I’ve heard that it’s good to start with a joke. So here goes: What do you call someone who only eats corn? A cornivore! Ha ha ha! Sorry for the “corny” joke but I’ve been surrounded by so much corn on this latest segment of this trip that I had to make a joke about it. Actually, I found out that all this corn is not going to be eaten by people – instead it’s feed corn and some will become ethanol. There really is a lot of corn growing in this country – we drive for hours and you can’t look in any direction without seeing a million stalks.
View from our campsite – acres and acres of corn!
When we last blogged, we had just left Indiana and entered Sullivan, Illinois. We took the advice of the campground host and went to the Broom Corn Festival in Arcola. It was a fairly large street fair with lots of food and vendors and one large tent where we watched demonstrations of broom-making. We saw a model of a broom house and a display of medal-winning brooms. Arcola was a nice town. The festival was great. We talked to some local folks. All in all, it, was a nice day and not too much corn.
Our next stop was the Kankakee KOA in Chebanese, Illinois. We liked the city of Kankakee and it proved to be in a good location to check out some local attractions.
The B. Harley Bradley House in Kankakee, IL
On September 12th we checked out another Frank Lloyd Wright house. We couldn’t tour the inside of it because there were no tours that day, but we walked around the building, looked in windows and walked down to the river adjacent to the property. One of the most outstanding features of this house are the windows. You can see in this photo the intricate leaded designs. The geometric patterns are a hallmark of Wright’s.
Closeup of windows on this Frank Lloyd Wright designed house
The location of this house was right on the Kankakee River and it had its own small dock – also designed by Wright. Walking on the lawn from the house to the dock you could imagine the Bradleys engaging in picnics and boat rides along this pretty river.
From the Kankadee campground we drove to a train station called the Metra and commuted into CHICAGO! The train was a double-decker, impeccably clean and our trip to the city was hassle-free. We headed straight to Millennium Park to take our photo at “The Bean” – the iconic Chicago sculpture formally known as Cloud Gate. It reflects the sky and, of course, everyone has to have a photo of their distorted self image. It was amazing to see it and we loved listening to all the visitors from all over the world. It was another thrill for me to see Lake Michigan. We walked through the park, stopped to listen to an outdoor concert and then walked over the pedestrian bridge to see the lake. It was a calm day and the boats and ships in the marina gently moved in the water. Our photos don’t really do it all justice. We walked over to the Crown Fountain and then along Michigan Avenue. We ate lunch at Native Foods and kept on walking and walking back to our train station. We put 5.3 miles on our feet that day and got to see one of America’s largest and beautiful cities. Our train rides were relaxing and helped make the day a huge success.
The “Bean” in Chicago Millennium Park
Lake Michigan waterfront
Crown Fountain in Chicago
Our next campground was Rock Island KOA where we only stayed one night. Then we entered our 31st state, Iowa. Iowa – Fields of Opportunity! More corn! We really felt that we were in the west again once we crossed the Mighty Mississippi. The Newton KOA was near the Historic Valley Junction where we happened upon an Antique Car Show. We also drove through Des Moines. We stopped for a walk through the city park outside the capitol dome. There we spent some time wandering through the lavender plantings and the Holocaust Memorial. The next day, we drove over to Pella, a little town that truly celebrates its Dutch heritage. Even the street signs have windmills on them. We chose not to go through the reconstructed Dutch Village but instead walked around the historic downtown square. I couldn’t resist buying some really yummy chocolate (in the shape of wooden shoes, tulips, and windmills). The town of Pella was quaint and we learned about the history of its original Dutch citizens. One of the best parts of the trip was talking to Jerry in the windmill-visitor center. His family members were some of the original founders and listening to him talk about his neighbors and the good people they are was refreshing and heartening. You don’t have to pay the admission fee to the Village to really enjoy the heart and soul of Pella – just be lucky enough to talk to Jerry.
The State Capitol building in Des Moines
A Windmill in Pella, IA (built just for the tourists!)
On September 19, we were in Nebraska at the Eugene T. “Bo” Mahoney State Park in Ashland. It was a beautiful park but the rain kept us from doing much exploring there. It was nice to be back in Nebraska. This was the first state to be revisited on this trip, although we are in a different part of the state.
After three nights, we moved to Grand Island KOA. There wasn’t much to do around Grand Island so we just hung out in the RV. We have been traveling all along Route 80 – a pretty good road, but lots of wind and flat landscape. The wind was pretty strong and, in fact, we saw a sign in the campground and heard the same joke repeated – “One day the wind stopped blowing in Nebraska and everyone fell over.”
We saw lots of signs for Fort Kearny and the city of Kearney. I mentioned before that I grew up in Kearny, New Jersey and we lived near Kearny, Arizona, so it piqued my interest to see that extra “e”. All these places are named after the same Philip Kearny who served in the Mexican American and Civil War. It’s confusing to see the extra “e” in the city of Kearney and no extra “e” anywhere else. Well, a postman who kept misspelling it is the reason for the discrepancy and apparently the citizens got used to the “e” and adopted the misspelling. But the important trivia about Kearney, Nebraska is that it is the Sandhill Crane Capital of the World, as well as The Heart of Nebraska. The celebrity of note here is still Buffalo Bill Cody.
Buffalo Bill was pretty popular in the North Platte area we next stayed in. Our Holiday RV Park was within walking distance of the Fort Cody Museum/Gift Shop or as Doug puts it “Fort Tourist Trap”. There was a pretty cool exhibit of hundreds of carved miniatures depicting the whole giant Wild West Show. One man carved the figures – cowboys, Indians, horses, tents and everything else – and his wife painted them. The sheer number of figures was impressive.
There is an interesting attraction in North Platte – the Bailey Rail Yard and Golden Spike Tower. We took the elevator up to the top of the 8-floor tower to look out over the largest railroad yard. The history of the yard includes Buffalo Bill who made his home base in North Platte because of the proximity of this railroad hub and the trains that took his Wild West Show all over the states. The yard is 2,850 acres and manages 10,000 railroad cars each day. The yard contains two humps – the system that sorts the cars so they get attached to the right trains and arrive at the right destination.
The Golden Spike Tower in North Platte, NE
Union Pacific Bailey Yard – largest in the world!
We found out that North Platte, Nebraska was also the home Henry Hill relocated to. You remember, Henry – in “Goodfellas”? The real life New York City mobster worked in this middle America town as a cook. It was also the home of Glen Miller.
This morning we left North Platte and drove across more of Route 80, now seeing gently rolling hills of ranch land instead of corn fields. It was a longer than usual trip so we parked at Cabela’s flagship store for a short rest. Out front was a memorial to the Pony Express.
We know we are in the west now. The flat land has changed to sand-colored bluffs. We saw a giant metal sculpture of a howling coyote and then on top of a bluff was a statue of a Native American carrying a spear and slumping on the back of his horse – Trails End.
Not trails end for us – we’ll be visiting Cheyenne this week. And then on and on…our journey continues.