John Deere Museum near Rock Falls, Illinois

If I took too long to write that last post from Springfield, Illinois, then I have taken a year longer than that to write this one about the John Deere Museum! When I visited my cousin Peggy on my Great National Retirement Tour in 2016, we stopped one day on our way to a hike at the John Deere Museum in Grand Detour, Illinois only to discover that it was closed for the season. Not to be denied an experience, we returned two years later with her husband Ralph for the tour.

The tour starts in a large building that holds the archeological dig of company artifacts on the site of what was their foundry. John Deere started out making a hand plow with his own innovation - the blade was curved to prevent moist soil from sticking to it, thus speeding up the act of plowing. We first watched a movie about John Deere and his single bottom plow technology improvement that made his company soar. He sold 40 plows the first year, 400 the second, and 4,000 the third year after he founded the company.

Here are 3 iterations of the John Deere hand plows. Notice that farmers are getting more and more interested in sitting down while they plow. Now that I am a farmer, I find this fascinating, so you will have to suffer.

The photo below on the left is a recreation of one of the blast furnace blacksmith shops where they made the self-scouring plows. Today it is a stage on which their talented blacksmith works his magic. The photo below on the right is of an 1839 painting hanging in the museum showing how faithfully they recreated the blacksmith shop. The "fireplace" is the foundry and it is stoked by a hand bellows (notice the man with one hand on his hip and the other up in the air hanging onto the very large bellow). The recreated foundry of 2018 also works with a hand bellow, which can be seen in the far left if you know what to look for.

Here is our talented blacksmith who was fabulously entertain-ing. He took out an iron rebar and asked if we could tell there was a leaf in there waiting to get out. I told him that, yes, I could hear it. He told me I was crazy - something that I totally agreed with. So as he talked he heated up the iron rebar and started hammering it with different tools which he explained as he went along. Gradually a leaf appeared bit by bit from the iron rebar. He explained that the leaf became more susceptible to breakage at the point where the stem narrows. Also, if the iron got overheated and turned the wrong color, hammering it could crack it. Nothing bad happened to my leaf under his expert handling.

And here is the copper-brushed leaf that he made just for me! Now my dilemma is what to do with it. It is so special because we watched every step of his process and every step was explained in a delightfully charming way. So, what do you think? What would you do with it if a charming and gritty blacksmith made this for you?

We also toured the Dillon mansion all decorated for Christmas, but they would not allow us to take photos. So there is nothing to see.

Reunion with College Roommate Jane

The next morning I packed up the camper and headed off to Normal, Illinois. I was thrown off a bit by having to backtrack so far into Arkansas in order to pick up U.S. Highway 55, but did regain my bearings and headed north. I thought the highway sign showing the exit to Braggadochio, Missouri was a keeper.

I arrived at Jane's "ranch" outside Carlock, Illinois by late afternoon. Jane had planned enough activities to fit into a week. But we settled on all three of us (me, Jane and her husband Bryan) going to a new craft brewery called DeStihl in Normal. It was huge with a big wall of glass behind which were all their gleeming brewing (and other) tanks almost like artwork. We discovered that they did not serve dinner on the night we were there, but we did have some excellent beers. And of course some excellent conversation.

We settled on an eclectic restaurant that I cannot remember the name of. I had an excellent Thai curry. Jane and I cyber-stalked my favorite old boyfriend from the 1970s. A good time was had by all. Well, maybe not her husband Bryan.

The next day Jane and I headed out to Springfield, Illinois to finish up the tour of the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum that we started during my Great National Retirement Tour. We got there a bit late last time and did not have time to finish the tour. We stopped first to have a chat with Old Abe in front of his Kentucky log cabin home. Last time we did do the whole tour of his log cabin, his childhood, and early young adult life, so we skipped that this time.

We headed into the White House to do the Presidential years tour. First stop was having a spot of tea with Generals McClellan and Grant. I have to admit to being a Ulysses Grant fan myself, so would not be much good in moderating their debates. McClellan does wonderfully look like a self-righteous stuff-shirt and Grant does wonderfully look like the bellicose guy who could down all the whiskey Lincoln sent him.

The tour started with Mary Todd Lincoln's famous Black seamstress Elizabeth Keckley, who has been portrayed in several movies and theater plays. It progressed thru Lincoln's debates with Stephen Douglas, his Presidential campaigns, his cabinet, the Civil War, and ended up with this fabulous display of a whole bunch of talking heads giving Lincoln conflicting advice about freeing the slaves to give a flavor of what Lincoln as President was hearing from the country, and ends up with him standing alone at his desk having just signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Very moving!!! We took in the revolving display in the center, which was all about Christmas at the White House thru the years. I most enjoyed seeing the family Christmas photos of the Eisenhowers. Then we vamped in front of the giant Christmas tree, picked up some T-shirts in the gift shop, and headed back to Bloomington for dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant there.

The third day was spent lounging around the house and reading on my part. Jane was a busy girl; she had a regular meeting to go to and her chickens to tend. She picked out some colorful eggs to send with me to my Cousin Peggy's house in Rock Falls. The three of us - me, Jane, and her husband Bryan - all went out to eat at a trendy new Asian fusion restaurant in Bloomington called Anju Above. I have taken too long to write this blog, but I think I had a sushi roll and some steamed dumplings. I do remember that the food was superb! I have a sneaky suspicion that Bryan is a true foodie. The next morning I got on the road to Rock Falls.

