Hello from Prescott, IA
Saturday afternoon — August 8, 2015 (First post of this travelogue)
We travelled to Iowa this week primarily to celebrate Pat’s aunt and uncle’s 80th birthdays. More a bit later in this post.
We left Evergreen about 4:30 AM Monday and drove straight through (in the PT Cruiser) – arriving in Prescott about 4:00 PM. With the time change that is about 10 ½ hours – pretty good for us since we have to stop a lot to walk around and exercise the tired old bodies.
Getting ready for this trip was a bit hairy. The air conditioner in the PT Cruiser had been getting weaker over the past few weeks and heading to Iowa in August demands a pretty good AC. I worked on the system about a week before we left and it only improved a bit. Finally after a lot of research on the Internet, I got a clue about a control switch that many folks had problems with. It did not seem like a logical solution, but for $20 I thought why not. After installing the switch (pretty easy) and topping off the Freon, the system works good now. I have to add that the AC system in the PT is the subject of a huge number of threads, all complaining about how strange the plumbing is and how hard it is to work on.
As a backup we thought about the Durango, but its AC is not all that great, and renting a car. Sure glad we got the PT working great – until we got to Omaha. In the middle of town the engine really acted up and threw a code. I pulled over and shut the engine down and restarted it and it seemed to run fine, but the code remained. Once we got to Iowa, I connected the computer and determined that the “cam position sensor” had thrown the code. I ordered one and put it in yesterday (not too bad of a job).
The weather has been good since we got here – fairly cool for August. However the day before we arrived, a tornado destroyed several buildings and farm equipment less than 10 miles from Bill and Jeanne’s house (see photos).
Thursday was the surprise party for Jack and Janice. That morning we, along with Pat’s cousin and her husband, went to their house and had a great visit. They took us for quite a driving tour of the area including driving to their son Dan’s house. Dan and Terri were hosting the party that night and there were several tables set up and the family was out picking sweet corn in the nearby garden. Apparently Jack and Janice figured it was a party for a visiting granddaughter.
That night a huge number of people gathered for the celebration. Jack and Janice were completely surprised. The food was great, and the weather could not have been better.
Today we went to an auction of the contents of the Prescott Community School. It is sad that the school is closing. I think it is a great looking building (see picture). The board is meeting in the next few days to decide what to do with the building, but the options are very limited and it will likely be torn down. Jack and Janice, along with their family, are the auctioneers, so it is always fun to see them in action. We are taking a break from the auction as I type this and we will go back later to see if we can snag a couple of things that Pat has her eye on.
That is all for now.