2013-17 Fairfield Iowa

2013-17

Hannibal Missouri to Fairfield Iowa

Campground:  Jefferson County Campground, Fairfield Iowa.  $15 water & 50 amp elect.  Nice grassy and treed sites with gravel pads.  Many nature trails and bike paths to explore.   This is inside of a nature conservancy area.  Lots of great hiking  and biking paths.

MISSOURI

A few off beat notes before leaving Missouri.  While wandering around  old historical Hannibal, I stopped in one shop that had lots of old toys and small knick knacks and a few dusty flea market items for sale.  The lady proprietor after talking a bit said she is 87 years old.  And you could believe her when she said she wasn’t in it for the money.  Can’t image she made more than a couple dollars a day keeping the place open.  But it has kept her going and having a purpose each day upon waking up in the morning.

Turtles are everywhere.  I see them crawling across the back roads all the time.  Haven’t seen too many squished ones, so I would imagine like myself, others also slow down and drive around them.   The other day I saw a huge old turtle crossing one of the country roads.  He looked ancient so I guess he’d made it across many a roadway in his time.

The fishing is really bad here at Mark Twain Lake.  The lake is so swollen with all the heavy rains lately that it’s a muddy brown.

I’ve seen a number of deer prancing and leaping as they have a mind to do, then taking a good look at my truck before high tailing it back into the woods.

There are numerous commercial campgrounds around the Mark Twain Lake area for folks looking for longer stay campgrounds.  I noticed quite a few along J road.

Perry Missouri

In Perry Missouri, a small town of about 680 folks, one of the shop owners got to chatting with me.  The discussion quickly moved on from the fun he is now having talking to the public as they come in to buy trinkets and do-dads to talk of his former job.  He’s retired from that previous job in an emergency vehicle towing company.  You know they get contracts to work various sections of highways and roads and are required to go out on all calls.  Not just for those of us who call when we get a flat tire or the radiator overheats.  He described some of the scenes from those accidents we’ve all seen on the highways and described the process he had to go through to get over the trauma of seeing those accidents.  He’s been retired now a number of years, but they are still very vivid in his mind.  He described how his son is now doing the same work and how he vents at family gatherings, releasing those memories through humor and perhaps crass talk about the accidents.  Not holding it in or he would probably explode.  The sympathy, kind words spoken to the grieving relatives that encompasses so much more than just picking up a wrecked vehicle as it affects the workers as well as those concerned parents, family and friends. So the next time you put in a service call for road assistance you might ponder that you’re breakdown though stressful to you at the time is the nicest job that worker will have for the day.

Distance Traveled:  161 miles

IOWA

Deb (daughter) and LaVon

Moving on I’ve headed out on my trek to Iowa for visits with a few friends.  The first person I’m visiting with is LaVon H.  She lives in Fairfield Iowa which is an epa center for  religious groups like the University that teaches Maharishi transcendental meditation and all.  They even have wealthy donors who have contributed  ten million dollars to pay the locals to come to their temple and meditate for peace for 8 hours a day.  Apparently the wealthy donors have finally realized it’s not much affect on world peace and have recently discontinued the funding.

And this quirky town with tons of diversity is surrounded by prairie farms growing soy beans, corn, cattle and hogs.  Along with an Amish and Mennonite communities that’s a large part of the community as well.  It’s even got it’s own “Silicorn” Valley as there are many upstart businesses in the area.  Not bad for a small community in the heart of America.

 LaVon and I are going to be exploring some really unusual sites and folks from the area.  As chance would have it, I did a Google search for her address so I could visually see her place and how close it is to the campground I’m staying at.  Using Google’s earth maps I noticed an unusual pattern in one corner of the screen view.  As I zoomed in, I noticed it contained multiple patterns of triangles within triangles  surrounded by two circles on a large scale within a square.  These images were formed by planting trees to create the pattern.  LaVon and I drove out to the road that boarders the site.  It’s only about a quarter of a mile from the campground I’m staying at.  LaVon had no idea this thing was in her immediate vicinity. The mystery continues as we drove down the single lane gravel road that dead ends the giant patterns are off to one side of the road that‘s undeveloped.  We noticed about a dozen or so expensive homes that have recently been built on the opposite side of the road .  The large square mansion that’s in the pictures with a white picket fence around it was probable built around 5 years ago, the other homes more recently.  LaVon calls it a meditation house because it has a square cupola in the center of the house that’s about two and a half stories high where they meditate in.  

The mystery design, next to the campground I'm staying at.

bridge closed, Ekk!

The next day we drove down to the Millard Turtle Farm.  Now how many of you can say you’ve visited a turtle farm in the past.  LaVon came by early as we weren’t exactly keen on the direction and my GPS gave differing instructions than what she had written down.  But with an early start we drove through some wonderful rolling farm country and were able to stop and get some awesome pictures of old barns  and houses along the way.  Myrtle the GPS lady told us one way to go along the river, LaVon was sure we should be on the other side of the river.  Well when we got to the turn-off point, minutes away from the Turtle Farm, the bridge was out, we were on the wrong side of the river.  LaVon was right.  Had to backtrack and go down an unknown road but finally made it just in time to join the tour.

