Home Care In Watkins, IA

The Lincoln Highway is one of the most storied drives anywhere in the United States, but traveling it is a massive undertaking – it crosses the entire United States! As the first transcontinental highway in the country, dedicated in 1913, every inch of it is packed with history – and that includes the area crossing the Hawkeye State. Iowa’s Lincoln Highway goes across the center of the state, hitting most major cities. Even exploring this length is a major time commitment, so here at Only In Your State we’ve come up with a road trip itinerary that’s more manageable for those who want to see some of the Lincoln Highway’s most historic spots. Spanning from the route’s beginning at the Iowa/Illinois border to a notable spot in Ames midway through the state, it contains about 200 miles of driving and is ideal for those who want to explore Iowa’s roots.

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The Under-The-Radar Scenic Drive In Iowa That Showcases Rolling Hills And Czech Culture

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Have you taken this famous road through Iowa before? Tell us your favorite spots along Iowa’s Lincoln Highway in the comments section! You can learn more about this historic route on the Lincoln Highway Association website – it might just lead you to your next destination! Make sure to check out our past coverage of Reiman Gardens to learn about all this unique Ames institution offers.

For the past 42 years, Rev. Lindsay Watkins has served as a minister — 26 of those years at Trinity Lutheran Church in Boone. This Sunday will be his final church service before he retires.

Sunday school will start at 9 a.m. with one church service at 10 a.m. Immediately following will be a meal in Watkins’ honor.

“I love being a pastor. It’s been a blessing here,” he said. “I thought for years I would never retire because I love what I do, but when it comes down to family, I really want to spend more time with them.”

Watkins was born and raised in North Miami, Florida, and graduated from high school in 1971. His next stop was Concordia College in Ann Arbor and Concordia Senior College in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology. He then decided to enter seminary school. He studied at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, graduating from there in 1979.

“One of those years for Missouri Synod is always an internship, and mine was down in Largo, Florida, in the Tampa Bay area,” he said of his training.

Watkins served as pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Rushville, Illinois, (1979-82); Immanuel Lutheran Church in Macomb, Illinois, as well as campus minister at Western Illinois University (1982-86); and Mt. Hope Lutheran Church in Evergreen, Colorado (1986-1988).

He was then campus pastor at Wittenberg Lutheran Chapel of the University of North Dakota from 1988 to 1995.

Watkins earned the Doctor of Ministry in 1993 from Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. He said going back to school allowed him further study in marriage and family counseling, as well as in chemical dependency, Biblical studies and parish administration.

“People were coming to me in the congregation with alcoholism problems and I really didn’t have a great handle on how to work with that,” he said.

It was in August 1995 that Watkins came to Boone as Trinity Lutheran’s senior pastor where he’s spent decades “preaching, teaching and counseling.” He said while he enjoyed campus ministry, the move to Boone provided the opportunity to work with couples and families, plus school-aged children.

“I got to work with really faithful Christian teachers and a Christian principal these last 26 years. It’s been a neat variety,” he said.

The workload at times could be heavy.

“With the size of our congregation, the school and our active ministry, it came down to I was putting in 60-65 hours per week as a pastor,” he said.

Watkins said many churches around the nation are experiencing a shortage in ministers, due to so many retiring. COVID-19 has also had an impact.

He and his wife Peggy are relocating to Lee’s Summit, Missouri, to be closer to their daughters Hannah and Anne.

“What I most love about the ministry is preaching. I will miss that, but maybe I’ll help out some other pastors in Lee’s Summit,” he added.

While his predecessor has not yet been named, Associate Pastor Jessten Heimer is currently serving Trinity.

“We’re always going to have something seasonal, and we’re just going to change the menu to try new things,” said Graham Watkins, who along with Ann-Marie Widdowson opened the shop at 207 Main St. just before Christmas. “We want it to be a constant rotation.”

Watkins, owner of the former west Ames restaurant and gift shop Cornucopia, and his former employee Widdowson teamed up to start Marmalade Moon, which not only offers home-made ice cream but snacks, sandwiches, a full coffee bar, retail shop and creative corner.

It also offers 12 flavors of ice cream – at least two flavors are dairy free, one one of those will be a sorbet and one will be vegan.

