Category Archives: Middle America

The Art of Staying Still (fun at the NC in fall)

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Do you know that scene in Top Gun when Tom Cruise is flying an F-16 and a MIG is gaining on him fast?  Tom pulls on the brakes and the Soviet menace flies by (and then gets a missile up his tail pipe).  That strategy works well with travel too.  Don’t like the weather or the neighbors or the noise?  Just stay put and it will pass.  Take today for example.  We went to the Fall Fest at the Nature Center (near the corner of Pulaski and Peterson).  Last year we went with Henna’s Girl Scout troop and we were two dozen in a sea of thousands.  That is how it is every fall and somewhere we have photos of infant Henna being carried through a mass of scarecrow building families.  The scarecrow building contest by the way, is just one of many fun activities.  You can also listen to the incredibly talented story-teller Mark Kater spin his magic, cut tree rings under the supervision of our friend Ted, and talk football with neighbor Bob (landscape architect at the Nature Center).  Actually you cannot do the last item.  He is much, much too busy on that special day to say more than hello.  That is, of course, until today.  Today was different from any other fall festival ever attended by us at the Nature Center.  Today was the day it rained for all but one hour of the festival.  We actually have never built a scarecrow either (too crowded!).  Today we did under our umbrellas and a tent that was a bit too small.  Today was the day we parked at the main lot that is just a few yards from the main building (usually we park about half a mile away).  The lines were short at the hot dog stand (the one manned each year by a nearby parochial school’s men’s club) and there were no trinkets or produce to buy at the outdoor market because there was no outdoor market.  If last year the number attending was in the thousands this year it was in the dozens.

But there were plenty of friends to see such as Ted, whom I have known since being first introduced to him by Corey in that short period of time when we were just good friends.  After we got married (and just before a road trip) he taught us how to change a tire.  He is also an outdoor enthusiast who loves to teach what he knows and has the kindest heart possible.  It was good talking to him by the fire.  Later we also talked to Bob’s wife Jessica and their daughter Annabelle about school and other neighborhood gossip.  As for Bob it was fun asking him how the Packers are doing.  There was an Irish folk band there too (One of The Girls) who played soulful music perfect for a rainy day.  Mark also told his stories and although we have heard him tell most of them before, we listened as intently as ever.  And I got to the hot dog stand tent just before they closed up shop.  For the first time I made conversation with the men manning the dogs and we joked about the crummy weather.   A panel of judges (actually maybe just Bob) determined our scarecrow to be the zaniest which earned us a wooden cookie medal.  Henna was incredibly excited by this and did not seem to get that there were only about ten entries and seven awards given.  The rain by that time had cleared and we had the trails all to ourselves.  We had stood still and the world had reshuffled the deck to our advantage.

Shedd Aquarium by Boat

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Well, we have been home a week now and I was itching to go somewhere.  My plan was camping at Starved Rock, but neither Corey nor Henna jumped at the idea.  We actually decided that last night we were going to have a small fire and camp in our backyard as the weather has been nice and cool night.  We have camped a couple of times in our backyard and it has always been fun (one time it was after having the floors stained).  But sometime yesterday we decided our beds would be a lot more fun.  We also chose a board game over the fire.

What we did do was a little tourism in our hometown by traveling from Edison Park (our home neighborhood) to downtown to the Shedd Aquarium and then back via trains and boats.  The train part was routine, the aquatic road not so much.  It also was a little pricey ($8 an adult/ $5 a child one way east on the river to Navy Pier then the same fare on the lake or an all day pass for $22 an adult/ $9 a child).  But it does take you on the same route as the Chicago Architectural tour (but with fewer people and no docent).  Not surprisingly, on the weekend the river taxis are a tourist thing which made it fun for me to help people out (“Right, the train that goes around the loop is called the el.  But to get to Wrigley from here you want to take the 151 bus.”)  Last year we took a different river taxi to China Town.  My take on the river taxis; going south to China Town is pretty ugly and smelly (China Town does have good eats but not much else to make a day of it).  Headed east toward Michigan Avenue the view is nicer and, with the weather being perfect yesterday, offers a relaxed and comfortable ride.  At Navy Pier you can transfer to museum campus bound vessel that works on the much choppier lake (and in doing so provides some great panoramic views of the downtown area).  It did make me feel a little sea sick so we opted to walk back to the pier (and was later amazed to find out that what I thought was a one mile walk was actually closer to three).

