St. Charles/St. Louis

We have arrived in the area that many people call the midpoint of the Mississippi.  So, we are transitioning from the upper Mississippi to the lower Mississippi.  Wonder what that will mean.  Will it look different?  Does it run faster?  Is it wider?  It will be interesting to see.

We are in St. Louis and we are baseball fans.  And the National League Division Series begins on Friday, while we are still here.  So what could be bad about that?  Well, for one thing, we do not know when the game will be played; the time has not been set yet.  If it is in an afternoon game, we will have to make a choice of visiting the Arch of St. Louis, which is on our schedule for the day, or going to the game.  That brings us to another issue.  Will the Arch, a National Monument, even be opened that day?  Will the government still be in shutdown mode, or will it have re-opened, or will it ever have “closed”? Time will tell.  If it is a night game, we are set to go.  But, can we get tickets that we can afford?  There appear to be some right now.  But, will they all be scooped up as soon as the time is announced?  The dilemmas that we face!  I’ll let you know what happens!

Hannibal, MO

Is all Mark Twain

While there are other famous people that can call Hannibal, MO their home (Shoeless Joe Jackson; the Unsinkable Molly Brown of Titanic fame;and William Lear, inventor of the Lear jet), Hannibal is all about Mark Twain.  It is the home of Tom Sawyer, Becky Thatcher, Huck Finn and many other Twain characters.  This is because Sam Clemens, based all of his characters on his boyhood neighbors.  It is a very quain little town, right on the Mississippi.  If you listen hard enough you can hear Tom and Huck planning their adventures.

While I remember reading Tom Sawyer and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court, I only have vague recollection of other Twain works.  But, I have discovered that I might want to read them now as an adult.  His witticisms are quite enjoyable. 

Today as the government prepares to shutdown.  This one is most appropriate:

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.

- Mark Twain, a Biography

Still more to come at some random time in the future!

Caravan Day 3 – Iowa/Illinois

This day started in Iowa.  We are in the Quad City area, an area that spans both Iowa and Illinois.  The schedule for the day included a visit to the John Deere Pavilion, lunch, Rock Island Arsenal and Lock and Dam 15.  Other than lunch, I wasn’t expecting a great day.  Certainly, I knew that the men in the group would love looking at all the John Deere equipment.  What I didn’t know was that we would be able to climb on and sit in it.  And they there were the simulators.  Most of them tried their hand at moving dirt or grading an area, always trying to do it without damaging the equipment.  Good thing this was all a simulation and no real equipment was damaged!  Even I learned some interesting things about how combines worked and how they are about to release autonomous equipment.  This equipment is sophisticated enough to drive itself and does not require a person.  There are many applications where the equipment can be used in situations that can be harmful to a person, such as spraying an orchard with pesticides.  Lots of food for thought.  And then there was the “walking” machine.  It looked like something out of Star Wars – and it probably was.  This will be very useful in the jungles of the world or other terrain that is not friendly to most other types of equipment.  So, this tour was so much better than I expected!!

Lunch, as always, was great.  It was in a restaurant that adjoins the pavilion, Johnny’s Italian Steakhouse.  We were all full and satisfied after this wonderful lunch.  Many of us visited the gift shop.  I passed on the John Deere shorts, shirts, key rings, and pens, almost anything you can get a logo onto.  I did, however, find an interesting slow cooker cookbook that had some great recipes.  Something to read when I have the time to either read or cook!

Again for Rock Island, I had low expectations.  I am sure that is not fair, but, I did.  It was a most interesting tour.  One of the saddest moments was as we passed the National Cemetery sections that are on base.  So many headstones, so many graves, so many fallen soldiers.  At this time, the largest percentage of funerals is for veterans of World War II.  We had a chance to spend a few minutes at the Museum on base.  While there was a preponderance of artillery, guns and other weapons, many of which were made at Rock Island, there was also the lighter side of life over the years at Rock Island.  In one corner of the museum, there was some information about the base’s most famous visitors.  One of them caught my eye.  Charles Lindberg was an overnight guess in 1927, after his solo flight.  Serendipity!  What a way to link my own voyage down the Mississippi!  On some earlier day, we visited the Lindberg farm.  And here he was again. 

