The latest leg of my Virtual Hike was from Eagleville, Missouri to Ottumwa, Iowa.

For those of you who have known me most of my life you know that Ottumwa is where I spent most of my grade school years.

Eagleville is where some of my ancestors lived and are buried. Most of the next stops on the Virtual Hike will be at places of family significance.

I adjusted my route to pass through several towns along the way. One of the towns is Lamoni, Iowa where some of my Bunt family lived. You may have heard of Lamoni, Iowa as it has been a center for the Reorganized Mormon church. You can see here Graceland University which is one of their schools. My 4th Great Grandparents, William and Eliza Bunt, were at one time members of the early Reorganized Mormon church.

Moravia, Iowa was another town that I passed through with a family connection. My Ramsey family had a Moravia address in some of the census reports.

Here is the destination of Ottumwa, Iowa. The spot marked is where Google Maps placed the pin for Ottumwa. There are many spots that I could write about in Ottumwa as I have many memories from living there. Perhaps someday I will write a post about a virtual walk around Ottumwa and show some of the places that bring back memories.

I did make sure that my Virtual Hike took me past this house in Ottumwa. This is where I grew up. I have so many memories of this house.

The picture above is from Google Street View.

It seems much smaller than I remember it 🙂

I will have to make sure that my Virtual Hike route takes me by this Ottumwa landmark on my way out of town toward the next destination.

It is not possible to have a virtual meal at the Canteen, but I can make myself a Loose Meat Sandwich here at home and bring back some memories.

I wrote about my next destination in my post A Virtual Hike Idea. It is the end of migration path that I will be following in reverse (with a few detours).

Have you been to Ottumwa, Iowa?

Steven