Minnesota -- St. Charles at Grandma Connie's

The two silver cars en route to California reunited!

Leaving Illinois, we drove until we reached the Mississippi River in Bellevue, Iowa, a sleepy town that had as many antique shops as it had restaurants. The town felt like it hadn’t aged very much since the 60’s, except for lock and dam #12 built by the Army Corps of Engineers. We got out of the car and walked along the town’s high river bank so we could see the river, the tug boats, and the lock as it let a large barge out one end. We collected zebra mussels and beautiful rocks on the sandy shore. The Lord gave us another beautiful and sunny day for driving off of the interstate, which I enjoy so much. 

Leaving the Mississippi River, we traveled north to the border of Iowa and Minnesota. Ian’s Grandmother Connie lives in St. Charles, MN so that’s where we were headed. Dara and Ian would already be there since they drove from Greencastle, PA in one day, a twelve hour drive with only a roadside nap. 

Istra and Luke were reunited after a month of exploring new places and meeting new friends (or enemies).  Luke had been staying at Ian’s parents’ house with their 2 cats, and he made good friends with Tucker, but was more hesitant with their bigger cat named Clown.  Istra had been introduced to my parents’ cat Hurricane, and old cat who doesn’t like animal friends sharing her turf, which is when she learned how to hiss and growl.  Istra also was introduced to Susanna’s family’s three cats.  She didn’t really make friends with them, though I suspect her experience with Hurricane kept her on her guard and made it harder to trust the friendliness of other cats.  When we brought Istra into Connie’s house, it wasn’t long before she and Luke were playing and happily running through the house again.

We let Istra go outside on leash in Connie’s small backyard.  Her house backs up to a hill, and has 2 levels of grass with 3 foot retaining walls at the face of each.  Istra loved exploring under the bushes, under the porch, and finally up the tall steps to explore the upper level of the yard.  She took a while to gather her courage to jump back down, and when she did, I had to quickly follow her right back to the porch—she was dragging me as fast as I could go on her leash.

I'm almost as good at stalking as Istra...ok, maybe not.