Lifetime Journeys - Travel

11/17/2024

On May 21, 2024 Greenfield Iowa was devastated by an EF4 tornado. Went back to Greenfield today – haven’t been home since Ragbrai. The rebuilding process is full steam ahead and quite staggering. New houses are popping up in the damage path like spring flowers. So good to see! Come Spring, they will begin the massive effort to replant all the trees. I can’t wait! 🥰
Kim Fuhrman / Lifetime Journeys

11/09/2024

One last bit of color on my morning run. And the rut is on! This guy was chasing a mother/doe and her fawn right in front of me. Hey, not in front of the kids! 😆
Kim Fuhrman / Lifetime Journeys

11/04/2024

My final hiking day (last Tues) at Hitchcock Nature Center. Yes a lot of brown, dried/down leaves – this was the tail end of Fall hiking. But also golden prairie grass, dried prairie flowers and hues of red and yellow. There’s something magical about hiking on top of the ridge above the treeline. I always have to include a hike to the Loess Hills. And since the Loess Hills is 200 miles long, there are always plenty of trails to explore. I’m bummed the drought had some negative impacts on my hiking season but still enjoyed myself. I can’t wait til next year!!
Kim Fuhrman / Lifetime Journeys

11/03/2024

The Tree in the Middle of the Road is such an interesting landmark that sits just off I-80. The unconfirmed story goes, around 1850 the county lines between Audubon County and Cass County were drawn. The surveyor placed a green cottonwood stick in the ground to mark where the lines crossed and that is how the tree came to be in its present location. 😄

Kim Fuhrman
Lifetime Journeys

11/03/2024

A quick stop on my way home last week from hiking in Western Iowa to see the Volkswagen Spider in Avoca 😄
Kim Fuhrman
Lifetime Journeys

10/29/2024

My last day of hiking today started with a beautiful sunrise at Stuart as I headed west. Yes I am the person that pulls off the interstate to take a pic of the sunrise. And someone said to me once, “what do you do with all those pics?” Why do I have to do anything with them but appreciate them. Living life thru the lens of a camera makes me slow down and look at things. As Americans, we live too much of our lives on fast forward. Nothing wrong with pulling over sometimes to just pause and take it in 😊 I’ll post more hiking pics tomorrow.
Kim Fuhrman
Lifetime Journeys - Travel

10/28/2024

McFarland Park just north of Ames. It was a busy park for a Thursday morning! A school field trip was out learning as well as lots of people walking or running the trails. There’s a nice handicap accessible cement trail that encompasses the entire lake. Then branching off from that are paths that go deep into the timber full of changing landscape...stairs, bridges & beautiful trees. The trails are well marked so you can easily extend your hike or cut it short and head back to the parking lot. Very impressed by this park. 👍
Kim Fuhrman / Lifetime Journeys

10/27/2024

We took the back way out of Pammel Park to head over to the Roseman Bridge. On the backside of Pammel Park about a mile south is 260th St otherwise known the Rippey Dumps. On the way to our destination, some beautiful countryside!

Dr. Rippey lived on the road (which is now 260th Street). He was driving his horse and buggy on this stretch of road and when the horse became upset, the buggy tipped over and dumped all of his belongings onto the road. Hence, the nickname Rippey Dumps. Apparently several kids have died hill jumping on Rippey Dumps. In 2014, a local approached the county supervisors and volunteered to provide right of way to cut down the hills (2 kids died that year as their wrecked car came to rest on his property). It was estimated to be $365,000 to reduce the hilltops -- they never moved forward with the project.
Pics taken on 10-19-24

10/27/2024

The Roseman Covered Bridge just outside of Winterset has the cutest little gift shop we love to stop in when we visit the bridge. Only open on weekends and I believe its closed now for the season. They let you sample all their Covered Bridge wines. And of course we bought a few bottles. This year we bought some of the no-bake cheesecake out on their table. This was SO simple & SO flavorful. I highly recommend if you are looking for an easy to impress dessert. We bought the coconut flavor for us -- topped with whip cream, crushed pineapple & shredded coconut...my own personal touches. We sent Cheery Cherry to my sister-in-law. I instructed her to buy sq**rt whip cream and a can of cherry pie filling for toppings. I can’t wait to see how hers turns out! Here’s their site for all 9 of their flavors (I’m going to have to buy some more I think 😋
Kim Fuhrman / Lifetime Journeys https://www.randolhoney.com/store/p109/Gourmet_Cheesecake_Mix.html

10/27/2024

Soper’s Mill operated until the late 1880’s on the east bank of the river. It was originally a sawmill and then a gristmill. Today there is a canoe access point as well as hiking trails.
A rock riffle at this canoe access point was created for fish habitat (seen here) Taken on 10-24-24
Kim Fuhrman / Lifetime Journeys

04/16/2024

Today’s Spring Pic of the Day! Arie Den Boer Arboretum in Waterworks Park is one of the world’s largest collections of flowering crabapple trees. Yes, right here in DSM! The collection of trees is named after its developer, horticulturist and author, Arie Den Boer; he was the collector and originator of the arboretum in 1930. The arboretum contains approx 800 trees including 300 varieties! 💜🩷
Kim Fuhrman / Lifetime Journeys

09/08/2021

Hike #2 over Labor Day weekend was to the Loess Hills. The only other place you will find formations such as these are in China.

So what are the Loess (pronounced “luss”) Hills? They are certainly not your ordinary hills. They were formed by deposits of very fine, windblown soil at the end of the last ice age! The only other place you can find landmarks such as these are China.