Home

Home, home in the burbs with the big and the little cat play…

Our day started way to early, but we are home safe and sound and with out event.  Although we were up at something ridiculous like 3 am, we were on the first plane by 6 am.  Thank you Delta, our gates in Atlanta were in the same wing and we were able to catch an earlier flight into Hartford.  All went uneventufully.

We are exhausted, but cats were happy to see us and thanks to E. all was fine at home.

I’ve uploaded some more pictures to the ‘album’ here.  There are of course tons more, but I think these might be the interesting things from where our upload issues started to be tiresome.

NxNW: Destination Hitchcock

It should also include any of the pictures I've posted earlier, too.

Thank you all for reading!

Almost Home

Well, today is the last real day and I think I speak for both of us when I say we are ready to be home. 

It was a leisurely day.  We toured the local ‘castle’ the Salisbury House – a 47 room monstrosity – most of it not open to the public.  Impressive still.  And we visited the Des Moines Center for the Arts, expecting another small museum.  It actually was much bigger than one would have thought.  A varied collection, but my favorite a Hopper painting.

We then toured the mall, nothing unique there, except perhaps for the fact that it was actually active and full, not dying like most of the East.

It was nice to rest and tomorrow we’ll fly out early, have a loooong layover in Atlanta and then be in Bradley by late afternoon.  (Presuming all goes as planned.)

It’s been a good journey and I’m glad to have seen middle America.  I’ll also be glad to be home.

Matchsticks and Oldies?

Today was a leisurely day as we wind down our travels.  Our desired destination, Matchstick Marvel didn’t open til 1 and it was only an hour drive.  So when we left Cedar Rapids at 11, we had time. 

So we traveled north to Waterloo, IA, another tiny little city, but the Home Of Wonder Bread.  (I have the picture, but you’ll have to wait for me to get home for that.)  Actually we stopped in Waterloo for the Arts Center.  They had a show of Mexican and Haitian folk art and local artists.  It was colorful and a nice stop.  And again, another tiny little museum.

We then traveled through the corn (still no children) to a tiny little town  home of Matchstick Marvels.  http://www.matchstickmarvels.com/matchstickmain.html    They are amazing!  100’s of 1000’s of matchsticks and the man builds exact replicas of everything from Hogwarts to military planes.  They were truly amazing.

We then traveled through more corn finally turning south, to Ames, IA, were we toured the University’s botanical garden.  Okay, the real attraction here was that the garden had display of lego sculptures and a giant gnome.  Unfortunately, it was at this time that it FINALLY started raining here.  This did not deter us and we walked most of the garden in the rain.  But when it started to thunder and lightening we decided that maybe we should head in.

Finally we traveled further south into Des Moines.  We pulled into our hotel at about the same time as the band.  They got to the desk first and it appeared initially as if their rooms were not in order.  Actually, everything was in order, they just had booked the rooms by individuals not as a block.

So were standing there watching half the band members throw a hissy fit and half of them make snide comments and take it all in stride.  (Actually, they were very nice and very apologetic to us.)  But I was thinking,  I should know these guys.  And I was trying to see a name, finally we did and put it all together. 

We checked in behind Three Dog Night.

I married a spider monkey

Yeah, the first day that was not triple digit heat! I believe I mentioned yesterday that there were bikers (bicyclists) in town for a race. The race goes the full length of the state. This morning they left town heading west to the Mississippi, as did we.

But before leaving, they and us went to the Chech Village. They probably did bike things. We drove through downtown. It's small and like so many places we've seen is a bit tired. Worse I swear every street is one way, which is ridiculous for a town this size (IMHO). After quite the adventure we finally found Grant Woods' studio. It is a small brick building off an alley and is rarely open. It's run by the art museum that is also not open much. But it was nice to see and tour the city.

We then parked in Chech Village, where the bikers were going through. It was very festive. But most of them were not actually there for much except riding or drinking, neither things that we were there for, so we didn't get in each other's way too much. We went to the Chech Museum. They are in two locations - one in the neighborhood, tells the story of the Cedar Rapids floods in 2008.

