Taking the long way home

We grabbed a breakfast at the motel and then got packed up and were ready to leave around 10 AM. Gene had to get all of his Obama and McCain bobble-heads packed securely....there isn't a great deal of extra space on the motorcycle. He has adorned the bike with little pigs at various places....makes it more customized. Davenport was actually a pretty nice place for a weekend. We had a good time without any permanent scars or property damage. We tried to find any newspaper article with our interview at the ballpark but the Argus newspaper wasn't available at the motel and they don't seem to have an Internet version. Maybe our 15 minutes of fame marched on without us.

Gene hit the road back to Wisconsin and I headed west on I-80. Traffic was surprisingly heavy but part of that was probably due to students heading toward Iowa City and University of Iowa. There were a lot of moving vans on the highway...more than I've noticed other times.

HERBERT HOOVER

My first stop was at the Iowa welcome center to pick up a better map. Then it was off to West Branch and the Herbert Hoover birthplace and Presidential library. The entire town of West Branch seems like it is frozen in time. Painted frame houses and picket fences everywhere. A few businesses were modern but there were still some older commercial buildings in the middle of town. Hoover was born here in 1874 and the family home was small, only 20 feet by 14 feet....that's 280 square feet for a family of five. They had two rooms, a summer kitchen on the back porch and an outhouse in the back yard. Across the street was the father's blacksmith shop....which was considerably larger than the house. About 250 feet in the other direction was the Quaker meeting house where the family worshipped. The one-room school house was about the same distance in the opposite direction...so Herbert Hoover's entire childhood existence was pretty much confined to an area not much larger than two football fields.

Hoover was orphaned at age ten and was supported by an uncle. He was educated as a mining engineer and was trapped in China during the Boxer Rebellion while working there.

The Hoover library looks pretty small and dates back to the 1960s when Presidential libraries were starting to be built. This one was totally built by private funding and then eventually donated to the National Park Service. There was a park ranger in the house who was very knowledgeable and another fellow that was apparently a local historian who was just hanging out there.

Hoover is buried on the grounds of the library with his wife, Lou.

So I learned a lot about Herbert Hoover He's not one of our universally appreciated presidents since he presided over the start of the depression...but I have to admit that he came a long way from a two-room house in rural Iowa.

AMANA COLONIES

When I stopped at the welcome center I also discovered the Amana Colonies were only 14 miles out of my way--- just a little west of Iowa City. I always heard about the Amana Colonies but didn't know much about them.

Apparently there was a bunch of disgruntled Lutherans in Germany in the 1700s who developed their own church tradition and separated from the other (presumably gruntled) Lutherans. The German government was freaking out....they tried to co-exist but that didn't work so they moved to the US and eventually landed in Iowa in the 1850s and set up a communal society with several small towns all called Amana. There is South Amana, West Amana, Middle Amana, High Amana, and plain old Amana...all together there are seven little communities that look like miniature Hermanns. Sometime in the early 1930s they gave up on the communal idea and then eventually started cranking out refrigerators. There is a huge factory near Middle Amana. Several hundred old buildings are still located in the seven villages but now there is a sprinkling of modern homes around the area. The church is still active and owns much of the land.

I managed to traipse through most of the smaller Amanas before I got to the main tourist center at Amana. The place is well preserved and there are a bunch of restaurants and shops as well as wineries and cheese shops and a general store. It is bigger than Arrow Rock but smaller and less urban than Hermann but has some of that same flavor. I ate lunch at a German restaurant and took some Cherry pie to go. A few doors down the street is the Ackerman Winery so, of course, I had to go in there. I walked out with three bottles of wine so now I had wine and pie. Next I wandered into the general store and wandered out with even more food....I'm glad I ate lunch before I went into these places, otherwise I'd be hauling a trailer.