The Shedd was super crowded but also super awesome.  The line just to purchase tickets stretched on and on and on.  Luckily for us our super cool niece works at the Shedd and had tickets waiting for us.    Inside the Shedd was the familiar (to us) and the not so familiar (the jelly fish).  A lot of people we know have raved about those jelly fish and we were pleasantly surprised to find them still floating around here and not some other Midwestern aquarium.  With no brains, blood, or bones, they look like some primitive life form on Mars.  Our tickets for the dolphin/ beluga whale show were too late for us to attend (but, thanks again to our delightful niece Abigail, they were also free) so we instead saw the show from the bottom of the tank viewing area.  From that vantage point it is mostly upright tails punctuated by sudden dives to the bottom.  Just before going we dropped our show tickets off on an unsuspecting family of three from Kentucky (who were grateful but seemed a little skeptical of our good intentions).  We also later gave our two all day river tour passes away (again they seemed as surprised as they were happy).   It always feels good to help out a fellow traveler.

 

Day 50: Iowa City, IA to Edison Park, Chicago

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Yesterday I woke up in a tent pitched on my neighbor’s parent’s lawn.  Today I woke up in my own bed.  In seven weeks we drove about 7,200 miles (with 1,200 of those miles coming over the last four days).  Did the trip change us?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  Like a good tan, the trip effects (good health and low stress) will fade over time.  The same thing in regards to the novelty of a comfortable bed, dishwasher, and a fridge that does not involve the constant feeding of ice into.

Yesterday our friends Alex and Chad took us to the Farmers Market in Iowa City.  After the cowboy mentality of Wyoming and Nebraska, it was refreshing to be in the more plain-spoken and warmer midwest.  The market was awesome with farmers and artisans from the surrounding country side set up downtown to share their homemade wine, cheese, veggies, and crafts.  The crowd was mostly locals with lots of kids running about and everything was friendly and low-key.  This was only my second time through Iowa City (the other time I was a senior in high school visiting colleges) and I was really impressed by the big town/ little city feel of the place.  I could see why people like Kurt Vonnegut chose to live there.  aMaceing Life, I think you might miss the mountains but would otherwise love to live in Iowa City.

After the market Chad and Alex took us to another delight; John’s Grocery Store.  This nifty little place was overflowing with beer and wine as well as good cheeses, veggies, crackers, and humus.  The store also had wisdom as the people working there knew their stuff and made good recommendations.  Armed with lunch, we set off on the interstate for a visit with Corey’s mom who made us a nifty dinner.  Joining us were my niece and nephew and their parents and the welcome felt complete.

A few hours later we fought against traffic and reached our house.  George and his friend took great care of the place.  I was worried that they might have had one to many big parties (and in doing so anger the police officer that lives next door) but I guess George mostly talked guns with him.  The cats looked healthy but did not seem to notice our arrival.  A couple of our friends happened to walk by later and it felt good knowing that we were missed.  After sorting through seven weeks of mail and doing a little unpacking, Corey and I drank some good Iowa wine (really, it was good stuff) on the front porch while Henna slept in her own bed.  We were home.

Day 49: Lincoln, NE to Iowa City, IA

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I am proud to say we spent our last full day on the trip the way we spent most of our trip; seeing new things and making friends.  Driving into Lincoln we were not so impressed and even a good fast food Mediterranean experience did not change that impression.  The area around the hotel had a gritty and industrial look and the downtown lacked that certain feel that Corey always talks about.  But the next afternoon we discovered something pretty cool:  Pioneers Park.  Pioneers Park is a couple hundred acres of parks, restored prairie, nature centers, ponds, thousands of bull frogs (which are a pest and not native to the area), turtles, two elk, a small herd of bison, a bald eagle, and several resident snakes and owls.  The birds were brought to the park by places like Raptor Rescue and had various injuries tended to (for example, the bald eagle was missing a wing and an owl was blind).   The staff working there were friendly and helpful.  Tending many of the animals was Drew who ended up spending a lot of time talking to us while misting the eagle and tending to the owls.  Drew and I talked nature but also camping as he is an avid tent camper and traveler.  The hours spent there made us forget the high heat and humidity (which is still pretty new to us after a summer traveling in the mountains and the coast).