The Lock and Dam was operational when we were there.  This is something that may change over the next few days as the government prepares to shutdown.  All of the locks and dam that allow shipping vessels to get goods to and from ports along US rivers will be closed when the shutdown begins.  This will, undoubtedly, stop the commercial activity on the Mississippi.  This is such an unnecessary situation.  But, let us not get political, let’s just talk about the barges that we watched go through the lock.  It was a large enough load with about 13 barges that it needed to taken apart, the front half progressing through the lock first, followed by the back half.  Once they were both through, they were re-united and could proceed upriver.  It was fascinating to watch everything that was required to get the load through the lock.  The weather was perfect for walking outside along the lock to see how it all worked.

That day ended with me being very satisfied with a great day that far exceeded my expectations!

Where Has the Time Gone

I guess I left you a week ago!  Can’t believe that it has been that long.  But, a wonderful week it was.

At the last post we were travelling to Prior Lake.  We survived the parking.  It was an easy park to help our participants get settled.  Not all parks are equal!  The 4 days in the Minneapolis area seemed to speed away at lightning speed.  Dakota Meadows was the campground in Prior Lake.  It is co-located with Mystic Lake Casino.  This casino was not as much fun – couldn’t find a winning slot machine!  But, we were able to find some live music in the hotel lobby on two of the nights and even had a chance to dance a bit.  This is always a plus for us!

We had a bus tour of both Minneapolis and St. Paul, with scenic stops to view the river.  Lunch was at the St. Paul Hotel.  It was a lovely hotel with valet attendants in top hats and tails!  Our bus load of obvious tourists did not use their services!  We had enough time to walk around at take pictures of the bronze statues of Charles Shultz’ Charlie Brown Characters.  We all seemed to enjoy seeing our comic book friends.

While in the area we were able to take a brunch cruise on the Mississippi, travelling through one of the locks in this area of the rivers.  The Mall of America was an interesting destination.  We didn’t do much shopping.  But, we were able to walk all around it and on most of its many floors, stopping occasionally to watch the amusement rides go by. 

One day was a day to visit the Renaissance Festival.  We had a great time.  Lots of people watching to do.  There were so many visitors dressed in period costumes, it was difficult to tell the “actors” from the visitors.  We saw a couple of jousting matches, eat some food, shopped a bit, and enjoyed comedians, flame throwers, flame swallowers and many other types of amusements. 

After the Minneapolis area, we stopped in Prairie du Chien, WI.  This was just a one night stop.  So it was quick with not extra side trips.  We did go to Pikes Peak State Park.  I know, Pike’s Peak is in Colorado – we have been there.  This Pike’s Peak is named for the same man.  Who knew that he started on the banks of the Mississippi in Wisconsin!  But, what a spectacular view of the Mississippi we had as the Wisconsin River meets it.  Lovely view from above of the scattered islands in the middle of the River.  Well worth the side trip.

Our next stop was Galena, IL.  What a fun town to visit.  So many shops and things to see.  Home town of President Grant, Galena has the appearance of a town from another era.  The architecture is so well preserved and the homes and shops were most appealing and set in another era.  After a trolley ride through town, we were able to walk around the town for some shopping, sightseeing or lunch.  The afternoon was spent in Dubuque, IA (yes another state, but just across the river).  We visited the Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium.  It is a very well done museum.  We were able to tour a river dredge boat. This boat was used for many years to dredge the Mississippi/Missouri Rivers.  Fun to see.

Today we signed off the caravan.  We wanted to visit the Field of Dreams.  It is the location of the filming of that movie in Dyersville, IA.  And remains the same as it was for the movie in 1989.  BTW, the long flight of stairs toward the end of the movie, is actually in Galena and are called the Grant Steps, as President Grant would walk down them while he worked at his family business (before his presidency).  It was fun to see the baseball field just as it was and the corn field at its boundaries.  I, too, could hear them talking to me.  Not sure what they were telling me, but sure can understand what Shoeless Joe heard!

