October 9-10- Amana Colonies

On Friday October 9 we left WI with our fifth wheel to see some of our beautiful country with the goal of landing in Florida to store the camper until we get back in December.  After spending a night with Kelly and Billy and Anna, our first stop was Amana Colonies, in Iowa (7 German religious colonies established in the 1850's).  The people who settled here were unhappy with the church in Germany so they started moving to America and their original colony was in New York.  They outgrew their space there so moved on to Iowa.  We stayed two nights in the Amana RV Park- large park in the middle of a corn field but with nice large spots, and some day they'll have some nice shade trees!  The downtown is all small shops and restaurants, but there is still a woolen mill where they make beautiful blankets, scarves, and other items. Since we were there on a weekend we didn't see the looms in operation.  There is also a furniture/clock shop where they make beautiful items (like the Amish- all hand-made). The showroom is huge and the clocks were amazing!  Too expensive for us but I know they sell a lot!  We ate German food both nights we were there, at the Ronneburg Restaurant.  Great food at amazing prices!  Love that sauerbraten, schnitzel, spaetzle, and red cabbage and all the other sides! German beer was great too!
There was a corn husking competition at our RV park on Saturday, showing the way the settlers harvested the corn by hand, with teams of horses driving wagons.  We also saw the heritage museum, leather shop and toy shop.  Also checked out the Millstream brewery and a winery, and sampled some of each.  Nice town to spend at least two days- we did take the drive to the other colonies but there wasn't much to see in those, except a bakery in Middle Amana which sold out their stock in less than 20 minutes on Saturday morning!  The weather in early October is great- and the fall decorations in the town were lovely too. We missed the Oktoberfest by a week- I guess it's really busy then.  For more information go to: http://www.amanacolonies.com/.

Lots of garden ornaments