellowstone. So this time we are going to give it the "main course" treatment. 

Camp is set up at Gros Ventre campground. Pronounced sort of like "grow vaunt" I don't do well with French, to say the least. 

Bison crossing in front of us, this is Dan's picture. Here is mine, I went for the "grand" background. 

Our book "10 Best Everything in Nat'l Parks" rates Grand Teton for bike riding, and they are correct. We need to adjust to this elevation so this afternoon we took a little 12 mile ride between Moose and Jenny Lake. We hope to do some hikes and more cycling. 

Things that make you go, hmm. 

So why do you think they made this phone booth so short? Are there lots of short people without cell phones in Wyoming? 

A Day at Lava Hot Springs

This is a unique little Idaho town. We arrived late Monday morning. We camped next to the Portneuf River, running through the middle of town filled with happy tubers.

We left the squeals and giggles for others and instead took several long soaks in the hot spring pools run by the city. 

The best part of our stay here was that we were joined by our good friends, Mark and Cathy, as they were traveling back to the Willamette valley from Colorado. 

They are driving all of the way home 750+ miles in one day! I can't imagine doing  that. I am glad they have the energy. It was great to have them with us for a few hours. After they left we took another soak in the spings and a wander thru town. The next pictures are from the walk...

This big guy was hanging out in the pool parking lot, I assume waiting for his 2 legged friend. I have not encountered many dogs in shades before. 

The above 2 pics are of a free hot spring along the river just up from camp. It looks pleasant enough but the $5 entrance to the city facility was okay by us. 

Here is the Main Street of this little berg. A good place to add to your "bucket list" is you are making one. 

Now it is time to hit the road. No definite destination, but we hope to see some of western Wyoming for the next few days. 

Happy Trails to all, until we meet again.

 

A Little Finishing on the Beginning

I Today is the first day of a new journey. The plan is for it to be our longest trip so far. Long both in distance and duration. It will be great if the pace we have today is typical of the rest of the trip. 

We closed the house and pulled out just before noon. We drove across town and had lunch with our good friends Cathy, Janice & Larry. After a leisurely visit we drove north to Portland then 35 miles east to Ainsworth State Park. We were already parked for the night by 3:30. 

The "finishing" I am doing is on a little lap quilt I started during last fall's trek. I am calling it "9 on the Rails". Each 9 patch has five squares from one shirt, which I picked up at a thrift store in Rapid City, SD. The piecing was complete by February, then it was at my favorite LAQ (that is long arm quilter's) while we traveled this spring. 

I saved this final bit of hand work for the road. I think the quilt will be a nice car sized comfy to have along.

 

To whomever finds these words I wish for them the pleasure of birdsong summer breezes and good company. 

jb