I put on more miles today than I would like, but it was necessary to see the sights I wanted to see and wind up at my day's destination of Arlington Heights, Illinois. I had a leisurely breakfast with my brother and his family, in Coldwater, Michigan, before beginning my day's travel. I was on the road around 8:00AM.
At Marshall, Michigan, I wanted to the something called the Honolulu House, built in 1860 by a Michigan Supreme Court Justice, who later was also the U.S. Consul to Hawaii. The house is an odd blend of Victorian architecture, with a lot of island features, like a huge veranda. Most interesting.
From Marshall, I headed west to Battle Creek, where I lived in 1957-59. I didn't have a map but did the best I could, from memory, to locate the house we rented when we first got there, and also the first house I bought the next year. I found the rental home easily because it is off a main street, but my first purchased home was not so easy to find. Given that 40 years have elapsed, that neighborhood changed considerably.
The rental home at 12 Park Avenue is in very good condition. I remember how pleased the owner was when I did maintenance work for him, and it looks he or other owners since have shown they care for the property. Not so with my first purchased home. It has gotten to a point of neglect, I'm sorry to say, whereas other, similar homes in that neighborhood don't really show their 40 year old age. Sad.
From Battle Creek, I continued west, over to Kalamazoo, where I wanted to see the Aviation History Museum there. The good news is that I found it with little difficulty, but being Sunday, the bad news was that it didn't open until noon. So, I had an early lunch and then came back to tour the place. The museum is not large in quantity but boy it is good in terms of quality. Nothing was visible on the property that was not in top shape. They must do their restoration work elsewhere.
The museum had a good mixture of aircraft, from all the military services, and also had a lot of related artifacts and memorabilia dealing with aviation. I would recommend the museum to anyone interested in planes and such.
Continuing west, I next went to the Warren Dunes State Park, which is more commonly known as the Michigan Dunes. The Indiana Dunes are a few miles to the south and hence people refer to both by their state names. When I was living in Michigan and again in the Chicago area, I brought my family to the dunes and we always had a good time.
The dunes are clean, the beaches are long and wide and the temperature of Lake Michigan is very good for swimming as several thousand people demostrated today. For $5.00, you can't beat this kind of recreation. The dunes, by the way, are hundreds of feet high, and even the adults joined the kids, climbing and then frolicking back down the hillside. I know I did it with my kids.
After leaving the dunes, then came the tiring part of the trip. I wanted to stop in downtown Chicago, so my route was going to be Interstate 94, which loops around the bottom of Lake Michigan and would take me into the city. Downtown Chicago is known as 'the loop'.
Well, there was construction, accidents and a very large amount of Sunday, vacation-time traffic. Things moved very slowly. At one point I left the Interstate, trying to circumvent what I thought was the problem area, and all I accomplished was to drive into another similar 'war zone'. Anyway, patience won in the end and I finally arrived in the Chicago Loop, downtown Chicago.
Having lived and worked in the area for seven years, I'm quite familiar with downtown Chicago. I drove over to IBM Plaza, took some pictures of it and the Wrigley Building, and then went to 80 East Lake Street, which was a major IBM facility before the plaza was built in 1971-72. The Lake Street building is now a health club. I also drove over to 301 East Erie, which is where I taught marketing training for a couple of years. In spite of the Sunday crowd, I did enjoy seeing old haunts.
I ended the day by rejoining Dave and Evelyn Leonhard, with whom I spent last Sunday on Lake Erie. They live in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, which is where I too lived in 1966-72. I'm staying with the Leonhards for a couple of days before heading into Wisconsin and then points west.
When I put Arlington Heights, Illinois on my trip's itinerary, I certainly did it to enable me to revisit friends and locations that mean something to me. I stayed the night with Dave and Evelyn Leonhard, so I enjoyed their hospitality and conversations, Sunday and Monday nights, and Monday and Tuesday mornings. In addition, I packed as much as I could into Monday.
