Gazing at Galena

Up early again for our drive to Galena, Illinois. Our chosen route today followed the Mississippi closely. First on the west, or Iowa, side and then on the Illinois side. Our 8:30 AM departure took us East back to Le Claire and up highway 67 to Clinton, IA. There we made the decision to do the Savanna Crossing north of Clinton. We proceeded with some trepidation after seeing a sign that announced that no vehicles wider than 8 ft 6 in were permitted to cross. Our Winnebago measures 8 ft 6 in wide. The crossing covers about three miles on a combination of causeways and bridges. The bridges had a height of 13 ft 9 in and a width of just barely enough. Our route into Galena followed the river's east side for a time and then moved inland. The guides had our RV park located 2 miles southeast of Galena while it is actually 2 miles northwest of town. A phone call to the RV park informed us to use the local Walmart as our landmark which worked great.

We parked the Winnebago in our site, had lunch and headed to town. Our first stop was the historical Washburn House. According to our guides, Elihu Washburn was instumental in bringing General Ulysses Grant and Abraham Lincoln together. In fact our guides assured us that without Elihu Washburn's involvement our country would be very different today. Well...maybe. There is no denying that he was an influential person in his time.

Washburn House

Our next stop was the Grant home. The house was gifted to General Grant in appreciation of his efforts in the Cival War. The Grants lived there until his election as President. 

Grant Home

The home and its contents were gifted to the city of Galena after Grant's wife died on the condition that they be kept in memory of General Grant. The house has been open for tours for over 100 years.

Then it was on to the Galena and General Grant Museum in downtown Galena. This museum includes a blend of Grant history and local history. Galena grew to prominence in the early 19th century as a lead mining  and river boating town. Ulysses Grant moved there after the Mexican-American war to work in his family's leather goods store. At it's peak Galena had a population of 12,000 people and was the most prominent river town between St Louis and St Paul. Lead mining began to wane about 1850 and the Galena river began silting up from the growth in farming in the area. The ultimate death knell came with the building of the railroad which reduced the importance of river transportation.

Galena Museum

Downtown Galena

We concluded our time in Galena tasting some of the finest wines Illinois has to offer. I enjoy tasting wines made from local grapes. They are not always wines to rave about in your blog but they are an interesting glimpse into local life. These were no exception. I did purchase a bottle of Marquette made from a wine grape from the Pinot Noir family. We'll see how it ages.

After a coffe and treat we headed back to the Winnebago.

It's a Davenport - Not a Couch

We left the heat and humidity of the St Louis area early on Thursday morning and headed up the Mississippi (well next to the Mississippi) for Davenport, IA. Traveling on US highway 61 gave us a few glimpses of the river but mostly we were a few miles away.

Our primary interest in the Davenport area was to visit the Antique Archaeology store in nearby Le Claire, IA. This store is owned by the Pickers from the program on History Channel. We settled the Winnebago in the Interstate RV Park and headed for Le Claire. To our dismay (and that of many others) the store was closed as they were filming another episode at some other location. We knew we couldn't be in California because they left a nice late 1930's knuckle head Harley Davidson sitting out front.

Mary at Antique Archaeology

Antique Archaeology

We tried to stifle our dismay by visiting another antique shop in town. That didn't work so we headed for the Buffalo Bill Museum. You ask why there is a Buffalo Bill Museum in Le Claire, IA? Well William F. Cody (aka Buffalo Bill) was born in Le Claire. And... it is a very nice museum of local history.

Buffalo Bill Museum

Le Claire Model T Fire Truck

The museum also has the Lone Star, a partially restored paddle wheeler, that plied the Mississippi for a mere 98 years. It was launched in 1868 and retired in 1967.

Ever wonder where pearl buttons (the kind you don't see anymore) came from? It turns out that there were three button factories in Le Claire and Muscatine, just down the road a few miles, was the pearl button manufacturing capitol of the world. It seems that the Mississippi river clams make fine buttons.

This Clam Yielded Hand Made Buttons

This Clam Yielded Machine Made Buttons

My other Iowa quest was a Breaded Pork Tenderloin Sandwich. To my good fortune the Machine Shed restaurant just down the road from the RV park makes one of the best Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches in the country (well actually they are really only made in Iowa). 

Machine Shed Sign

My Sandwich

After dinner we drove to downtown Davenport and found that the Mississippi is overflowing its banks. No dry spell here. 

 Flooded Park

Flooded Park Bench

All in all it was a day of learning and good experiences. One thing I learned is that some RV parks claim to have wifi and really don't. I hate it when that happens.

Meet Me In St Louis

An early wake up call, a stop at McDonalds for breakfast and we were at the Cahokia Mounds State Park (10 miles east of St Louis) at just after 8:00 AM. A 5:20 AM thunderstorm helped with the wake up, but by the time we arrived at Cahokia the weather was very nice, a little overcast but cool with a nice breeze.

Cahokia was a Native American city dating back to 1150 AD. The population of Cahokia at that time was about 15,000 people, about the same as the population of London and Paris at that time. In fact Cahokia was the largest city in the USA until Philadelphia passed it in the late 1800s. Cahokia had about 27 mounds with Monks Mound, the largest, growing to 100 feet high and taking up about 13 acres and containing over 21 million cubic feet of dirt (all hauled in baskets by hand).

Monks Mound

Mary on Steps to Monks Mound

Grand Plaza from Monks Mound

The visitor's center had a great video and displays to teach us about the growth and ultimate decline of Cahokia. We also saw some interesting plants and even a Yellow-crowned Night Heron.

Thistle Flower

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

We even caught a glimpse of our next destination...the Gateway Arch in St Louis.

