Leaving Minnesota

We finished up our northern loop at one of our favorite events, Carlos Creek Winery's Grape Stomp with my brother, Jeff and his wife, Kathy.  The kickoff was "The Dweebs" concert/dance on Friday night.

Wine & beer flowing, we danced, watched the Dweebs-costumed & energetic-and built a much admired plastic cup pyramid! Kathy kept the sign for future use:)

Saturday we headed out to the stomp.

We did our tasting with several thousand other people, then headed out to browse the vendor tents & see the entertainment.  Guido likes his new sleep sack!

The winery is beautiful, and we loved catching up with Jessi & Matt and the Sanford family!

The week after the Stomp, Jeff & I collaborated to make a clock for the trailer out of a piece of old barn wood.  Kathy had the genius idea to used wood burning for the numbers.  Thanks, you two, love our clock.

Fall Fest was the first weekend in October this year.  Ron & I enjoy working the show and catching up with our horsey friends.  From there, we headed back to Brooke & Johnny's for a whirlwind week of projects to get done before we head South. The week finished with a fundraising event at the farm for "Hold Your Horses", a therapeutic riding group operating out of Bel Farms, and the Creighton family dinner on Sunday.

Love seeing these kiddos - Owen, Savannah  & Maci and (not in the pic) Delaney.
Our first stop heading south was Hidden Bluffs RV Resort, a beautiful park near Spring Grove, MN.

Neither Ron or I had been to the southeastern corner of Minnesota, and were amazed by the beautiful bluffs, and of course, the fall colors.  We visited Lanesboro, which is a cute town that caters to tourists with antique stores, shops, fantastic bike trails and great scenery.

The falling leaves and the increasingly cooler weather was a big reminder to keep heading south.

 

Next stop, Dyersville, Iowa - home of the movie set for "Field of Dreams".  As we headed south, we drove through many small towns including Guttenberg, which is on the bluffs of the Mississippi River.  The leaf colors were incredible - it was an unexpected, beautiful drive.

 

Ron is a huge baseball fan & we are both huge movie fans, so despite the cool windy weather, we loved seeing the "Field of Dreams".  The baseball field is still maintained by the family that owns the farm & they still live in the house and farm the farm.   I was happy all of the corn wasn't harvested yet - the corn around the field was all still standing.

 

As we headed back through the town of Dyersville, I noticed a sign for "Basilica"; and, since I love old churches & cemeteries, we followed the signs.  We certainly didn't expect to find this in a town as small as Dyersville.

 

The Basilica of St. Francis Xavier.

It is a Gothic style, built in the 1800's and restored in the 1990's & early 2000's. The interior is incredible, with beautiful stained glass windows, intricately carved wooden confessionals & altars, paintings & decorative painting very like the cathedrals of Europe. 

It was a fun day, but when the temps hit 25 degrees that night, we were ready to head further south.  Next stop, the Amana Colonies.