After a bustling morning, while the Leonhards dressed for work, I used the time and their kitchen to work on my trip diary, and also to make more motel reservations for the remainder of my trip. I have been able to stay under my arbitrary motel budget of $50 per day, so I have allowed myself a few luxuries during the final days of my trip. For instance, I'm staying at better accommodations in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons National Park areas. Like the one TV commerical says, "I deserve it."
I dressed and began my day, first by doing a bit of shopping. I lost a knurled nut from my tripod and I'm still trying to find a correct replacement. I found something 'close', but I'll have to cut it to size when I get home.
I went in search of postcards and boy was that a chore. I started writing postcards to my kids and grandkids while I was still working for IBM and travelling, and I have continued that 'tradition' during this trip. At most locations I have visited, it has been very easy to pick from a variety of cards available. Not here though. I tried store after store, but Arlington Heights is not what you would call 'on the tourist trail'. I stopped in a hotel at the racetrack, and on principal, I wouldn't pay the one dollar per card that that crazy place wanted. Finally, I found ordinary postcards in what I would call an 'old drugstore'. Shheeeezzzz!
I went to see my old house on Dwyer Street, which I bought brand new in 1966. The maple trees I planted are huge, 50-60 feet high now. The city of Arlington Heights, by the way, has faired quite well, with almost all home owners maintaining their property to where it continues to be a very attractive place to live.
I drove to my children's elementary, junior and senior high schools, and took pictures to show them when I return home next month. I had fun finding the streets and the schools that were common to me back in the 1966-1972 timeframe. Arlington Heights has invested heavily into modernizing the schools, so my children will hardly recognize their old schools.
I stopped in to say hello to some old friends, but didn't stay long on those visits. I had more sightseeing to do. I worked with the IBM software product, CICS (Customer Information Control System) for 29 years of my 40 year career, and it was initially developed in Des Plaines, Illinois, 'just down the road apiece'. So, I drove by the building which once was an IBM development lab and took pictures of it as well.
While in Des Plaines, I visited the McDonald's Museum. As has happened often on this trip, I suffered the Monday Syndrome, as I call it. The museum is only open on Thursday-Saturday. What the museum is however is a preservation of the original store number one and its famous arches. I was able to view the building over the wrought iron fence that encloses the property and with my zoom lens on both my video and 35mm cameras, was able to get some closer views. In front of the original building are some vehicles, covered with canvas tarps, which I'm sure are 1950-ish automobiles to complete the scene for the original store.
While at the race trace, I had a look around and took pictures. The racetrack is completely new, having been rebuilt after a major fire a few years back. The racetrack is now having competition with legalized gambling (slots, poker, craps, etc) finding its way into various Illinois locations. The track has become more family oriented with picnic tables around the track and other 'inducements'.
Late in the afternoon, I visited with Ed and Barbara Slivovski, who used to live just around the corner from my old house. We talked and showed each other family pictures, and do what old friends do. We were joined by Gloria Mehl, whose husband died a few years back, but she stays in touch with Barbara and Eileen Mahoney, another former neighbor. Eileen and Bill joined all of us for dinner and that was great.
I'm a story teller, or at least I think I am, and I really enjoyed the opportunity to talk with these old friends, tell them about what I've been doing, what my kids and grandkids are doing, and then most of all, tell them about my current trip thusfar. For me, it could not have been a more enjoyable visit and dining out.
I spent more time visiting with the Leonhards when I returned to their home. We had talked while out at their lake house last Sunday, and we chatted several times, morning and night during my visit to their Arlington Heights home. So, I think I'm caught up on that front as well.
Tuesday, I'm off for Milwaukee and Madison, and after that, it will be LaCrosse, Minneapolis and points west. I have 22 more days of planned itinerary, and I want to enjoy the remaining days as much as I have enjoyed the first part of my trip. I'll keep you posted.
Summertime road construction can really dull a vacation or long trip such as mine. I had good going first thing this morning, but in the Milwaukee area it seemed like every road was torn up, and in the Madison, Wisconsin area it was even worse. Tank said "enough already!"
