Thursday, September 24, 2020 - Staying Busy in Winterest, IA

Thursday, September 24, 2020 - Staying Busy in Winterest, IA 

One of the reasons we chose to spend two nights here was for the full hookups.  We needed to get the laundry caught up.  I was able to do 2 loads yesterday, and over the course of early morning and until now at 9:22pm I was able to do 5 loads.  It is surprising how quickly laundry adds up, especially when you do not have full hookups and are on the move. 

I slept late (for me at least), it was after 5:00 before I crawled out of bed.  I took laundry downstairs last night so I could get started first thing, hoping to get two loads out of the way before we left for our planned excursion today.

While we were at Menard's in Goshen several days ago, I found a really nice spray bottle for my mixture of dawn and vinegar to clean the shower.  I've tried several other spray bottles, but none of them really worked well.  This one seemed like it might hold up and it did!  The last spray bottle broke the first time I used it.  This morning I sprayed the shower down really well and while it didn't look as good as I had hoped, most of that was because there are water stains on the outside of the sliding doors too.  The next time we have a few days in Oswego, I'd like for Dean to take the doors out so I can clean them outside with the dawn/vinegar mixture and rinse them well.  

After showers and two loads of clothes washed, dried and put away, we headed to downtown Winterest.  As we left the park, I had to take a picture of this beautiful motorhome.  

The trees are turning!

Our first stop was at "John Wayne Birthplace Museum".   We bought our tickets, then looked around the gift shop, before the next "movie" played (every 15 minutes).  His daughter narrated the first part of it, followed by many clips of him in his movies, picking out highlights of some of his famous parts.  John Wayne was one of my dad's favorite stars and Dean is also a big fan.  When I was in High School, I read the book True Grit.  I was excited to see it made into a movie with John Wayne in a starring role.  I've watched lots of John Wayne movies in my lifetime between my dad and Dean, so I have to say I enjoyed this almost as much as he did.

After the movie clips, we entered the museum itself.  Marion Robert Morrison - John Wayne.

This was an amazing likeness of "The Duke".  His eyes were so life like I felt like he was staring right at us.  Lol!

Of all the things in the Museum I was really touched by this letter from Maureen O'Hara to John Wayne (by then deceased) in honor of his 100th birthday - specifically the 5th section of the letter where she wishes he was there to help heal this wonderful land. He was a Patriot and loved the United States.  This was written in 2007.  What would he think today?

I also enjoyed seeing Wayne's Grand Safari Pontiac station wagon, he drove around California.  My Papa Blackledge sold Pontiac cars for nearly 50 years.  I loved the comment that he preferred comfort and safety over show!  

This is the stethoscope used by the doctor who delivered John Wayne.  He was a whopping 13 lbs at birth!

40th anniversary cake for movies he starred in during this time frame.  He had quite a group of stars around him at this celebration....you can enlarge this picture if you want to check them out.

The Museum

Our next stop was at a location behind the Museum honoring the Military and POW's.  While John Wayne never served his country in the military he starred in a number of military themed movies.  He had a very high respect for the Military.  

Enlarge this to read his words placed on the rock.

In honor of the POW's of our country.

Birthplace home of John Wayne

The docent at his birthplace home told us Marion did not like his name, because he was teased.  His dog's name was Duke.  At some point someone asked Marion his name and not wanting to tell them Marion, he said Duke.  That's where it started.

By now we were hungry.  Before we left his birthplace home, we asked the Docent about the Northside Cafe.  She said she had not eaten there in many years.  You might remember the Northisde Cafe is where Clint Eastwood went to eat in the movie Bridges of Madison County.  We decided to go ahead and eat there, since we knew nothing of other restaurants.  I ordered a reuben, which is probably my favorite sandwich, and one I rarely eat.  It was delicious!  Dean chose the pork tenderloin.  Today I even mentioned it to him, but it turned out to be just okay.  I will take the blame for that choice.  HAHA.  The homemade chips that came with it were quite good though.  We passed on the dessert.

I didn't realize this picture was out of focus until later.

Dean's sandwich looked great - but no flavor at all!!!!

While downtown I wanted to take a few pictures - starting with the cafe itself.

The famous 4th stool from the entrance to the door.

as seen here.

As we left here we walked around the square, to take pictures of the Madison County Courthouse and check out the downtown businesses.  

Madison County Courthouse

We stopped in the Ben Franklin store.  I was curious to see the layout.  I was so happy to see that it was just like the Ben Franklin's I remember.  I love these wonderful stores of bygone days that bring back so many memories from my childhood.  

We didn't visit, but I thought about all of my quilting friends.  Another special thing about Madison County are the number of quilters and quilt blocks on barns, garages, etc. throughout the County.  There was a fabric store on the sqaure, and Ben Franklin had an entire section of their building dedicated to material and sewing supplies.

These beautiful flowers were everywhere on the sqaure and the side streets just off the square.  It really brightened the downtown area!

Before we headed back to the campground we made a stop at Frostee's for some ice cream.  I chose a chocolate marshmallow sundae and Dean had a butter pecan shake.  They were okay.  My sundae didn't begin to compare with the ones I used to have at Rigg's Rexall in Chetopa.  I had visions of that deep chocolate covered with that thick, creamy marshmallow creme - while what I ordered was good enough to eat, it did not come close to my vision!  LOL!

We returned to the campground, after filling the truck up with gas for our move tomorrow.  We didn't have dinner tonight, choosing to only have an apple later in the evening since we had ice cream.  I worked on the blog post, and did three more loads of laundry, while Dean did some pre-preparation for our move tomorrow.  It will be a long travel day from Winterst, IA to Garnett, KS tomorrow.  We will stay overnight at the North campground in their city park.  We will visit with Dean's siblings that live in the area.  We look forward to seeing them.