What a beautiful day! Rachel, Michael, Noah and Hazel came by for a bit. They are such a lovely little family. They came to borrow the truck. They will be moving to Pullman Saturday. It is both good and sad. It is sad that they will be so far away but it is good that Michael is going to have a good education and he is so lucky to have such a supportive wife.

I have an interesting little story. Last week I was telling Erik about when Donna and I take our trip to the Midwest that one place we are going to see is Modale, Iowa where my mother was born and raised. I said it was just a small town surrounded by farms. Erik asked if there were any deer there. I said I wasn't sure but when you read the following, I will say Yes, Erik, there are deer in Iowa.

Probably some of you saw the video on the KOMO news on the internet. The caption was "Deer plays leap frog over cop car". The video might still be on the website. Before the video goes on it says "Here's a story that will make you look and think twice. A police officer in Iowa couldn't believe his eyes when a deer jumped across the hood of his patrol car and cleared it. And he might have questioned whether it happened at all, if he didn't have the tape to prove it. "

This amazing video shows the downtown busy street of Indianola, Iowa. I did a little research and found that the town of Indianola has a population of 12,000. As you know some of the places Donna and I want to see are Laura Ingalls Wilder exhibits. Laura Ingalls Wilder museums are big visitor draws throughout the midwest. Interestingly a new grade school was built in 2008 in Indianola and was named the "Laura Ingalls Wilder Elementary School".

Indianola is about 2 hours from Des Moines, Iowa. I am not sure if we will be going anywhere near there. Donna is coming over on the 22nd so we can go over our trip details a little more. I am really excited, not by just the trip but having time with Donna.

It was nice to find a lighter news item. Everyday there is so much sad news. It is certainly tragic about the plane that went down between Brazil and France. I suppose it will take some time before the investigators find what caused it.