Last night, I had a delightful visit with old friends, Barbara and Ed Slivovsky, Bill and Eileen Mahoney, and Gloria Mehl. We were neighbors in Arlington Heights, Illinois when I lived there in 1966-72. As old friends do, we talked and laughed for a solid five hours over dinner and later coffee. It was really fun.
I had breakfast with Dave and Evelyn Leonhard, my gracious hosts for the last couple of days and after they left for work, I left for the blue highways and points north. Today has been a Wisconsin day for me. I drove through the farmlands, spent time in Milwaukee and much of the afternoon in a place called Eagle, Wisconsin where they have a 19th century preservation area called Old Wisconsin. I ended my touring day here in Madison.
I used US45 to get from the Arlington Heights, Illinois area to go north and into Wisconsin. First thing on my agenda was to get my 'entry' pictures taken, not only for Wisconsin but also for Illinois, since I was not able to on Sunday, due to road construction. My collection of pictures showing me 'entering' each state is an important part of my trip 'documentation' and I'd hate to get home and be missing one or two states. Anyway, mission accomplished.
Wisconsin is noted for its cheese and no sooner I crossed the state line than I began to see signs for cheese sales. I have not bought much in the way of souvenirs this trip so I wasn't going to start now. Wisconsin has a lot of farmland, so I certainly began to see corn and wheat fields, much like Ohio and Indiana.
The last few hundred miles have been interesting to me. When I was in Michigan, I saw a lot of farms, but also southern Michigan has many small manufacturing companies, in support of the auto industry. As I travelled down and around the bottom of Lake Michigan, in the Gary, Indiana area and south of Chicago, I passed a lot of steel mills and steel related companies. Shipping is big business in the Gary/Chicago area as well.
Chicago is certainly a high density population area, with its booming Loop downtown area and just the entire metropolitan area. So, this morning as I left the area and came north, it was back to the slower life and pace. Even Milwaukee is not the fast pace that Chicago is. I have been to Milwaukee many times on business but seeing it now on vacation, I found it fresh, clean and growing, but not as hectic as the Chicago area.
Travelling through the rural areas of Wisconsin, I was reminded of the county road designations in this state. And I can't think of any other state that uses single and double letters to identify its county roads. I saw highways "H", "JB", "OO", "X" and even "XX".
Once I got to Milwaukee, the first thing on my agenda was to tour one of the brewerys, so I arbitrarily chose Millers (I'm a Bud person anyway). The tour was 'okay' but not as extensive as I would have imagined. We saw a film about the history of the company and a bit about the brewing process. From there they showed us the bottling process where 1500 cans or 1200 bottles of beer can be filled per minute! We saw the packing operation and the shipping area where 4000 cases of beer can fit on a railroad box car, or 2000 on a truck. Free beer at the end of the tour was a welcome treat.
I toured the Pabst Mansion too. I'm getting picky in my old (trip) age and I'm comparing how good or bad things are, comparing to other similar things I have visited. For $10.00 I toured the opulent Vanderbilt mansion in Newport, Rhode Island and had a tour guide that really knew how to present interesting information. At the Pabst Mansion, my $7.00 didn't buy me much. The mansion is not in good condition, is not opulent, not large and I didn't have a tour guide that told me all I wanted to know. Oh well, at least I saw some of Milwaukee's history.
I went to the north side of Milwaukee to see the Brooks Stevens Auto Museum. Interesting, but in a peculiar way. First, I had to struggle through road construction to get there, and I almost missed 'there' since there was only a small sign in a mixed business and residential area, pointing to the museum. I managed to turn around and pull into the place. Not much of a visitors parking area, so immediately I began to wonder about the place.
Then, to top it off, no one was at the front door and the lights were completely out. I next saw an electrician and I asked him if the museum was open, and he said yes, but they would be without lights for at least another half hour while he was doing some work! In the middle of the business day, they're having electrical work done? What kind of a place is this? I never did see an employee and I tried to walk up and down the museum to see what I could see, but it wasn't very much.
