Don's Travels: Back on the Road - Minneapolis to Des Moines

Jane Reporting for 28th September

After four nights in Minneapolis for my Ragdoll cat breed history research we got back on the road yesterday (28th September) and headed due south to Des Moines. It was hardly a navigational challenge with us getting onto the I-35 and leaving it only to visit Owatonna, have lunch, and find the motel once we got to Des Moines.

Owatonna
We had two stops in Owatonna - one for Uncle Tom's Antique Mall which kept us busy for over an hour. As well as antiques, 'Uncle Tom' did rocks ... there's sure to be a proper word for this but the business card has escaped me!

Owner Tom and Mrs Tom with an unusually shaped crystal

As well as buying rocks (fossil rocks), Lyn bought a display folder for her collection of state quarters. As soon as we were back in the car she settled down to getting them all in the designated holes.

Lyn adds her coins to her new folder

After the Antique Mall (and in pouring rain) we pulled in for a whistle stop tour of the National Farmer's Bank Building that we had visited on 20th September last year. As we needed to be in Des Moines by 3pm it was a very quick visit - just long enough for Lyn and Geoff to see the place before we headed back out into the rain and into the car to find lunch and carry on south.

During our last visit we hadn't gone up into the viewing balcony but this time I had read online that it was open for visitors and then, when we realised we couldn't find Gary, there he was, already up there taking photos of us.

Gary sits in the viewing balcony

Being up on the balcony gave a much better vantage point for photographing the stained glass without the interruptions from ground level so here is the skylight:

Stained glass in the skylight

And one of the two windows:

Stained glass in one of the windows

As we were driving out of Owatonna Gary pulled off the road to adjust the GPS and I kept telling him to drive a little further forward, and further forward, and further ... until I could get a photo of this building. I looked it up on the excellent site Prairie School Traveler It is the Federated Insurance Company building and, yes, another example of Prairie School architecture. It is one of the last examples as very much in the Louis Sullivan style. Next time we're in Owatonna I'll spend a bit more time looking around. :o)

Federated Insurance Company building

Des Moines
On to Des Moines. The rain eventually eased and I got a couple of shots through the front window (a.k.a. What Gary Sees):

On the road to Des Moines

Leaving the I-35

We stopped briefly at the hotel and then headed on to visit Roger and Susan. Roger is a genealogist who bought a copy of Macnamara's Memorials of the Danvers Family from us as one of his long ago family members is descended from the family.

Although the visit was very short we had a wonderful time there and much appreciated the chance to photograph the squirrels - first on their neighbour's roof:

Squirrel sighting!

and then in the back yard where the squirrel all but stopped and posed for us on the tree outside the back windows. These ones are bigger than that ones we were seeing on the west coast, and much more red. Naturally those weren't the only photos I took of the squirrels but I might save them for a special blog entry. (You can always click on the photos to see them larger size.)