Happy Birthday Bill!

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Today is Bill's birthday.  We don't have any special plans.  As we get older birthdays mean less to us.

We decided to take a drive and visit the Amana Colonies.  I thought it was an area similar to the Amish in Pennsylvania but it wasn't.  The Amana Colonies were established by a God-fearing people who left Germany in 1843.  They first settled in Ebenezer, New York and then traveled to Iowa in 1855.  They established a communal settlement there.  They built seven small villages. They prospered there but during the Great Depression were forced to end their communal way of life and reorganized into a privately held corporation.  Today the villages still exist and the people there still offer quality made items.  We enjoyed touring the town.




Bill received phone calls from a lot of friends and family today for his birthday.  On our way back to the campground we stopped for a bite to eat.  This turned out to be our dinner.  I have a pork tenderloin sandwich which was very good.  Bill had a hot turkey sandwich.  He got a lot better breakfast dinner than I did at the bowling alley.

It is not getting dark around here until about 9:00 PM.  We are planning on heading into Newton to see the fireworks show tomorrow.  They also have a few other things going on.

So that is all for now.  Bye.