Apparently, this museum is one of those personal love stories, where Brooks Stevens (I did not meet him or anyone, mind you), has collected about 72 cars and he has this as a display museum. It's not a consistent collection of one type of car but a very odd mix of cars. And they're not all in top shape. I didn't wait for the lights to come on. I headed west for Eagle, Wisconsin, lunch and a place called Old World Wisconsin.
Why they put Old World Wisconin in Eagle, Wisconsin, I haven't figured out. If I were creating an attraction that I wanted a lot of people to see, I would put it closer to the population. Eagle is 20-30 miles southwest of Milwaukee and not on the beaten path to or from anywhere in particular. It was not crowded, and this is the peak of the summer season, I would think.
Old World Wisconsin is much like Sherburne or Conner Prairie Village, meaning that each has property to which historically significant buildings have been relocated for display purposes. At Old World, I toured the so-called Ethnic Village as well as the German and Finnish villages. The buildings are very much authentic, all dating back to somewhere in the 1800s. Like the other attractions, Old World has interpreters at each of the buildings to answer questions and to play the role of the person who might have occupied that building in its time.
At the 1839 church, the girl played the organ for me. At the wagon shop, I did talk with the interpreter to discuss yesterday's crash of a wagon participating in the reenactment of the Mormon migration from Missouri to Utah back in 1847. He learned more from me than the other way round. Old World has five actual working farms and at one I saw large fields of hay cut without benefit of today's machinery.
Old World had trams to take you around and I must say the various ethnic villages are spaced quite a bit apart from one another. I don't see why they did this because it almost forces the use of the tram (for a $2.00 fee). Many people did walk along the dirt roads from village to village, as I did. The weather was sunny and not too warm.
I drove from Eagle to Madison and went to see the capitol. It seems that most state capitols have the huge dome atop their building. Madison does, but what is a bit different is there doesn't seem to be a front to the building but rather all sides seem equal to each other. I took several pictures that will remind me of this architecture. I asked if the governor was in, he wasn't and ..... oh, well, you know the story, I left my crumpled card.
The roads in and around Madison are a mess at the moment. Construction and more construction. One lane, detours, stop and go, lane closures, lane shifts, bumps, dirt roads, temporary roads, and on and on and on. Slow and nerve wracking. I kept cautioning myself not to do something foolish or have a memory lapse and wind up in some accident. I have put on about 14,000 miles now and I would like to get home in one piece.
So, I had a very long day, got to my motel around 6:00PM, but did have an excellent, and inexpensive meal, so I'm ready to relax for the night and continue my Wisconsin adventure tomorrow. Circus things, minature villages, a boat ride perhaps, and more are in my tentative plans. Even Tank is excited.
Today began with a downpour and for a while there, I didn't think it was going to let up all day. There didn't seem to be much purpose in beginning my day early as usual, so I ate a full breakfast near my motel in Madison, Wisconsin, read the paper, watched the Today show and did the crossword. Still, the rain continued to come down. Tank is not much of a rain person (?, armadillo?) either, so he just sat at the motel window and sulked.
But I finally decided that I had to get on the road (again), rain or no rain. As I drove north out of the Madison area, slowly the weather began to clear. My first stop for the day was in the town of Baraboo, Wisconsin where there is a Circus World Museum. It's more than a museum however and I really enjoyed my visit. If you have any interest in the circus, you would love this place.
They have a schedule of live circus entertainment all day long, and you can tour the various museum buildings as well. I think I enjoyed the huge circus wagon museum most of all. When they say "the circus is coming to town", these are the big and colorful wagons that bring the circus to town. The museum building for the wagons was big, just to house their extensive collection. Once each year, they take all these wagons to Milwaukee for a big parade.
Another museum building is devoted to posters and even billboards that have been used to promote the circus coming to town. There were displays of model circus layouts, with scale model people, tents and the whole bit. All kinds of artifacts and memorabilia were in this building.
