Iowa Has Much To Offer (If you don't ask for much)

A Day in the Greater Des Moines Area

We hit the trifecta by coming to Des Moines, IA. We had one full day to tour the Greater Des Moines area and we took full advantage of it.

Our first stop was in the town of Indianola to visit the National Balloon Museum. When I told Monte that we were going to a balloon museum he had visions of clowns and balloon animals. He did not hide his disappointment well when I informed him that it was about the history of man riding in big balloons. The museum chronicles more than 200 years of ballooning history from the first flight in 1783 to the present. The museum contains balloon envelopes, gondolas, inflator fans, ballooning instruments, trophies, and other memorabilia. We were met by a 80+ year old docent who I immediately wanted to tell to “straighten up and fly right” since her name tag was upside down – but I refrained. She had a power point presentation on the history of ballooning and would we like to see it? Sure! 15 minutes later when she and another octogenarian figured out how to start the program we did watch it – however the sound was about 3 slides behind where it should have been. The highlight of the museum was meeting the only other tourist there. She was in town for a wedding and it turned out that she is from Exton, PA about 10 miles from where Monte's family lives. We had a nice chat with her and by the time we finished talking she was ready to go with us rather than the wedding – but she did not get an invite from us.

On west a few miles – to Winterset, Iowa. The birthplace of none other than the Marion Robert Morrison, whose name was changed to Marion Mitchell Morrison and who you know as “The Duke” John Wayne. We got there but skipped going in when we found out that it was $6 each for a 20 minute guided tour of a one room house. Heck – the Balloon Museum was on $3, had multiple rooms and had a power point presentation. So, we drove by, took some pictures and found the North Side Cafe where we had a great lunch.

On the way to Winterset and on the way out of town, the real tourist attractions exist. Winterset is in Madison County, Iowa. Ring a bell? It should. This is where Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood had their 4 day love affair in the movie “The Bridges of Madison County”. I don't watch too many movies but this was a very good one. Several of the bridges still exist and we visited 4 of them. All of the bridges are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Back in the day bridges were covered by order of the County Board of Supervisors to help preserve the large flooring timbers which were more expensive to replace than the lumber covering the sides and roof. Most of the construction was done by farmers to pay their poll taxes.

To finish off the day we attended the thoroughbred races at Prairie Meadows Race Track and Casino. We did not win but neither did we lose.

One final note on Iowa – we have seen more windmills than in any other state. We have seen lots of wind farms in many states but just about the entire state of Iowa seems to be covered with windmills. Clean and Green!

End of Iowa – on to Nebraska.

Winnebago Industries – Where Everything That Was Wrong Was Set Right

Forest City, Iowa

Our trip north from the Quad Cities took us to Forest City, Iowa where we had an appointment at Winnebago Industries to have a few small warranty issues addressed on the motorhome. Our list of issues were things that were more irritating than major: the shower leaked, the radio would not hold its settings when the engine was turned off, one of the wires from the satellite hookup to the tv was broken – stuff like that. Little did we know – we had a couple of major issues.

The appointment was for 2 days and we had to be up and ready to check in at 7 AM on the first day so we arrived the day before (Winnebago provides free camping for rigs that are in for service.) That night we had a very bad but typical “out on the prairie” rain storm. The bad part was the wind – I have no idea how hard the wind blew but it was hard. Hard enough that when we got up in the morning we discovered that there was a leak from the big slide-out in to the living room area and one of the cabinets had water in it and it was just generally a mess. So – add that to our list of fixes as a major problem to be addressed on day one.

First thing on day one we were assigned our very own personal technician, Don, who would work on our RV and keep us informed of progress. We were hoping that our 2 day appointment would actually be only one day but pretty much the only issue that was fixed on day one was the slide-out leak – that was a major time consumer. The other time consumer was trying to figure out the shower leak – that turned out to be a pretty major issue also. Day One came to a close and we knew that we would be here for day two.