Four hours or so later we were off the interstate on mostly gravel roads in search of Ron and Phyllis’s farm.  Close to their house we saw a fox by the side of the road.  Ron and Phyllis are parents to our neighbor Chad who, along with his wife Alex, are visiting in part to celebrate his mother’s birthday.  I am happy to say that Chad’s parents are as nice and quick-witted as their son and it was a real treat drinking wine and eating pizza with them late into the night.  They live on top a low hill in a sturdy 140 year old house with sweeping views of the countryside.  One thing that amazed me was that the gravel road leading to their house used to be paved.  Then the state ran out of money and put it back to gravel.

Henna spent a lot of time feeding sheep and playing with the kittens and cats that live in their barn.  Phyllis also made sure that Henna had enough cake and ice cream and right before going to bed Henna said that this was her favorite day of the trip.  Despite Ron and Phyllis repeated invitations of a guest bedroom, we chose to pitch a tent on the front lawn.  It just felt more fitting to do so.

So I woke up this morning in our tent; it was my 40th time doing so this summer.   The rain flap was not on and it was a cool morning despite the near 100 degree temperature the day before.  Right now I am typing these words on Ron and Phyllis’s front porch and the ladies are still sleeping.  Soon everyone will wake and I hope to have a cup of coffee.  Chad and Alex plan on taking us to a farmer’s market as well as a small grocery store they know that has an excellent beer and wine selection.  Afterwards we will take Interstate 80 to my mother in-law and then later still we will come home.  This trip will be over and I will begin to help plan the next one.

Day 48: Laramie, WY to Lincoln, NE

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From one western college town to another.  Today was the longest drive of the trip. At almost exactly 500 miles, it was one of the longest drives we have taken in many years.  Take one interstate, one very flat route, and precious few roadside attractions and….zoom we were off.  It was all rather anticlimactic really.  In Laramie the mountains were near but out of sight and the ground still buckled everywhere.  Cross into Nebraska and the land still buckled a bit until, maybe around North Platte, it suddenly flattened out into the mid west.  Highlights of the day were a short hike at a rest stop (in the still buckled part of Nebraska), a plaque at that same rest stop celebrating the “golden link” of “concrete and steel” that was completed in 1974 (that golden link would be Interstate 80), a text with a neighbor, a free stay at a hotel thanks to points earned, and a Mediterranean fast food meal in Lincoln.  The text by the way would be with our neighbor Alex whom, along with her husband Chad, will be celebrating Chad’s mother’s birthday this weekend in Iowa City.  Lucky for us they invited us to the party and we cannot wait to see them tomorrow.  Chad and Alex, if you are reading this, we will see you tomorrow.  And for all family and friends, our journey is expected to end this Saturday.  We have had a blast sharing our adventure and hope you continue to check in with us over the next few months as we add photos and share more stories.  Thank you for staying with us these past 7 weeks.

 

Day 3: Sioux City,SD to Valentine,NE

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Yesterday was the day we started mid-west and ended up west.  We started our trip at the most eastern end of the Central Time Zone.  Right now as I type these words in our tent, we are at the most western end.  Big difference in sun-set times; last night about 10.  Given that we are almost exactly 800 miles west of Chicago (and only a tad north) I know the difference in times can be attributed solely to lateral travel.

The route to Valentine was what I suspected it would be.  Two lane (one each direction) and alternating between flat and hilly ranch las well as some corn fields.  Besides the hillier nature the land had a decidedly more cowboy feel to it than it did in Iowa.  Maybe it was the squared off nature of those hills or the lack of humidity.  Trees were also smaller and less common and at times it all felt like a high desert.  By the time we got to Valentine we felt exhausted by the day and searched a while before finding a former KOA campground run by the laid back and shirtless Mike.  I understood pretty quickly why Mike left the KOA system; he was friendly enough, but swore more than my auto mechanic Bruce (and that man knows a few things about colorful language).  The campground was on the banks of the beautiful Niobrara river which, by us, was shallow and sandy.  Henna and I had a lot of fun swimming there.

On the way to Valentine we saw two wonders:  the Klown Dolls Museum and Ashfalls State Historical Site.  For the first I have to admit that after a few hours driving we were not too picky about our roadside attractions (although I kept thinking of the movie Dolls where killer dolls come to life; plus clowns can be a little creepy).  But inside the museum (located in Plainview, NE) are thousands of donated clown dolls.  It started almost 60 years ago with a volunteer klown band (they wanted to be different so they spelled clown with a k) and grew to the marvel we saw yesterday.

