Some you win…

On this lengthy road trip, we’ve experienced few duds.  Almost everywhere we’ve been has been a delight and the rest, well, it’s been ok.  So I guess it was inevitable that today, our last full day together, we found the below-average attraction.  Thankfully, we more than made up for it later.

We set out in the car this morning, with a couple of destinations logged into the GPS.  We admired the streetscape it displays here and soon found our way to our first location – the Chicago History Museum.

Hot hot hot today, even going for breakfast this morning, so we parked as close as we could and followed the signs.  “Sharing Chicago stories” sounded good and right up our alley.

Even better was the sign prohibiting guns from the place.  How they’d know if we had a weapon, I have no idea, and having seen roadside ads for “concealed carry vests” (and having had Mary explain what such a thing was) I’m not altogether sure that such things could be spotted at all.

But anyway, first impressions were good.  There was a lively display in the lobby and as we purchased our tickets, I looked forward to learning a little more about this exciting city, the characters who have lived here and the events which shaped the place.

The first story was kind of familiar.  We already knew the name Pritzker from the Frank Gehry designed pavilion and from Hyatt Hotels, too, but to read of the family’s beginnings and have the full story was fascinating.  Good start.

I loved the photo shown on the opposite wall and felt it was evocative of a time, a place and of those people who travelled so far in the hope of a better future.

Actually, the next room wasn’t bad either, exploring the concept of “freedom”.

But somehow, some topics of which I had some knowledge fell slightly short of the mark and labels marking “exhibit removed” didn’t help.

An apt expression.

Our next stop was to watch a film, supposedly an overview of key moments in Chicago’s history but which we found to be a muddled, rather sketchy presentation which confused us all.  Discovering that this was a new feature, launched on July 4 was disappointing – all of us felt that the story could have been told in an altogether clearer style.

There followed a temporary show about the Magnificent Mile and the Fashion houses which could be found along it.  But once again, the story was confusing – we weren’t sure if we were following the street from one end to the other, if we were following the timeline of the fashion houses or if there was any kind of order at all.  It was hard to identify how the garment displayed related to anything on the Avenue and though we enjoyed the fashion, we left feeling even more confused.  In the corner, an electrician was sprawled amongst the mannequins, attempting to repair the turntable on the left hand side of the photo, but he was having little success.

So far, then, we’d learned little about the city but in the main gallery, there was hope.  Here was a full size street car, a train engine and several other large exhibits.  What we didn’t find was any coherence or character.  The story of Marshall Fields store was in one corner, but no mention of Harry Selfridge.  Where was Al Capone and his gang?  Ida B Wells was a really important social activist in the city and was nationally recognised for her work but she was relegated to a minor role as a streetcar passenger and Frank Lloyd Wright was nowhere to be seen at all.

Fortunately, there was a sure fire winner in the form of a temporary exhibition of Vivian Maier’s work.  We’d seen a different show at the Chicago Public Library last year and since then have watched the film and learned more about this mysterious woman and the story of the discovery of her photographs. 

Here, I was delighted to see the full film contact sheets showing all twelve photographs from each of 18 films.  No duds!  Every single shot was great – what a talented woman she was.

The exhibition was well staged too – thank goodness, our morning wasn’t wasted!

Oh, and of course, Lincoln was here too.

We, however, were ready to move on.  Driving along Lakeshore Drive on a Friday lunchtime in 95F temperatures was a fun journey.  As you can see, many Chicagoans were at the beach – can you believe that’s Lake Michigan there?  Looks like the Mediterranean!

Or Santa Monica.  (I’m not sure Mary will agree with me on that one )

My friend Lynn has asked me why she should come to Chicago.  Lynn, isn’t this the answer?

Our next stop was another museum…the Science and Industry this time.

It wasn’t exactly a peaceful place, but at least there was energy and enthusiasm here.

The displays were intelligent and not dumbed down at all, even though most were family friendly.  They were genuinely interesting.

The transport area had a real 727 there, alongside a Spitfire and a Jenny.  All hung above a huge model railway layout – right up someone’s alley

Oh, and whilst we’re looking at the railway layout, here is the Seattle King Street station, built by our friend James J Hill, whose home we visited in St Paul a couple of weeks ago.

I love it when stories come together like that!

Exhibits were fun to explore – this one involved playing with lenses, prisms, mirrors and light sources to make rainbows.

This one demonstrated Tesla’s work on electromagnetism and created an indoor storm every half hour or so.

A little further along, a few children stood around an artificial tornado.  Great – if a little close to home since two such tornadoes have touched down not so far away from where we’ve been recently.  A narrow escape, thankfully.

Two museums in one day is quite a stretch and by now, we were in need of a lie down!  (Did I say how noisy it was in those lofty halls?)  It was past four o’clock too and my hero was beginning to fear the rush hour on Lakeshore Drive too.

Time to go.

Yes, nose to tail traffic the whole way.

It might have given us time to take photographs of the lake and the blue blue sky, but really, all of us were weary and ready for a break.  We finally reached the hotel and went straight out for supper, at Eataly again, because we’d enjoyed last evening so much.

Which brings us to the last night of our trip.  This time tomorrow, we’ll be flying off in our separate directions, but for now, there are still plenty of peanut M&Ms in the bag and miraculously, there’s still some popcorn to be finished.

So why am I sitting here typing?!

Chicago, Chicago…

I think I’ve used up all the titles like “my kind’a town” and “the Windy City”, so I’ll simply say that all of that applied to the city today.  At times, it was also the rainy city.