The live entertainment included a show by the clowns, showing the visitors how they apply their makeup and how they go about being a clown. There was a gal giving a circus music demonstration, and a side show, and later the big top. You could see the elephants and other circus animals when they were not in the big top.
The 'museum' had cotton candy and popcorn, and rides for the kids. A family could easily spend the day there. For me, a couple of hours and I was on my way to Pardeeville, Wisconsin to see LaReau's World of Minature Buildings.
A couple of school teachers, now retired, began building model buildings some years ago and now have a sizable collection that they have turned into a museum for the paying public. Basically, most of their minatures are famous, recognizable buildings and structures from around the world.
I took dozens of pictures of such models as the White House, the U.S. Capitol building, the House of the Seven Gables, Harry Truman's home, etc. Many of the model buildings on display, I have seen on this trip. I talked with both the husband and wife, although separately, about their museum and other model villages I have seen in England and Australia. I didn't tell them, but personally, I prefer the model villages in England.
The models are made of styrofoam, and stored each fall when their season ends. The models could not take Wisconsin winters, with snow and ice and such.
From Pardeeville, I drove over to the Wisconsin Dells. The Dells are big business when summer comes. The place is full of motels and hotels and cabins, inns, B&B, etc. There are all kinds of things for people to do, especially families with kids who came to have fun. My reason for stopping at the Dells was to take one of the famous boat rides down the Wisconsin River and see the sandstone cliffs and islands along the Dells.
At ten dollars a head, and 200 seats on the boat, and one boat after another, I don't think the operator is hurting for business and cash. We had a super tour gal who is a communications major in college. Rachel has her 'patter' down pat and presents it clearly and even a bit dramatically for emphasis. My boatload all thought she did a super job.
Between my late start today and the time spent at each of the three places I visited, the day seemed to expire all too quickly. It was 4:30PM when I reached LaCrosse, Wisconsin, my destination for the day, so I decided to call it a day. There are some things I want to see here in town, but I'm going to try to get that done tomorrow morning.
Just now, I'm doing my laundry in the motel's guest laundry, doing my diary and picture work, and in a bit, I'm headed for supper and a relaxing evening. Tomorrow, I'm off to Minneapolis by way of a blue highway that will take me along the Mississippi River. There's no point in travelling along the Interstate.
This morning, as I left the Madison area, I began to see very large farms, which makes Wisconsin a bit different than say Ohio or Indiana, they having smaller farms. Here in western Wisconsin, and close to the Mississippi River, it has become very hilly and even mountainous, if you you want to call large hills mountains. So, I'm ready to see more countryside tomorrow too.
Yesterday, I had planned to see the Heileman Brewery, but I got to LaCrosse after they closed their visitors center. This morning, I wanted to get on the road, and the brewery didn't open until 10:00AM, so I missed out on free samples. Darn! I did take a picture of the world's largest six pack of beer, though.
The day was hazy, misty all day long. That didn't help picture taking any. Another thing I wanted to do while in LaCrosse was to go up on top of Granddad Bluff, as they call it, and see the city from a 500 foot elevation. With the hazy, cloud cover, I didn't think I would see much and certainly not take any good pictures, so I passed on that idea.
The 'mountains' around here, by the way, are at most 500-600 feet. As I have said before, when do you call a big hill a mountain? In some cases, I see where the locals avoid the use of the word mountain, and refer to some peaks here as 'bluffs'. Okay, I guess.
I left LaCrosse, headed north on Wisconsin highway 35, which they call the Great River Road. In this day and age, most people would use the Interstate to travel long distances, and I'm glad they do because WI35 was virtually empty, it is good road, and I loved it!
The road follows the Mississippi River quite a bit, so there is a good view (even better, if it were not for the haze, or whatever that was out there today). I stopped several times to look at the system of locks and dams they have along the river. The river is quite wide and there are a number of islands in the river. The river sort of gets a bad name from songs like "Old Man River" but it really is a beautiful sight to see.
