The best kind of Road Trip day

When we were planning this trip, my hero had envisaged today as one to be spent exploring the river a little more.  However, driving up the Mississippi over the last couple of days led us to think that the river itself isn’t that interesting.  Maybe we should think again?

Whilst picking up leaflets here and there yesterday, I’d spotted that John Deere tractors are built here in the Quad Cities and that it was possible to visit them.  So, starting out early, we crossed the bridge over to Rock Island (humming the tune as we went, of course)

Once in Moline, we entered a new world.

We really had no idea what we were looking at, but we received the warmest of welcomes and the reassurance that we had only to ask and everything would be explained.

Like, how do you move a 35ft wide combine harvester from one place to another?  Yes, the wide “front bit” unclips …oh my, can you tell that we don’t know much about these things?  Even so, this machine is HUGE.  Half a million dollars worth of huge.  I might say that the answer we got when we asked the question was much clearer, used the proper terminology and was really well explained!

Of course, I just had to climb up into the biggest digger there, which, when viewed through the windscreen looked as though it could scoop that house up in one go.  Enormous.

Not everything was huge.  Some things were quite small.

But they were boring

It was the big machinery which caught our imagination.

 

And the names, of course.  I mean, what mischief could you do with a Feller Buncher? (It’s for use in forests, by the way!)

And returning to the subject of clipping the accessories on and off, well, of course, it’s a five minute task isn’t it?   Perhaps not.

This is just one of sixteen spray units on a wide crop sprayer, computer controlled, of course, with GPS for use in the dark too. 

We loved it all!

In the adjacent shop was everything one might want with a John Deere logo – including what looked suspiciously like the old Osh Kosh dungarees we were dreaming of back in Wisconsin – though these were pink, not red and instead of the OshKosh B’Gosh logo, there was the JD leaping deer, of course.

Eventually, we had to drag ourselves away from these monster machines and head out into the Iowa countryside again.  Our next stop was to be the small town of West Branch.

We chose the metalled roads this morning.  None of the gravel dirt tracks, thank you.

It was a lush, green landscape with farm dotted about here and there.  Now, we were on the lookout for quilt barns and, of course, John Deere machinery!

We’d almost passed this one by when I snapped it – we learned later that it’s the Iowa block, too.

Thankfully the next one was a little easier to spot and to photograph.

So, why West Branch?

US President #31 Herbert Hoover was born in the small town and there’s a museum and Presidential Library here – and of course, you know how we love to visit such places.

So, firstly into the visitors centre to get an overview.  I knew nothing of the man and what he did, but soon recognised him for his tireless humanitarian work and also for his simple beginnings.

He was born in this simple, two room wooden cottage in West Branch though by the time he was nine, he’d lost both parents and was packed off to live with family in Oregon.

This little cottage was simple but homely. His father was the blacksmith in the forge over the road and his mother a devout Quaker who encouraged a strong work ethic in her three children.

I liked the basket of fabric strips and the rag rugs which would have been made from them.

The one room school across the way was where Herbert Hoover began his education.

 

We were about to move on to the Presidential Library but caught a glimpse of the Main Street and, feeling peckish, decided to go in search of a sandwich.

Ha!  A different type of sandwich in this shop!

Quilt sandwiches…  Well, I couldn’t pass by this cute shop without taking a closer look inside, could I?

Of course, we found the coffee shop a little further on and satisfied our hunger

Returning to the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, we watched the introductory film and made our way around the exhibition.

There was a really clever mixed media timeline as an overview – just as well because I had no idea of such things before we arrived!  

Oh, and look who is giving a presentation here in September!  (None other than the Professor of the online course Mary and I just completed and author of the recent biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder)  We’d be in the audience, given the chance!

Rather than go into all the details of Herbert Hoover’s life and work, I’ll simply suggest you take a look here and see why we all left feeling that there is so very much more to the man than his presidency during the Great Depression.

With plenty to think (and talk) about, we hit the road again for one last stop.

