Road Trip! The Great River Road

There's a local commercial that runs for a place called Horsfall Variety Store in Lansing, Iowa.  The tag line is, "We have everything you need, and lots of things you don't."  I love that.  So after seeing this commercial about six hundred and twelve times, I looked at Walker and said, "One of these days we'll have to check that place out."

You would think by now I'd learn that if I say something out loud, I'm pretty much committing to doing it.  Iowa isn't all that far - took us about an hour to get there - but really?  We processed for the end of the quarter at work on Friday night and it was a late one.  I would have liked to get a little more sleep.

Saturday morning was picture perfect.  The route down to Iowa follows the Great River Road, which is a pretty drive on any given day. This time of year, with the fall color starting to come down, it was downright gorgeous. We stopped a couple times, at a scenic over look, and at a lock and dam.  I remember when we were kids there were viewing spots at the lock and dams, where you could watch the boats pass through and see the water levels rise and fall.  I don't think they let you do that anymore, because even though there was a visitor center and guest parking, the area around the water was fenced off and marked as inaccessible.

Once in Lansing, we found the Horsfall stores - both of them - and poked around a bit.  I felt a little like I'd stumbled into an episode of Hoarders, but in a good way. Sort of.  They really do have everything, but the shelves are very close together and the windows have boxes piled in front of them, so the store felt rather dark. We found a toy section and picked up some new jigsaw puzzles.  Got a great deal on them, too. 


 We weren't in a hurry to head home so we wandered around downtown Lansing for a bit.  We really had to watch ourselves - the curbs were so high if we weren't paying attention one of us probably would have gone over and snapped a leg. Check out Walker with his knee-high curb.

There were all kinds of cool old buildings, and a couple "small town America" signs.  I didn't get a chance to snap one of the "ice cream and bait" shop, as it was along the highway and I was driving, but we did get a chuckle out of the "auto parts and tanning" shop.  Someone told us you can use the tanning bed while your car is services.  So every 3,000 miles you get a little color.

We also passed this cool stone school, which is currently being restored. They hope to put a museum inside at some point, and maybe even hold classes there again some day. We made a quick stop for a couple lottery tickets before we headed home.  That was Walker's idea.  He says that you have better odds when you play out of state.  Not sure about that theory, but I can spend a couple bucks to test it out. I'll let y'all know if we win ~