Keosauqua, Iowa, A Beautiful and Peaceful Break from the Road

We left Ogallala and headed east on Interstate 80. A strong cold front was approaching and so we wanted to be across the plains. There we would stop and visit family, while enjoying the peace and quiet of southeast Iowa.
Three days of driving saw us parked in a beautiful pull through in Lacey Keosauqua State park. Renita's sister Pam drove out, we are about three miles from the town, and the sisters were soon having a nice sister chat. Later Roy arrived, who also enjoys lapidary and makes and sells jewelry, oh and of course I inserted images of gourds instead of rocks as its harvest time here and I like the gourds).

Of course I had to show him the rocks we are taking to Texas, and he couldn't wait to show us the private collection he had just purchased. It included several neat fossils and some really nice crazy lace rough, but was mostly composed of desert chalcedony roses. We had to laugh as we had been offered the same roses in Wyoming. Apparently Arizona snowbirds can not resist them and feel compelled to collect them by the pail load,(some do contain fire agate and some have a natural rose shape but there wasn't any of the fire in the buckets.

The next day Pam took us to Bentonsport where she showed us the artist coop where they sell their work. We spent a pleasant afternoonthere and were treated to meeting the Artist in Residence, Gin, who shared wiith us one of her stained glass painting. She told us that the glass face required seven firings to get all the detail.

While she doesn't do any stained glass in Bentonsport, she does work in pastels and oils. I told her of our pastel artist friends Sharon and Alan. It was a nice way to spend a sunny afternoon and we actually bought a beautiful wire tree, set on a walnut plaque. It was a unique wrok and beautifully done, and of course we are suckers for wire work.

The front finally arrived and we got four inches of rain in one evening. This forced us to prolong our stay but we were safely on top of a ridge and in a nice and new and empty section of the state park campground. The front is passing and so tomorrow we are headed to St Louis and an rv oark snmack dab in the middle of the city.
Clear skies