Week 24

Monday, September 9, 2002

Today was primarily a travel day. I left Lake Manawa this morning and headed east on I-80 toward Des Moines. It’s about 140 miles from Lake Manawa to the Prairie Flower campground, which is operated by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers on Lake Saylorville, just north of Des Moines off of I-35. It was about the closest campground that I could find to Des Moines and even though it is about 15 miles north of Des Moines, I was glad that I had stumbled on it. It is one of the nicest campgrounds that I have stayed at on this entire trip. I will pay attention in the future to campgrounds operated by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. Every space is very private and has a clear view of the lake. The grounds are maintained like a golf course. It is very hot today, so after I checked in, I just vegged out for the rest of the day. Tomorrow I will go back into Des Moines for a couple of touristy things.

Tuesday, September 10, 2002

I got up this morning and found it to be somewhat cloudy. I’m not used to that. I’ve had almost nothing but sunshine since I left on April 1. Oh well, the weatherman says that there’s a shower passing through and sunshine this afternoon. I left Prairie Flower this morning and headed back into Des Moines. My first stop was to be “The Living History Farm”. It is on the West side of town, so I back tracked about 20 miles from where I was yesterday. This place was better than I expected. They had a very nice visitor’s center which explained the history of Iowa and farming in the area. Then I was directed to pass through the 1875 town and board a tractor-pulled tram that would take me over the 675 acres to the beginning of my trip through time. The first area was an Ioway Indian farm, circa 1700. This very small family farm consisted of 3 winter huts and a summer hut, along with a stretched Elk skin and a garden. There was an interpreter who explained every detail of the exhibit and demonstrated how different utensils were used. I then followed a path through the woods to an 1850 farm. This was not too much different, except that it was more in line with European ways of farming. There were a few animals and crops, and several women dressed in period clothing and demonstrating their household chores. Another walk through the woods and I was in a 1900 farm. This was much more elaborate. There was a large barn, chicken coop; stables; pig sties and a house. Again everything here was operating and several characters were going about their farm chores, but never hesitated to stop and answer the questions of the tourists. When I went into the house, guests were invited to sit down on the period furniture and play the organ if you wanted to. It looked exactly like something out of the past, with furniture and tools from the time, including a working crank telephone. It really gave you the feeling of going back in time. From this homestead, I walked to another visitor’s center where they showed a 30 minute presentation of “Time marches on – the 20^th century”. This was kind of a multi-media presentation, the subject was very interesting, but they could have used a few pointers from Disney on the presentation. From there I boarded the tractor/tram for the trip back to the 1875 Town of Walnut Hill. This was a complete town including a beautiful Victorian home that was not a re-creation, but was originally on the site along with a huge barn. These two buildings were built by a Mr. Flynn about 1875. They were both meticulously restored, and like the old farmhouse, guests were invited in to have a seat and try out anything in sight. The ladies in the house again were engaged in routine chores, which gave it that realistic feeling. The rest of this town was a re-creation but very authentic. Buildings included a cabinetmaker; veterinarian clinic; school; broom shop; bandstand; blacksmith; general store; drug store; law office; millinery; doctor’s office; newspaper; bank and church. Every one of these establishments was equipped with furniture and goods of the day, and as with the other places, they were manned by characters acting the parts of the shop keepers and practicing their trade. I spent so much time here, that I was not able to go to the botanical gardens that I had planned to go to, because it was too late. I did, however, take a drive into downtown Des Moines and saw the Iowa Capital building and took a drive through a large park that they have called the “Water Works Park” I thought this was a swimming area, but it turned out to be a very large natural area similar to Rock Creek Park in Washington. I did stop for dinner in the park, and then returned to Prairie Flower arriving just at sundown. Tomorrow I leave for Minnesota.

