That said, we had only driven about an hour and half when we made our first stop at The Chocolate Garden. We had seen the sign on the trip in, and now we could not pass it up. I'm glad we didn't. The truffles made here have been featured on the Food Network and they have been named America's Best Chocolatier by America's Best Online. After experiencing a taste test, I was sold! Out of the samples, our favorites were the milk chocolate caramel and the salted dark chocolate. Lucky for us, we can order online, too!
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| Truffle Tasting |
The drive through the Chicago area was stressful as usual, but once through it, the rest was easy even through the construction areas. It was nearing sunset as we got close to Des Moines. The sky was not very cloudy, and I was not expecting much in the way of a sunset. Still, we looked for a place to set up the tripods. We saw a sign pointing into an Iowa State Park and there was a lake, so thought it might be a nice place to get the sunset while Bella ran around for awhile. She's been a trooper on our travels.
We drove along the road and I thought to myself to be ready with my camera in case we saw a deer. Instead, I saw some movement in the road and I let Scott know just in case he had not noticed. He had, and slowed. There on the road were two very juvenile raccoons trying to cross. They had the good sense to go back to the side of the road, which made it perfect for me to get a good view. All of a sudden Scott says, "G, get your camera." Oh yeah... my camera.... DUH! I don't work well under pressure, so my first shot was a terrible blur. I really thought I would miss it, but then these two little twins went into a pose for me as if they do this every day for visitors. I could not have asked for more looking out of a car window!
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| Twinies! |
The sunset, as expected, was not that great, but the place for Bella to run around was fantastically huge. It was great until she found the goose poo! Why is it they always go for this kind of thing? We now know two things that Bella would rather have than a doggy cookie... A dirty rat head and a pile of goose poo! In the animal world, they must be delicacies.
Our final destination was just outside Des Moines in Newton, Iowa, home of Maytag. A late dinner at Montana Mike's Steakhouse was all it took to get sleepiness to set in. Tomorrow is another day.
A contrast in a decade of technology.
ReplyDeleteIn 2003, G and I took our first trip cross-country; I wrote the blog. Every few days I was able to get to upload, which involved:
Getting access to a phone line;
Looking up the local Earthlink dial-up number;
Spending quite a bit of time uploading pictures at "low-speed Internet" access.
Contrast that to G having live high-speed access while driving (4G on Interstate and 3G except in remote areas).
But that pales to G's outlook on "making reservations" in the last decade. First trip: every stop on the trip out was planned before we left. This trip: We are making phone calls to hotels 20 minutes before arrival. Much of that is technology driven too.
Actually, 2001 was our first trip across and 2003, the second. By 2003, I think we had a very limited cell phone that was as big as my hand. But, back to 2001.... It's vague for me on the dial-up since Scott always did the uploads. My account was Earthlink and to get the local Earthlink number, we'd have to call the 800 number. Then we could talk our way into hooking our modem to a phone line at laundromats, ranger stations, and some of the more progressive campgrounds. It's true that days would go by and no one would really know if we were dead or alive! Now, with Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, texting, and Words With Friends, it's so easy to stay in touch. I'm truly glad I've progressed in the Age of Technology.
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