Missouri family visits Iowa Capitol and 49 others

A Missouri family wound up a year-long tour of all 50 state capitols this past weekend — and Iowa’s “Golden Dome” was among their final stops. Ed and Ginger Gall sold their home in St. Louis in July of last year and hit the road in an R-V with their sons Samual, James and Benjamin. Ed Gall, who is 38 years old, says his wife had to talk him into the idea of quitting his job and touring the country for a year, but he finally decided it might be nice to have a little fun and worry about retirement later on since he has at least 30 years of work left. Ginger Gall says she didn’t want to wait ’til retirement because she wanted to do the tour of state capitols with her children. The boys are 13, 10 and six — and their parents have Ed Gall says it was an “interesting challenge” but the principal of the boys’; school gave them the coursework the boys would have used had they stayed in St. Louis. Ginger Gall says her son James has been studying American History this year, and they decided to tackle subjects when they were in the spots where history was made, so when they were in the south, they studies the Civil War and the civil rights movements. When they were in Hawaii, they studies volcanoes. Samuel, the oldest boy, admits it’s been hard to be away from al his friends for a whole year, but he says he’s having a good time in spite of that. Samuel Gall says one of their favorite capitols was the one in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania because it was “really pretty inside.” In Des Moines, Samuel was most struck by the outside of the Iowa Statehouse. Samuel says they’ve never seen a capitol with five domes. His dad says the Iowa Capitol was the only one in which they were allowed to climb into the interior of the dome, and he says they huffed and puffed and were “put to shame” by the elderly tour guide who climbs the stairs four times a day. The Galls visited their home-state capitol in Jefferson City, Missouri over the weekend, and if you can’t get away for a whole year, the family recommends that you at least visit your own state capitol soon.To learn more about the Galls’ journey, visit their website — www.gallsacrossamerica.com.