Central BBQ, Memphis

On recommendation of my friend Tait Danielson-Castillo, I walked across the street from the National Civil Rights Museum and had dinner at Central BBQ. First, it was packed at 5pm - always the sign of a good restaurant! You wait in a long line to place your order at what (at another time) was probably the coat check. I ordered the Bologna Sandwich (following my great experience with Southern bologna in Raleigh) and got my table marker. There was only one table left in the main room of the restaurant (there are a total of 3 very large rooms).

I grabbed the table, put down my purse and table marker just as two young men walked up with their table markers. Feeling adventurous, I invited them to join me and they did since they had no other options. Central BBQ is also a craft beer bar, so we ordered 3 draft beers. Since I like my beer dark and malty, I had to ask two different bartenders for a recommendation, and the second one did not steer me wrong. I wish I could remember the name of the beer, but it was fantastic! The two young men ordered light, hoppy beers - of course.

It turned out that they were in Memphis for the St. Jude Hospital marathon - and had competed that day! They were old college room-mates and long-time friends. One had done the full marathon and the other one had done the half-marathon. I was amazed that they did not seem totally wiped out by the experience. The full marathoner apparently does it every year; the half-marathoner is not quite as dedicated. Neither one of them finished in the prize money, but both were happy with their times. We talked about running, about children and grandchildren, and about old friends. I bought them another beer and we had a great time. I am more adventurous about sharing my table with strangers when I am out of town because I know I will never see them again. I have some kind of sign on my forehead that invites people to tell me very personal and deeply disturbing things that I do not want to hear and makes me not want to run into them ever again. These two young men seem to be those magical creatures who have nothing deeply personal they want to get off their chests. Thank goodness!

The Bologna Sandwich was everything I hoped it would be. I used the Carolina mustard sauce with it, which was OK. (I am not going to lie to you). My two companions had the pulled pork and used the red BBQ sauces which they proclaimed as excellent. I would definitely go back. It is a perfect restaurant for someone traveling alone because it is huge, loud, raucous, and you don't feel like you are sitting all alone while you eat. And 50% of the bartenders really know their beers! I picked up 6 Central BBQ cups to bring to the babies on my next trip to Louisiana.

National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis

A trip to the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, highly recommended by my friend Tait Danielson-Castillo as a must, turned out to be the absolute highlight of my trip there! The museum itself is located in the Lorraine Hotel. If that name sounds familiar, it is because that is where Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968.

When you first come in to the museum, you are treated to an extremely large and busy sculpture called “Movement to Overcome” in the lobby that is worth seeing. It is hard to describe, but once seen will never be forgotten. Michael Pavlovsky created a 13-foot-by-26-foot, 7,000-pound bronze sculpture that represents a collection of human figures rising from and making their way on both sides of a narrow divide. The author stated that, "It’s about the anonymous individuals that we know nothing about now that lived the civil rights struggle and participated in it. They are forgotten. But the hundreds of images of human figures on that sculpture represent those anonymous individuals."

You buy your ticket and are ushered into a large circular room that contains sculptures and curated descriptions of the timeline of American slavery. There is enough time to see most of it before they open the doors to the theater for a short film clip of the museum. After this film clip, you are free to browse thru the museum at your own pace.

There are many, many exhibits in this very well-laid out and curated museum. I will highlight the ones that spoke to me. The first was the Montgomery bus boycott. The exhibit is called "The Year They Walked."

On December 1, 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, AL and sparked the American Civil Rights movement of the 20th century. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ordered Montgomery to integrate its bus system, and one of the leaders of the boycott, a young pastor named Martin Luther King Jr., emerged as a prominent leader of the American civil rights movement. Although Parks has sometimes been depicted as a woman with no history of civil rights activism at the time of her arrest, she and her husband Raymond were, in fact, active in the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and Parks served as its secretary.

The Women’s Political Council (WPC), a group of black women working for civil rights, began circulating flyers calling for a boycott of the bus system on December 5, the day Parks would be tried in municipal court. Approximately 40,000 African-American bus riders—the majority of the city’s bus riders—boycotted the system the next day, December 5. That afternoon, black leaders met to form the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA). The group elected Martin Luther King Jr., the 26-year-old-pastor of Montgomery’s Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, as its president, and decided to continue the boycott until the city met its demands. On June 5, 1956, a Montgomery federal court ruled that any law requiring racially segregated seating on buses violated the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The exhibit contains a Montgomery city bus that visitors can enter and sit down on the bus with a life-size sculpture of Rosa Parks. There is an audio program that explains the bus boycott and the roles of Rosa Parks and young Rev. Martin Luther King. Outside the bus are life-size sculptures of the anonymous Black women who walked to and from work for a year to earn the right to sit anywhere on the bus they desired. In other words, they walked to work for a year to gain human dignity and set in motion a Civil Rights movement that would grow beyond their wildest dreams and thrust both Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King into the headlines and the history books.

Human rights stuggles do not appear as if by magic in one stroke of a woman who will not give up her seat on the bus. In February of 1956, a young man named Bayard Rustin arrived in Montgomery to help Dr. King and Rosa Parks with this nacent movement. Rustin had organized the first Freedom Ride in 1947 - a ride called the Journey to Reconciliation taken by 8 Black men and 8 White men from D.C. to Louisville to take action against discrimination on interstate buses. Bayard brought with him masterful organizing and strategic capabilities that grew the movement into a national force, and a firm commitment to Gandhi's nonviolent civil disobedience. Never heard of him? Perhaps because he was a gay man - a Black gay man.