After the trip to the Field of Dreams, we followed the caravan route and stopped at a working grist mill, housed in a Dutch Windmill.  It was a fascinating tour in  Fulton, IA.  While we did not have time to visit, the local cemetery is “home” to several of President Reagan’s aunts!  His boyhood home is not too far away and he often visited here.  Just a piece of trivia for the enquiring mind!  And I have discovered that we are in American Pickers territory.  Today, we drove by Frank Fritz Finds and we are within 16 miles of Mike Wolfe’s store in Le Clair, IA, just 16 miles from us.  I may not have time to visit either.  Just as well, I would not appreciate their offerings, even though I do watch the show from time to time. I guess I’ll just have to visit Mike’s Nashville store when we get home!

We are now in Eldridge, IA, at a great county park.  We have some tours scheduled for Friday the 27th.

That’s about it for now.  But, there will be more to come.  We have many more miles of the Mississippi to travel!

Today Was a Travel Day

For this caravan, we are acting as parkers at some of the campgrounds.  That means that we leave 2 hours before other participants and get to the new campground early to decide, with the hosts, which sites are allocated and how the motor homes will be parked as they arrive. 

This morning, we were traveling from the Brainerd area to Prior Lake, MN and were on the road at 7 AM.  One of the rewards for being up that early was a gorgeous sky at sunrise.  It was quite lovely.  The sky was pink and gold and because there were lots of clouds, the light was filtered and dispersed in interesting patterns.  All of this was reflected on the several lakes that we passed.  It was worth the extra hours!

Although there was some rain, at times quite heavy, we were able to park all of the motor homes in the sunshine!  And everyone was in 15 minutes early!

First 4 Days of the Caravan

In a Nutshell!

On day 2, at mid-afternoon, we left for Itasca State Park, the home of the headwaters of the Mississippi River.  We were able to walk all the way across the river – all 3 or so feet.  It was cold at first, but the feet adjusted quite easily.  It was fun to watch most every romping in the water and enjoy the clear, clean water of the Mississippi – it won’t be that clear or clean as we move south!  The first picture is of the water as it moves form Lake Itasca into the Mississippi.  The second one is part of the group enjoying walking back and forth across the river!

While there we tossed in two little yellow rubber ducks, they have a twitter address on them. I don't expect to see them again, but with any luck someone else will see them and send a tweet. 

Two days after we crossed the head waters of the Mississippi a group of 11 paddlers left the headwaters and plan to paddle the entire length of the Mississippi. Here is a link that shows the progress of the group: http://paddle4ward.com/follow-us-on-a-map .  We will get to the mouth of the river about a month before them.

After the river, we were treated to a dinner – either prime rib or walleye.  This was followed by a presentation on the Life of a Voyageur  in the 1800’s.  These were fur traders and the impersonator was very, very entertaining, requesting lots of audience participation.  He did a great job – and we learned a lot about the life of a fur trader, whose total lifespan was only 26 to 30 years.

On Day 4, we drove the 104 miles from Bemidji to Brainerd.  It was an easy drive with some interesting sites along the way.  We did stop at a casino and were able to win a bit –enough to cover lunch!  But, as the day went on it seemed to get colder and grayer.  I think it is too early for winter, but in Minnesota in may come earlier than I want!

Today, Day 5, the day was cold and gray.  But, we had a great time.  We visited the boyhood home of Charles Lindberg and learned a lot about the man.  He was quite an engineer and scientist.  And he started at an early age.  But age 9, he had devised a pulley and lever system to help him get the ice into the house from the ice house.  He would have been an interesting man to meet!  After lunch, we visited the Mille Lac Indian Museum and Trading Post.  It was a very interesting and well done museum, with great exhibits and knowledgeable guides.  We even got to learn a little Indian sign language. Each Indian tribe had its own language.  In order to be able to communicate with each other and the fur traders, a more or less uniform code of signs was created.  And then we were able to play a couple of Native America games.  These were very interesting. 

