Railroad Inn
 One of our field trips was to a bed and breakfast place that also served meals, located in the nearby town of Essex, Iowa. The elderhostel people arranged for us to eat one of our evening meals there. It had lots of interesting antiques in it, and of course I noticed the frog bird |  The bed and breakfast was a restored hotel called the Railroad Inn. It was popular with the railroaders and cowboys in the 1920's. Prohibition was in force and the lookout in the stairway was so they did not get raided. The present owner decorated it with fancy lights. |
 There is a bar in the basement of the hotel. All I did was pose there. |  Storms threatened the area most of the days we were there, but only one day did we have a thunderstorm and we were mostly inside then. The electricity did go off for an hour. Other places in the area got bad storms and hail. |