Day 9 of our Retirement Trip - Onawa, Iowa

Today, we went to downtown Onawa, Iowa to explore our temporary home.  We initially planned on going antiquing, but the local shop has failed and closed for good.  So sad...

So, we went to see what there was to see.  Low and behold, there was a quilting shop on main street thru town.  So, we had to stop there and Dinah had a grand time searching their inventory while I started up a friendship with the owners' husband Gerald.  After the normal discussion about the weather and facebook, I discovered that Gerald has rebuilt a 28 chevy.  He proudly shared his photos of the car and we talked for a long time about our cars and our friends cars.  It was very nice being with them.  Dinah did find some goods to take home and we parted ways to continue on our adventure.  Below is are some pictures of the shop and the main street.  It's a beautiful little town.

When we left the quilting store it was time for lunch and we wanted to find a local restaurant.  The RV Park owner had recommended "The Suds and Jugs", so we wanted to try that.  It was downtown, also.  Just down the street, actually.  So, we left the truck where it was and walked.  It was a beautiful day ourside.  It was sunny and 74 degrees with a slight breeze, no clouds.  Just wonderful.  The pictures below show the restaurant and the food.  It was better than most national burger stands and the people were very friendly.

Dinah in front of the SUDS & JUGS.

An example of their menu.  Very Good.

Waiting on the food.

   After lunch we went back to the car and on our way found a consignment store that looked interesting, so we went in and looked around for a while.  Dinah found a muffin cooking plate for the microwave and she bought that.  By this time, we had just about run out of things to do, so we headed to the grocery store to stock up for the next week of the trip.  We then stopped for gas at the local Sinclair Gas Station and this was not significant in itself, but just down the street I noticed that an ancient cinema that was still in existence.  It was showing "Atomic Blonde"!  Outside the cinema was a statue of a large dog.  We had seen several of these around town and did not know the significance of them.  They were all painted and decorated differently.  After doing some investigation, it turns out that they are called the "Loess Hills Dog" Project.  It's not what you might think.   According to the web:

   "This statue is one of over 3 dozen decoratively painted “Discovery Dogs,” a public art project created in preparation for the 2004 “Lewis & Clark Expedition” throughout Siouxland."

“Loess Hills Dog” is a 5’ tall fiberglass portrayal of Seaman, Meriwether Lewis’ Newfoundland that accompanied the party on their exploration over a century ago. The statue was done by Darren Maurer."

There were several of these statues in Onawa, one in front of the cinema and one in front of the "Fiesta Grocery Store" where we replenished our supplies.  One other thing...  We were taken back in time as they still had a young man bagging groceries for you and taking them to your car and loading them into your car!!  Very nostalgic!

A couple of different versions of Seaman, below.

Click here for more info on the statues.

This guy was at the cinema.

This guy was at the grocery store.

If you would like to see the other pics we took today while roaming Onawa, click here.  I hope you are enjoying this blog.  LUV 2 All!  Til our next post...

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