Aug 15 - Gretna NE

Our campsite last night was almost perfect.  We were right beside a river and could hear the water moving; we were able to have a campfire (only the 2^nd one this trip); and there were only about a dozen campers spread around so that it really felt like we were all alone.  It was glorious.

In Clear Lake we followed 315 Street to its end and saw the scene in the photo below.

This is the marker for the 10 minute walk to a plane crash site.  On Feb 2, 1959, rock stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and Big Booper performed at Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. Shortly after midnight, the three rock stars took off in a charted plane that promptly crashed on take-off, killing the pilot and the three rock stars.  There is a small memorial and people obviously still come by and leave various items. 

Passing through Britt we discovered that we missed the National Hobo Convention which had been held the previous weekend – rats!!

Our next stop was in West Bend at the Grotto of the Redemption.  This is considered to be the world's most complete man-made collection of minerals, fossils, shells, and petrifications in one place.  The history is that Father Paul Dobberstein was a German immigrant ordained in 1897 who became critically ill with pneumonia and promised to build a shrine to the Virgin Mary if she interceded for him.  After his recovery, he began stockpiling rocks and precious stones.   Construction of the Grotto began in 1912 and continued year round for 42 years.

Our last stop of the day was in Ida Grove to see the castles.  There was one man largely responsible for the castle structures, Byron Godbersen (1925-2003), founder and owner of Midwest Industries in Ida Grove.  He built his castles all over town and since they are privately owned you can only see them from the outside.

Aug 14 - Nashua IA

No WiFi here.  Getting annoying.   Next trip I get a mobile hotspot.

We had a lovely walk through the downtown of Galena IL.  This is the home of Ulysses S. Grant so there are many civil war attractions to see plus very old buildings that have been maintained.  In fact, in the downtown area, 85% of the buildings are listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.  All the buildings have small boutiques and there are many vintage shops – can’t imagine where all the stuff comes from (Norm, the cynic, says China.) 

Then we spend some hours in the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium in Dubuque IA.  What a wonderful place!  We really enjoyed the interactive exhibits, videos and animals.

Aug 13 - Savanna IL

Today was a repositioning day as we wanted to get to the Mississippi River and then be in a line to see the four Road America attractions in Iowa that we’ve identified as worth visiting. 

We decided to start listening to the audio book we bought at the library earlier on this trip – The Dirty Girls Social Club.  It’s actually interesting and we listened to 2 of the 4 discs today. 

We made a stop in Henry IL and just happened to see The Spirit of Peoria coming along the Illinois River.  Wish we knew about this earlier today and we may have stopped and taken a river cruise.  They have from 1 to 5 day cruises on the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers and it’s one of the few authentic paddlewheel-driven boats that offer overnight trips.

We then made a stop at the Hennepin Canal – “The Hennepin was the first American canal built of concrete without stone cut facings. Although the Hennepin enjoyed limited success as a waterway, engineering innovations used in its construction were a bonus to the construction industry. Some of the innovations pioneered on the Hennepin Canal were used on the Panama Canal. Both used concrete lock chambers and both used a feeder canal from a man-made lake to water the canals because both needed water to flow ‘uphill.”  We never heard of it before so it was quite interesting and we got to watch a little video and talked for quite a while to a woman in the visitor’s center.

We didn’t plan our day too well so we are in a hotel instead of a campground.

Aug 12 - Monticello IN

No internet here so will post tomorrow.

It rained pretty hard overnight and as we travelled on, the rain got progressively worse to the point where we got off the highway and took a parallel road until it finally stopped close to noon.  We stopped in Coldwater IN and had a walk around the old section of town.  We saw a couple of war memorials and passed some wonderful old buildings that are still being used.  On our way back to the RV we saw a sign and followed it to Tibbits Opera House built in 1882 and recently refurbished.  It is used extensively for plays, concerts, all kinds of things – it’s a very busy place.  It was just lovely and we’ll add a couple of photos to the web album when we next find WiFi service.

We made a brief stop in Fort Wayne at the Visitor’s Center but discovered it was only a visitor’s center for the city, not the state, so it wasn’t very helpful.

The rest of the afternoon was b-o-r-i-n-g!  We didn’t see any place to stop and explore and didn’t see any camping signs anywhere on the road we travelled.  I finally found a campground in Monticello on my phone and we were able to put the address into the GPS (the GPS didn’t have any of the 4 campgrounds that are in Monticello for some unknown reason).  There were no camping signs anywhere on any of the roads we came on and when we got here we were amazed to see only a dozen campers in this huge campground – seems incredible for mid-August!  But many of the campgrounds we’ve been in have had many empty spots and we can’t really figure out why they’re not at least close to full at this time of year.

Another camping first – when we arrived at this campground we took our usual walk around and when we checked out the showers we were amazed to find that there was no way to adjust the water, just a button to turn the shower on – the water stayed on for about 10 seconds and was cold.

Aug 11 - Lansing MI

This morning we crossed the Blue Water Bridge into the US, leaving Canada behind for the last time this trip.

When we reached Port Huron we decided to have lunch and found this great spot - Lynch's Irish Tavern - where we had a feast of bangers and mash plus bread pudding for desert!  What a hoot!!  After lunch we took a walk and discovered that today was the International Offshore Powerboat Race and the boats were getting ready.  The races were going to begin towards the end of the afternoon so we decided not to hang around.  We saw some pretty incredible boats and I've posted photos of a few in the album.

As we were walking back to the RV, a sign a block away caught my eye and we had to go check it out.  It was the Ice Museum of North America which unfortunately was closed today.  This is a little blurb I found that explains the museum:  “Just imagine Ice Harvesting was one of the ten largest industries in the U.S. at one time.  The Knowlton’s Ice Museum of North America has one of the largest collections in the U.S. of ice tools and implements from the 1800’s to the early 1900’s.  From old ice picks to the horse drawn ice wagons, you will see history brought to life.”  It would have been fun to explore.  Onward and upward – we carried on to Lansing, Michigan where we found a great campsite.

Aug 10 - Hamilton Ont

Aug 10-connection not allowing photo uploads today <photos added Aug 11>

Today we stopped to visit my niece Nicki  and grand niece Chloe in Hamilton and got to meet dad, Paul. They have a lovely home and have done all the decorating themselves.  My grand niece is 3 months old and her name is Chloe Alexandra.

Charlie, the dog, would not leave Norm alone - he found a friend.

Aug 9 - Wasaga Beach Ont

Aug 10-internet connection not allowing photo uploads today <photos added Aug 11>

This morning we drove up Yonge Street from our friend's house to Barrie Ont.  Yonge Street is the longest street in the world at 1,178 miles long.  We were amazed at the miles we drove  before we stopped seeing high rises and when we got to Barrie (which was a smallish town) we saw more high rises!  Say it isn't so!!

We got to Wasaga Beach and were so reminded of the Florida spring break movies!  Amazing!  We took a drive to Thornbury and the Blue Mountains before heading back to Wasaga Beach and Norm's cousin, Norman Armstrong's place.

We were able to park the RV in his driveway so life was grand and we had a fabulous visit.  He has a wonderful set-up there, a lovely downstairs unit with a pastoral view and a little stream.  His hobby is wood-working and carving and he has created some magnificent pieces.  He lives to ski and bike so is kept quite occupied all year around but he is also doing housing renovations as he feels like it.