July in Iowa

My granddaughter, Jamie Delacruz of Texas, gave birth to a 3 lb. 1 oz. son Alex on July 5. If you think that’s small, my niece gave birth to triplet girls on July 12 who ranged from 1 lb. 8 oz to 2 lbs. All the babies are doing well. I hope to see Alex when we go to Texas next winter and the triplets when they get home in August or September.

We didn’t see the THOUSANDS of bikers who participated in the 39th RAGBRAI (Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa) even though we went to Altoona later in the day. We did see a few bikers and some buses but didn’t have our cameras. Lance Armstrong rode on Tuesday. My sister Joy rode on Wednesday and Friday of the race. My nephew, Jon Klein came from Kentucky to ride and dipped his bike into the Mississippi River, which is the traditional ending of the weeklong event.

We did go to the National balloon Festival in Indianola on Saturday night and sat in the park across from the church. The balloons are launched from the campus of Simpson College, which are just below the church grounds. The panda was air born but didn’t get over the church steeple while the eagle appeared to be tethered. However when we got home we saw this pile of . . . ah “dirt” in our yard that wasn’t there when we left. Terry said that the eagle wasn’t responsible for it.