Adler's Midwest Meandering Spring 2021

 We are in our last day at Monticello, Iowa and will go out and grab a few caches in town, then go to Cascade to find some interesting ones.  It's very chilly here today and the wind goes right through us!  We have thin blood from being in Arizona for so many winters, and we aren't sure how long we will be able to stay out today.  

This might be hard to read, but it is written on the back of a tombstone in Cascade, Iowa.  The title for this cache was called, "I Will Take It To My Grave".  I guess Maxine Menster was known for her sugar cookies.  One has to wonder if she wouldn't give out the recipe.  I think it's an honor if people as me for a recipe.  I have heard of some people who will give out their recipe, BUT they leave out one key ingredient!  I could never understand that.  We had to take some numbers on this inscription and turn it into our coordinates to take us to the final cache.  It was a bison tube hanging in a pine tree.  

Jim was hard at work trying to work the rings on this 'bar' to release the key to open the padlock on the ammo can!  It was so chilly out there, that he said we would do this one when it was warmer.  He seemed to have the hang of it and I thought he was halfway there, but he didn't want to continue.  So, this gets a DNF today.  Quite the cache, though.  The whole thing was covered by a bucket so it didn't draw attention to it.  

The virtual cache took us to this old stone silo in Cascade, Iowa.  It was built in the early 1930's to store the farmer's produce.  It was designed and built by a talented stone mason man that was an immigrant from Luxembourg. The stone was from the Military Trail Bridge, after it had been blasted down after the flood of 1925.  I guess you would call that recycling.  

The highlight of the day was visiting with Jean and Sparky Biermann, who live outside of Cascade, Iowa.  We couldn't be that close and not see them.  They have a lovely country setting and I especially liked the background shot of the pond that they have.  They both looked great and we had a wonderful visit!  Socially distanced, of course!  For those of you following along that aren't dancers, Sparky plays tuba for the Jim Busta Band.  Most of you have heard of Mollie B, and Jim Busta is her father.  This was a wonderful way to end our day in this area.  Tomorrow we move to Madison, Wisconsin.  I may not post anything until we get home on Sunday, as it will be mostly doing some shopping at REI, and visiting family.  I will always have my camera with me!  We hope you have enjoyed our trip with us and maybe we have converted some of you into geo-cachers!  It's a great sport.  Thanks to everyone who posted or e-mailed us during this short journey.