Waterloo & Cedar Falls, Iowa

June 10-14.  We are staying at the Big Woods campground on the outskirts of Cedar Falls.  Well, we can cross out another item off  our bucket list.  We went to our first ever roller derby match.  We saw the Cedar Valley Derby Divas (better known as the Push-Up Brawlers) versus the Eastern Iowa Outlaws.  It was no match, the visitors won 216-61.  Believe me, there were no beauties on either team.  Each Dive had a nickname, and my favorites were Kissda Koncrete and GoGo Bangs.  We also took in a baseball game with the Waterloo Bucks vs. the Green Bay Frogs, both of the Northwoods League.  Green Bay won 2-1.
We went to the Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum in Waterloo.  If  you recall, the five Sullivan brothers all died when the USS Juneau was sunk in 1942.  This prompted the government to split up members of the same family in the future, so a family would not lose all their servicemen at one time.
The highlight of our visit was the 1 1/2 hour tour of the John Deere plant.  The amount of robots throughout the plant was amazing.  500 employees under the roof of a 21 acre building was impressive. Once again, the plant does not allow photos, so you'll have to believe me, it was a great tour.  Next stop Ames, Iowa.

Roller Derby

Push-Up Brawlers vs. Outlaws

                            

Sullivan Brothers-Iowa Vets Museum

General Debbie in her Tank

Iowa City, Iowa area

June 4-9.  We are at Coralville Lake & Dam, another Corp of Engineers (COE) campground.  As mentioned earlier, we spent at day at West Branch and yesterday we toured the 6 Amana Colonie towns.  They were established as communal towns by a group of German religious refugees, back in the 1840's.  They are similar to Amish, except they embrace change, therefore, they use tractors, electricity, cars, etc.  They also have a brewery and wineries.
Today, (Tuesday) we went to the old state capitol in Iowa City, the University of Iowa bookstore, and the University of Iowa Sports Hall of Fame.  Three floors of Iowa sports, especially football and wrestling.
Dan Gable, the great Iowa wrestler, not only won Olympic gold, but was US champion 3 times.  When he became coach of the Iowa Wrestling team, his guys won 15 NCAA titles in 22 years! On the way home from Iowa City we stopped at the Iowa Fire  Fighter's Memorial, which is dedicate to those brave firefighters who have made the ultimate sacrifice and to those who still serve.  Finally, back at our campground is an area, washed way by floods in 1994, that exposed millions of fossils from 375 million years ago! We walked the washed out area and got some photos of some fossils.

                                    

Debbie shooting hoops

Nile Kinnick's 1939 Heisman

                             

                      

Iowa Fire Fighter's Memorial

Fire Fighter's Wall of Honor



Fossil

Fossil

Fossil

Old Capitol Building



West Branch, Iowa

We went to West Branch, Iowa on Saturday to see the boyhood home and presidential library of our 31st president, Herbert Hoover.  Herbert's father was a Quaker blacksmith and their house was next door.  The house had 2 bedrooms and a kitchen so small, that you had no room for a table. His parents and their 3 kids lived in the tiny house.  When Herbert was 8, his parents both died within a year (his father was 34 & his mother was 35) he, his brother and his sister were each sent to live with different relatives.  Herbert was sent all the way to Oregon to live with an aunt and uncle that he had not previously met.  We visited the house, blacksmith shop, the presidential library and Herbert and his wife Louise's grave.