Another quilt shop!  This one was so very different from the store in West Branch and yet was just as attractive.  Here were some really interesting bits and pieces, new techniques to find out about and the most beautiful, softly coloured reproduction fabrics.  What a great place to round off the afternoon.

Tractors, combines, quilts and a bit of history thrown into the mix.  The perfect Road Trip day!

The Great River Road

We set off this morning from Quincy to drive along the Great River Road, north to Davenport, one of the Quad Cities.  Shortly after we hit open countryside, we screeched to a half by an historic marker which told the story of the Mormon Exodus from Missouri and this abandoned village.

We were driving through fields of corn and soybean, having read that Illinois is the #2 producer of such crops in the US.  Later in the day, we might have felt as if we’d driven through every one of those fields, but for now, it was a lovely landscape.  As you can tell from the photo, we were not travelling along major highways!

Soon we were in Warsaw where I just had to get out and take a closer look at the lamposts.  Each one was different, celebrating various highlights of the town.

Though the town was well kept, sadly, as in many of these small towns, the commercial heart of the town seems to have gone.  Such a lovely group of old buildings but very little business on this Monday morning.

Our main reason for stopping here was the site of an old fort, high above the river.  Had the trees not been there, I imagine we’d still have had a great view, but for now, we made do with a glimpse of a passing barge.

Back on the River Read then, following the signs and trying to keep track of where we were.

As we entered Hamilton, we caught an eyeful of this huge mansion, completely out of proportion to anything else in the area.  Who lives in a house like this, we wanted to know!

From time to time we stopped in a viewpoint and took a closer look at the river.

Occasionally, someone stopped us as they went about their Monday morning activity.

We were enjoying the ride, though the road often strayed well back from the river itself and perhaps it was time for a break.

We’d identified Nauvoo as somewhere interesting to stop and drove into the old village and found a parking spot.  It looked like something was going on here – were we in time to see something special?

We spotted the sign for the Cultural Hall and climbed the steps to go inside where a group of people were sitting listening to a presentation.  We crept into some seats and listened.

I know, I ought to have read about the place more carefully because then I’d have known that Nauvoo is a former settlement of the LDS community and is now run as an historic site.  That would have explained why the presentation had a religious tenor…

That didn’t worry me too much.  We’d been welcomed warmly and I found the bakers house interesting, too.

The village had the same kind of vibe as Colonial Williamsburg or Old World Wisconsin with a collection of restored buildings and interpreters to bring the place to life.  But we didn’t seem to have started in the right location – perhaps there was a visitors centre where we could learn a little more about the village?

We found the Visitors Centre and made our way inside, where I explained how we’d reached this point and asked if perhaps we might have some advice about where to begin learning a little more about the history of the village and life here.  Sister Andersen, a delightful young missionary was introduced and she began to tell us a little about Nauvoo.  As the conversation progressed away from the village and more towards the church however, we felt a little uncomfortable so thanked her sincerely and returned to the car.

Actually, we had arrived in one of the busiest periods of the year here, during the summer Pageant.  Many families and other LDS groups were here, enjoying the beautiful parkland and the wealth of activities which were organised for them.  There were groups of young LDS performers; musicians and actors, all putting on shows and performances throughout the day. 

But this wasn’t our community.  We didn’t feel we belonged here.  So, although we could have visited any of these historic buildings and (I assume) participated in any of the activities, we didn’t.

We did spend much of the day reflecting on the experience, though!

We had plenty of time driving gravel roads to do that

The Byways of America.  Recommended!

After a while, we turned onto a rather larger road and hit – the road works!

At least it gave us a closer look at the corn.  Not yet quite as high as an elephant’s eye…

After the road works, we came upon a sudden junction – right or left?  We followed the River Road sign and turned left…and found ourselves crossing the Mississippi (unintentionally!)  But there’s no way of making a U turn on a bridge…

Which is how we found ourselves in Iowa (state #44  wooop woooop!)  Our sandwich lunch in the bakery and cafe was great – though perhaps it would have been better to have arrived and ordered before the family with twelve children?!  (Their bill came to $175)

At least my hero got to see a rather smart engine.