I eventually got back on the road but it was already 3 PM as I was going through Iowa City. Highway 27 runs south from Iowa City into Missouri and it is a really good, divided highway with not a great deal of traffic. It is designated the "Avenue of the Saints" because it is a connecting highway from St. Louis to St. Paul (maybe why there isn't much tradfic). When it gets close to the Mississippi it is also part of the Great River Road. In Missouri I followed Highway 61 south to Palmyra and then went west through Mexico and down US 54 to Jefferson City...got home about 7:30.

This is not a particular scenic route unless you like corn. Corn is probably the state tree of Iowa. When they introduce the baseball players at the Davenport ballpark they come on to the field by stepping out of a small cornfield. Cute... "Is this Heaven?"......"No, just Davenport."

Because of all the rain and some flooding it is all overwhelmingly green for mid-August. There are some impressive farms and some huge old barns along the way. Swedeburg Iowa is a Swedish community with a Swedish heritage center. Lots of antique stores in the little towns.

Saturday in Davenport

We slept pretty well....the motel is really quiet. I treated Gene to the free breakfast at the motel. He was impressed. Next we stopped at the local Harley-Davidson dealer and looked at the various models they had.

We decided to go to the Putnam museum in Davenport to see the IMAX movie "Mystery of the Nile" . This is a documentary of a team of modern-day explorers rafting down the Blue Nile from Ethiopia all the way to Alexandria on the Mediterranean Sea. This was the first successful raft trip from the source at Lake Tana to the sea. This is a good IMAX film if you get a chance to see it. The section on Ethiopia was really interesting.

You can see a sneak preview at ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcqPFv1SoCw

While we were at the Putnam Museum we went to see the motorcycle exhibit. They have about two dozen old motorcycles dating from around 1910 up to the 1950s. They had some WW-II motorcycles and some like those I saw in New Mexico (Excelsiors and Indians) plus a few others. There was a special exhibit on women and motorcycles. Some of the old photographs were interesting.

We had a couple beers and some cheeseburgers at a sports bar down on the river front. The women's diving competition was on the TV and we developed our own scoring system that was somewhat unrelated to the diving. We don't know much about diving. Ours was based on wedgies.... you sort of had to be there

Next stop was the minor league baseball game. This was the Quad Cities River Bandits vs. the Burlington Bees. The score was tied up for most of the game but the Bees pulled ahead and eventually won 6 to 4. The ballpark was nice and they had a good crowd. We had good seats just behind home plate. There was a special give-away...McCain or Obama Bobble-Head dolls and you could pick your candidate. Obama won. Gene and I got selected to be interviewed for the local newspaper...I guess just because we looked so cool with our bobbleheads.

The downtown part of Davenport was seriously flooded just a few months ago and the ballpark was sort of an island. Water was well up into the First Street buildings in many places.

They had a fireworks show after the game so we watched that and then went back to the First Street Brewery and watched Michael Phelps win his eighth Olympic swimming gold medal. The whole place was glued to the TV. After that we headed back to the motel and ended the day. Tomorrow we head back home.

Iowa: Remarkably Unremarkable

I'm working on a new state motto for Iowa. How about "We've got nice barns" or maybe "We're like Kansas, only greener"....or "Land of Herbert Hoover" (following the lead of Illinois). "Keep moving--we'll plant corn anywhere" might work. Anyway, if you have seen northern Missouri, you have seen Iowa.

Gene and I got to Davenport this afternoon within 4 minutes if each other...how's that for synchronized driving? Roads were good. No surprises. The motel is nice so we are set for the weekend.

We managed to hit all of the local brew-pubs in Davenport, Rock Island and Moline in one afternoon and evening. Some were better than others. We also managed to sneak in to the Reggae Music festival without paying the $8 fee and got some curried goat to eat...it wasn't too bad. The music was only so-so. I guess it was as close as they can get to reggae. We also got into the local Rock Island casino....it is actually a boat on the Mississippi --- pretty small and it smells like the river. I managed to down a couple mussels at one of the brewpubs...it wasn't so bad....but I'll stick with the potato skins.