I vaguely remember this as a news story, but it was awesome here. Much of the city was underwater. The museum was completely underwater. Given this, it puts a whole different perspective on the town. Its tiredness no longer seems like it's a sign of downfall, but more like it's just not made it fully upwards yet. There are plans in the works for lots of rebuild, etc. I hope they make it and I think they will.

The museum just opened this July. It's a gorgeous building with great spaces. They had three exhibits up at the moment, all three well done and interesting. The first was textiles that show as much about conversation and disaster recovery as the embroidery and styles.  The second was Alphonse Mucha, and his work (Art Nouveau).  Not a style I am particularly attracted to, but there is something about seeing them first hand vs reproduction that much of it looks more interesting.  But my favorite was the third:  international children’s book illustrations.  Of course, I can’t tell you artist or title at the moment, but there were things one would recognize (if you travel in these circles.)  At any rate, yet again it was another small museum that was worth it. 

With this, we traveled East out of town for a ride in the country side.  I really like the farm land.  I don’t know when I stopped being a cowgirl and became a farmgirl, but perhaps just proof that people do change. 

Our destination today was Le Claire, IA and the home or Antique Archeology, perhaps more familiar to those who are not fans as the store for American Pickers (Hist. Channel show.)  As a fan, since we were in Iowa with time, I really, really wanted to see where they were from.

The website informed us that they were filming Wed and Thurs of this week so the store would be closed and not open again until 2:00 today (Friday).

With the barest directions we headed to the Mississippi (several miles south of the bikers). We saw the Mississippi (again)  very cool to have now seen this same river in so many states.  It’s beautiful here and unlike almost every other river we’ve seen not dry.

We headed into Le Claire and sure enough right behind the gas station convenience store as the shop.  It had the car out front, it had their van in the yard and it had a line a people about 30 long waiting to get in. 

I knew it was not going to be worth it, but I HAD to…

We parked on a side street and first stopped in Danny’s store (if you know the show.)  [Sorry girl, if your google feed pops this up as a reference and you follow your press.]

This story was pretty disappointing.  There were some t-shirts, photography, jewelry.  Some  of it nice enough, but just a little bit pricey for what it was.  Of course it being crowded didn’t help.  The most interesting thing in the store – it’s the first floor of a house – were two pieces a dress and a wall hanging covered with buttons.

From there, we walked half way down the hill to behind the BP to the guy’s store and waited in line to filter through.  It is TINY.  Teeny tiny.  It was cool to see some of the things they’ve picked on TV live and in the store, but as the guys in front of us said: hey, I just watch them buy this last week and I know what they paid for it, I can’t pay their asking price. 

I appreciate too that you need to run a business and that means a mark up.  And I’ve often wondered watching the show how they can possibly make a living.  However, that being said, I was at least hoping the “souvenir”  stuff in the place would be accessible.

It wasn’t.  There was a tin logo sign – a cool item, that looked like “rusty gold”  but it was like 25$ and in a box of easily 200 of them.  There was the pickers journal with the logo, which greatly appealed to my writer sensibility … looked like about a 20 page note book, brown cardboard cover stamped with the logo for $12.  The window/car decal $5.  All of it just that little bit too high for what it was to be comfortable saying, well, I’m at least supporting them.

When we were at the American Gothic house the woman there was commenting that as a paleontologist and museum person there were times the show bothered her because they found things that she didn’t think should be sold.  I must admit I too at times have had trouble watching some one sell something to the guys because “they knew it was going to a good home” and I knew it was going to retail.

It’s hard.  I like them though and to be fair, one of the reasons I’ve stuck with them is the shows where they’ve bought something, discovered there was a much greater value on it, sold the item for tons more than they paid for it and went back and shared the profit with the original buyer.  For that, they still have me.

