We had a few days before hooking up with Jim & Vicki, so took a detour over to Iowa's capital city to check it out.  The capitol building is a magnificent  example of 19th century architecture.  The steel and brick dome is gilded with 23-karat gold leaf with a thickness of 1/250,000th of an inch.  The original gilding of the dome cost $3,500.  The 4th gilding was done in 1998-99 at a cost of $300,000 and will last twenty-five years.  The building is currently under renovation at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars.  The original construction cost less than ten million.  We also discovered Prairie Meadows Race Track and Casino where we spent an afternoon.  We left with just a bit more than we brought with us!!  That is always nice.

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