Day Two dawned and once again – 7 AM check in time. We had the day to kill so we did some exciting stuff like taking a tour of the Winnebago factory. The tour was pretty good other than the fact that we were not allowed to take pictures. However, Monte used his phone and snuck a couple of pics (he is such a criminal).

  After the tour we still had time to kill so we drove around the area and much to our delight found the Norwegian Immigrant Memorial – how very exciting!

Finally – 3 PM and time to go see Don – our tech. Don is late – doesn't bring the RV out until almost 3:30 so we figure they were trying to get everything done and get us out of here. Wrong! They did get everything on the list completed but when they were wrapping up for the day and turned off the air conditioner the condensate ran from the roof down the passenger side window like it always does – except this time it also ran inside the window – one of the window seals is broken. Don informs us that they have to order a new window and it will be delivered the next day. Once again – we feel lucky – this is a major issue and we feel that other manufacturers/repair facilities would have just ignored it or caulked it and never mentioned it.

Here we sit on Day Three – but all is good – we even got to sleep in as we did not have to report until 8 AM. We are very glad that we made this appointment and that the repair folks at Winnebago have been so good about taking care of our problems. The waiting room has good coffee and most importantly Wifi and we are sure we will be out of here this afternoon.

We have also been lucky while here that it has been cloudy and cool because the dogs are spending their days in the car parked under a shade tree. We take them a couple of times a day to the Winnebago Rally Grounds which is a massive but empty campground and let them just be doggies and run free.

To wrap up - nogood luck at the casinos lately but lots of good luck at Winnebago and we'll take that any day.

The Quad Cities - The Place Where Nothing Went Right (also known as Invasion of the Bugs)

Moline and Rock Island, Illinois and Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa
On the east side of the Mississippi River is Illinois, on the west, Iowa.

Before western expansion, this area was the site of Saukenuk, the largest Indian settlement in North America. In 1789, a young Sauk named Black Hawk looked on as American forces destroyed his village and, years later, he led his people in what became known as the Black Hawk War. "Indian problems" led to the establishment of a fort on Rock Island, which eventually became the country's leading arsenal. As the river slowly opened to boat traffic, small groups of "rapids pilots" began helping travelers navigate the deadly Rock Island Rapids. In 1848 a young inventor/farmer named John Deere opened his first plow-making plant in Moline. Around these three industries, the arsenal, river guiding and John Deere, grew the towns of Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, and Rock Island and Moline, Illinois.

Here we are – an area with much history and things to see. We rolled in to town on Sunday afternoon and had a full day planned for Monday, our only day to hang out here. So early Monday morning Shelley called John Deere Company as we wanted to take a tour of the harvester manufacturing plant only to be told that no tours were being given until Thursday (what's up with that?) so okay – there is other stuff to do and we were off to see the Buffalo Bill Museum about 15 miles up the road in Le Clair, IA – the city where Bill Cody was born. Museum was supposed to open at 9 AM. Upon our arrival we were greeted by a sign “Closed” will return at 1 PM. So now what to do – guess we will hit the casino for a little while considering we are camping free in their parking lot. Yea – “free camping” – no hookups, a thousand (seriously) bugs, and empty the wallet at the casino – yea – free.

Before I go on – let me address the bug issue. We are camped, well parked, on the banks of the Mighty Mississippi. And it must be the time of year for flying insect hatch because they are everywhere. The car and the RV are covered with them. They kind of look like little moths, but are not moths, and thankfully they don't bite but they are quite annoying. And it is not just at this exact location – we have found them to be everywhere on both sides of the river. We see people running and biking atop the river levies and they have their mouths open – I can only imagine what their teeth look like!