Ashfalls has a bit longer history.  About 1.2 million years ago Yellowstone exploded (it is a giant caldera that erupts every million years or so) and sent massive volumes of ash pretty far west.  In eastern Nebraska there was a watering hole that filled with this ash and slowly (over about a month) choked prehistoric rhinos, camels, and three-toed horses to death.  The ash hardened and preserved the remains better than a fossil (fossils tend to be flattened, these bones were more like in a plaster).  At Ashfalls a big barn was put over the excavation and you can watch a dozen interns work the earth with very delicate and small tools (the type you use to mold clay).  Very, very cool.  Making it even more cool was that one of the original archaeologists who discovered this place (“a bunch of bones sticking out of a farm field”) was there.  A very modest and open fellow whose love for the place he helped found was contagious.

So that is all for now.  The ladies still sleep, this tent is getting warm, and I fear the bugs outside.  Talk to you all soon.

Day 2: George Wyth State Park to Sioux City, SD

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Yesterday was the first day of the trip waking up somewhere other than my own bed.  It felt good.  It was a cool morning and it felt good making coffee and reading while the ladies slept.  “While the ladies slept” can probably be inserted in each post I ever write concerning the morning.  Right now I am typing away on the shaded porch of a KOA cabin while, you guessed it, the ladies sleep.  The coffee is just about to percolate.

Woke up and continued on HWY 20.  It’s actually an interstate between Dubuque and Fort Dodge and while it continued as a divided four lane road we passed the usual suspects:  Holiday Inns, Olive Gardens, etc.  Sometime west of Fort Dodge the route began and the towns were typed in a smaller font.  In between the two rivers (Mississippi and Missouri) Iowa deserves its flat reputation.  Very quiet too.  The long since closed and decaying rural store is a very sad but commonplace elsewhere; in Iowa it was just church day.  Even some grocery stores we closed and we ended up tailgating our lunch in a McDonald’s parking lot.  For dessert we bout ice cream cones and coffees then used their wi-fi to post a blog entry.

Entered Sioux City around 3 and searched for a state park.  A couple of years ago I bought a National Geographic Book focused on the best state parks in the country.  Stone Park made the list and we wanted to check it out.  By this time it was in the high 80s and humid making a swimming pool also appealing.  So we decided to hike in the park then swim and camp at the KOA.  Most plans do not work the way they are drawn up and this was no exception.  We got lost and stumbled into the  KOA first (but not before driving a bit through Sioux Falls; run down in parts but has a nifty newer area with a cool but closed for Sunday art museum).  They gave us direction and we spent a couple of hours at the adjacent nature center and then state park.  Quick geo lesson:  Loess refers to the rock sand created by the glaciers.  This loess (pronounced luss) eventually filled up the Missouri River Valley and then was blown by winds east all over Iowa.  In the  Loess Hills (the source area) they can be up to sixty feet deep.  Only somewhere in China is this landscape duplicated.

Well, the coffee is ready, the ladies still sleep, and I want to get back into my book (The Old Patagonia Express by Paul Theroux).  Hopefully when I post this it will have some pictures attached.

Good news! I was able to post some pictures.  Today was exciting, fun, and involved clown dolls and fossils as well as some river swimming.  The ladies are trying to bum dish soap as we seemed to have left ours behind, the day is cooling off, and the flies are starting to bite.  Tell you all about it soon.

Day 1: Chicago to Waterloo, IA

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A lot of funny things today alongside rout 20.  We began by taking the interstate to Rockford and then followed 20 to Waterloo, Iowa.  We were not on the road more than a few minutes when Henna started laughing about the strange cow (methinks bull) that was trying to jump on his or her friends back.  Corey and I laughed pretty hard at that one. 

A little more down than road we stopped at the restored Apple River Fort which was more legend until a relatively recent dig found its footprint.  A small thing, a lot of houses in my neighborhood have greater dimensions.  But in this fort 60 or so men, women, and children fought off Chief Blackhawk and 200 warriors for several hours until they moved on.  The fort, visitor center, and costumed interpreters were thoughtful and gave us and the two other visitors a lot of attention.  On to Galena where we spent some time looking for parking, elbowing through crowded streets, and waiting for a slightly older teenager and her board trainee to serve us ice cream.  The whole time spent in Galena can best be described as hot, sticky, and crowded.

