Rochester, Indiana to Minneapolis, MN

En route to Chicago had to take just one little detour.  My whole life I have heard of my mom' s adventures in Rochester, Indiana, where she would spend summers with her aunt Martha. I recently learned from my brother that my grandfather was buried there.  We stopped at this county museum to investigate, since my grandfather was a fairly important guy, and the librarian there jumped to copying records and family information.  She was terrific!

Then off we went to the cemetery where my grandfather is buried with his brother.

Discovered the gravesite of the famous Aunt Martha and many other family gravesites as well.

Was startled to discover the home of successful Uncle Ira, which apparently was also the home in which my grandfather was raised, collapsing the idea I had had that he was raised as the kid of poor immigrants.  This house was nice, especially for its time.  I believe his grandparents were the poor immigrants!

And no trip to the homelands would be complete without a trip to the Tippicanoe River, where my grandfather, who became a great white hunter, developed his love of nature.  Spent the night camping there but our hike was unfun due to prolific mosquitoes.

After a harrowing drive in on Saturday morning, arrived at the neighborhood of Dixie's niece, Annie Rhodes, where she had cleverly "parked like jerks" with her boyfriend, thus usurping 2 large streetside parking places for our big RV.  We all had worried a lot about parking and this worked out great.  Unfortunately, we picked the weekend they were moving to visit, so after a nice lunch, we left Annie and Sean to their packing.

Amused ourselves with a tour of the famous Wrigley Field, celebrating its 100th anniversary.  My favorite parts of the tour were the ivy outfield, the wedding pictures taking place their, and the movie that was being filmed on the outside that we unknowing walked into.  Dirk's favorite part was the history!

By coincidence, our daughter-in-law's father was in town visiting with her sister, so we dined with them at a semi-exotic vegan restaurant, hung out, and then headed to the Bughouse where Susie Allen does improve in a casual venue.

Annie and Sean joined us for the three different improve pieces.  Here you see Susie and her partner doing about a 20 minute piece prompted by the idea of "grocery shopping."  Mild mannered Susie definitely has a talent and we all thought her piece was the best of the three.  Her she is decompensating because someone stole her soymilk or something.

After giving Annie's new apartment its inauguration at hosting guests, we took off for an extended bike ride along the lake in Chicago.  It was the perfect day and the whole way is a big social biking/walking route.

Made sure to stop at the big tourist attractions, such as "The Bean" in Millenium Park.  Can you spot us in the reflection of this big stainless steel steel creation?

Took a break in midday for a 90 minute architecture cruise up the Chicago River, famous for having had its flow reversed and also for being lined with a very wide assortment of skyscrapers. We both really enjoyed this.

Biked past all sorts of fountains, statues, architectural wonders, beach volley ball games......you name it.  Worked up quite an appetite!

And the reward at the end was a lovely outside dinner with Annie and Sean, having accomplished the most grueling part of their move.  We really enjoyed getting to know both of them better!

Ahh, the rolling hills and prolific farmlands of the midwest, in their full spring glory!  En route to Iowa!

We rendezvoused with Dirk's Aunt Charlotte at the National Mississippi River Museum in Dubuque, Iowa, a cool little river town.

I hung out with my hero, Mark, who lives at the museum.

Here are Dirk and Charlotte hanging out on her porch overlooking the Mississippi at her summer home in Lansing.

She showed us the wonders of a one street small midwestern town.

This region of the Mississippi is filled with islands and is a wildlife refuge.  We took the bridge to Wisconsin to visit the interesting old fur trading town of Prairie du Chien, plain of the dog!

We got lucky and got to watch a set of twelve barges strapped together moving through one of the many "lock and dams" along the river.  It is standard to have 12 barges together, filled with grain, rocks, coal, etc. and to have a "tow-boat" pushing them along.

As nature girl, perhaps my favorite activity was finding a turtle digging a whole in the lawn by Charlotte's house, about to deposit her batch of eggs there.  Never could find the spot after she was gone, but apparently often the raccoons do!

Another side trip with Charlotte was to Effigy Mounds National Monument, where a lovely stroll through the hardwood forest....

led to many circular and several bear shaped mounds.  This is looking at a bear mound from the head.....hard to identify from ground level but there are photographs of all the mounds outlined in chalk and they make quite a display.  This park had to keep all the greenery mowed so that they stayed visible.  What a job.  These mounds were all burial mounds, used possibly over several thousand years.

Dirk is on top of Pike's Peak overlooking the Mississippi.  Apparently it is named after the same dude who the Pike's Peak in Colorado is named after.  Nice vista, but not much more.

From Iowa it was just a hop, skip and jump to Minneapolis, MN, home of Dirk's aunt and two cousins.  Cousin Missy and her husband, Frank, joined us for a day of touristing.  We learned that Minneapolis was a major flour mill town, the banks of the Mississippi once lined with flour mills. This mill happened to explode from flour dust and now is a very interesting museum.

Here Missy and Frank pose by the big waterfalls called St. Anthony, which powered the flour mills and also caused Mississippi traffic to stop at the impassible falls, thus creating a trading hub, twin city, St. Paul.

Missy took me to the farmer's market while the menfolk got our RV serviced. Snagged these Wisconsin cheese curds, some asparagus and rhubarb (eating pie right now) and this great salad blend.

Also had to experience some of the famous, "corn finished" midwest beef, perfectly barbequed by Frank.

Grabbed a quick bike ride with these avid bikers before dinner and a thunderstorm set in. This lovely green belt, collection of lakes, is right behind their house.  What a set-up!

Although they managed to escape without us snapping a photo, cousin Luke and Aunt Molly joined us for dinner both nights of our stay.  We learned that Luke is an amazing artist, a skill he has especially developed after a life altering illness.  This dish is something he just produced.

This cell phone cover was produced from one of his drawings. We were honored to receive  mug for our mug collection that is imprinted with a similar cool drawing.  Thanks Luke!

From Minneapolis we headed for the North Shore Scenic Drive along Lake Superior, wanting to experience the Great Lakes.  Although the day was pleasant, the lake was enshrouded with mist.

Lucky for us, it cleared off the next day.

We visited spectacular rivers pouring into the lake.

This narrow channel was part of a long series of dramatic falls.  We never get tired of rocks and waterfalls!

Heading inland, we learned the other big industry besides wheat flour that caused Minnesota to flourish.....great iron ore.  This is a state park after the mine shut down in the 1960's and turned itself over to the state. It is frozen in time as it was when it closed.

We got loaded into the cage the miner's used and descended 1/2 mile at 11 mph in almost total dark.

Seriously, it was scarey!

Rode a mine car 3/4 of a mile to the place they were mining when it closed.  This mine was the "cadillac of mines" because there was fresh air and no water and a good safety record, but it still would have been awful to work in----quite fascinating to visit, though!

And finally, we head for the National Park I have been very excited about......Voyageurs.  Named after the rugged French Canadians who transported furs and trade goods from Montreal through the midwest and Great Lakes regions.  We will try our hand at voyaging!