Wyatt Tee Walker, a Freedom Rider who was arrested more than 17 times for challenging segregation in the South, had become executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1961 after King called to recruit him. Walker was the most famous man that no one ever knew during the Civil Rights campaigns. The local police were always searching for him because he arrived in town before every major Martin Luther King led march to identify, measure, and target every step along the way and devise the march strategy, but they could not arrest him because they did not know what he looked like. In October of 1967, Walker was arrested with Dr. King and spent 3 days in the Birmingham jail. Walker snuck a camera into the jail cell taped to his leg and took this iconic photo of King which is displayed at the museum. What is less known is that King snapped a photo of the elusive and rarely photographed W.T. Walker that same day. This was four years after King's famous "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" was written.

On 1 February 1968, two Memphis garbage collectors, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, were crushed to death by a malfunctioning truck. Twelve days later, 1,300 black men from the Memphis Department of Public Works went on strike. Sanitation workers, led by garbage-collector-turned-union-organizer, T. O. Jones, and supported by AFSCME President Jerry Wurf, demanded recognition of their union, better safety standards, and a decent wage. Within a week, the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) passed a resolution supporting the strike. The following day, after police used mace and tear gas against nonviolent demonstrators, Memphis’s black community was galvanized. Meeting in a church basement on 24 February, 150 local ministers formed Community on the Move for Equality (COME). COME committed to the use nonviolent civil disobedience to fill Memphis’s jails and bring attention to the plight of the sanitation workers.

By the beginning of March of 1968, local high school and college students, nearly a quarter of them white, were participating alongside garbage workers in daily "I Am a Man" marches; and over one hundred people, including several ministers, had been arrested. National civil rights leaders, including Roy Wilkins and Bayard Rustin, came to rally the sanitation workers. King himself arrived on 18 March to address a crowd of about 25,000 – the largest indoor gathering the civil rights movement had ever seen. Following this speech, the Southern Christian Leaderships Conference’s (SCLC) James Bevel and Ralph Abernathy remained to help organize the protest and work stoppage. Despite some violence from a group supporting the protestors, Dr. King on 3 April was persuaded to speak to a crowd of dedicated sanitation workers who had braved another snow storm to hear him, giving them his famous "I Have Been to the Mountaintop" speech. King told them that they could not give up now and preached about his own mortality, telling the group, “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life--longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now… I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land”

At 6:01 pm on April 4, 1968, as Dr. King stepped out on the balcony outside Room 306 of the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, he was shot by James Earl Ray with a high powered rifle from the apartment building across the street. Dr. King had been preparing for an evening event in support of the garbage workers' strike. Andrew Young, Ralph Abernathy, Jesse Jackson, Hosea Williams, William Campbell, and musician Ben Branch were with him that evening. King was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 7:05 pm, never having regained consciousness.

The museum tour ends at a very average 1960s-era motel room identified as Room 306. I thought it was a re-creation, as many of the items in the museum are. But no. This is the actual Room 306 that Dr. Martin Luther King was staying in that night and the room they pulled him back into after he was shot. It took my breath away. I was not expecting to have history thrust in my face quite so starkly. This was a powerful exhibit, but so exquisitely simple. It is difficult to describe all the feelings it brings up. The last photo is of the now-famous balcony. The wreath is a permanent fixture (probably not always done up in Christmas design, but a wreath is always there), as are the historically accurate 1960s era cars.

Beale Street!!!!

Day 2 started off with a foray to: (1) buy parts for my camper that I broke the day before, (2) check in at the Memphis Visitor Information Center, (3) get breakfast - which proved to be more difficult than I imagined, (4) do my laundry, and (5) take a nap to make up for the total lack of sleep on the first night in Memphis due to my broken camper furnace.

In the evening took the Graceland Hotel shuttle into downtown Memphis. They offered a drop-off and pick-up on Beale Street. The shuttles come once per hour. I was very happy to not have to park downtown. I did take some photos of the hotel interior, which was done up in kind of 1950s era Las Vegas style, but unfortunately my camera chose not to save them. It does that sometimes. The shuttle was comfortable, clean, and the driver was outgoing - good experience.

I took my friend Tait Danielson-Castillo's suggestion to eat at Flying Fish. It is a fast-casual Cajun seafood restaurant that has its very own special vibe. I did enjoy the people watching - and the food! Excellent recommendation Tait!

I walked down 2nd Street to Beale. Tried to stop at one of the many music museums downtown, but it was closed on a Saturday night, which seemed a little strange to me. Beale Street itself is blocked off by the police on both ends of a three block stretch, so the entire street and sidewalks are kind of alive with pedestrians and street performers during the evening hours. It reminded me a lot of the French Quarter in New Orleans. Went to BB King's Blues Club first. Loved the music and the people watching. There was a woman with joie de vivre to spare at the table next to me who kind of drew me into her date with her husband. She made the experience a lot of fun. Travel karma. I stayed long enough to hear three bands (each one on stage for a little less than one hour). They were all fantastic, but all very different. And they were extremely serious about their Blues music.

I walked down Beale Street, doing some window shopping, watching the street performers, and scoping out the other music clubs. Stopped at Rum Boogie Cafe next. At first, I was a little disappointed that a rock 'n roll band was playing that night. But their musicianship won me over. However, the lack of sleep on Thursday night caught up with me and I kind of nodded off at my table. The waitress woke me up, so I decided it was time to head for home.

