4/13-17/14  Leaving Grove City, headed west.  First stop was a Lowes in Youngstown, OH. The ceiling fan in the bed room in our motor home needs to be replaced.  Somewhere on I-77, one of the arms that holds a blade broke in half and the blade & 1/2 of the arm was laying on the bed.  Glad it wasn't running and we were sleeping under it.  Getting boinked on the head by a ceiling fan blade at 3 am would be quite fun...lol.  I called the manufacture and they couldn't help me, so replacement is the next step.  Lowes doesn't carry anything that will work, so the next plan is online.  We also went by a Sprint store to see if there was an issue with Barb's iPhone continuously dropping the hot spot feature.  We walked next door & talked to a Verizon rep about a phone for out west.  The Sprint store said nothing is wrong with Barb's phone...back on the road.

Next destination is Nappannee, IN and the Newmar Plant.  We camped there free over night. During the night, a storm went by, lots of wind and rain.  In the morning, the wind was blowing out of the NW & it had dropped about 30 degrees...brrrrrrr!  We went on a tour of the plant at 10, pretty cool seeing motor homes being built.  It was very enjoyable.

Back on the road at noon, heading west.  Just west of Chicago, it started snowing, lightly at first, then a little harder, getting more serious as we moved west.  Long about Princeton, IL the snow was going sideways and we were driving straight into it.  Then when we crossed the Mississippi just west of Moline, it stopped like someone hit a switch...we had forgotten how much fun it is to drive in the Midwest.  We arrived in Iowa City about 5 pm...wind just whipping still out of the SW...quite chilly.

We are at West Overlook Campground north of Iowa City, part of a campground complex (7 camp grounds) operated by the Army Corps of Engineers.  Nice campgrounds surrounding a dam on the Iowa River.  Behind the dam is a reservoir called Coralville Lake that formed. Beautiful spot worth checking out if you are in the area.  We are here for 4 nights, one of only 3 campers, have the place pretty much to ourselves.

First stop is a Verizon store, bought a tablet that also has a hot spot feature. What a difference, internet with no interruption is very cool.  So I started looking on line for a ceiling fan, looking at a lot of them.  I found one that will work on Amazon.com for $59...cool.  I am having it sent to Sue's house in MN.

We also spent an afternoon touring the Herbert Hoover Museum & Library in West Branch, Iowa. Fun looking at the archives, old pictures, etc.  He was quite a guy, did a lot for a lot of people before he was President and then got blamed for a lot of stuff that was not his doing, couldn't get congress to work with him after the Great Depression started a few months after his inauguration...everything was his fault....sound familiar??

We also celebrated my birthday too...we are all getting older.  We had a good stay in Iowa City.  Nice City.

Steve & Barb Larson