 

Need to Catch Up

It seems that we have gotten a bit behind in adding to this blog!  That is something that we can’t make up.  But, I can post a few tidbits from the last week that you may have missed.

First, while in Wisconsin, we stayed in a town called Two Harbors.  Nice quiet town on the northern shore of Lake Superior.  And our campground, as well as our RV site, was right on the lake.  See pictures! 

While in Two Harbors, we visited a Dairy Queen.  It is the only DQ that I have seen that has an outdoor fire pit.  Not sure it it was for warmth while we ate our ice cream, but it was a neat attraction.

And one last tidbit.  When we left Two Harbors, we were headed to Bemidji, MN.  We travelled on state roads, not interstates.  As lunch time approached, we wished we could find a rest area.  But, alas, there were none.  (There are Rest Areas on MN state highways, just none when we needed one!  So, we decided to stop at a gas station that had a restaurant just beside it.  Gronk’s looked like an interesting place, so we decided to eat there.  It was a fun place.  They had good fried pickles, but not as good as the ones in Louisville (just our humble opinion!).  One of the tables was supported by a large, multi-branched tree trunk.  Although it was an interesting place, I am not sure I wanted to be there when the Packers were playing!  Seems that there are some avid fans in Wisconsin.  When we left the restaurant, we walked back to the gas station parking lot where we had parked.  There was another Winnebago at the gas pump.  While it seems unlikely, we were able to walk up to the RV and say hello – to friends from RI!  Same gas station, same time!  And coming from very different starting points!  We were all headed to Bemidji, but the probability of being at the same gas station at the same time is quite remote.

Ok.  That is about all that I can remember that was of interest before we started the caravan.

All Have Arrived

It is Sunday September 15th, we have been here for a couple of days and everyone else has now arrived at Royal Oaks RV Park for the start of the caravan.  This is a nice campground in Bemidji Minnesota.  Bemidji is a nice little town with everything that you would need.  It also has a statue of Paul Bunyan and  the Blue Ox Babe.  Bemidji information can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bemidji,_Minnesota

We have had a nice welcome dinner and sat around the fire with a number of the caravan members.  Looks like this will be a real nice trip.  It turns out that we know the caravan hosts: Dave and Donna.  They now live in Florida, when they are not on the road, but lived in Massachusetts when we were in Rhode Island.  The tail-enders are CW and Denise, they seem like really nice folks. John and Barbara from Westerly RI are also on the caravan.  Joanne and her friend Courtney (a nice fellow) are also here from the Massachusetts Winnebago group.  It turns out that there are some folks from the Fort Myers area in Florida that are not too far from the RV park we stay at in the Winter.  Of the 23 motorhomes on the trip we seem to represent all 4 corners of the US; some folks had a long trip just to get here.

More on the trip itself to follow.

A Day in Chicago

 What to Do?

We now had another day in a new city:  A big city, with a thousand things to do.  There was Miracle Mile. The El, the Art Institute (which houses many impressionist paintings (my favorite), among then Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, and Picasso's Blue Guitarist.  I have seen both before, but there was a special impressionist exhibit. Then, there was Lake Michigan, the Bears were in town, and oh so much more.  But, we also found out that the Cubs were playing at home – at Wrigley Fields.  We are not Cubs Fans.  We call ourselves baseball fans.  But, really, we are Red Sox fans, through and through.  I don’t know a single Cubs player – except for former Red Sox players!  But, the allure of watching a game at one of the venerable, old, great stadiums of baseball, left us with no other choice.  Off to Wrigleyville we went.