Along the river there are number of small towns, the smallest of which has only about 70 residents. From what I saw, and it's understandable, the local economy is geared to the river, the locks and dams, and the trains that run along the river. Once you get away from the river, then it's back to large farms as I saw yesterday.
The tug boats I saw pushing their barges today were interesting. If you can imagine a tug boat pushing a barge the size of an entire football field, and doing it with no apparent difficulty, that is a sight to see.
At the town of Alma, they must have a lot of tourists passing through that want to look at the dams and locks on the river, so they have a bridge that goes over the railroad tracks and then a viewing platform so you have an elevated view of the whole lock area. I thought it was pretty neat.
Unlike some other highways I've been on, WI35 has places to pull off every couple of miles, so you can take in the beauty of the river. I appreciate the state or the towns doing that.
After covering about 100 miles from LaCrosse, I finally got to River Falls, Wisconsin, in time to watch the Kansas City Chiefs professional football team go through their practice session. I was impressed with how intense the practice was, but then their exhibition season opens soon, so I guess they have to be ready.
They dressed in the opposite colors; the white team on offense and the red team on defense. No one touched the quarterback, and running backs were 'touched' by the defense but not really tackled. The offensive and defensive lines, however, were swinging their weight all over the place. It was interesting and fun to watch the practice.
I was using my video and 35mm camera the whole time I was there. I guess I missed a sign because late in the practice some guy yelled at me, "No video taping - there's a big sign telling you not to." Oh, well, so I have some secret video of the offensive plays.
Before crossing into Minnesota, I visited the town of Hudson, and went to see a number of their historic houses. Some impressed me and others did not. The brochure I have which describes the town draws attention to the restored Opera House, but really it is now occupied by shops and offices, so I was not impressed. There is an octagon house, with three levels, each being a bit smaller, and that house did impress me.
I crossed over the St.Croix River and entered Minnesota. First, I went into St.Paul and went to see the capitol. As always, I asked if the governor was in, he wasn't, so I left a used card. I also went to see City Hall, which is supposed to have art deco on each of its floors, but the building is in the very center of downtown and there are streets all torn up with construction, so I decided not to fight the situation.
I drove over to Fort Snelling, and that I did take several hours to tour. The fort was built in 1823 at the convergence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers. As with some other forts I have visited on this trip, Fort Snelling has interpreters in most of the buildings and they are there to answer visitor's questions. The cutest interpreter I met today was a nine month old girl, in period costume, there with her mother, also an interpreter in the school house.
The fort has a schedule of events that are performed each day, and while I was there, they executed a cannon shoot. A team of three interpreters, dressed in military clothes, first described to the visitors how cannons are loaded and fired, and then proceeded to load the cannon with a blank charge and fire it. It was loud, filled the parade ground with smoke and the audience loved it.
After that, I toured the buildings within the fort, talking with the person in the fort store, the interpreters playing the role of fort commandant and family, the fort's drummer and a couple of the guards. It was an educational and fun visit to the fort.
I drove over to the Mall of America, thinking I would have a look around before finding my motel for the night. The Mall claims to be the largest indoor mall in the United States, and I don't doubt it. But the parking lots and garages are the proverbial 'zoo', and since I had no real shopping to do, I decided I did not need to meet the population of Minneapolis/St.Paul.
I went to my motel instead. It's late afternoon anyway, and by the time I get this diary done and my pictures ready for the Internet, it will be time for supper. I put on another 200 miles today, so I think I'll take it easy tonight. Tomorrow, I will drive from east to west across the state of Minnesota and wind up in Fargo, North Dakota. I have a number of sightseeing stops in mind, so it should be an enjoyable day.
Minnesota has been called the Land of 10,000 Lakes, however today they could rename it the Land of 20,000 Lakes. Last night it really poured. The television kept reminding people about the dangers of flash floods, tornados and thunderstorms. When Tank and I got started this morning, it was still raining and there were puddles and ponds where they shouldn't be.