They had a bad flood here this year but you can't see any lasting damage....or at least we haven't seen anything.

"Iowa: We're what keeps Missouri and Minnesota from slamming together." How's that, eh?

Next Up --- Davenport Iowa!

Oh Boy! Here I go.....another trip!!!

This is a glorious road trip (not balloons) to the enchanted "Quad Cities" area staying two nights in delightful Davenport, Iowa, home of the Quad City "River Bandits" minor league baseball team. They are a single-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. In 1989 Jim Edmonds played for the Quad City Angels, a former incarnation of the team, and somehow seemed to go relatively unnoticed.

This being my birthday week I will be doing some celebrating....just how remains to be seen. I will be meeting Gene there so anything is possible.

As an update to my earlier posts....I am now the proud owner of a building lot in New Mexico. If you were a turtle or a snail you might consider it a ranch but I have to admit, at 1/2 acre it is a pretty small spread. My plan is to hold on to it for a while and then build a house and move out to the ranch in a year or two.

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Wrap-up, reflections, etc.

I've been home for a couple days. Back in my own bed at last. Most of the trip was enjoyable and I got to do pretty much what I wanted to do and still found the property I wanted to buy. I just don't like being chained to a cell phone or a FAX machine...but that is pretty much over. I have to admit the cell phone finally came in handy.

I still haven't found an unfriendly person out there. I've found a couple incompetent people....but never mind. As bad as they were they can't hold a candle to the incompetence of Capital One...(Ken...don't go there...).

The house project is bumping along. I will update my other blog on the developments there...check http://kens-gazette.blogspot.com/ if you are interested. I still don't have a final close date. I am very happy with my builder (Betty) and my agent (Donna) and how they have helped me with all of this. The real business is still ahead but I think it will go OK. Betty has the contacts to get things done when it needs to be done. I have to keep up.

The Ackermann family reunion was nice on Sunday and I'm glad I came back early for it. Bob had to work so he and Pat couldn't be there. Bobby didn't come so Jill and I were the only ones representing Rose's branch. Jill is the Ackermann..I'm just a hanger-on.

The aunts and uncles were looking pretty good and the weather wasn't too hot so that helped everybody. Aunt Ruthie and Uncle Johnny looked better than I remember from two years ago. Anne/Booie was in top form with a bright yellow umbrella. Don was doing OK but I didn't get to talk to Joanne much. Dot seemed a little tired to me and Eddie was on a walker due to a recent hip replacement. He is on the mend but had a really bad year. I think Johnny might be my new role model as I grow older. I guess Bob is now sort of the patriarch of the second generation. I think there are five generations now.

My next trip (or trips) will probably be back to New Mexico until I get things going out there. I still want to go other places (Belize, anyone? Spain?) so I might get to sneak one in to someplace else.




The picture shows a long view of the Santa Ana Pueblo lands from my building lot. This won't be developed...in my lifetime, anyway.

Heading home

Another beautiful day. You would never know there was a storm anywhere close yesterday. I'm still mulling over my land options and drove back up to the lot and looked at others that were for sale and got ten phone numbers for similar lots. Most of these do not show up on the internet MLS pages since they are offered by private parties or smaller agents. While I was driving around I found a house that is on one of the side streets. I didn't think anyone had built up there yet -- but this looked like it was a couple years old. I still like the lot I picked out.



It is time to go home. I got the car returned and got to the airport in plenty of time. I've been timing my driving to see how long it takes to get around in the city. It is about a half hour from Bernalillo to the airport (at noon). Traffic at 5:30 to 6:30 PM is pretty heavy on the interstate so it would take much longer then. There are 19 Albuquerque exits on I-25 and the airport is on the far side of town.