For example, Widdowson and Watkins, both natives of Great Britain, recently developed the Marmalade Moon flavor, a creamy, light citrus ice cream with candied orange peel chunks.

“For Valentine’s, we also have Red Velvet with White Chocolate Chips and a Raspberry Zin, which is non-alcoholic,” Widdowson said.

The Raspberry Zin is a sorbet in a lovely shade of pink.

One of Marmalade Moon’s most popular flavors has a name with a nod to the owners’ heritage: Lemon Butter Biscuit.

“We made several batches of it but decided to switch it out for the Marmalade flavor,” Widdowson said. “That wasn’t easy because people really love it, but it will be making a comeback.”

Ice cream is available by the scoop – one, two or three – or by the pint.

“One big surprise we’ve had is the number of to-go pints we’ve sold,” Watkins said. “We’ve had some people come in and buy four pints.”

“We think Ames needed another ice cream spot,” Widdowson said. “My husband and I moved here in ’95 and I believe this was the building that had the antique mall with the ice cream stand in it.”

“We knew we didn’t want it to be another Cornucopia,” Watkins said. “We wanted something different. Being downtown, it’s a different crowd, different vibe, people constantly coming and going.”

They prepared for their new venture by attending an ice cream-making class and enjoyed it.

“We like the idea of making it ourselves and experimenting with the flavors, fitting the needs of Ames,” Widdowson said.

Marmalade Moon offers coffee, sweets and products from other local small businesses

Marmalade Moon also has a full coffee bar. Milkshakes and sweet treats, like Millionaire Shortbread and brownies, are made on the premises.

“We’re also supportive of other small businesses and their food, like Sisters in Cheese in Madrid. We have their sandwiches and grazing cups,” Widdowson said. “And from Arcadia, which used to be in Campustown, we have her bagels, and she roasts our coffee.”

Customers often arrive at Marmalade Moon expecting just to find ice cream.

“When they come in, they see the retail lines we have and the areas to play games,” Widdowson said.

Marmalade Moon's lines of retail products are imaginative and playful, including puzzles, jewelry, games and home decor. For example, a line of cookie cutters let you form three-dimensional cookies in the shapes of space shuttles and rockets. A set of bath balms honor women role models like Amelia Earhart, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Rosa Parks.

“With the creation of ice cream, we wanted to emphasis creativity with the products we bring in,” Watkins said. “We look for things that aren’t currently at other stores on Main Street. There’s no point competing – we try to bring something different.”

Both from the UK, business owners met in Ames

Watkins and Widdowson were determined to be open before Christmas, so on Dec. 23, without much fanfare, they unlocked the front door and customers started streaming in steadily.

“By Christmas Eve we were very busy,” Widdowson said.

Watkins said he knew last January that he needed to do something different than the Cornucopia. He just wasn’t getting the traffic he needed to keep the restaurant and retail shop open after two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On a bitterly cold day last January, Watkins and Widdowson visited Main Street and found the foot traffic was constant, despite the temperature.

Ironically, though both are natives of the United Kingdom, they didn’t know each other until they met in Ames.

Widdowson moved here from England in 1995 with her husband. They have two grown daughters. They moved to Kentucky for her husband’s job and came back to Ames about 15 years ago.

“I’m from the UK, just outside London. My wife and I moved here in 2009 and said we’d stay for two years,” Watkins said with a laugh. “We wanted to give it a fair go in Ames. We’ve had three kids here, so we’re kind of settled.”

Marmalade Moon is located near Dog-Eared Books, which opened last March and is owned by Watkins’ and Widdowson’s friends Amanda Lepper and Ellyn Grimm.

“I think we really complement what they’re doing,” Watkins said. “Obviously, having friends next door is helpful for starting a new business.”

As Logan Watkins would sit on a training table in Arizona rehabbing his torn Achilles tendon, that day’s Chicago Cubs game would be on a television near by.

It was tough for Watkins to watch. Sometimes too tough.

After a season away, Watkins is back on a baseball field and made his return to a game during Iowa’s loss Friday night.

“I’m just happy to be out there playing again,” Watkins said.