As we went to return over the (swing) bridge, there was a slight problem…it had swung open!

So we went a little further on the Iowa side and crossed back over the next one instead – this one didn’t have a toll, either, so we got out of Iowa free!

Oh, and speaking of elephant’s eyes…

Roadside America strikes again.  Dear old Norma Jean, the elephant with a travelling circus, was tied to a tree here in Oquawka when lightning struck and killed her.  She was buried right here where she fell, where there is now a memorial with a rather tacky elephant on top.  Someone had left a bunch of (plastic) roses at the foot of it too.

Oh yes, we do see the highlights!

Now, we are in one of the Quad Cities, Davenport (Iowa) where the 95F weather has provoked some very dark skies.  We’ll have a couple of nights here to explore a little of this SE corner of Iowa before our last stop in Chicago later in the week.

The fun continues!

From the Missouri to the Mississippi

The dome of the capitol was there in the background as we left Jefferson City this morning.  It was already rather warm (English understatement!) and there was hardly a cloud in the sky.

Crossing the Missouri river, we took a last glimpse of the city as we drove out into the countryside.

Our first stop was in Fulton, MO.  We stopped briefly in the “Brick District”, so named after the brick streets which created a less than smooth driving experience. (English understatement #2)

Why were we here?

Well, because of Westminster College, actually.  Though there is a museum here dedicated to Winston Churchill, in a church which was brought lock stock and barrel from London to accommodate the celebration of the life and times of the great statesman, we decided we didn’t need to go inside.

We just wanted a picture.

So why here?  Why is Winston Churchill the focus of such interest here?

It’s because here was the scene of his famous “Sinews of Peace” speech, which included the first recorded use of the term “iron curtain”.

There’s a bit of the Berlin Wall here, too.

Having got our photos and learned one or two things, off we went again.  Here we were, on a quiet Sunday morning kicking up dust behind us on a series of gravel roads.  Well, we do prefer the back roads in preference to the Interstate!

In the backwoods of Missouri, we were enjoying a pretty bumpy ride because, of course, we were not travelling in a rufty-tufty vehicle designed for such ventures.

Whilst we pulled over to reset the satnav to “no dirt roads”, I was glad to get a closer look at a pretty hedgerow.

A little further on, someone else was hoping to see the other side of the road, too.

Much bigger than the last turtle we avoided, this one must have been 10 inches long at least and no, I didn’t get close up but simply felt thankful for my zoom lens again!

At last, we were back on “proper” roads and heading into Hannibal.

We parked at the Visitors centre and equipped ourselves with maps and so on, though once in town, we realised that we didn’t need them at all because really, there’s only one street here.

And a single theme, too.

Did you notice what it is yet?  (That’s the Mississippi River there, by the way)

Whilst we didn’t have to try very hard to avoid the artificial visitor experiences, it was interesting to see the genuine history here.

Better still though, there was a fantastic quilt shop to explore!

So, my hero scoped out what was what in the Mark Twain department whilst Mary and I concentrated on the fabric

What appeared at first to be a small shop turned out to be a rather large one. (English understatement #3!)

Several rooms packed full of fabric, examples and patterns and the friendliest of staff too.

Whilst we’d been browsing, my hero had discovered that an hour on the paddleboat steamer – guess what it’s called? – cost $19 each.  Did we want to ride?  (no thanks)

So we watched the river for a few minutes and returned to Main Street to find a spot of lunch.

Look who was there.

After a little refreshment, it was time to go.  One can have too much of a good thing!

So, saying goodbye to the boys, we jumped back in the car and headed on out of Hannibal.

Poor Molly Brown got her nose pushed out rather, didn’t she?

As we left, the riverboat was just returning from the cruise.  You guessed the name right, didn’t you?

