Old Tractors and Freedom Rock

We traveled south yesterday and spent the night in Avoca Iowa at their fairgrounds. Nothing fancy, but had 50 amp. electric and was quiet and secure. We drove over to Harlan IA in the evening to look up an old friend that we hadn't seen in about 16 years, only to hear from some folks downtown that he's had two heart attacks and open heart surgery.
There isn't much in Avoca but a Farm All museum for old International tractors and farm machinery. We didn't hang around today to go through it, but took some pictures outside. This morning we headed east on I80 and turned off at Exit 86 to go see a monument created by a local artist. Freedom Rock. He has been painting scenes on this big rock to thank Veterans since 1999.
It's a very nice tribute here in the middle of the country and he repaints the rock every year before Memorial Day. This year in the green paint of the helicopter, there are the ashes of 16 Viet Nam Veterans mixed in.
There's pictures of all the scenes and the story behind this project in a small shed on the small corner of land. A guest book is provided and donation box. They have developed the little corner, adding a bench, a flagpole and a lean to with the info in it. Probably one of the shortest tours we've taken, we unhooked the car and drove 1 1/4 miles and back. I highly recommend stopping at this tribute location. It's not far off the beaten path and very cool. If you're interested you can look it up on the net and read the story. Just type Freedom Rock into a browser. We drove back to the coach,hooked back up and finished the trip down to Osceola. Yes, we're back at Terribles AGAIN! We'll be here for a week or so while we take in the Indianola hot air Balloon Festival and I chart the course for the next leg of the journey. My eldest son and family are driving through Saturday on their way to Michigan for a visit to DIL's family. We will meet in Des Moines for lunch and I can get some hugs and kisses in from the grandbabies! Their daughter Shayne will be a year old the 5th of August...so I can give her birthday presents early! We have a Grandson in Nebraska that will turn 10 on the same day. Don't know how we ended up so lucky to have 2 Grandkids with the same birthdays, and usually they're too far apart to see them on the same day. We went to the casino for a bit this afternoon and registered for this park. Didn't have any luck, and while DH stayed for some drawings and cards this evening, I came home to catch up on reading and a nice hot shower. Don't know what tomorrow holds, but I'm sure we'll come up with something.