It’s been a long time coming. Watkins, a 21st-round pick by the Cubs in 2008, was the organization’s Minor League Player of the Year in 2012. He made his big league debut a season later and became a role player for the Cubs, appearing in 58 games with the Cubs between 2013 and 2014.

Watkins thought he could be in that role again in 2015 and arrived to spring training early to get a jump start on his season. But things took a disastrous turn on his first day when he went down with a season-ending injury.

The injury cost him the entire 2015 season. He was on crutches for a few months and spent his time in Arizona rehabbing and, even worse, watching Chicago’s run to the postseason.

Every Cubs fan wanted to watch. But Watkins couldn’t. He’d sometimes catch a game while he rehabbed and tuned in for the postseason, but the regular season was too difficult for him.

“Just knowing that I wasn’t there was just kind of the hardest part,” Watkins said. “I was extremely happy and excited for the team and the organization and everything but it’s just like you’re missing the best party there is.”

Watkins remained patient, worked out with now Iowa Cubs assistant trainer/strength coach Sean Folan and, over time, got rid of the crutches and got back on his feet. A year later, he was back at spring training and playing in games.

“I feel good and my body feels good and I feel like I’m just as fast if not faster than I was when I got hurt," Watkins said. “I think (Friday) was just a first step.”

Watkins went 0-for-4 Friday night — his first official game since Sept. 28, 2014. Just being on the field for a national anthem was something Watkins relished.

“It was a big day,” Watkins said. “I’ve been waiting for … it’s why I worked so hard to get back. I feel like it’s all paying off.

Watkins still feels like he has something to offer the Cubs.

“I think I’m a good guy, especially off the bench,” Watkins said.

Autonomous drone aircraft traffic in uncontrolled airspace below 400 feet altitude is expected to substantially increase in the next few years. Experts anticipate a fleet of nearly 1 million commercial uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) in the U.S. by 2027, engaging in tasks like package delivery, traffic monitoring, and emergency assistance.

A team of researchers led by the Institute for Assured Autonomy's Lanier Watkins and Louis Whitcomb has used artificial intelligence to model a system that could more safely orchestrate drone traffic by replacing some human-in-the-loop processes with autonomous decision-making. Their results appeared in IEEE's Computer.

"We wanted to see if different approaches using AI could handle the expected scale of these operations in a safe manner, and it did," said Watkins, an associate research professor in the Whiting School of Engineering's Department of Computer Science, a researcher at the Institute for Assured Autonomy, and principal professional staff at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. "Our simulated system leverages autonomy algorithms to enhance the safety and scalability of UAS operations below 400 feet altitude."

To address the challenge of increasing UAS traffic, the Hopkins team evaluated the impact of autonomous algorithms in a simulated 3D airspace. The team knew from their previous research that using collision avoidance algorithms greatly reduced accidents. Adding strategic deconfliction algorithms, which control traffic timing to avoid collisions, made things even safer and nearly eliminated airspace accidents, they found.

The researchers also equipped their simulator with two aspects of realism. "Noisy sensors" mimic the unpredictability of real-world conditions and make the system more adaptable, and a "fuzzy interference system" calculates the risk level for each drone based on factors ranging from proximity to obstacles to adherence to the planned route. Watkins and Whitcomb say that these approaches allow the system to make autonomous decisions to prevent collisions.

"Our study considered a variety of variables, including scenarios that involve 'rogue drones' that deviated from their planned routes. The results are very promising," said Whitcomb, a professor of mechanical engineering at the Whiting School of Engineering and a researcher at the Institute for Assured Autonomy.

The team plans to enhance its simulations further by including dynamic obstacles like weather and other real-world factors for a more comprehensive representation.

Watkins says that the paper builds on more than two decades of research conducted at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory focused on enhancing the safety of the U.S.'s National Airspace System.

"This work has been investigated through simulating performance in environments and systems that are being considered for deployment by third parties in future airspaces, as well as in the academic and basic research IEEE and ACM communities," explains Watkins. "This work helps researchers understand how autonomy algorithms that protect airspace can behave when faced with noise and uncertainty in 3D-simulated airspace and underscores the need to continuously monitor the results from these autonomous algorithms to ensure they have not reached potential failure states."