Back to the story – so after loosing our assess, um I mean - after supporting the local economy and ensuring that people stay employed at the casino (they did feed us a “free” lunch) it was back to Buffalo Bill. Arrival time – 1:20 – sign still says will re-open at 1 PM does not say what day or year... Just up the hill from the museum is a micro distillary, (at this point I could use a drink) the Mississippi River Distillary – and they give tours – so we get there just at the end of one tour – next tour 45 minutes. Forget it – on to the other side of the river.

Going to see the Black Hawk museum – closed Monday and Tuesday. At least I found that online before we actually got there.

Rock Island Arsenal – Established 1816 as Fort Armstrong. It is now the largest government owned weapons manufacturing arsenal in the U.S. It is the only active U.S. Army foundry and manufactures ordnance and equipment including artillery, gun mounts, small arms, grenade launchers etc. During the Civil War the Arsenal was a prison camp for captured Confederate prisoners. Opening in December 1863, by the end of that month it housed over 5,000 prisoners. So – of course we want to go to the Museum at the Arsenal – supposed to be a good one. Never could find it. Oh well – next time (like there will be a next time.)

Tomorrow we go North.

Back On The Road

Elkhart and Shipshewana, Indiana

After a 3.5 week hiatus from our hiatus, we are back on the road. We had a great 3.5 weeks camped in Monte's Mom's driveway. Spent lots of time with Monte's Mom who will be 96 next week, his brothers Jim and Gary, sister Kass, sister-in-law Linda, daughter Nancy and various and sundry nieces, nephews, aunts and uncles. When we weren't hanging out at the house we were going to the massive flea markets in the area, shopping where the Amish shop, or hitting the casino and horse races at Delaware Park.

Now we are heading west and our first stop was Elkhart, Indiana. Elkhart is the home to multiple RV manufactures and there are supposed to be good buys on RV items at several surplus and salvage dealers in the local area. However, what we found did not thrill us. In general we found that what we were looking for could be purchased for less $$ online than in person here. I guess that if we had been in the market for RV furniture we could have found some good buys but other than that – not so much.

So – having time on our hands we headed off to Shipshewana, Indiana just east of Elkhart.

Keeping in mind that the part of Pennsylvania that Monte is from is home to a large Amish and Mennonite population and when it is normal to see (get stuck behind) the occasional horse and buggy on the road and there are usually many of them parked at Wal-Mart or Home Depot, and other stores. We found that in Shipshewana and the surrounding area, cars on the road are in the minority. I've never seen so many horse and buggy combinations (and so much horse poop). It is kind of hard to take pictures of this stuff because the Amish do not like to have their pictures taken – the whole “graven image” thing...

We did not find much to do in Ship – pretty much just a tourist village. There is a Hudson automobile museum here and although we did not go in – they were having a car show outside. Monte once, many metric years ago, owned a 1950 Hudson so he enjoyed seeing these.

Movin' on West.

Longwood Gardens

Longwood Gardens consists of over 1,077 acres of gardens, woodlands, and meadows in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.

The land that Longwood Gardens is on was at one time inhabited by members of the Lenni Lenape tribe. In 1700 a Quaker family named Peirce purchased the property from William Penn and established a working farm on the land. Almost 100 years later that same family began planting an arboretum on the farm in 1798. By 1850 the site was known as one of the finest collections of trees in the nation and one of the first public parks. In 1906 the farm was bought by Pierre du Pont so he could preserve the trees which were slated to be sold for lumber and from 1907 until the 1930s Mr. du Pont created most of what exists today as Longwood Gardens.

Today the Gardens consists of 20 outdoor gardens and 20 indoor gardens with 4.5 acres of heated greenhouses known as conservatories. It contains 11,000 different types of plants and trees and many fountains.

Longwood's main conservatory is one of the world's greatest greenhouses. The conservatory spans about a half mile and is home to 5,500 type of plants. Included in the Conservatory are the Palm House, Mediterranean Garden, Orchid House, and many others.

The main displays in the Conservatory are rotated frequently and during our visit the theme was “Lilytopia”. A display of over 10,000 cut stems of lilies from all over the world were on display.