I did enjoy Beale Street. I can see why people who are just looking for some good music might prefer an atmosphere that isn't so carnival-like, but it was great for a single person who wants to anonymously enjoy the club vibe. I returned to the shuttle pick-up spot, and was entertained for about 20 minutes by a private limousine shuttle and its passengers. The entertainment was not intended; it was just pure great people watching -- and they were some unintentionally hilarious people.

Tour of Elvis' Graceland Mansion

Day 1 started out with driving to a Target store to buy a small electric heater for the camper. Heat at last. One of those things you take for granted until you can't get it for more than 3 weeks. My camping skills were tested!

Then decided to walk next door to take the tour of Graceland. There was a handy opening in the chain link fence that separated the RV Park from the Graceland entertainment complex. So, I took a couple of photos, bought my ticket, and got on the bus to drive us across the street to the mansion. You cannot drive up to the mansion; the only vehicles allowed in the musical note gates are the buses.

We entered the mansion and followed along with the audio tape at our own pace. It was decorated for Christmas, which was a bonus. The famous peacock stained glass windows in the living room were created by Lauxhuff Designs of Memphis. They also made the stained glass light fixtures above the billiard table. Elvis was apparently a fan of billiards. There is a tear in the table fabric and no one seems to know the guilty party. There are a few bizarre rooms there, including a TV viewing room with 3 television sets. Reportedly, Elvis heard that Pres. Lyndon Johnson had 3 television sets so he could watch all three major news networks at once. Elvis used his to watch football on all three major networks. The upstairs is off limits, but the curators have brought his entire home office down into the tunnel below the mansion (called the Trophy Building) and recreated it behind glass. The collection was surprisingly well curated.

The last photo is Elvis' grave (along with those of his two parents and grandmother) in what he called his Meditation Garden, fashioned after an ancient Greek garden complete with an Italian statue. It was built by Bernard Grenadier in the mid-60s at Elvis' request. The brick wall behind the Grecian columns is inlaid with primitive, hand-made Spanish stained glass from the 1800s.

I took the bus back across the street to the Elvis Presley Enterprises museum. This huge auditorium style building houses all his career artifacts: records, musical instruments, costumes, posters, etc. His daughter Lisa Marie Presley only owns 15% of Elvis Presley Enterprises, but she is the sole owner of Graceland mansion itself. The photo mashup up below shows (clockwise) (1) a poster of photos from Sun Records, the Memphis recording company that produced most of Elvis' recordings, (2) his favorite acoustic guitar, (3) his wall of records, (4) the logo on the door - I just like the simplicity of it, and (5) his gold and platinum records. I was prepared to be underwhelmed by this museum, but actually found it really interesting. I especially enjoyed the European posters. Of course, they had about 5 shops full of memorabilia for tourists with too much cash in their pockets.

Since I didn't get a very good sleep - see cold night in the camper in previous post - I decided to skip Beale Street the first night and head over there the following evening. I went to sleep early and my new, tiny electric heater kept me toasty warm.

Picking Up Memphis, 2017

When I went on my Great National Retirement Tour in 2016, I was not able to squeeze Memphis into the itinerary. But I did want to experience Beale Street. So when my college room-mate Jane Gramoli invited me to come stay with her the next time I was in Louisiana, and since Memphis is sort of between Shreveport and Bloomington, Illinois, I decided to pick up a few days in Memphis.

My first adventure was finding a camping spot. There were three (3) RV campgrounds in the city - one far outside the urban ring road, and two on Elvis Presley Boulevard not far from downtown. I looked up the customer reviews and everyone agreed that the Graceland RV Park (yes, it is owned by Elvis Presley Enterprises) was the better of the two campgrounds. So, I made a reservation there.

I also contacted my friend Tait Danielson-Castillo who lived in Memphis for a while to get suggestions on places to visit and places to eat in Memphis. Tait gave me a list of wonderful suggestions. I'm afraid I did not have time to go to all of them, but the ones I did get to in my 2-day stay were stellar. Thanks Tait.

I got a late start leaving Shreveport because Brent and I had a regular on-going soap opera trying to open a savings account for DJ and opening up a safe deposit box for him at a credit union there. We finally got the safe deposit box settled on the last day I was there. DJ still does not have his "bank." I said all that to say that I got to Memphis late; almost midnight. I could not find my RV Park. I drove up and down on Elvis Presley Boulevard many times searching for it. I finally found a campground, drove in, and set up my camper for the night. Another night without heat since, after all the trouble I had in Shreveport with bad electrical connections, apparently the furnace also did not work. In the morning, I realized I was in the wrong RV Park. So, had to take down the pop-up, drive about a mile down the road, and set it up all over again. And yes, Graceland is a MUCH better campground than the other park was. And yes, it is also right across the street from Elvis' Graceland mansion.

This RV Park had very nice bathrooms with full shower facilities, a very clean laundry facility, and secuity guards to keep any cars without parking stickers out of the campground. They also had a "family" relationship with the Graceland hotel across the street so we could get shuttle rides to and from major Memphis attractions, including Beale Street from their lobby. I would recommend the park. My spot was on Shook Up Lane - and yes, all the driveways were labelled with Elvis' song titles.

Old Time Photo from Tombstone

Remember back in February when I said that I would post up the old time photo that Colleen, Carol and I took in Tombstone as soon as I got someplace where I could scan the print photo? Well, I finally did get that photo scanned and here it is! Don't we look like a trio of treacherous characters!