It was not what we planned.  We’d popped out to Tempo for breakfast (as usual) so that someone could have the first corned beef hash of the trip and I could have a change from the daily self-service waffles the Hampton Inns offer at breakfast time.  It was dry and overcast then, but by the time we’d returned to our hotel, gathered our stuff together and were ready to go, there was the unmistakeable drop of rain on the window.  By the time we reached the door, it was umbrella time.

We made our way to Michigan Avenue where the shops were just opening…

Guess how we spent the next hour or two?

It was dry when we re-emerged from the mall and I was amused to discover that there are other people who take strange photographs!  (Not that I’ve ever taken one of a fire hydrant, as far as I can remember)

The street was beginning to get a little more crowded.  Here, around the Water Tower, there are always small groups of girls and their families, making their way to the mother-lode of American Girl Doll stores, just along the way.  I’ve written about these before here.    We didn’t feel the need to pay a visit there this time, so walked further on up the Magnificent Mile towards the bridge.

We had a destination in mind, about half way along the Avenue: Garret’s popcorn.  When we first came to Chicago, some years ago, their shop was on the Avenue itself and every day we’d walk past wondering what could be so special that people would queue outside?  We’ve now found out.  Popcorn!!  Our choice is always the mix – cheesy and caramel, though this morning I added a small bag of the cashew caramel to the mix as well.

Adding another bag to the collection balanced my hero’s load

Our next stop was a curiosity.  We’d read of Dylan’s Candy Bar in NYC, but hadn’t been interested enough to look it out.  But catching the aroma of intense sweetness from quite some distance away, we just had to take a look.  We could also recall that it was linked in some way with the child of someone famous…but couldn’t remember who, so we asked.

Ralph Lauren’s daughter.

OK.  Moving right along…

We were reaching the bridge and the area where I had my little panic last year when I thought I’d lost everyone…so I kept an eagle eye on who was where when I was taking photos.

It’s the area around the river where the great skyscrapers are, where this city is at its grandest, I think.

The bridge is a favourite place for photos – and someone was taking a slightly different approach when he snapped his selfie.

We walked over the bridge, crossed the street and came back over on the other side, spotting this plaque to Henri De Tonti as we went (remember, Tontitown, a few days ago!?)  There is something really pleasing about tying up loose ends like that!

The river is a great setting for the more modern skyscrapers and brings real character to this city.  We love just hanging out here.

Returning up Michigan Avenue, we thought we’d take a look in the Microsoft shop for a few moments.  We’d stopped in the Mall of America branch whilst there and looked at the new Surface laptop/tablets.  This time, whilst Mary worked with Zack to set up her new purchase (!) Brenton ably assisted me with my new toy

This evening, dragging ourselves away from our new purchases, we decided to give Eataly a try.

Tempting though the cheese and salami was, we opted for pasta and pizza – and yes, it really was delicious.

The gelati were good, too.

Oh my.  We never go hungry here

Last stop

Back over the bridge into Illinois this morning, then, for the last stretch of our road trip.  We said a fond farewell to Iowa and the endless fields of corn and drove east, over the river.

We’d not been driving long when we had an unexpected hiccup.

What a good job we brought along the intermediate technology!  This is the same map as we’ve used on a couple of previous road trips including one where it got wet, so it is beginning to show signs of wear and tear.  It’s much loved though and now, we’ve added a bit of a grubby area around Davenport, where some hasty decisions had to be made.

Soon, we were driving along the byways of Illinois, through still more corn fields, though added entertainment was on hand in the form of a crop duster.

There was also the odd fly past of a quilt barn.  Whoops – nearly missed that one.

We had a listing of them, picked up in a tourist office somewhere, but the locations were not that accurate and it appeared not all of them were listed.

Anyway, we arrived in Cambridge and were back on track after our detour.

We drove behind some strange agricultural vehicles and felt sure that the John Deere machines would have travelled a little faster.

Just when we despaired of ever seeing another of those barn quilts listed in the brochure, we hit lucky…

The Illinois block, the beans and corn block, the covered bridge block and the USA heart, all in one.

Then, plugging in the address of another into the satnav, we found this double wedding ring.

Though I think we deserved a medal for spotting this one.

By the time we reached Peru, we’d decided to give up looking.  If we stumbled upon one by chance, then all well and good.

Instead, we came upon Ottawa, where the woman in the tourist office told us that the “Illinois in Bloom” judging is tomorrow, and as previous winners, Ottawa was looking its best and hoping for success.

We hadn’t really come to see flowers, but to visit another Lincoln location: The site of the first Lincoln-Douglas debate in the series we’d come across in Quincy.

But our eyes fell upon the mural of the event too.

And taking a closer look, we discovered more murals.  In fact, Ottawa proved to be a fun place to stop for a sandwich and to stretch our legs.

Across the road was another mural, commemorating General Wallace, who died in the Civil War – a friend of Lincoln, no less.

Then, a little further along was another one depicting the glass factory which used to be here, where marbles were made amongst other things.

Of course, Ottawa was definitely in bloom along the way as well.

The murals added a little interest to this small Main Street, though the individual shops were a good mixture and looked inviting too.

But I think it’s the Brush with History we’ll remember here.

Oh, and the various bits of Lincoln-alia.

Oh, and ok, the flowers…

From Ottawa, I’d like to say it was a swift drive into the Chicago outskirts but it wasn’t.  It was a slow drag in nose to tail traffic and the fact we were driving the last/first part of Route 66 made us feel pleased that we didn’t have the whole stretch ahead of us!

Eventually, the city was within sight and we heaved a sigh of relief.

We love it here and were looking forward to checking into one of our favourite hotels and putting our feet up.

But first, there was a pizza to be eaten

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!