The flight from Albuquerque to Denver was rough. Big storms had flared up over the mountains so we had to climb up to over 34,000 feet really fast and by then we were halfway to Denver so we had to pick our way through the storms and get back down. It is only an hour flight so even in calm weather the cabin crew has to hustle to get everyone their freebee sodas and peanuts but these people were in a frenzy because the pilot kept making them sit down.

The four hour layover in Denver was uneventful so I began making random phone calls to people. I also watched the people in the airport. Back in Beaver Cleaver's day people got dressed up to go on an airplane trip. Not now. One guy was travelling in a tee shirt and pajama pants. Being a Saturday in the summer there were lots of families with little kids. The kids had Mickey Mouse ears or the Sorcerer's Apprentice hats. A lot of little kids were on leashes so they don't wander away. I guess that's OK but I don't think I could ever have put Jill on a leash. It just seems a little dehumanizing to me.

Oh -- and the Boy Scouts were everywhere. I guess it is the Philmont scout camp trip that they were on...either coming or going. There were a few going through security at Albuquerque when I did (heading home from Philmont) and the leaders were having to keep them all together and wait for the poor kid with too much stuff or too many medals. Actually the kids looked pretty sharp: the leaders looked like they were beat.

We were delayed 20 minutes leaving Denver but we still got to St. Louis 20 minutes early so the pilot must have found a short cut somehow. It was midnight when I got to the motel. The Watoto Children's Choir bus is on the lot so this might be interesting.

Enough for now. I'll be home tomorrow night (Sunday) and I wonder how tall the grass is.

Desert Storm

I got packed up and managed to have all my business finished and was on the road by 11:15. The road over the mountains from Angel Fire to Taos is pretty bad...narrow, twisty and no shoulder. The speed limit varies but is 25 mph a lot of the way. I came around a bend and somebody had driven their pick-up into a rock wall and the road was full of people trying to get him and his truck off the road. It was raining a little when I left and there were some wet patches on the road so that might be what happened. I decided not to take the "high road" down toward Santa Fe and just got back on the highway the way that I came up.

I did stop in Ranchos de Toas, a little village south of the town of Taos. This is where the famous church is located -- San Francisco de Assis. The church was being re-mudded, which is something that I wanted to see anyway. The church is solidly built and has a certain presence that causes you to stop in your tracks. This is the church Ansel Adams photographed in black and white back in his heyday (Not the one at Taos Pueblo). The work crew was on lunch break so I got a few pictures. They say the mud dries in about a day but has to cure for several days without rain. I think they picked a bad day. The local padre was sitting out on a bench talking with the workers and they decided that they needed more mud. The contractor thought he could get some but the padre might have to tell the supplier that he would be two steps closer to heaven if he supplied the mud. While sitting there it dawned on me that almost exactly four years ago we were at the basilica of St. Francis in Assisi.

Ranchos de Taos is not the tourist trap that Taos is. In fact, it looks like a real rural village with little houses and gardens. There is a small plaza by the church but the shops sell mostly religious items. There was a sentinel dog perched up on his wall watching all of the activity and pretty much bored with what he saw.

I stopped along the highway to take a better look at the Rio Grande -- the portion they do raft trips on. Some of it looks fast but not too rough and then there are places that look pretty bad. I understand that it is common for whole boats to be overturned or swamped but the river is narrow enough that people can reach the shore if they can't get back in the boat.

The storm finally caught up with me between Santa Fe and Bernalillo. Wind, rain. hail, tumbleweed, dust and sand all were coming down at once. It was pretty fierce for a while and there are still storms in the area but where I am now there was no rain.

We are at sort of a stalemate on the land counter offers. I'll need to rethink my offer and decide what I want to do. I'll check and see what other lots are going for and see if I'm being unreasonable. I know it is still a good deal but I got a little irritated with the seller and that might be my problem at this point...and that isn't a good reason to pass it up. I'll get an extention on my decision deadline and give it some more thought since I don't have to have it decided while I'm here.