Pat's Great National Retirement Tour by the Numbers

May 18, 2016:

I was on the road for 96 Days from January 15 thru April 19, 2016

Traveled 10,543 miles

Spent roughly $1,110 on gas, oil, windshield washer fluid, two oil changes, and a headlight replacement while on my trip. This does not include the costs for getting hit in Brent’s parking lot in the middle of the night by a hit and run driver. That could just as easily have happened if I had stayed home. My mother always kept track of all the gasoline we used on our family trips, and it seemed like a nod to tradition to do it for this trip too. And, in case you are wondering, I really do love Love's!

Stayed in 10 states, did some sightseeing, and visited friends and family: New Mexico, California, Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Illinois

Traveled thru parts of another 9 states: Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, and Wisconsin (sometimes very small parts).

Most of my travel happened on Interstate 10, which stretches from Los Angeles, California to Jacksonville, Florida. I drove all but two segments of that road all across the USA (skipping one small segment from L.A. to Palm Springs and one larger segment from San Antonio, Texas to Baton Rouge, Louisiana). I have, however, on another trip in another year driven the segment between Lafayette, Louisiana and San Antonio, Texas.



Spent 28 nights sleeping in my Palomino camper on this tour, bringing my initial cost of ownership down to $140 per night. This does not count the amounts spent at each campground and RV resort. I will add that up later. It also does not include the 4 nights that my camper stayed in Sliddell, Louisiana while I stayed at a hotel in the French Quarter. For eleven (11) of them I had company in the camper: Carol for 3 days at Joshua Tree National Park, Mary for 6 days in two different states (Florida and South Carolina), and my grandkids Naima and Nasir for 2 nights in North Carolina.

I also stayed with one complete stranger (although an old friend of Carol’s), three cousins, one high school BFF, two sons, two friends, and one college room-mate. They were all gracious hosts and I thank each and every one of them for making my tour so fabulous. And my friends Trudie and Mary took the “Train They Call the City of New Orleans” down to spend 3 days in New Orleans’s French Quarter with me. They all eagerly joined me in creating adventures in each location as their work schedules allowed.

I met a 91-year-old Navajo code talker from WW2, a young man who sells art on Canyon Road in Santa Fe, some distant cousins whose parents owned a trailer park in a popular movie stage location in the mountains around Palm Springs, a retiree who gets dressed up in 19th Century cowboy gear to hang out in Tombstone several times a month, a grandfather of a 3-year-old with a dream of being a rodeo cowgirl, a Brit who was in the USA to try to break into the country music songwriting business, a couple from Iowa who are big fans of the Grand Ole Opry, a young couple who are on a mission to visit every Presidential library/museum/home in the USA, and a large number of friendly Appalachian Trail hikers who were concerned about my stamina on the hike.

I used up and threw away 5 ball point gel pens on my trip writing in my journal, on post cards, keeping track of my gas purchases, and gift card debits on a yellow legal pad. Oh, and writing up directions to get to my next location which I taped onto the radio – yes, that was my GPS.

I lost 10 pounds on the trip; not intentionally.

I added 15 stamps at National Parks and National Historic Sites to my National Parks Passport book. I spent time in Bandolier National Monument, Joshua Tree National Park, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, San Antonio Missions (Concepcion this time), New Orleans National Historic Site, Gulf Shores National Seashore (and Fort Pickens) in Pensacola, Fort Sumter in Charleston, the Great Smoky Mountains, and the Appalachian Trial in Tennessee, as well as a couple of Presidential libraries/museums. BTW, if you are over 62 years of age, get yourself a National Park Senior Pass – this is the best deal in the whole darn country!!!

In 2008, I set out to show the vast expanse and variety of America to my grandkids by taking them to Chickasaw National Park, Oklahoma City National Monument, Hot Springs National Park, Pipestone National Park, the Badlands National Park, Black Hills National Forest, and Wind Cave National Park. We have since added Vicksburg National Cemetery, Rocky Mountain National Park, Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park and the Grand Canyon to our list of great American landmarks visited. This was the first time I have traveled mostly by myself to see the great sweep of America. It is an item on my bucket list to visit as many national parks as I can fit in during the time I have remaining. Mission partially accomplished.

While America’s national parks are all treasures that tell the story of our geography, our geology, our native flora and fauna, the immense power of water, our wars, our settlement patterns, as well as the good, the bad, and the ugly of our Western expansion, it was also great to visit a lot of major U.S. cities along Highway 10 from the West Coast to the East Coast to see the things each place holds most dear and is most proud to show off to visitors. People all along Interstate 10 are very proud of the great places they have built, and for the most part they deserve to be (there was a whole lot of absolutely nothing in west Texas, and Charleston kind of creeped me out). I am overall so happy that I went on this tour and so happy that I went now when I am still healthy and can still walk around, and climb around, to truly see what each place has to offer the inveterate traveler. We really do live in an amazingly vast and varied country.

Oh, and having sunshine and warmer weather all winter long was a bonus!

Circle Back to Norske Nook

Wednesday, May 11th:

One last Great National Retirement Tour Stop – the Norske Nook in Osseo, Wisconsin. I passed it by when I was returning from South Beloit. I loaded Trudie, Jean-N, and Mary in the car (which necessitated cleaning it out) and drove the 2 hours to Osseo. Signage was sparse, but we did make it to the Norske Nook. We made a coffee and donut stop in Baldwin at Trudie’s suggestion. Excellent suggestion!

