QUIET SUNDAY AFTERNOON IN KEOSAUQUA, IOWA

Day tours have been a thing for us since Ana works six twelve hour night shifts every fourteen days as a travel nurse.

This hospital has put all her days together; Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, so that simplifies things greatly and makes the return to a normal sleep pattern possible.  

We've rented six downstairs rooms in a 120 year old mansion with a seventh room no one else uses considered a "common area."  

The big house we live in is known as the Bent River Extended Stay to recognize the noticeable "bend" in the Des Moines River, just a couple hundred yards from our front door.

I'm out in front of the building right now on the deck, perhaps thirty feet off of Iowa Highway 1, a two lane that's also known as Broad Street here in Keosauqua, Iowa.

Between me and the highway is a flag pole with a slightly faded American flag.(My first wife Nena, an army vet, was aware of flag protocol and always annoyed when flags were hung faded or in the rain.)

The traffic is mostly 4WD SUV's and pickups, although an extremely loud orange and black Mustang just passed. (I see tickets in that young man's future.)  Suburu's are popular here because they do well in the snow.

This is also Harley-Davidson country.  Two more just passed, both with male and female riders without helmets.

Motorcycle riding, much like house repair, is compressed into the summer months as soon, snow and ice will prohibit those activities.

A neighbor catty corner across the street has filled his porch with logs for his wood stove, anticipating the cold winter.

Checking on Ana, she's listening to filipino covers of 80's songs from the U.S.  That's a Philippines trick so no royalties are paid.  All the songs sound just a bit "off" to me since they deviate from the originals.

Ana was hungry for nachos, now a necessary part of her acquired cuisine from Brownsville.  We had the sliced jalapenos.  She found the cheese at the Dollar Store, but no tortilla chips. 

Boyd's Grocery, where she hoped to find avocado, tomato and onion, was closed on Sunday.