But, to my good fortune, as the day progressed, the sun came out and weather-wise, it really was a pretty nice day. The hurricane Danny has been in the news, and I'm certainly glad that I passed through the Gulf States area earlier on my trip. Danny has dumped tons of water on Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and even up into North Carolina. Thank goodness, I missed all that.
First stop for today's touring was St.Cloud, Minnesota. They have a heritage museum which I drove around early this morning, and I didn't bother to come back and tour. I did however go to the Munsinger and Clemens Gardens. Beautiful, simply beautiful. There was a full crew of gardeners out there this morning, repairing the damage of last night's rain, and the gardens just look great.
I have difficulty naming more than a half dozen kinds of flowers, but I know beauty when I see it and this place was gorgeous. Anyone interested in plants, flowers, landscape architecture and such, should consider a visit to these gardens in St.Cloud, Minnesota. I think whoever designed these gardens is a person of unique talent, very imaginative and creative.
The paths are well laid out, and the use of stone and brick is great. Fountains and wrought iron fences added a touch here and there. The gardens are right next to the Mississippi River, and with the tree-lined shore, it was a most scenic, picturesque and pleasant spot.
Back on the road again, as I watched large farm after large farm, all with huge acreage of corn, wheat or some other planting, it occurred to me that Minnesota is quite flat, much like Iowa or South Dakota. I have yet to visit North Dakota, but I'm guessing I'll see more of the same.
I stopped at Alexandria, Minnesota for two purposes. One was to see the 30 foot Viking statue and have my picture taken with him. Tank does pretty well, hanging onto the tripod and depressing the shutter button. He complains though that I don't take enough pictures of him. Tomorrow, I told him.
After picture taking, I then toured the Runestone Museum, which has a major portion of its displays devoted to the stone found in 1898 which has been authenticated but still disputed, contending that Vikings made voyages and exploration into the area we now call Minnesota. The rest of the museum was devoted to early Americana and things of local interest. A good visit none the less.
Before crossing the state line and entering North Dakota, I first stopped in Moorhead, Minnesota to visit the Hjemkomst Museum. What a story this is. A guy named Robert Asp, who descended from Norwegian stock, had a dream of building a Viking boat and sailing it one day back to Norway. He died after building such a boat but before being able to make the voyage. His family fulfilled that dream. What a story! I toured the museum, saw the boat, watch the audio/visual program, bought books and slides and just had a great visit to the museum. I would recommend it to anyone who visits this area.
On the North Dakota side of the state line, I visited the place called Bonanzaville, and then later I visited the Roger Maris baseball museum before calling it (a full) day.
Bonanzaville advertizes itself as a pioneer village, but I think it's more than that. Being comparatively critical, having seen other pioneer villages such as Sherburne, Conner, and Old World Wisconsin, then Bonanzaville doesn't rank very high. Sure, they have old buildings of historical significance that have been relocated to the property, but I think what Bonanzaville has that is better than the others is their main museum of artifacts and memorabilia. What a collection!
I toured the old school house, the old church, the first log cabin in Fargo, North Dakota, a sod house, the old cars, tractors and airplanes, but still I like the main museum with 'things' in it. I stopped and talked with several of the employees and described the other villages and museums I have toured.
Lastly, I visited the Roger Maris baseball museum, which is really a long hallway in a local Fargo, North Dakota shopping center. What is on display covers his career pretty well, from high school days, through the minor leagues, his major leagues days with various teams and of course, his home run record and his playing in the world series.
I don't think I could have packed more into today. The rain didn't bother me, as I thought it might. The forecast for tonight is pretty wet, with warnings up for the Fargo area where I'm staying. Tomorrow, I'm heading west to the Bismarck and the center of the state, with stops along the way. I'll keep you posted.
Yesterday, I stopped at the post office to buy more postcard stamps so I could continue to send cards each day to my grandchildren and children. I didn't realize it at the time, but the guy gave me 32 cent stamps instead of 20 cent stamps. I called information and determined that the main post office in Fargo was open on Saturday morning, so I put that first on my daily agenda.