Norske Nook is so popular in this small town that it has a restaurant on one side of the street and a gift shop on the other side of the street. We went to the restaurant first. I had Norwegian pancakes (more like crepes) with lingonberries and Swedish meatballs. Jean had a meatball diner which comes with lefse as the bread. Trudie had the beef commercial, and Mary had a turkey club sandwich. We all had pie for dessert. They have a huge collection of wonderful pies.

Jean and I each bought rounds of lefse on the way out. The next morning I ate half of one round some with butter and cheese from our trip and some with peanut butter. Their lefse is the best I have had since Grandma died.

We all walked across the street to the gift shop. I bought a krumkake wood form for rolling it, and a coloring book of Norwegian culture. They didn’t have a good cheese shovel.

Then we headed back toward Saint Paul with a planned stop at Cady Cheese first. Cady is a cheese maker near Wilson, Wisconsin – really out in the country! Everyone found something to like there. I found Butterkässe – as did Trudie. All of us found squeaky cheese curds – made fresh that day. I found a cheese shovel that worked fairly well.

It was raining the whole time we were at Cady Cheese and rained the whole way home. It was surprisingly kind of a pleasant rain experience. And I can’t think of anything I would rant have done on a gray, rainy day.

Started Camper Cleaning

Saturday, May 7th:

Washed the camper exterior. It looks a lot like scrubbing a kitchen floor. I even used Lysol, but didn’t get all the dirt off. The top of the camper is a bumpy fiberglass covering where dirt hides in little nooks and crannies. Maybe one more scrub down before I put it away. Also laundered my sleeping bag – and did it ever need a good laundering!

Finished Season 3 of the Miss Fisher murder mysteries. I feel like a good friend has left me. Dear Every Cloud Productions, please bring back a Season 4 of Miss Fisher.

Wrote the ending reflection on my whole trip for the blog, but did not load it up. I want to get it right before I put it out there.

Driver's License Renewed; Car Cleaned

Tuesday, April 26th:

Got dolled up and went to Sears to get a new driver’s license. Mine expired last week on the day I arrived back home. Then went back home to do cleaning. I vacuumed the car – which was filthy after 4 months on the road. Also washed the interior hard surfaces with scrubbing bubbles. Much improved even if not all cleared out yet. Still slowly removing stuff from the car. And still finding souvenir gifts for my family and friends.

I am still trying to locate things I left behind, like the keys to my post office box and my check blanks. Oh, and the key to the garage. One day.

My friends Mary Krueger and Trudie Ellsworth took me out to Ward 6 for Sunday brunch. We had some great food and a wonderful time (helped along no doubt by the adult milkshakes) until Bob kicked us out. This place is just too popular!

The Purple Prince is Dead

Thursday, April 21st:

Slept for 3 days straight. Got the accumulation of almost 4 months’ worth of mail handled – which mostly means thrown away. Lots of financial mailings to go thru. Went to several banks to start work on reconciling all my bank accounts, which I did not do while I was on the road.

Prince (the singer/songwriter of Purple Rain fame) died today. A lot of Minnesotans were gathering out at Paisley Park or at First Avenue nightclub. Kelly and I drove over to the I-35W bridge to take purple photos – including several of me wearing my raspberry berry that I really did buy at a second-hand store. But I bought mine when Prince was still in junior high school. I will now always think of Prince when I think about my trip. The two events are forever entwined.

Day 96: Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety, Jig

Day 96, Tuesday: My birthday and it seems fitting and memorable that the Great National Retirement Tour should end on my birthday. This day will be the birth of a totally new phase of my life. I have seen a lot of places, things, and people. I have enjoyed almost all of it. There are some places I have always wanted to see that I have now seen and I am done. There are some places that I have just scratched the surface, and I want to return. There are some friendly old haunts that I loved returning to.

I have met, re-met, and re-connected with so many people; some have been a wonderful surprise and a few (OK just one) have been a disappointment.

This is also a good day to end my trip because my driver’s license expires today.

I woke up this morning, packed up, had breakfast that David made, packed the car, hooked it to the camper with David’s help, said good-bye to LuAnne and David, and left. Well, almost. When I got to the gas station, I realized I had left my money behind. But then I was on the road again. The last leg of my journey. I am sad!

Stopped at an A&W in Windsor, Wisconsin – just west of Madison – for a rootbeer float and fried cheese curds. And some photos!

Then, because Brent had mentioned wanting to go there for a vacation, I stopped in Wisconsin Dells to pick up some brochures to send to him and Autumn. Plus a few last post cards. Where were these tourist items, you ask? Why, at Walgreens. I went to Applebees for lunch (truly horrible), and to write those last few post cards. And where was the mail box, you ask? Why, right outside Walgreens. Soon, they will have 24-hour staffed visitor information centers. Just my joke.

I skipped Norske Nook and drove straight thru to Saint Paul, but vowed to return soon. I arrived home at 6 pm with a grand total of 10,543 miles on my car for the entire trip. I got a grocery bag and filled it up with the mail order catalogs I have received in the past 4 months and then went to sleep at 7 pm. Happy but tired!

Day Two in South Beloit

Monday: LuAnne took the day off work and we went to the Rock River to walk on their promenade with the three dogs, who were extremely excited to be able to get outdoors for a walk. The park itself, where Turtle Creek comes into the Rock River, is just lovely. They have created a back pond with fountains, rock formations, and a lot of benches and trees. Separated by the walking path and some trees in the Rock River just to the west of this pond. The dogs loved the whole experience and Nana didn't even try to bite me. I took lots of photos.