Turtle Farm tour 

And the turtle farmer is also an accomplished taxidermist 

The owner started out with his father and has made the turtle breeding business into a world corporation of sorts as he sells 99% of the baby turtles to China and owns a farm there as well.  His stories of breeding the 750,000 eggs to hatchlings each year, his adventures in China, and living off the land filled the time we had with great stories.  He’s also a master taxidermist, does wood carvings, hunts gators in the off season and has built his large home himself.  Getting only a few hours of sleep each night, he has more energy than I’ll ever have.  Oh and at $10 per baby turtle you can figure out how much he’s worth each year.  We were able to see the turtle ponds at one of the 7 turtle farms, see how they harvested the eggs and where they are incubated.  When they’re ready to ship, they get flown of course to China, in strawberry containers, 10 to a package.  Even had a taste of a turtle gumbo and it was really good.  Who would have thought one could become a multi-millionaire raising baby turtles.

Our next adventure brought us to a round barn and then onto Eldon Iowa where the American Gothic House is.  It’s where Grant Wood got his inspiration to create the iconic painting “American Gothic”.  Grant Wood is Iowa’s best known painter.  American Gothic was exhibited in Chicago and won a $300 prize.  It was then purchased for $300 by the Chicago Art Museum where it remains to this day and is now worth approx. 500 million dollars.  Great little museum in a small Iowa town, so small that the only restaurant was in a tavern.  Good food and cool beer.

How's this for an American Gothic Painting

Another day my tour of the south eastern side of Iowa continued.  A visit to a Thresher Museum with these huge steam driven machines first used on farms before the tractor was invented.  The museum also contains a couple of fullly operational steam powered electric generators.  What an impressive display of steam powered machinery.

Then it was onto The Johnny Clock Museum.   The museum housed in a large room off of the main house they live in, down a country gravel road.  Wow, you wouldn't believe the detailed carvings of each clock created.  Essentially each clock is tells a story of the creators family and life growing up in Iowa.  Each clock contains many types of wood which the owners wife could describe, one after the other, with great family stories and a hearty laugh to go with each tale she told.  Including the time that her husband was a hobo before marrying her.  Bus tours often stop by places like this and the turtle farm on “mystery” tours, where the tourists have no idea where they are being taken next.  He has never sold one of these creations, even when offered supposedly over a million dollars for one by a Saudi Prince.

each clock is like a photo album of memories for the owner

We found another round barn that was once used in selling hogs.  The upper two floors were hotel rooms and the basement had a restaurant in it.  It’s an historic building and is now for sale.

We traveled to small towns like Birmingham, Kilbourn, Keosaqua, Bentonsport and Bonaparte.  Stopping in Milton Creamery that specializes in making curd.  I purchased a few of their cheeses and then it was onto Cantril Iowa to the Dutchman’s Store a great Amish general store selling everything from jeans to work boots and rows and rows of fabric to a full grocery store selling lots of bulk items and all of it very fresh.

A special stop was made at a small museum created by Tony Sanders called The Indian Artifact Museum.  He’s an awesome wood worker and has created the most beautiful designs with inlaid wood on the walls, ceilings and display cases.  Those display cases contain the hundreds if not thousands of arrowheads, spear points, grinding stones and other Indian artifacts that he’s found locally since he was around 14 years old.  All of his designs are in his head and he only draws a vertical and horizontal line to center his next wood inlay design and the rest is done free hand.  Tony described the age of each of the Indian artifacts categorized by the thousands of years in age of each grouping.  When the Native Indians went from spear hunting to bow and arrow. He even knew what each type of arrow head was used for as well as the period it was used in.  Tony grows all his own food and leads a simple existence.

the center piece is called a snake fetish and is extremely rare

It was a full day of exploring all those small country towns that sit between miles and miles of Iowa farm lands.  Everything is green and the fields and sprouting with all the new growth plantings.  LaVon has been a great tour guide, willing to stop at a moments notice so I can take my barn pictures or anything that hits my fancy.

All of these adventures were within a 25 mile radius in the southeastern corner of Iowa.  Imagine what the rest of the state has to offer.

Many more photo's of barns and stuff on PICASA.  (one of the albums is large because I didn't have time to sort them all out before posting on Picasa)

2013-16 Farmington Missouri to Hannibal Missouri

2013-16

Doug & Dorothy taken by Kim

Campground:  St Joes.  See previous blog.

Campground:  Ray Behrens campground:  At Mark Twain Lake.  An Army Corp campground.  Senior discount rate:  $9 electric site.  About 30 minutes from Hannibal MO and the Mississippi River.

Well I’ve done quite a bit of traveling, more than I’m used to, after driving across a few states to pick up the new camper and then being chased across Oklahoma and into Missouri trying to avoid tornadoes and bad weather overall.