I took care of the stamp need, so I'm all set now for the remainder of my trip. After leaving the post office, I discovered a bit of local geography. Yesterday, I was in Moorhead to visit the Hemjkomst Museum and I got there by leaving I94 headed north into town and then did a reverse to get back to I94, come across the state line and find my way into Fargo.
Guess what? There is a bridge from where the Moorhead museum is located straight into downtown Fargo. Oh, well, live and learn. Hemjkomst, by the way, stands for 'homecoming'. When Robert Asp built the ship, his dream was for he and some shipmates to return to Norway, the reverse of what their ancestors had done many years before. He died before he could make the trip, but his family fulfilled his dream. It is a remarkable story and told well by the museum, both in audio/visual presentations and the museum displays, including the 76 foot ship itself.
So, after my post office activity, I found my way onto I94 headed west. I looked for an interesting blue highway to take me west across the state and didn't see any. I don't think it would have matter, really. No disrespect to the people of North Dakota, but this is a pretty repetitious state to view while driving. The farms are huge. I think a 1000 acres farm would be considered small. And with the land, as flat as it is, you can see forever, even on a cloudy day.
So I94 it was, and it took about an hour to drive west over to Valley City. An appropriate name, because a major part of the town sits in a valley, which is sort of unusual for this part of the state. I had a full breakfast there, but also went to the near north side of town to view a railroad bridge which is 3338 feet in length. That is some bridge, let me tell you. It really spans the valley. They call it the Hi-Line Bridge, and it appears to be about 100 feet above the valley floor.
I saw a number of 'ponds' along the highway, and the thought occurred to me that North Dakota is so flat, I'll bet the rivers don't even flow 'up' stream or 'down' stream. They just stand still, and that created the ponds I was looking at.
At Jamestown, North Dakota, I went to see the world's largest bison or buffalo. It's actually a 30 foot statue that's used to attract visitors to their pioneer village and buffalo museum. I could see their buffalo herd from the statue and I wasn't impressed, since I've seen the wild buffalo at the Badlands of South Dakota earlier on this trip. I didn't bother with the buffalo museum, but I did let Tank take my picture with the buffalo statue and then we went to tour the pioneer village.
I hate to be comparatively critical, but the Jamestown pioneer village is really not much to look at. Considering I just saw Bonanzaville in Fargo yesterday, and before that I saw Old World Wisconsin, Sherburne, and Conner Prarie Village, Jamestown couldn't come close to being as interesting. The best thing about the village at Jamestown was that it was free. Can't beat that, now can you?
I got to Bismarck and went in search of the state capitol. As I drove into town, I could see only one ordinary, square high rise building, and not much more rising above the tree tops. My map of Bismarck doesn't give much detail, but I thought I was on the right street for the capitol however I didn't find it or see it.
So, I looped around and around, and finally it dawned on me that that ordinary high rise building 'is' the state capitol. No offense, people of North Dakota, but your state capitol is 'not' very impressive. And to top it off, the drive to its front steps was blocked off. Big deal. The driveway to the governor's mansion (an ordinary house, by the way) was completely wide open, so if a terrorist wanted to drive his bomb car there, it must be okay. Sheeeezzzz!
Tank took my picture in front of the state capitol and continued to bug me about when is he going to get his picture taken by me. Later, I said.
From the state capitol, I did check out the new and old governor's mansions. He wasn't at home in either one, so I left a crumpled card at each. The two gals at the old mansion were nice to talk with, and I heard all the statistics about the 1884 Victorian House, which was used by governors until 1960.
By this time, it was getting on into the late afternoon, so we found our motel, checked in and headed for the pool. Now, Tank, now! He doesn't have swim trunks but I let him skinny dip from the side of the pool. He said "If those blue and white guys can do it, I can." I didn't want to upset him but the blue and white guys were the plastic beads along the rope that divides the shallow and deep ends of the pools. Tank liked the pool and he's been drying out for the last hour or so.
This is the end of week 11 and next week we'll be driving through Montana, Idaho, and Utah (again). Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons are on my agenda, so it should be a fun week.
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