We brought the panting dogs home and then went to Wickus landscaping empire in rural Beloit, Wisconsin to look at some Norway Pines. LuAnne bought two for their yard and I bought a Becky daisy to plant in my garden when I get back to Saint Paul. We took some scenic back country roads on the way home.

Back at the homestead, LuAnne wanted to sit on the back porch and figure out where to plant the Norway Pines. And to place the 4 perennials where she wanted them. This turned into a lovely afternoon of enjoying the sun, the wind, good company, and some cool water. I wrote in my journal, and took another photo of the three of us. I gave them the French macarons from Bennisons and we ate some of them. David put his wood chipper together, after which we took an inspection tour of the rear garden. It is all poking out of the earth, but not quite announcing what it is yet.

After an early dinner of fried chicken, we binge-watched more “Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries.” LuAnne has given me a new obsession!

Stockholm Inn, Gardening, and Murder

Sunday: the first full day at LuAnne and David's house in South Beloit. We decided to go out to Sunday brunch at the Stockholm Inn in Rockford at Leah's suggestion. So we got LuAnne's car out of the garage (quite a feat since it was blocked in) and headed to Rockford.

The StockholmInn is right next to the Swedish American Medical Center and has a large gift shop with a whole bunch of Scandinavian stuff for sale - Dalarna horses, ginger snaps, Ricka, Dicka, Flicka books, etc. There are also 3 different dining rooms, two of which were full. They had a Sunday brunch buffet with some American breakfast stuff, but also Swedish pancakes with lingon berries, Swedish meatballs, and scalloped apples. We ate well. The Swedish pancakes were delightful.
We drove back home, taking a detour to Home Depot to purchase potted violas and daffodils. LuAnne & I planted them in the front yard when we got back, which was almost like real work. When that job was finished, we went inside to rest up and rehydrate.

At this point, LuAnne came up with the brilliantly inspired idea to binge watch "Miss Fletcher's Murder Mysteries" series. Which we did until almost midnight. The series is set in the 1920s in Australia and I just loved the costumes and the manners of the people of that time. Everyone was just so civilized, and I want half of her costumes. Plus Miss Fisher's role as detective allowed the producers to set the action in a wide variety of places with all strata of society. And, as LuAnne said, Miss Fisher herself was totally fearless - a wonderful trait in a post-Victorian woman. A very well-done television series! In the midst of our binge, we ordered an excellent pizza with the works for dinner. I forgot to ask where it was from.

We both worked a little on our computers. I finished my blog posts up thru arriving in South Beloit. I can't believe I have gotten this far. A week ago I was very seriously behind.

South Beloit - Last Stop on the Great National Retirement Tour

I promised Peggy's daughter Leah that I would teach her how to drive a stick shift. She and her sister Marissa are going to vacation in Ireland where they have rented a manual transmission car. So, after another breakfast of Peggy's famous omelettes and home-made strawberry scones, we took a spin around Rock Falls with Leah driving the trusty Subaru. She did better than I did the first time I drove stick shift, but there was a little hopping. We also stopped at the car wash so I could wash the pollen off the car.

I packed up the car, got directions (both Peggy and Ralph suggested the more scenic Hwy 2 route), and hit the road - Highway 2. I had a little trouble in Sterling and ended up on Hwy 38 headed south. But I ran into Sink Hollow Road, which I had commented on to Peggy about the name yesterday, so I took it north and picked up Hwy 2 again. Thank goodness for the tiny compass taped to my rear view mirror. Stopped for gas along the way once. The drive was beautiful - mostly hugging the Rock River for the majority of the way.

I arrived in South Beloit around 1 pm (Saturday) - which was about 3 hours early. It's not that far from Rock Falls to Rockford, and it turns out that South Beloit is kind of a suburb of Rockford (don't tell LuAnne I said that). I missed my exit and went all the way to Beloit, Wisconsin. Took a nap at a highway rest stop until LuAnne got back to me with new directions.

David and LuAnne cooked ribeye steak, baked potatoes, and mixed veggies for dinner. Then LuAnn and I made a run to the store for some white chocolate, raspberry truffle ice cream. Nummmm! We had a rousing evening of all three of us playing on our computers in the living room - with dog escorts of course.

We all played on our computers and watched some TV before bed. Mileage on the trusty Subaru so far on this trip = 10,225 miles.

My Day in Rock Falls with Peggy

Woke up before 7 am on Friday, took a shower, and discovered that Peggy was already awake. I joined Peggy and Ralph at their kitchen table. Ralph organized a petition to have one of Peggy’s famous omelettes for breakfast, so she made us three and we had the cinnamon pecan rolls from Bennisons. They have some great contraptions for making tea.

After breakfast I caught up in my journal 4 days and 7 pages. Then Peggy and I got on the road for our adventures of the day.

First stop was the Rock Falls/Sterling dam and the aborted Hennepin Canal. The entire 66 mile length of the canal is on the National Historic Register. The idea to build it surfaced in 1834; Congress appropriated the first funds in 1890 and completed in 1907, just in time for river shipping to be on the decline and railroad shipping to be on the ascent. It was the first canal built of concrete and not stone. The water was spilling over a little less than half the dam with immense force and power. It was impressive to stand so close to it. We took some photos and then walked across on the walk-way trail to a brick path going up to the Dillon House; an historic house that mixes up Victorian, Federalist, and Moorish styles.

