Call us: 641-670-0190
What Am I Getting Myself Into
If I Travel With the Hensleys?
- A great bargain!!!!!!!! We operate as a ministry so folks can
see the awesomeness of God’s creation, hear the gospel,
be encouraged and challenged.
- The only requirement to travel with Blessed Byways
Tours is an interest in the locations and attractions
which will be visited. It should be noted that attractions,
tours, restaurants, time on the bus and activities are
planned with adults in mind unless the trip would be
a multi-generational trip.
- Blessed Byway travelers have come from all over the state of Iowa plus Minnesota, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Texas and even Canada. Pick ups are made along the route which will be traveled. Those not along the route will need to meet the bus at one of the pickup points. Arrangements are always made with the manager of each pickup point for permission for folks to leave their cars at that location. Some travelers prefer to have someone bring them to the pick up point and then pick them up when they return.
- Restroom stops are scheduled for every two hours.
- Special provisions are made for those with motion sickness, mobility problems, special dietary needs and other needs
if at all possible.
- You don’t have to drive or worry about anything. You are delivered and picked up right at the door (unless it is an event like the Gaither concerts when there are many coaches, then you might have to walk a little ways to where the bus is parked.) Seats, tables, etc. are all reserved. There is no standing in lines, no bills to pay, no one to tip. Everything is taken care of for you unless there is free time when you are on your own or there are multiple choices.
- Food!!!!!! Burdell says if you get on a bus with a skinny escort they’ll starve you. Blessed Byway travelers are safe!! You will be well nourished. At times pop, water and goodies are even provided for you.
- They have a ball on the bus. There are prizes to be won with activities such as Bug Splat Bingo, Auctions with play money, Reverse Drawings, Barnyard Bingo, Spring Fling, Bloomers, Stuff the Turkey, etc.
- Special step-on and tour guides give personalized tours just for Blessed Byways folks.
- Hotels used for overnight lodging include those with full breakfast buffets like Holiday Inn Express, Country Inn and Suites, Hampton, etc.
- As Blessed Byways escorts they believe variety and surprises are the spice of life and look for unique and WOW!!! attractions and experiences to create awesome memories.
- Folks have been treated to gourmet candlelight dinners complete with linens and china, served on an 1800s covered bridge which sets over Cataract Falls.
- After wandering around a residential area and ending up at a dead-end. A man and his dog came out to the bus and invited folks into his home for an amazing organ concert. Jack, a retired Air Force Colonel, has given concerts in Carnegie Hall, been on CBS Evening News and Good Morning America to name just a few. His organ is connected to sleigh bells, that ring at just the right time, animated duck decoys, toy animals that blow bubbles and perform, etc.
- On a mystery trip, arrangements were made for the sheriff’s department to pulled up behind the bus, come on board and arrest the folks . . .”to have a good time.” A humorous lawyer boarded the bus to give travelers counsel and question their sanity going on this trip when they had no idea where they were going.
- Travelers have been served a gourmet dinner and entertained on the shore of Lake Michigan as the sun set.
- Folks have witnessed a “pick-em-up truck’ truck come roaring up to the bus and two hillbillies tumbling out and throwing
stuff out of the back of the truck. Burdell’s hillbilly brief case (boxer shorts tacked to split tree branch) was packed with
all kinds of things.
- At sunrise, they’ve driven out into the hill country on the Wild Flower Loop through open range. The wild life was beginning to stir and the fields were a blaze with blooming blue bonnets and wild flowers. The bus ended up at Enchanted Rock (a great dome of pink granite) for a breakfast picnic of mouth watering German pastries, flavored coffees, juice, etc. which were enjoyed at tables spread with gingham table cloths and decorated with daisy centerpieces. When done eating, the hikers of the group climbed Enchanted Rock while the rest watched from the base.
- They have shown up as Santa and Mrs. Claus looking for their reindeer who had taken off without them but they found them in Illinois where they got kissed by Alaskan reindeer who really had flown to Hardy's Reindeer Ranch.
- Another time when Santa “Lost His Marbles” and folks found marbles hidden all along the way as they were taken to amazing places in the boonies.
* Our travelers were shocked when the bus pulled up to a funeral home and they were invited to come in to Famous Endings housing over 2,500 artifacts of famous people like Abraham Lincoln, Marilyn Monroe, Princess Diana, (even a dog)
and heard the exciting stories of how the artifacts were obtained. Our travelers were definitely not "board to death!"
- They’ve taken folks to a “Decorated Outhouse Tour” which was a "moving experience and a real gas" and after wandering around the little town checking out the out houses, they dropped their ballot for the most creative down the hole at the Outhouse HDQRS.
* Our travelers have found Puppies on Parole at a State Prison. Some of the prisoners there train puppies to be service dogs. One of the puppies joined us on the bus.
* Travelers have got to ride the historic Lake Geneva US Mail Boat which never stops as an agile and speedy mail carrier jumps from boat to dock to make their appointed rounds.
* Our folks have gone Snow Tubing at Liberty University Snowflex Center.
* At St. John's church in Richmond, VA we've sat amongst professional actors in 1770s attire as they portrayed delegates attending the Second Virginia Convention in March of 1775. In this very spot they engaged in the debates and arguments of the Convention which lead up to Patrick Henry's "Give me Liberty or Give me Death" speech which convinced his fellow delegates to take up arms against the King and fight for Liberty. Less than a month later on April 19 the first shots of the American Revolution were fired at Lexington and Concord.
* In South Dakota, our folks were treated to a Pitch Fork Fondue where steaks were threaded on pitch forks and cooked in vats of hot oil to be served with an awesome meal. Performed in the Burning Hills Amphitheater was the Medora Musical which was preceded with a behind-the-scenes tour.
* Our travelers found on a shady hill side behind the Ben and Jerry's factory their Flavor Graveyard which pays tribute to their
dearly "de-pinted" flavors of which at one time there were 34 and may be more by now. Each headstone bears the birth and
death date of the flavor along with a clever epitaph that sums up the life of the flavor.
* Our folks were invited to be guests at a Hutterite Colony in Montana. These dear folks dress as Amish and have large farming
operation. They had a church, communal dining room in which the men sat at a table on one side and the women at a table on the other side of the room. While we ate the young ladies who had been working in the garden came in and sang for us and they sound like the Trapp family children. After dinner we were divided into groups and given tours of their living quarters (bedroom, living room, the communal kitten, school (German), the church, dairy, cellar with produce, greenhouse, cemetery with it rows of white grave stones. The women do not drive. In turn they got to see what our bus was like. The day passed all too fast as relationship were made with these wonderful folks.
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