This trip took us from Minnesota through Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Iowa, and back to Minnesota. A journey through America's heartland! We discovered that the Midwest is not necessarily the boring place us sophisticated West (and East) Coasters think it is. It's been too long since the trip for me to remember enough detail to give a day by day breakdown, so I'll just go through the pictures. They form a pretty complete trip log.
On the first day, we took a midnight flight to Minneapolis, rented a car at the airport, and drove along the Mississippi, mostly on the Wisconsin side, to Galena, Illinois, where we made our first stop. Shortly after leaving the airport, we were greatly amused to hear on the radio (for the first time; the song had just come out) Tom Petty's "Free Fallin'", with its references to Reseda and L.A. freeways. You just can't get away from L.A.; it'll follow you wherever you go...
Lake Pepin, which is actually just a wide spot in the Mississippi.
On the drive, I frequently stopped to read roadside historical markers. Terry began to chafe at this, so I almost passed this one by - and I probably left skid marks on the road when my mind registered what the sign had said. I know how much Terry had loved Laura Ingalls Wilder's books.
It turned out that we were at that point very close to the site of Laura's "Little House in the Big Woods." We stopped and read the sign, and visited the museum, where we bought a couple of her books.
Another museum in the shape of an old railroad depot.
We stopped for lunch at the aptly named Twin Bluffs Cafe. One of the items on the menu was a "California Burger." Of course, we had to ask what that was. It was a burger with Thousand Island dressing, lettuce and tomato. We couldn't figure out what was so California about that. We expected it to have avocado, or sprouts, or something. My best guess was that it was the dressing; I'd never heard of putting Thousand Island on burgers until I came to California.
More Heartland scenery, both in the country...
...and in the city (La Grange, Wisconsin).
A cornfield. Just to prove we were in the Midwest.
Our first stop. The Belle Aire Mansion, a bed and breakfast in Galena, Illinois. We had dinner that night in a restaurant that featured live musical performances by the owner/chef and the waitress. It was something of a shock when the chef came out of the kitchen and launched into "Almost Like Being In Love"!
Breakfast the next morning. I don't remember the other guest's names. He was from North Carolina, and she was from Switzerland.
Our hostess, Lorraine, and her two children, Bryony and Josh.
Looks like a nice family photo, except they're not our kids.
Galena, Illinois; a very old-style town. Sort of caught in the late 19th century. The joke is that Ulysses S. Grant (who came from there) told them, before he left to be president, not to change anything until he got back - and he never came back, so they never changed anything!
The next day we continued on our way, through Illinois and Indiana. While driving through Indiana, we visited the (very) small town of Newtown, where Terry's great-aunt Ruth Adylotte used to live. Terry remembered visiting here when she was a little girl, but had no clue where the house was. So we asked some people at random, and they told us to ask an older woman who lived across the street. This person remembered Terry's aunt, and showed us her house.
Unfortunately, the current occupant of the house was a grouch. We didn't ask, but we had hoped he would let us in. He didn't; he clearly resented the fact that we had bothered him in the first place. So we had to content ourselves with these two pictures.
That evening, we arrived in Bloomington, Indiana. There we visited our friends Doug Haise and Stephanie Kaufmann. The following morning, we had brunch at this resort, where Stephanie, a professional harpist, had a gig.
Stephanie harping, with Terry and Doug in the background.
I've always been a lover of caves and caverns. We visited one near Bloomington with a twist; most of the cave is flooded, and the tour is a boat trip on an underground river. This picture shows some rocks at a bend in the river.
I'd often heard about, but never until that day seen, the blind, white fish and other animals that live in the permanent darkness of caves. The white speck in the picture is a crayfish.
An interesting rock formation.
We next visited a train museum in French Lick. That doesn't mean what you're thinking; the "Lick" refers to a salt lick.
We took a steam train ride. Of course, along the way they did the "train robbery" act. Here the "robbers" are about to blow open the strongbox. After they opened it, they reached in and pulled out and held up a large sign urging us to give to "Jerry's Kids"!