Megan and her 1st win

But as life brings us on different paths we don’t always expect, I landed on the eastern side of Missouri just in time to visit with my niece Kim, her family and my sister Dorothy.  Now that’s what I call perfect timing.   We all met up at Kim and Aaron’s new lakefront cottage.  Megan and Camy, the two young girls, are a bundle of energy and we’ve been having fun playing board games and dominoes.  Megan, almost 10 years old, played her first game of Scrabble on her own and won.  Then Uncle Dougie showed everyone how to play Mexican train (dominoes).  A fun game for the whole family, especially after I remembered all the rules.

Sister, Dorothy

Sweet Camy

Kim

Zara

Aaron

The cottage has a bit of work to be done on it, as it is an older home.  Aaron spends time on each trip fixing things and along with Kim have been removing old wallpaper and painting many of the rooms.  

Aaron’s grilling and smoking skills have been enjoyed all weekend.  The girls have enjoyed some of Uncle Dougie’s travel stories. Amazing the tails I can come up with, just picking a state to talk about.  

Everyone came over to the Open Range “Roamer” camper for a visit and of course everyone was impressed by the new camper.  it’s well built and with the extra stabilizer bars and auto leveling features, it remained rock solid during the tour of the camper and a couple of kids bouncing around.  I think Aaron and Kim would have been happy it Dorothy and I had taken the kids back to the lake cottage and just left them in the camper, relaxing in the lounge chairs.  Maybe next time Kim.

 

We even had a conversation about our newly discovered relatives in Sweden and Finland.  I’ve been corresponding with Maj-Brit from Portom Finland and my sister Dorothy has been corresponding with Ros Mari from Sweden. We are all close in age and Maj-Brit has invited us to come to Finland for a visit.  Dorothy’s daughter Kim thinks it’s a wonderful idea.  So who knows, we may one day travel back to our homeland for a visit.  One of my cousins did quite a good genealogy on the Palosaari side of the family and through letters that Isaac Anderson wrote home we have now connected some 50+ years later to the Anderson family line due to the efforts of Ros Mari.  Can you imagine three born in the U.S.A relatives trying to communicate with only an English speaking background talking to our Swedish and Finnish speaking counterparts. It could be quite a comedy of hand signs and gestures.    

An evening boat ride around the lake as the sun slowly sets over the heavily wooded hills, passing by fishermen standing on docks casting out lines.  traveling close to shore looking at all the other homes and boat docks around the lake.  There are I believe 17 lakes in all.  Most are created by building earthen dams that have created each lake in a many tiered effect among the many hills and valleys in the area.

 

My last day with family included the game of life.  Who knew it was so complicated and fraught with marriages, having babies, jobs and paying bills.  later Uncle Doug taught the girls how to draw palm trees.  After all I did live in Florida for 30+ years.  Megan drew her own and Camy helped color in Uncle Doug’s for him.  

One more day at St Joes State Park and then it’s off to Mark Twain Lake.  

Distance Traveled:  180 miles

Fortunately I asked a park ranger/officer about some secondary roads I was thinking of traveling on.  He recommend not taking hwy 47 as it’s a narrow road and tree hauling truckers use it.  So if you fellow travelers are on the eastern side of Missouri, avoid hwy 47 when traveling with your camper.  I’ll be passing through St Louis’s west side then taking hwy 61 most of the way.

As expected, the route through the western loop around St Louis was heavy traffic, some construction and speeds of 15-30 mph.  Once I maneuvered the worst of it and exited onto hwy 61, it was a breeze.  RV-ers will enjoy the drive along 61.  Good scenery, a four lane divided highway with grassy medians between and very little traffic.  The route follows the mississippi, though you won't see it as the road is inland quite a bit.

I’m at one of the Army Corp campgrounds around Mark Twain Lake.  They have both full hookups and partial hookups.  All the small loops are heavily forested, the campsites along the straight aways are grassy sites with some trees.  Can’t see the lake from any of the campsites that I’ve seen so far.

Hannibal is about a 30 minute drive away and just down the street from where I’m staying there’s Mark Twain State Park with a most wonderful museum containing the home that Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) was born in.  Since I’ve been in this area before, I am after all a seasoned camper you know,  I’ll be experiencing the area and meeting the people who live here rather than hitting all the tourist sites.

Mississippi flooding, gates closed on levi

Samuel Clemens, Mark Twain wondered these streets

I did go into the historic district one day though and enjoyed a walk around the town that inspired Mark Twain to write all those wonder books.  The gates were all closed on the levi system protecting the town.  The Mississippi River was just creeping up to the gates, covering the banks of the river to overflowing.  Two of the historical buildings downtown had their roofs blown off from the remains of the Moore OK Tornadoes of a week ago. I talked to one of the shop owners and he said his windows broken up front, the roof was blown off and landed in the back parking lot, they're doing construction on new sidewalks and roadway in front of his shop so all he can do is “keep on keepin on”.  

If you’re in the mood for a cup of coffee, there are many coffee shops downtown.  and lots of places to sit back and watch the tourists go by.  And of course all of the Mark Twain museums in the area to explore.

 

Well, I’ve got a few chores to take care of over the next couple of days so I’ll end this blog and wish everyone a great day exploring where ever you are.

more photo on PICASA