But my goodness that store is SMALL.  And when you see it on tv it looks like its in the middle of nowhere – not in a tiny garage right next to residences and the BP station, looking out onto the Mississippi!

I’m glad I went.  And I’m not glad we did not go 2 hours out of our way to see the Field Of Dreams.  We are not far from it – at least by this trip’s standards (today we hit 2500 miles) but the extra ride just to see a baseball field in the corn fields, I just couldn’t do. 

I suppose this means if you build it, they don’t always come?  (All internet sites indicated it was not really worth it – unless you are a true baseball fan… which as all of you know, I am not.

So we left Le Claire and were heading back to Cedar Rapids, when we heard this weird noise in the car.  Hmmmm.  Weird noises are not good.  I was about to get a little nervous when M. announced the problem was the back passenger door had not shut fully.

We pulled over and before I could get the front door open to get out and shut it, M. had reached from the driver’s seat, opened the back passenger door, and slammed it shut.

“How??” I marveled. 

He merely shrugged and told me I married a spider monkey.


PS - I forgot to say yesterday we saw the Romney Bus on the highway.  It too was driving badly.  And the political commercials out here are plentiful and more interesting than things I've seen at home.  I am waiting to get back and see if the one's here are there.

Grant Wood Gothic Gourmet

Greetings from Rapid City IA.  Today has been one of those days that I suspect most of you will say, 'only them...'

Last night we stayed outside of Des Moines - if you recall there was a volley ball event and everything was booked.  So, we stayed in Altoona.  I knew Altoona b/c it is the home of Adventureland amusement park.  I'd not mentioned this to M. because, well, with me, really what' the point.  I cannot bring myself to pay 80$ plus for us to enter parks just so that I can watch the rides because I can't bring myself to ride on them.  I do think about it though.

As it turned out we could see the amusement park from the motel.    Which made me exceedingly happy on multiple fronts.  First - I got to watch the rides for a few minutes and got my fix.  And second because the park is tiny and if we had gone there specifically for it, never mind paid the huge entrance fee for me to stand and watch, I would have been annoyed.

There was a big thunderstorm last night though.  Nature gave us quite the light show in the big sky and the wind shook the windows.  I can only imagine tornadoes.

This morning we headed East on the state highway (vs the interstate).  The country side again went from hilly to flat, but the sky stays big.  The drought here is very prevalent.  It's sad to see the almost dry river beds where clearly there is supposed to be water.  The rain did little to help.

Our path was south east , heading for Eldon.  It happened that the route to Eldon did pass thru Ottomwa.  We took the detour and went through town, because after all, if you didn't know this, it IS Radar (Walter) O'Reiley's home town.  They make no claim to him however, which was kind of disappointing.  On the other hand, it is not a place Radar would want to claim.  It is yet another sadly dying city with much of it's Main St abandoned and that which is not is primary bar, pawn shop, social service...  There was a nicer portion of Main St, but that too was clearly tired and struggling.  The old hotel building looked neat though and you could imagine the town in better days

Further East and a bit South, is Eldon.  A very tiny little town, the size of a postage stamp really, but the home of the American Gothic House.  You know the one.  The stern looking farmer with his pitch fork and (what turned out to be) his sister (I always thought it was wife.)  Well, The House sits in Eldon.  It is TINY.  Like the building probably had one room in it, but it's very cute.  No tours as it is a private residence. (Poor people.)  But there is a visitor's center right out front with very interesting display and coolest of all outfits so you can dress up and take your picture in front of the house.  Yes we did and no I am not posting it here.    Our height difference makes it odd.  Well, not like dressing up and doing this isn't odd already I realize.  But I was thrilled to see the house.  It's the second most recognized picture in the world.  (First is Mona Lisa.)

From there we headed North and were hoping to find something to eat.  We didn't, but we did have some left over goat cheese and fruit in the car, so we stopped in a lovely tiny little town.  Parked in the court yard parking lot under a tree (the weather is better but still HOT) and had lunch.   Very gourmet.  Then on  to Riverside, IA.  Okay guys... do you know why Riverside, IA is significant?

