For most of October, we traveled back to Iowa for a visit.  We have lived in New Mexico for two years and thought it would be fun to go back to where we had lived for the previous 28 years.  We stayed at my Daughter and Son-in-law’s house out in the country.  She has 10 acres and has two horses living on it.

 The weather for most of the trip was rotten.  Iowa should have crisp, sunny days in October but, unfortunately, there were only two of them during our stay.  Of course, the leaden skies and rain just reinforced the reasons that we moved to New Mexico in the first place.

 On the last day there we had one of the sunny days so we decided to go to Pella, a small, picturesque Dutch town two a half hours from Des Moines.  On the way we were able to get pictures of an activity that is not uncommon in Iowa at harvest time.  As a good corn crop is too large to put into existing silos, the harvested kernels are taken by truck to enclosures where they are blown into mounds.  Until they are covered with tarps, all over Iowa you can see these golden hills of grain.

 All the buildings in Pella adhere to Dutch architecture as you can see in the pictures.  The town is home to the Jaarsma Bakery, probably one of the best in the country.  The pastries in the window that are shaped like an S are Dutch letters.  They are filled with almond paste and are available all year around.  In Holland they only have them at Christmas.  The S is for Sinter Claas (hope I spelled that right.)

 The trip back was terrible with thick fog on the second day coming out of  Wichita, Kansas.  There was only about a quarter mile of visibility but, somehow, we made it through.  On the third day we awoke to bright sunshine in the town of Tucumcari, New Mexico.  For all intents and purposes we were home.  I don’t think we will be in a hurry to leave for a while.

Ed Bradley is dead at the age of 65 which, from my point of view, seems terribly young.  He was greatly admired and is mourned by his journalistic peers.  He had an excellent sense of humor but was a rather private person.  Few knew about his battle with Leukemia until the announcement of his death two days ago.

 I remember when Liza Minelli convinced him to have his ear pierced, giving him his first earring.  It was about the same time that my wife and daughter, tired of hearing me talk about it, marched me over to the mall, one on each arm to finally have it done.  Through the years whenever I saw him on TV, I would look to see the familiar glint at his left ear and it was always there.  In a world that sometimes to seem to be descending into chaos, Ed and I still wore our earrings.  Somehow that made me feel better.

 In these days of glossy, hair sprayed, phony TV journalism, Ed Bradley always appeared to be real, down to earth.

 60 Minutes will be doing a tribute to him on Sunday.