It was impressive.  Wrigley is a fine park.  Very lovely in its presentation, green grass, nice infrastructure.  Just a great ball park, with great views.  A fans park.  It was also family friendly and it was home to the sort of loyal fans that the Red Sox have always had.  There were fans everywhere with Cubs logos – shirts, shorts, tank tops, hats, dresses – almost everything.  And these were worn by fans of all ages from 2 (maybe even younger) to 70 (and even older!)

One of the winning attributes was the music.  Great ballpark music before the game and during the game.  They do have a live organist playing on a real organ.  He has started well over 2000 games in his stay at Wrigley. He was great.  I can’t say if he was better than the Red Sox’ John Kiley, but it was great to listen to him.
 
And Wrigley has to win hands down on the food.  We ate at Sheffield’s, One Stan Burger and one Bison Burger.  They were great.  And the volunteer that spent time to talk to all customers was a plus, as well.

The Cubs lost to the Brewers.  They are both vying for last place in the NL Central.  But, it was a good game and a great day.

We finished the day off with a trip to Michigan Avenue.  We needed to see the beginning and the end of Route 66.  History dictates that they are not co-existent.  They are a block apart.  But, we found the beginning and the end of Rout 66.
 

We had a coffee and a tea at the Corner Bakery on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Jackson Blvd. And we watched Chicago go by through the window before we had to leave.

Great Day!  Now on to the next stop!  BTW, the Bears won their game!

A Day In Louisville

Sometimes when we travel from place to place, it becomes difficult to see all the sights!  When we are somewhere overnight, it is almost impossible.  And when we have only one day (or 2 overnights), we have to pick and choose what we want to do – we just can’t do it all!

So what did we do in Louisville?  Here goes:

·         Went to the Louisville Slugger Factory Tour.  Great find to see how wooden baseball bats are made.  How about a swing of a David Ortiz bat.

·         Ate Burgoo and BBQ at Mark’s Feed Store.  Really, really good!

·         Listened to some live blues at Stevie Ray’s.  Not the best music we have ever heard.  But, any live music is better than none!

·         Had Bourbon Barrel Stout.  That’s Stout that is aged in a used bourbon barrel.  Tastes great.

·         Had bourbon – Elijah Craig – my favorite.

·         Went to Churchill Downs and actually saw a race or two.  Admittedly it was not the Kentucky Derby, but it was a race at Churchill Downs.  Got to see the horses, and the jockey and got to bet $2 on the number 2 horse in the second race – and win a bit!
 

·         Sat at Jeff Ruby Steakhouse, at the bar, and listened to some great piano music

·         Drove past the KFC Yum Center.  Not sure that if I were a performer, I would want to play at the “YUM” center.

That’s about it.  Took most of an evening and a day to do it.  But, we had a great time.

 

First Day of the Last Trip

Today is the first day of what will be the last trip in our Winnebago Adventurer.  We will end the trip by taking delivery of our new Itasca Solei.  It is exciting.  But, today was a bit bittersweet.  We are full of anticipation about the trip and the travel and the good times, meeting friends, making new ones and seeing new and different parts of the great USA.  And we look forward to the new RV.  But, just a little twinge - way in the back – has us a bit sad that we will be parting ways with Casa Milonga, our Adventurer,  that we have been friends with for the last 6 years.  It has been fun.  And will continue to be so!  But for today, we can be a bit sad.

Repetitious, But Never Old

We are traveling again.  And although I feel like I am repeating myself.  As many times as I say that we are “on the road again” or that it is “Willie Nelson Time” or however I have indicated that we are in the RV and moving down the road, it  never gets old.  I may be repetitious, but I love it.

We will be traveling for the next few months and I will try to blog whenever I can.  I blog best when we are moving.  Stationary trips do not give me the creative motivation that I need!  But, I also blog best when we are traveling alone.  We will be doing that a bit.  But, mostly we will be in a caravan traveling from MN to New Orleans, LA, following the Mississippi River.  It will be great fun and I will try to share it all!  But, there will be time that time is not mine to manage or shcedule.  So, I may opt not to blog, but to enjoy the trip!  Time will tell how well I do.