A couple more hours and we made it to George Wyth State Park where nothing at first worked right.  Henna caught no fish and broke her Barbie rod, it started to rain, and they don’t sell firewood.  We almost moved on to a hotel but after eating some left over sweet and sour chicken things got better.  I traded two beers for a couple of sticks, the rain let up, and brats were cooked over the grill.  Henna then spent a lot of time in the park trying to jump as far as possible from a swing.  That night was also memorable for two things:  the floating Chinese lanterns and a tail-less kitten that begged for food.  The lanterns were very much out of Tangled (you know the scene near the end where she suddenly remembers who she is) and the owners were friendly and tried to talk us into buying some in town.  I do not think air born lighted lanterns mix well in the city.  The kitty cat was fearless and cute and Henna and Corey fed him or her tuna (the kitty ate the whole can).  Right now as I am typing these words inside our tent the kitty is sleeping under our picnic table.  Feels like home.

Note:  Having trouble loading photos, will share later.

Along the Mississippi: Perot State Park, WI

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I have to thank my friend Louie for this one.  We were looking for a place to peep fall leaves and he suggested this State Park.  Does not matter the state, the Mississippi river side is almost always one of bluffs, hills, and tall vantage points.  In the Midwest this brings welcome change from the flat countryside although the un-glaciated or “driftless” regions of Wisconsin also have elevation respite (the glaciers moved laterally through much of the Midwest and flattened the landscape my beloved Southern Illinois and large swaths of Wisconsin escaped this treatment). 

Perot State Park is a little north of La Crosse near the town of Trempealeau.  We saw little of Trempealeau and were pretty disappointed with what we saw of La Crosse.  The Great River State Trail (an old train track converted to a bike trail) passes through this area and maybe some day we will get a chance to ride on it.  Louie said he liked it.  He also said he once saw a bear on a different bike trail an hour or two north of that one  (I’m assuming not on a bike).  Perot State Park has a great campground and many trails leading to views of the Mississippi and its valley.

We have seen much of the Mississippi, but in an altogether disjointed and segmented way (kind of like the movie Pulp Fiction).  I do not want to ruin the ending for anyone but (spoiler alert) its endpoint is New Orleans and Corey I saw it spill into the Gulf prior to getting married.  A few years later we were newlyweds and saw its beginning in Lake Bemidji.  We have also crossed it many times, usually by bridge but also by ferry both large and small (the small was a little barge that could not take more than two or three cars from St. Genevieve, MO to a corn field outside of Chester, IL.)  And it was just a couple of weeks ago we caught up with our old friend at is midway point in Cape Girardeau.  The old lady was looking good, her waves gently lapping onto the bank just east of the city sea wall.  There have been other meetings of course, some of them mentioned in earlier posts.  Don’t be too surprised if you hear us mention this friend again because each time we go over the mighty waterway we feel the pull of her power and a hint of her history.

Great Midwestern River Cities: Dubuque, Iowa

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If this blog entry is ever adapted as a movie I see the town of Galena cast by somebody pretty and popular.  Maybe it would be Scarlett Johansson as the cheerleader and girlfriend to the star quarterback.  And Galena’s sister city, Dubuque, IA?  That role would have to go to the gritty and talented Lucinda Williams who would play the quarterback’s best friend with the secret crush.  The audience would cheer on Lucinda, but in real life (not reel life), the quarterback stays with the cheerleader. 

So it goes with Galena, a town of a few thousand resident and a few more thousand tourists.  And I can see why; 85% of the city is considered a National Historic Landmark.  It also was the former home of President Grant and at one time was a crucial stop on the Mississippi River between the two Midwestern saints (Louis and Paul). 

Dubuque has over 50,000 residents and a lot of seniors frequenting the casino.  They also have a world-class Mississippi River Museum that spans two buildings.  One building, our favorite, was low-key and showed off various fish and amphibians native to the river.  The other building felt a little ecologically preachy to be interesting (although for us it was preaching to the choir).  Dubuque does have National Historic Landmarks and accessible history, but unlike Galena you have to work a bit to get to it.  The downtown area was full of interesting sculptures, pristine, and completely devoid of people after 9. 

So, Spielberg, Tarantino, M Knight Shyamalan, what do you think? Give me a call and we can talk numbers.