Lovely Surprises

We have only had a couple of rooms that were "duds", which isn't bad out of about 27 or so of them.  One or two of those were in locations where there were no other options.

This evening's discovery was a surprise indeed.  We left Ames, Iowa around noon, and traveled across the rest of the state, arriving in Le Claire.  Much to our surprise, the Holiday Inn Express sits facing, and just a few feet away from the Mighty Mississippi River! 

You cannot see it in this picture, but the room has a nice "sitting area" with sofa, and other amenities.   But the best part--our room overlooks the river!  We are just delighted.

Today we spent time at Iowa State University where Gerry received his PhD in 1966.  Of course, the campus has changed enormously in the past 47 years.  He visited buildings where he had studied and went inside to locate his old office space (which of course has been reconfigured countless times since).

We also spent some time viewing new and lovely botanical gardens there on the campus, the Reiman Gardens.  We have seen several such gardens on our journey and this one may well be the best garden experience of all, so it has been a really great day .

We even managed to stop and get an oil change along the way, which was overdue.  We located a place by using ipad and wireless at a Rest Stop and GPS to find it.  We are real "techies".

We are weary travelers at this point, and really did not expect to still find surprising and delightful things along the way.   We thought out "sightseeing"  was all over,  but you just never know!