Hoover's boyhood home

Blacksmith Shop

Deb at one room schoolhouse

Herbert & Louise Hoover's graves

                      

Des Moines, Iowa

May 31-June 4.  We are staying at Saylorville Lake and Dam, another Corps of Engineers (COE) project.  The view of our site and from our site is gorgeous. We are just below the dam, which is open and get to hear the rushing water.  We always have a breeze, so the chimes that Mom gave us years ago (and we take everywhere with us) is getting a workout.  See the chime in photo #2. This is a fisherman's paradise, with strippers in abundance.
We ventured in to Des Moines to pickup our mail and tour the Iowa State Capitol building.  It is supposed to be the most beautiful capitol in the U.S. and we can't dispute that. We also toured the Iowa Gold Star Military Museum on Fort Dodge.  This museum had military displays from the Civil War through today's action.  It also had planes, tanks, trucks, cannon, etc. The next day we spent the day on the Iowa Living History Farm.  This farm has 2 working farms, one from the 1875 era and one from the 1900 era.  They did everything the old ways, from planting and harvesting to caring for the oxen, horses, etc.  There is also a complete 1850's town, with church, school, drug store, millinery store, newspaper printer, blacksmith, broom maker, etc.  We also stopped at a Japanese Peace Garden.  Today, we are relaxing all day, just taking it easy.

Our Campsite

Debbie & our view

                                           

Iowa Capitol Bldg.

View of Des Moines

Capitol Dome

House Chamber

Decorations on walls

Senate Chamber

Peace Garden

View from Peace Garden

Just a reminder note:  Click on any photo to enlarge.

Knoxville & Pella, Iowa

May 27-30.  We were staying in the Elk Rock State Park on Red Rock Lake.  From here we visited Knoxville and Pella.  Knoxville is the site of the Sprint Car Hall of Fame and racetrack.  Winged Sprint cars race here and we went to the races on Saturday night.  We had a great time watching 3 classes of winged sprint cars.  We are race fans and this high speed dirt track driving was teriffic.
Pella is a dutch themed city.  We saw 3 windmills and toured one of them.  The Vermeer Windmill was huge and had all the workings of a grain to flour mill.  We got to go to the top of the windmill and see all of the inner workings.  We went to the museum below the windmill as well as the Wyatt Earp house next door.  We got to see the Klockenspiel work at the top of the hour. (4 puppet like figures come out and play for you to dutch chimes)   We toured the Scholte house, who was the Domini (Preacher) who settled Pella, naming it after a town in Holland.  We bought fresh ring bologna and cheese at the local meat market and coffee cake and pastries at the Jaarsma bakery.  Many of the houses in Pella are still built with the Dutch influence. We took the holiday off and just relaxed.

 

Vermeer Windmill

Deb in big wooden shoes

                               

Local Bank

Dutch Style house

Original 1st Pella home    

Shoemaker's shop

Maysville, Missouri



Pony Express

Pony Express

Patee Museum

Maysville Campsite

                     
May 24-26.  We used Maysville as our base to visit Jamesport, a small Amish Village and St. Joseph.
Jamesport was quaint.  We visited all the stores in the 2 block village and ate lunch there.  Not much going on there.  Now, St. Joseph was a different story.  St. Joseph is the location of the start of the Pony Express, which delivered mail via horseback between St. Joseph and Sacramento, California in 10 days, back 150 years ago. It ran for several years until the telegraph lines went coast to coast.
We visited the small Pony Express Museum as well as the Glore Psychiatric Museum.  Glore was very unique, showing us all of the old methods of dealing with the mentally ill.  We saw cages, restraints, patient rooms, surgical equipment, straight jackets and learned about shock therapy, Lobotomies, etc.
Kind of weird, but interesting.  The highlight of St. Joseph was the Patee Museum.  It is hard to describe, but they had everything from Trains, Carousels, every type of business (Post office, Train Station, Drug Store, etc.)  They have fire engines, stage coaches, western memorabilia, etc.  It was one of the greatest museums you could ever visit.  The Patee museum was originally the Patee Hotel, and just off the front entrance was the Pony Express main office.  The riders actually left the stable, rode into the hotel through a double door and received the mail, while on horseback, in a mochilla  (Leather saddle cover with 4 pouches) that fit around the saddle and held the mail. Check out- http://www.ponyexpressjessejames.com/index.php?pid=patee  This was our last stop in Missouri.