Oh, are we nearly home?  (pronounced herm of course )

Actually, as we crossed the Mississippi, we left Missouri behind and were in Illinois, land of Lincoln.

We’ve left the Ozarks well behind now and are driving through open, prairie-style landscapes.

Quincy, where we are overnighting is indeed in the Land of Lincoln, because it’s here where he participated in one of a series of debates with Stephen Douglas in 1858 and found it so challenging that:

Douglas beat him for the seat in the Senate, then, but Lincoln got his own back by winning the Presidency two years later.

The event is commemorated in the park here in Quincy and rounded our day off nicely.  Our journey from the Missouri to the Mississippi has been bookended by two great statesmen, not forgetting one great author, a cast of characters and an unsinkable woman in between!

…and Betty Grable too

It was time to leave Branson.

Setting out northwards on a long straight road was a good chance to catch up on my journal.

Whilst the driver and co-pilot were well equipped with plentiful supplies in the front

I was quite comfortable in the back, thank you

After a while, we reached our first scheduled stopping point, high above the Lake of the Ozarks.

The Ha Ha Tonka State Park is a recreation area where there’s the ruins of a castle, too.

There’s an Italianate Water Tower which was burnt out by vandals a few years ago.

and the relics of the castle itself, anther burned out shell.

The views are pretty good –it would have been a great place to build your dream home, Mr Snyder.

It was a beautiful morning and the sky was rather interesting.

People were out and about both here in the park and down there on the lake too.

I was playing about with my camera.

But we had further to go, so we jumped back into the car and headed a bit further on the long straight road towards Jefferson City.

Oh, look, we’re on the Lewis and Clark trail!  We’ve come across them before on an earlier road trip.

As we parked near the Missouri State Capitol building sure enough, there they were.

Jefferson City – or at least, this place (because the city didn’t even exist then) was the start of their journey.

Mr Wade, the docent by the memorial, was only too pleased to tell us the story of York, Lewis, Seaman the dog, Clark and Georges Drouillard (from left to right in the picture above)  We wondered where Sacagawea was – until Mr Wade explained that they didn’t meet her until a little further along the trail.

We had our eye on the Capitol though, and knowing the guided tours were on the hour, we bade Mr Wade bye for now and found our way inside.

Oh, wow.  this is the kind of state capitol we like to visit!

Our guide, Patty, was great and explained everything in detail at just the right pace.  I liked the state seal with the two bears representing courage and strength and was interested to learn the significance of the moon in the design.  I didn’t know that the symbol is normally associated with the second son – and in the Missouri seal, it represents the state being second in the Louisiana Purchase.  Fascinating.

We were enjoying Patty’s stories, including the one prompted by the painting of the bridge in St Louis above.  When the bridge was built, the owners of the ferry boats put about stories to dissuade people from using the bridge, claiming it was weak and badly designed.  When a circus came to town, then, the bridge designer/owner invited the elephants to cross it, proving his point and allaying all fears of it being too dangerous to use.

 

It was the Thomas Hart Benton murals which were the star of the show, though.

As soon as Patty opened the door and invited us in, we were lost in the scenes painted on the wall.

A history of Missouri, the scenes included several controversial images, including one above.  But more than that, they showed scenes from history, figures and activities which represent the state during different eras and the development of life here up until 1936 when the murals were completed.  There’s a full description here.

The windows of the Capitol gave us a glimpse of the Missouri river and the railroads alongside it.

Patty’s last stop was the House of Representatives, a grand space where the elected politicians meet from January to May each year.  They get together again in September to revisit any issues the Governor has vetoed, but otherwise, it’s a five month a year government.

Having seen this, we were set free by Patty to explore one more floor of the Capitol; the bronze portraits of people who have made Missouri proud.

Here she was.  Sacagewea.  Lewis and Clark’s companion was remembered here.

What made us smile, was that she was placed so close to Ginger Rogers!  What a fun juxtaposition.

Other figures included Virginia Louisa Minor, founder of the first women’s suffrage organisation in the US.

Josephine Baker was there too.