It's the future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk.  They have a museum.  It's in an old store front.  A fair amount of Star Trek Memorabilia and the site of Shatner's movie about Iowa.  They do a Trekie even every year in June, celebrate the count down to Kirk's b'day, etc.  It was fun and the three old people watching the museum were beyond thrilled that we were from CT and were there.

We went to the birth site too - there's a monument - it's down a little alley (think path) behind the hairdresser on Main St.  Keep in mind Main Street is about 12 store fronts, on one side of the street, and half of them are unoccupied.  I was still tickled pink.

Keeping due North we came to Iowa City.  Iowa City is in  the university of Iowa.  No really.  I believe the whole town is University... or chain stores.  It didn't seem very worth much unless you are a prospective student.

So we headed 30 more minutes north to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a place that looks like it has a little more potential.  But here too there are athletes - bicyclists are apparently riding the length of the state and are here now.  Our luck.  Who would have thought that Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, Iowa would be where we'd have trouble finding a place to stay??

But fortunately we've found a place and in fact have our room plans for the rest of our trip.  Tomorrow we'll drive east some more, but end up back here and then return Saturday to Des Moines to get ready to head out.  We shipped laundry to day so the end is near.

Eastwood VS the Duke

This morning our first stop was Boys Town.  I wanted to see it because of the movie reference - a movie I've actually not seen, but when else was I going to be here?  It was rather disappointing.  It looks exactly like every other private school I've ever seen, and I've seen a few.  So we took the photo opt and moved on.

Our next drive by was Malcolm X's birthplace.  This too was disappointing but for other reasons.  There is a Malcolm X Center, and according the Internet they have some property.  The place however was near the end of a road that seemed like it should be going to the town transfer station or DPW, not a site.  The marker at the site looked official like all places of interest do, however, getting to it one had to traverse what seemed like an abandoned parking lot and the associated 'center'  was closed.   A few blocks away, however, the MKL center was big, robust and doing just fine.  While I was happy to see Omaha having an African American frame of reference, we were a bit annoyed that MLK got the big, nice building and Malcolm X got the abandoned lot off the beaten path - since it was MX's town.

With a bit of resign we headed down town to our next stop, the local arts collective.  It reminded both M and I of his grad student days and the grad student art studios.  This was less aggravating for me than M.  For me it was some what pleasant memories of hanging out in the studio with him among the smell of oil paint.  For M. I think it was more a reminder of all the unpleasantness of grad school.  And the art, well, it just wasn't that interesting.

From there we traveled cross town to the Latino section of town.  Is it good that Omaha has an ethnic population if the town is so segregated that almost by street you could identify one's heritage?  At any rate, we stopped at the Museo de Latino - the first or only,  I am not sure how it billed itself museum of Latino art.  It's small and located in a community center.  But again, far more interesting work inside than most places.  It was very striking here, in that we have spent the recent past looking at Native American art and then seeing Latino art, the differences in personality, style, color choices, etc. etc. was striking. 

I know I've said this before, but M. and I are thoroughly convinced that the smaller museums are better.

At that point, we were both ready to leave Omaha - it's worse than Memphis in terms of it's crazy roads, traffic, bad driving, etc.  In fact, we were completely ready to leave Nebraska.  So, on to the Interstate and Eastward Ho!

Iowa on this return trip is not seeming as flat or as bland, but I have to say I still like it in its own way.  And don't get me wrong - it's still FLAT.  Today was a bit windy and the wind waved over the soybeans, making them shift in color and appear like undulating waves.  It was ocean like and I had to wonder if maybe I could exist out here.  It would be a green and seasonal ocean, but it was very ocean like.