More pictures from the train ride and the museum.
The Blair House, our bed and breakfast near Bloomington. The house was nice; the woman who ran it was a rather strange character.
The house came with a dog.
Terry, Jazz and the house dog.
We made a side trip to Louisville, Kentucky, where we visited the American Printing House for the Blind.
Terry in the waiting room. Waiting.
A learning tool, used to demonstrate the relationship of the dots in a Braille cell to the keys of a Braille Writer. As shown in this picture, the six wooden pegs are arranged as in a Braille cell. The two columns can then be rotated outward on the metal hinges, so that the pegs are lined up as on the Braille Writer keyboard.
A "typesetting" machine for Braille.
"Erasing" a Braille character - with a hammer!
Terry inspects a Braille printing press.
Still in Louisville; an impressive old house in a neighborhood full of them.
A stone lion at the entrance to the neighborhood. I liked the expression on his face.
That night, Doug and Stephanie joined us in Louisville for dinner, and we then went to The Ice Cream and Pie Shop, a dessert restaurant that has a wide variety of cakes, pies and ice cream. We had chocolate chip pecan pie!
We then drove to Shaker Village, a restored Shaker community. Like Williamsburg, it features people dressed in period costumes, demonstrating life in earlier times. Unlike Williamsburg, it offers lodgings. We stayed there for two nights.
A Shaker meeting house. Note the two doors, one for men and one for women.
A kitchen. They apparently hung everything on hooks, even the furniture.
Terry in the kitchen. She was not in a good mood at the time.
Our room was in this building.
A man demonstrating the manufacturing of brooms.
Inside the meeting house.
This woman sang a program of Shaker songs, and described a Shaker meeting.
Before leaving Kentucky, we went for a steamboat ride on the Kentucky River.
We then went back to Bloomington, where Doug and Stephanie took us out fishing. The following pictures show us fishing, reading and relaxing.
No one caught anything - except Jazz.
Nashville, Indiana. An artsy touristy kind of place. We bought some good fudge and some good bluegrass music.
This bench, also in Nashville, pictures Abe Martin, a cartoon character and fictional resident of Brown County, Indiana.
Me and Terry and Jazz and Doug relaxing by a stream running through the University of Indiana campus.
Jazz apparently wanted a drink.
A university chapel.
The main gate of the university.
The courthouse and town square.
Terry riding a statue of a rhinoceros. (?)
In the university's Music Department, we found a genuine Grinnell piano!
Doug performing ragtime for us on the Grinnell piano. Unfortunately, it wasn't very good (the piano, I mean - the performance was great).
The next day, we left Bloomington and drove through Indiana and Illinois, stopping for the night at a motel in Iowa City, Iowa. This is a covered bridge we went through along the way.
Genuine Amish horse-drawn carriages. I know they don't like having their pictures taken and being made into tourist attractions; I waited to take this picture until no one was watching.
A German restaurant where we ate dinner.
The next day we drive through Iowa, making some stops. We visited the Amana villages, a cluster of small towns which are the remnant of another religious colony. This is a museum in one of the towns.
The moment I've been waiting for - we are about to visit Grinnell, Iowa!
In and around Grinnell. A lifelong dream come true. At the college bookstore, I bought a t-shirt that said "Grinnell College," and another one that said "Where the Hell is GRINNELL?", and on the back, "Who the Hell cares?".
We stayed that night at the Saint James Hotel in Red Wing, Minnesota. This is a restored classic old hotel. This picture shows a railroad station across the street, in the early morning fog, seen from our hotel room window.
We ended our trip in Minneapolis, where we visited our friends Martha and Merlin Arney. One of the things we did while there was to visit an apple orchard. We sampled various kinds of apples, and bought an apple cookbook. This picture shows some apple trees and apple picking equipment.
Merlin and Martha.
Terry, under the apple tree with anyone else but me.
Merlin and Martha's house.
This nightclub in downtown Minneapolis is featured in the movie "Purple Rain," which starred local-boy-made-good Prince.