Next we drove to the Indian Mounds at Sinnissipi. We read the interpretive materials about the three different tribes over three different time periods back to 1500 BC who all buried their dead in these mounds. Their remains have been removed to a different burial ground. We walked on the trail along the Rock River down below the mounds. The whole area (another bend in the river) is now a city park.

Then we drove to the City of Dixon and went to Castle Rock. It’s a state park now, but was once a sacred site for the Sauk and Fox Native American tribes. They now have a staircase that takes one up to the castle rock to prevent people from damaging the site. It is a lovely view of the whole river valley from there. Peggy and I climbed to the top, took some photos, and admired the view. She told me that many Europeans came to this site on their Grand Tour of America in the mid 1800s until too many White settlers came to the area and changed the face of the landscape. Then the Europeans stopped coming.

On the drive back from Dixon I made Peggy stop at the John Deere farm and blacksmith shop for photos. The historic site was closed for the season until May 1st, but we could still take photos. Vermonter John Deere moved to Grand Detour, Illinois in 1836 and started working as a blacksmith. He struggled with busting the prairie soil with New England plows, so in 1837 he invented a self-scouring steel plow using a broken saw blade. By 1850, he was producing 1600 plows annually. In 1912, John’s son Charles’ son-in-law William Butterworth started the company’s expansion into the tractor business by buying the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company that already manufactured a successful tractor. In 2014 John Deer Company was ranked 80th in the Fortune 500.

The blacksmith shop still operates for tourists in the summer months.

I took Peggy and Ralph out to dinner at Art's Garden Deli. The owners of Art's are local Rock Falls residents and they have an interesting dining model. They serve sandwiches with fresh, healthy ingredients made to order, baked potatoes also made to order stuffed with your choice of meat and cheese, soups, and desserts - including frozen yogurt. You order and pick up just like at a deli counter. We sat outside on the patio. Peggy said she has always wanted a piazza like this at her house. It was great seeing Peggy in person again after all these years.

Day 91: Rock Falls, Illinois

Thursday: I got directions to Bryony’s and Peggy’s figured out, written down, and taped to my radio. Got the car packed up, dishes done, cooler cleaned out and repacked, bed put away, and one last photo taken. Then I headed out to Bryony’s apartment to pick up the camper.

Ooops. It wasn’t there. I called and left a message for Bryony. I called Red’s Towing and yes, it had been towed. The apartment management had called them for a tow despite the fact that I had a parking permit taped to the camper. So I drove over to Red’s and picked up the camper. It still had the parking permit attached, and they were not admitting any wrong-doing. This whole thing took 2 hours.

By the time I got on I-294 it was 3:30 pm and the middle of Chicago rush hour. I was traveling between 1st and 2nd gear until I hit I-88 (having gotten on near Willette). I’m sure I missed some tolls on I-294, but their signage is horrible. It gives you a lane to stay in to pay cash, but then right at the spot to pay, you need to move over 2 lanes to the right on what is labelled as an exit. They need help with their signage. Spent about $20 on tolls even with the missed ones.

Got to Peggy and Ralph’s house in Rock Falls about 6:30 pm. They had plans to go to dinner at the Candle Light Inn. So, I took my suitcase and bag in and we headed there. Our dining companions were Skip and his wife – he is the Mayor of Sterling. So we talked about snow plowing, crazy constituents, and staff for elected officials. We also talked about the Smoky Mountains since he is from there and still has a cabin in the Smokies. He is an amusing and affable guy – easy to see how he got elected.

I had Chicken George – the Candle Light’s specialty dish – with baked sweet potato and a green salad. What makes Chicken George is the sauce – sort of a lemony mayonnaise with mustard and some other spices. Very good!

Peggy is my cousin - her Dad Sherman and my Dad Carmen were brothers. I remember going over to her house to play when they lived in Willmar many years ago. And I remember her toys being way better than my toys. We had a good time talking about our grandparents and uncles.

Mileage on Day 91 = 10,110 miles on car to date.

A Day of Rest in Chicago

I had good intentions of going out to explore the neighborhood in Evanston (especially Noyes and maybe try to find that microbrewery again). But instead I called in to check on the status of my credit cards. One of my cards had been hacked and used to pay for 5 hotel rooms in Half Moon Bay, California all on one day. Dealing with this catastrophe took all morning. I cancelled my card. The only good news is that none of those charges have actually posted yet, which may or may not be good for me. I have to call back next week and find out.

After dealing with that, I occupied myself by taking a nap today (Wednesday). I did, however, first make myself a Smithfield bologna sandwich for breakfast. Still delicious.

Kerri wasn't up for cooking and I did want to get out into the fresh air (temperatures were in the 40s the last few days) at least for a little while. So, I walked up to Noyes Street and had some Korean BBQ and hot & sour soup at Mandarin House.

When I got back to Kerri's, I called Autumn and we talked about the possibility of taking the train to Minnesota when they move there next year. I am excited about having them move to Minnesota and see DJ having a chance to go to kindergarten in Minnesota. She liked the idea of the train, since it would be extremely difficult for her to fly alone with 3 babies.

I finished all the blog posts up thru Springfield, posted a couple more posts to Facebook (now in the Smokies), and mashed up more photos before going to bed. This is my last night in Chicago. I had pictured the Blues, but didn't want to go alone.