Prior to reaching Des Monies we  turned south to Winterset, John Wayne's birthplace and the heart of Madison County - as in the Bridges of.  It was a surprisingly larger town than I would have thought - three horses at least.  Don't get me wrong - it's a small town, and hasn't changed a lot over the years - the Pharmacy still has a soda fountain.  But while there we had a bit to eat at the down town cafe - it was in the movie.  We saw the stool Clint sat on.  (oooohh!)   And we say the Duke's birthplace - a postage size house on a corner.  It looked cute.  Sadly, we did not pay to take the 20 minutes tour - I'm not that much of a fan.  Seeing the house was sufficient for me.  We did go see a couple of the bridges.  Yup they are covered bridges!  They're very nice bridges, but I guess coming from New England, covered bridges just aren't that exciting.  And well, I've never actually seen the movie... or read the book.  Maybe I will now.

Our plan was to spend the night in Des Monies, but upon our arrival we found no room at the inn - any of them, Candlewood Inn, Comfort Inn, Holiday Inn... apparently there is some volley ball ...event happening in town.  Fortunately we were not in any serious need to stay so we headed slightly East of town.  We are planning to continue East to the Mississippi for the next few days and be back in Des Monies Saturday - Sunday will be out last day here - and Monday we travel.  (We did make the reservation in Des Monies for the weekend...just in case.)

No Kool Aid, but canned pasta

Today we toured Lincoln. It’s a small city with an almost rural feel.  We went into their “historic” area - now restaurants and shops.  Roamed gallery space and Independent book store.  It was nice to see the space, but nothing particularly exciting.  It does make me wonder though, why Hartford doesn’t have a similar space?  You would think… but then, Hartford doesn’t do a lot of things you would think.

We then toured the Great Plains Art museum.  A small juried show of local and Native American artists.  Small museums.  I’m telling you they are the worth while ones.  The art was interesting and not the standard dead white men or bucolic trees (or large fields of color.)

But the real highlight of the day was the International Quilt Museum.  Again another fairly small museum, but the quilts were gorgeous.  One of this show’s was signature quilts - not my favorite type, but they made it intriguing.  They had great displays that explain styles - we’ve lots of ideas to try.  Lots of pictures, but too many to post here.  I’m thinking when we’re back with good internet and reliable computers, I’ll upload the pics online.  Meanwhile suffice it to say - the quilts were good: classical styles, contemporary designs, political statements. 

The quilts made Lincoln.  Because quilts aside, we’re not liking NE.  But we moved on to Omaha, thinking perhaps Omaha would be more compelling to us.

When we got to Omaha, we spent an hour driving around in a fairly small circle trying to find a particular motel - set of motels actually.  The AAA book gave directions, and we tried to follow them.  Multiple times.  It was laughable.  A spaghetti of  road among mall and highway. 

We finally decided it was ridiculous and we’d just move on and found another little hotel farm - not in the AAA book.  It was pretty frustrating.  But we picked up a better map at the motel and went into the city for dinner.

Omaha is the largest city in NE - and it clearly is so.  It has all the things you might want and can think of.  It is also clearly a true city and one that is filled with industry - banking, finance, that kind of thing.  The city itself is stereotypical:   One way streets, bad driving, streets that skip numbering.  North and South streets with the same number but don’t match up, bad driving, various good and bad neighborhoods, bad driving….

By the time we got downtown and in the restaurant district, I think we were both frustrated enough to not care what we ate.  Though we did get an unexpected surprise.  In this location (prompted by one of the large corporations) is a bronze statue of Chef Boyardee.  If you touch his hat it’s said to bring you good luck in the kitchen.  We did… though I have more concern that it will jinx me than help.

We had Omaha steak for dinner!  It did taste different, better, than beef back home, but not worth the drive and in this case - the city for it.  I’m sure it will hurt me tonight, but how could I not here?

We’ll look around some more tomorrow, see what interests us and head East.  We are earlier than anticipated at this point, so true adventure begins.

PS - I forgot to mention that at the Hasting Museum - there was a taxidermied squirrel chipmonk animal mentioned earlier.  It IS in fact a "13 stripe ground squirrel sometimes called a gopher."  So, as it turned out the crazy artist wasn't actually so crazy. Hmm?