Illinois and Back...

On Friday, April 25th, Hubby's Grandpa B passed away. He was 92 and lived a good life. It was a sad occasion for a trip, but we have a few things to mention.


Oh. My. Gosh. This place is awesome! The ice cream is fantastic and we have to visit evey time we're in Illinois.


Hubby and Ronald. Showing off for the nieces.


Graham Central Station ice cream from Whitey's. Graham ice cream with graham chunks. I'd really like some now. I'd love to get the ice cream maker attachment for my Kitchen Aid.


Ice cream cake slice from Whitey's. Can't say that I was all that impressed by the cake, but the ice cream was rockin'.


Weird farm equipment sculpture at the manufacturer. This is Iowa ya'll, what else do you expect? We'll have to visit the World's Largest Truck Stop and the Bridges of Madison County another day.


Near death experience! J/K. Hubby thought it would be funny to take a picture of the 18-wheeler being towed, which appeared to be coming at us head on. This is the second oversized tow truck we saw this trip. We couldn't get a picture of the first. Thankfully this one came along! Lots of hubby's family fell for the joke, so Hubby was happy.


This bridge over the Mississippi river makes Hubby think of his Grandpa S who passed away in 2001. This bridge is part of the route to his grandpa's house. He loved seeing the bridge as a child because he knew he'd see his grandpa soon. They loved to fish together, and hunt for mushrooms.


Under the bridge.


Massive flooding of the Mississippi. There are houses out in the middle of some of this. Those people must have abandoned their homes as they are not accessible.

Darling nieces on the slide. Don't you love how the blue slide brings out the color of their gorgeous eyes!


Cool rocks in the Arbuckle "mountains" in Oklahoma. Or the Arbuckle Wilderness. Neither term is an accurate description of the area.


Giant tires on a truck. We were a little 18-wheeler happy this trip.


Did you know Burger King chicken nuggets are shaped like crowns? Or chicken feet. At least the chicken feet would be in a naturally occurring chicken shape. These crowns are obviously compressed chicken pieces.


The built in "remote" at the classiest motel in Des Moines. You could select the major networks with the dial, or choose music. We chose music. I can't remember the song I recognized, but I'm pretty sure it was 80s rock. I guess the motel has moved up from the 50s. You could also call the maid and front desk from this contraption if you had one of those old switchboard headsets where you plugged and unplugged the headset from line to line (like the Flintstones). I was sort of afraid to touch it. It had rust around the edges. But for the blogworld, I made a video of it playing music. I'll have to post that later.


Super modern heat lamp in the super high-end motel we stayed at in Des Moines. Only the best for us!