Road Warrior - Highway 24

As I was pulling out of town on Wednesday, I stopped for a biscuit at a drive through. When I reached the window to pay, a lady I'm familiar with from the days when I was taking care of Dad informed me that the car in front of me had paid my tab. All I could say was "why''? She said it happens often, just because people have a sudden urge to be kind. I've only gone so far as leaving my quarter in the shopping cart at Aldi's. Perhaps she saw my clunker and felt I could use a break. Either way it was good to see my old friend at the window and we chit chatted for a few moments before I headed off for New Hampton and Fort Atkinson Iowa.

Highway 24 is a stretch of old Highway that runs from New Hampton in the West to Calmar in the East. Along this stretch of Highway are several small towns and absolutely no city lights glowing in the distance. New Hampton, with a population of about 4000, being the largest. I found the late night drives back to the Motel in New Hampton from Fort Atkinson to be beautiful, it was pitch black and the Milky Way was uninhibited.

The Super 8 in New Hampton gets at least four stars from me. Compared to the last two Super 8's, this one was near luxury. I especially liked my view out the window, no parking lots or businesses, just corn field as far as you can see, with a few trees to house the birds that sang to me in the morning and a wonderful cool breeze. I actually found time to use the pool this time and swam a some laps and enjoyed the Whirlpool.

Thursday night I had a good nights sleep and decided to take advantage of the time before I went to work. I ran nearly the entire stretch of Highway 24, my destination Spillville to see the Bily Clock Museum which I'd heard so much about from my Co-workers. On the way I stopped in Lawler to photograph the Veterans Monument that had recently been erected. As soon as I parked my van to get out, a car stopped to observe what I was doing, as if they were untrusting of my intentions. When I was done I got back in the van and pulled across the street to buy gas at the low price of 2.29 a gallon. When I did, the curious car departed.

The clocks at the museum were fascinating. Two brothers, Frank and Joseph Bily, carved very large and intricate clocks in their spare time begining in 1913 and were once offered $1,000,000.00 for one of them but turned it down. I was amazed that they created these clocks just for their own pleasure, never intending to part with them. They are beautiful but I wasn't allowed to photograph them but you can visit their website at http://bilyclocks.org. On my way back I did stop to photograph a tiny church I found interesting; St. Clement's Catholic Church and was built in 1856.

Another interesting tid bit is the Wapsi river up there. Where I am from the Wapsipinicon is a fairly good size river but I crossed over it every day just outside of New Hampton on my way to work, a small creek that begins just North of New Hampton, called the "East Fork Wapsipinicon".

That night at work was interesting as well. My first three customer were in their 90's and I never would have guessed. I saw my longest married couple today, they had been married for 64 years. My last customers of the day were Father and Son. Dad was 94 and in great shape, we talked about golfing and the John Deere Classic that is held where I am from. Apparently he had been golfing just the other day and had bought a brand new club.

After having seen so many people Friday that were in their 90's and 80's, I never would have guessed them to be that old, I began asking many of them if they were senior citizens because we offer them a 10% discount. Looks here are deceiving. I told them I was going to move up here because there must be something in the air. The people in Fort Atkinson were wonderful, friendly and fun, everyone knew everyone, the population only being about 400. Every day the coordinator for the church we were working would bring in baked goods, fresh fruit and sandwich fixings.

My partner on this trip was one of our districts top sales persons, she's been with the company for 9 years and she gave me some great pointers, her input has increased my sales significantly and she thinks I'm going to make a great PC. She also ended up changing motels and stayed at the Super 8 with me, helping me also to get a lower rate on my room for the week.

When I left Fort Atkinson and headed for home, I took Highway 150, a winding, curving and hilly drive. Beautiful now but I'm not looking forward to driving those roads in the winter. I stopped and took a few landscape photos and kicked myself in the butt after that, the sunset was phenomenal but I wanted to get home before dark, I didn't quite make it but those photos will forever remain in my mind.

Peace
Liz