9 May
A beautiful day in Wapello Iowa today. It was a little breezy but the temps were in the 80's with the sun shining brightly! This morning we did some housekeeping and minor maintenance on the coach. With a wet Swiffer we gave the floors a once-over while Doreen walked Liberty. Then I installed a drain tube for the condensate on our Norcold RV refrigerator. Shortly before noon our friend Bart French picked us up at the campground and we headed to the Arandas III Mexican Restaurant for lunch in downtown Wapello.
After lunch Doreen walked around the downtown area and Bart and I headed over to his house to continue our conversations on everything from marksmanship to scuba diving to fire service and military service. Bart has led a very interesting life and has many great stories.
He and I have a great deal in common, so the conversations could go on for days!
- We both are proud of our military service. Bart served in the Navy from 1951-1957 as a medic.
- He also married his spouse Pat while he was on active duty.
- Both of our fathers served on the Iowa Highway Patrol for many years and both attained the rank of Captain before retiring. 
- We both served on volunteer fire departments, 30 years for Bart and 25 years for me, and we both were Emergency Medical Technicians. We both believe in "Service Before Self" and enjoy serving others.
- We both have a passion for scuba diving and we were both trained by Matt Leydens! Bart went on to get his instructor certification and owned/operated a scuba shop here in Wapello. We both have traveled extensively scuba diving. I sure miss those days!
- We both also have a passion for marksmanship, youth gun safety and old military firearms.
- We both are so very lucky to have had spouses that tolerate our idiosyncrasies. Sadly, Bart's wife Pat passed away last September. Bart talks about Pat a lot and it is obvious he misses her every minute.
- Bart attended the Iowa State Teacher's College, now know as the University of Northern Iowa, and he did his student teaching in Price Lab School, the same school Doreen attended K-12 and I attended 10-12.
- Bart and his family also enjoyed camping in their RV and traveling around the USA.
We headed back to the campground and gave Bart the tour of our Alliance Paradigm 310RL. He looked pretty comfortable in our loveseat! Before he left we made plans for dinner at the local Italian restaurant.
Later we drove down to Bart's house to pick him up and had to make alternate plans because the Italian restaurant is not open on Mondays. So we drove about 27 miles south to Burlington and stopped at the Perkins.
Later we drove down to Bart's house to pick him up and had to make alternate plans because the Italian restaurant is not open on Mondays. So we drove about 27 miles south to Burlington and stopped at the Perkins.
It was so great to see Bart again and listen to his stories about his late wife, his kids and grandkids. We are fortunate that our paths crossed years ago and that we have been able to maintain contact all this time. Social media has made that a bit easier.
Tomorrow we will pick up a few groceries, visit the swinging bridge in Columbus Junction, stop at a couple stores in downtown Wapello, fuel the big ol' brown truck and made preparations to depart on Wednesday morning towards Remington IN!.
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