LeClaire, Iowa

Last year we were passing through this area and tried unsuccessfully to tour the Buffalo Bill Museum – we could never catch it when it was open. This year we did succeed – if that is what you want to call it.

LeClaire, IA was the boyhood home of William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody (1846-1917). I think that the whole Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, Wild West Show and that time period in American history is pretty interesting so was looking forward to the museum. Well – it was pretty much a bust. The museum is actually okay but had very little to do with Buffalo Bill and much more to do with LeClaire in general. They didn't even have any really cool Buffalo Bill memorabilia. However, I guess that if it was called the LeClaire City Museum that they would not get too many visitors.

Somewhat more interesting and only a couple of blocks from the museum is Antique Archeology, an antique store operated by Mike Wolf and Frank Fritz. For those of you who may not be familiar with it - Mike and Frank are the stars of “American Pickers” on the History Channel. Unfortunately while we were at the store they were not in residence and neither was Danielle the tattooed biker rocker chick who runs the store while Mike and Frank are on the road doing picks. I think that since they opened an additional store in Nashville last year that they do not spend very much time in Iowa (would you?).

                                                      Monte owned a '51 Hudson
                                                     (now they are both antiques!)

Just across the street from Antique Archeology is 4 Miles 2 Memphis a store that Danielle opened this past December. The store mostly features vintage clothes and original clothes designs by Danielle.

It was real and it was fun but it wasn't real fun.