Wednesday, September 11, 2002

Today was basically a travel day. I woke up this morning and watched all the memorial activity on TV about 9/11. Finally hit the road around Noon and drove straight up I-35 into Minnesota. One quick little story: I stopped for gas at Mason City, IA just before the IA/MN line. Wal-Mart has their own gas stations called Murphy USA. The gas was posted at $1.289 and a sign said 3 cents per gallon off with gift card, so I inquired about it and by going into Wal-Mart and purchasing a $100 gift card, I was able to get $86.00 worth of gas at $1.259 per gallon. This is the lowest that I’ve paid for gas since leaving home in April. I was thrilled. I still have a $14.00 credit on my gift card that I can use for gas or anything else at Wal-Mart. I continued on my way and crossed the State line. I stopped at the welcome center and decided to change my plans. I had planned to stop at Hickory Hills Campground near Albert Lea, MN, but after talking with the people at the welcome center, I decided to go about 35 miles further up I-35 to the town of Owatonna. I spent the night at Hope Oak Knoll campground which was very nice.

Thursday, September 12, 2002

I left the campground and drove into the town of Owatonna to get some propane. This town is a beautiful town and looks like something right out of Norman Rockwell. I got my propane and drove back onto the interstate and on to a suburb of Minneapolis called Apple Valley. There is a very nice campground called Lebanon Hills County Park. I went right to that, checked in and then drove to the Prairie Lake Indian Casino in the nearby Town of Prairie Lake. I spent about 4 hours there, lost a total of $5.00 and had a great dinner at their buffet. I enjoyed the place. It is beautiful. I almost went to see the Righteous Brothers while I was there. I was about to by a ticket for $28.00, but then I saw that the only seat left was way on the edge of the theater and I changed my mind. Drove back to the campground around 9:00 and had a very pleasant evening with my next door neighbor here.

Friday, September 14, 2002

Today was Mall of America Day. It is about a 10 minute drive from the campground. When I arrived, it appeared that all the parking was garage parking and I was concerned where I would park the princess. But finally I discovered a large parking lot across the street from the mall just for RVs, buses and trucks. I joined the others and walked over to the mall. After seeing the largest mall in North America at Edmonton, the Mall of America was a slight let-down, but I had to check it out. The theme park part of the mall did not hold a candle to the theme park at Edmonton. The roller coaster wasn’t much. It was fairly long, but not very high. There was a Ferris wheel that was about 40 feet high and only one water ride. Almost everything else was kiddie rides. I walked around the circumference of the mall on all four levels. There were several unusual stores with some great art and lots of novelty shops like Brookstones, Sharper Images and the like. There was also a huge Jillians which I spent quite a bit of time in. The best part of the mall was the selection of restaurants. I had lunch at a very unusual theme restaurant called Café Odyssey and dinner at a cool place called “Tucci Benucci”. All in all, I was at the mall for about 8 hours. Left there around 9:00 and headed back to Lebanon Hills for a good nights sleep.

Saturday, September 15, 2002

I didn’t have anything in particular planned for today, but it still turned out to be a pretty nice day. I set out around noon to go to a transportation museum in Saint Paul. I followed the map into the city, saw the state capital building, and eventually found the museum. It didn’t look like much from the outside, so I decided to forget it and go on to another sight that I saw on the map called the Mississippi mile. This was a park along the Mississippi River that looked from the map like it would be pretty interesting. It’s kind of fun to try to find these places in a major city, but when I got there, it too was a bit of a disappointment. I started heading to another park that I saw, which looked a lot bigger. On the way I stumbled on the Minnesota Sculpture Garden. I remembered that there was a sculpture there that I had seen pictures of in the past, and I wanted to see it. So I parked and went in the park. The sculpture of a very large spoon and a cherry fascinated me. I had to see it. It was the highlight of the day. Leaving there, I felt like I had accomplished something, so I continued on to the large city park and found myself in a very nice neighborhood with beautiful homes impeccably landscaped. Eventually I made my way back to the campground, where I had dinner and took my evening walk before settling in for the night.

Sunday, September 16, 2002

Nothing planned today either. I checked out of Lebanon Hills campground this morning because my appointment for my hood release repair in Anoka, MN was 41 miles away and I didn’t feel like maneuvering Minneapolis morning rush hour traffic, so I figured I better move a little closer. As I approached Anoka, I stopped at a Camping World store, the first one I’ve seen since California. I bought a few things for the princess including the stick-on map of the U.S. that I have been wanting for some time. Then I located Shorewood RV Center. It is a huge dealership so I hope they can take care of me in the morning. After that I went to the library in Anoka to get onto the internet, then had dinner and returned to the RV dealership. I found several other people camped on the street outside the dealership, so I decided to join them.