Harry S. Truman's Independence, Missouri

We are still camping in Blue Springs, Missouri, which is the next town south of Independence. We spent our last three days in Independence.  We first visited the Truman farm.  Harry had graduated high school and had moved to Kansas City and became a bank clerk.  He was well paid ($100.00 a month) and he spent much of his time at plays and cultural events.  He also spent time at the library, as he was an avid reader of History and Biographies.  Four years later his parents took over his grandfather's farm and told him to come help. He came to the farm, worked alongside the farmhands and eventually took over the operation.  During this time he met his future bride, Bess Wallace. When WW I started, he entered the Army, and because he had experience directing people, he was made a Captain and went to war. He led a unit in France during the final year of WW I.
We next went to the home that he and Bess lived in for the rest of their lives. (except when he lived in the White House) The Truman home is on Delaware Street.  We visited the Truman Presidential Library and museum. We visited and toured Vaile Mansion and Bingham-Waggoner Mansion. We went to the train station where Harry Truman started his presidential campaign.  We visited the Clinton's soda fountain, where Truman had his first job when in was a drug store, and had ice cream.  We stopped by the Old Log Courthouse, where Truman served as a judge, when the main courthouse was being renovated.  Finally, we went through the National Frontier Trails Museum. We ate Sunday brunch at Ophelia's, which was delicious. Independence is a quaint, quiet, midwest town, worth a visit.

Truman Farmhouse

Deb @ Truman's home

Old Log Courthouse

Truman's Oval Office

Deb & Harry

                                                                    

Vaile Mansion

Truman's Grave

                                     

Morman Chuch

Trivia Question- Harry S. Truman-What does the "S" stand for? 

Answer: Nothing.  His grandfather's names were Solomon

and Shipp, so to not disappoint either one, he just has the initail "S".

Kansas City, Missouri & Kansas City, Kansas

Our campsite

The view (see the clouds below the ridge)

May 16-23.  We are staying in Blue Springs, Missouri at Fleming Lake while we visit both Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas.  Back in Tampa, we use to visit BBQ restaurants with our friends Brad & Suzie Bohannon, in a quest for the best BBQ.  Since they are originally from the KC area, they have told us the best BBQ places in town, and we are trying to get to them all. In our first 5 days here, we have had great BBQ wings at Winslow's, Big and  tasty BBQ sandwiches at Gates, and great sausage and pulled pork at Arthur Bryant's.  But its not all BBQ, as we ate great Italian food at Lidia's restaurant.  We were drawn to Lidia's because we always watch her on the Create channel and Debbie has one of Lidia's cookbooks.
I don't think I have enough room in this blog to tell you all about each stop in Kansas City.  This place has it all. We have been to Garmin's headquarters to learn all about using our handheld geocaching GPS. We toured Hallmark Cards and the Harley-Davidson's KC plant.  We went through the Money Museum at the KC Federal Reserve Bank, and the Negro League Baseball Hall of Fame.  We had a personal tour of the Airline History Museum, which was fantastic.  We stopped by the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception and the Charlie "The Bird" Parker Memorial.   We spent some time at the gorgeous Union Station railroad station, as well as the greatest hunting and camping store ever, Cabela's. We went to the City Market, a mall of restaurants, stores, and the fabulous Steamship Arabia Museum.  The Arabia was raised from the bottom of the Missouri river after 132 years.  Thousands of items recovered are in new or almost new condition.  We also spent hours at Liberty Park and the World War I Museum and Tower.  What a wealth of information we saw there. We still have 3 more days here, with more than 3 days worth of places to visit.  We went to the Great American BBQ festival  on Saturday, which was a real dud.  We got to see competitors cook and turn in their food.  We also got to taste about 40 sauces. Only 1 stand was selling BBQ wraps.

Jazz great Charlie Parker

At the Airline History Museum

Debbie with Satchal Paige

Relaxing @ Negro League Hall of Fame

Harley-Davidson Plant

Waiting for pasta @ Lidia's

                              

WW I Tower

WW I carving

View of KC from WW I Museum

Union Station

Grabbin' tail at Cabella's

Mt. Goat Vs. Bear @ Cabella's