St Louis Skyline from Monks Mound

After our visit to the Cahokia Mounds we headed for downtown St Louis and a visit to the Gateway Arch. The Gateway Arch was erected in 1963 as the Jefferson Expansion Memorial. Designed by Finnish architect Eero Saarinen the arch reaches a height of 630 feet. We limited our visit to the outside of the arch because of the incredibly long lines at the entrance to the visitor's center.

Gateway Arch

Gateway Arch from Below

Old Courthouse

After lunch and our visit to the arch we headed back to the Winnebago for a break and laundry. Our second thunder storm of the day happened at 4:00 PM. After the storm we headed to my favotite store, Cabela's, to restock my supply of shorts and a really neat shirt all at sale prices.

Enjoying Shawnee

Sorry for not posting for a few days. We have been enjoying quality time with dear friends Doug & Peg Himebaugh in Shawnee, Kansas.

Mary with Doug & Peg

It was nice to relax and enjoy time with friends without the stress of being blown across Kansas by the wild winds. We visited Powell Gardens, Kauffman Gardens and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. All great places. At the Kemper we saw the photgraphs of Laura McPhee taken with an 8x10 film view camera of subjects in Idaho. The prints were 6 ft by 8 ft and incredible.

The feature at the Powell Gardens (besides the fantastic plantings) were large sculptures made of legos. I just know grandson Beckett and grand daughter Mary would love them.

 Lego Swallowtail Butterfly

 Lego Gardener

Lego Lawn Mower

The plants, flowers and insects at the gardens were wonderful.

 Swallow Tail Butterfly

 Butterfly on Yellow Straw Flower

 Lily

 Orchid

Water Lily

In addition to all of our cultural adventures we enjoyed the fine food of Oklahoma Joe's barbeque. If you haven't tried you don't know what you are missing. Nothing Vegan here but it is oh so good!

This morning we said farewell to Doug & Peg and headed east to the St Louis area. We are camped in St Charles, MO where Lewis & Clark began their voyage of discovery in 1804 to explore a path to the Pacific Ocean. Once settled in we went to the Lewis and Clark Boat House and Museum where we watched an excellent video of their journey and gazed at replicas of the boats they used.

Our marathon run today was an ordeal. Between incredibly strong cross winds and navigational impairment it was a tough day. But at the end of it all we are esconced in out Winnebago at the Spring Lake RV Resort near Hutchison, Kansas. Tomorrow will be a less strenuous day heading in to Shawnee, Kansas. At least we hope so.

Funny how turning a motorhome living adventure into a journey detracts from the romance of the whole thing. This will change in the days to come. No schedule and just enjoy where we are.

Tarry in Tucumcari

With new found enthusiasm we packed up, dumped, hooked up and were on the road at just after 8:00 AM. We did clean up our oil spill before we left. Altering our normal pattern of no more than 50 to 250 miles a day we toughed it out for 529 miles arriving in Tucumcari, NM at just before 6:00 PM. We had strong side winds all the way but they really got nasty as we approached Tucumcari. Amarillo, TX, a few miles east of here, had thunder storms, hail and high winds. High enough to shut down Interstate 40. Here in Tucumcari the winds have been striving to relocate our Winnebago. It should be an interesting night. Tomorrow's forecast is for 15-25 mph winds as well.

The slides on the Winnebago obeyed my every command, eagerly lurching out from the side of the Winnebago at the push of a button. The jacks also performed their job of leveling the motorhome without complaint. Things are good.

We were blessed with an incredible sunset.

Sunset in Tucumcari

Tomorrow will be another marathon day headed for a rendevous with dear friends Doug & Peg Himebaugh in Shawnee, KS. We won't make it all the way, but hopefully we will get close.

On The Road Again!

The saga of the hydraulic hose continued this morning when we learned, at 10:00 AM, that it was cooling its heels in the Phoenix, AZ US Postal Service maze. They assured our repair guy that it would be on the truck at 2:00 PM headed for Prescott, AZ (still 65 miles away from our Winnebago). Tim Giese, of A-Z RV Repair, went above and beyond the call of duty by driving to Prescott to intercept the package containing our badly needed hose and then driving back to Williams to install it. He arrived at 6:20 PM and by 7:20 PM the slides were happily going in and out and the jacks were joyfully leveling our coach.

So... it's on the road again early tomorrow morning (after cleaning up our oil spill) headed east on Interstate 40.

We did get to have lunch in Williams and tour the historic main street (interpret that to mean gift shop after gift shop).

Hopefully tomorrow's report will be a good one.

Still Wallowing in Williams

The hoped for arrival of a new hydraulic hose did not come to pass. Now it looks like tomorrow morning is the prediction...and you know how "tomorrow" predictions go.

We just stayed around the Winnebago today catching up on computer stuff (me) and reading (Mary). I got the images from Saturday nights Troop 2 Boy Scouts 90th Anniversary finished and then played around with some other images.

This is an artichoke blossom from our backyard

We did meet Tim the RV repair guy who has been working hard to get us going. He will chase down the mailman tomorrow to rescue our hydraulic hose.

Meanwhile we will enjoy the pleasures of Williams.

Wallowing in Wiliams

We got off to a great start on Sunday, 16 June 2013 heading east on Interstate 40. It all came to a standstill in Williams, AZ when a hydraulic fluid line on our living room slide out broke. We are now awaiting the arrival of a replacement hose with the hope that it will solve the problem.

After making repair arrangements we headed to the Grand Canyon joining the throngs of people there on their summer holiday. The views are great but what a hassle.

A Panoramic View of the Grand Canyon

Another Panorama of the Grand Canyon

Looking Down Bright Angel Trail