And lest you think we’d left her behind, there across the way was the hero of our trip, Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Oh, and yes, of course, there was Betty Grable too (but sadly, no legs)

What a lovely day, how pleased we were that we didn’t listen to the doubters who couldn’t understand why we’d bother visiting Jefferson City.  It’s a great place, really interesting and the State Capitol ranks amongst the most attractive we’ve seen.  Thanks to those murals, all three of us know far more about the history of Missouri than we did, as well.

Water water everywhere

Last night, as we arrived back at the hotel, my hero received a flood alert on his phone.  Rather strange, because this was neither an SMS message nor an email, but appeared to be as a result of  some kind of warning system.  Mary got it too – but those of us on “the dark side” with an Android phone remained blissfully unaware.

The warning appeared again this morning, after another night of heavy rain and remains a mystery as to its origin or means of transmission.  We need to investigate!

We’d decided that, rather than spend the day mooching in Branson, we’d venture out and tick off one of the highlights of the Ozarks today, rather than leave it until tomorrow, as planned.  So after breakfast, we hit the road and headed northeast under leaden skies and extraordinarily low clouds.

As the morning wore on, things looked a little brighter.  It was certainly warm out there and a little patch of blue sky became larger.

The Ozarks are a beautiful area of the country, with green wooded hills stretching out as far as the eye can see.  Here and there is a patch of water, labelled Beaver Creek on the roadside but appearing rather more threatening than the name suggests.  We criss crossed it several times and watched the muddy brown water flowing fast beneath the bridges.

But then…a detour was required.

A little further along, we could see why.  It appears that the whole area has been experiencing flash floods in the last few days (hence the warning I guess) and here, those floods seem to have been a little longer lasting.

Fortunately, one closed road was the extent to which we were affected, but for others around here, life has been more challenging, it appears.

Crossing the road when you are only a few inches off the ground and able to move very slowly must be extraordinarily hazardous – we saw (and successfully avoided) three such turtles this morning.

Thankfully, there wasn’t much traffic along this road today.

Things got a little busier a bit further along.

We were heading for Rocky Ridge, the home in the Ozarks where Laura Ingalls Wilder lived most of her married life and where she wrote the Little House on the Prairie series of books.

Since she lived here most of her adult life, there’s far more to see here than in Pepin, for instance.

As we parked the car to buy our tickets, we took the opportunity to refresh our knowledge of what’s here and how it all fits into the story.

Our first call was Rock Cottage, the home their daughter Rose Wilder Lane built for her parents, just a little further up the road.

We were meeting a guide up there to show us around the house, where sadly no photographs were allowed inside.

It’s set in the most beautiful surroundings, with a summer meadow full of wild flowers outside the front door, but Laura and Almanzo never settled here and after a few years, moved back to their original home, Rocky Ridge.

Rose built the house from local stone sourced from the fields outside and the craftsman who built it left his tradesman’s mark in the pointing.

Rhonda, our guide, told us that it was traditional for a builder to leave his mark in this way – something new to us and perhaps something we’ll look out for again.

The small cottage had been built with all modern facilities and to the latest standards – it even had electricity.

But returning to Rocky Ridge to continue our tour, I think I can see why Laura preferred this house, which for all its shortcomings, seemed more homely.

A short distance along the road there’s the structure of the new museum, currently under construction and due to open next year.  We chatted a while to Rhonda about the renewed interest in the stories and wondered if the new biography Mary and I have been studying has added to the resurgence.  It would appear so and the new museum will present a much improved visitor experience than the slightly dusty collection which is in the visitor centre here today.

After a bite to eat, we continued along the road towards Springfield, MO, because a coupon was burning a hole in my pocket and it was valid for just 48 hours.  60% off anything on the notions wall at JoAnns meant I could restock my stabiliser supplies at super low prices!

Then, spotting an Ulta store in the same block, I fished out another coupon from my bag and replenished my favourite Redken supplies at the same time!

(Thank goodness for patient heroes and travelling companions)