Birthday Margaritas

Our annual birthday visit to celebrate Mom's big day--those margaritas are amazing! What a great way to celebrate!

The Brits in Florida and the Old South

While we were in Baton Rouge, we got a call from Jean and Gordon- they had a few weeks and wanted to meet us in the States! So, we beat feet back to Titusville and TGO to get ready for a British adventure!

Jean and Gordon arrived and we got them settled into their “guest suite” at TGO. The house actually worked quite well with guests – quite a change from the close quarters in Boston. We did face the challenge of how to make this trip memorable. After all, their first two visits to the States had been NYC, Boston and New Orleans. Here we were in Florida- home to Mickey and Minnie – with explicit instructions that Disney was not to be a part of our itinerary! No worries- we managed to pack the two weeks with Florida sights and a road trip. While we didn’t make the Mickey pilgrimage, we did spend a day at Universal Studios in Orlando. We had to make the Brits experience at least one theme park in Florida.

We explored the Titusville area- having some up-close and personal looks at the manatees and a day at the Kennedy Space Center.

We headed north to take in October’s Bike Week in Daytona Beach. We found a few great biker bars where the people watching was astounding and the beers very large!

Florida was not going to hold our attention for the entire time- although Jean did enjoy the sun and got her daily dose of Florida sunshine. So, we decided to try a road-trip in the motorhome. 40 feet and 4 adults was close quarters- but we managed to make it work. We headed north to Charleston to give them a flavor of the historic and elegant south. We did the traditional walking tour of the historic district with a wonderfully proper Southern lady who explained the history and architecture of this gorgeous city. Then- we got on board with the “Black Tour” of Charleston. As we walked onto the packed bus, the 4 white folks were asked to “move to the back of the bus” accompanied by hoots of laughter from everyone. We knew it was going to be a great tour. We learned a whole other side of the city from this tour- hearing the stories of slave labor, slave uprisings, as well as a host of other things we didn’t know about the black culture. We were quite taken with the old wives tales that everyone contributed…especially the one about putting menstrual blood into dirty rice and serving it to your man to assure that he would be yours forever! Gordon’s going to think twice if Jean serves him dirty rice at home.

We finished off our tour with a stop at Martha Lou’s and had some of her famous fried chicken, cornbread and collard greens.

We ate our way through Charleston – from Martha Lou’s to Bowen’s Island to Poogan’s Porch to The Wreck…..shrimp and oysters and fried food with lots of wine and beer!

We got up on Sunday morning ready to head to Savannah….until we tried to pull the slide in- and it didn’t move. Fortunately, John the handy man and Gordon the engineer managed to figure out how to pull the slide in and we were on our way. Savannah really captured the beauty of the south and it got a slightly higher grade on sheer beauty by the Brits. We did the standard trolley tour and the mandatory viewing of “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.”

The time flew by- and we were saying goodbye to the Brits. The house seemed pretty empty without them!

A TGO Thanksgiving

My turn to play host for Thanksgiving dinner. Mom and E.D. made the trip from the other coast of FLA – just over 100 miles. We had a great time and a wonderful dinner. They got to meet all the neighbors and get a look at all of the ‘boy toys’ these guys own. Motorcycles, scooters, customized golf carts…. Too much money and too much time....

But then, I guess we should talk--we were now the proud owners of a Triumph motorcycle, a Suzuki Bergman Scooter and a golf cart!! What has happened to us??

Reverend Dennis in Mississippi

We headed from Alabama to Mississippi following the Natchez Trace. Once the trading route for European explorers, it became a U.S. Postal road and was later widened to become a military road. Today, it is a beautiful two lane road through woodlands and pasture from Nashville to Natchez. Along the road were numerous stops- Indian mounds from AD 1400, parts of the original Trace- and absolutely no traffic. It was a wonderful way to cross the state of Mississippi. We had a great campground- the Isle of Capri (gambling casino) Campground- concrete pads and level sites. We explored the town of Vicksburg- the historic homes interspersed throughout the downtown area.

Vicksburg is situated on the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers, making it a strategic location in the Civil War. We did our standard battlefield tour- the mandatory video followed by a drive-by of the battlefield sites. It was an interesting battle- Grant besieged the city for 47 days until its surrender on July 4, 1863. It’s said that the town would not celebrate the 4th of July for years after. The cemetery was particularly touching- of the 17,000 Union dead, over 13,000 were unknown. The gravestones of the known soldiers are in marked contrast to the square markers of the unknown soldiers- with only a number engraved on them. (Photo courtesy of Flickr). The park also had the original gunboat, the USS Cairo, which sank in 1862- the first vessel in history to be sunk by a electronically detonated torpedo (mine).

Never missing a chance for the ‘eccentric’, we made our way to Margaret’s Grocery, about 3 miles outside of town on Highway 61. The story goes that the widow, Margaret, operated what was once a small, unassuming roadside snack store. About 20 years ago, the Reverend Dennis came along and promised her that he would turn her store into a castle if she would marry him. Now, seeing as how this would make her Reverend D’s 5th wife, she courageously accepted. The store was turned into Reverend D’s version of a castle- made of red and white cinder block. Religious signs and messages are everywhere. The sign as you enter reads: “All is welcome, Jews and Gentiles here at Margaret’s Gro. And Mkt & Bible Class”. He preaches out front in a bus that’s been converted into a church- complete with pulpit and pews—covered in metallic paint, tin foil and duct tape. We were lucky enough to find Reverend Dennis at home and he were treated to the story of his life. It turns out that his mother died in childbirth, leaving him alone by her side for 5 days. Someone found him and since his father’s people didn’t want him, they brought him to his grandmother (who was a midwife and cook for the “white folk”). She took him to several doctors who all said that the child would never live. But, she “knows the man”- and he is now pushing 88 years old. When he was still a baby, a tornado went through the town and he was swept out of his grandmother’s arms and they found him some 40 miles away swinging from a tree branch. At the age of 12, his grandmother died and he went to live with his father. After 9 months of regular beatings, he took off and hitched a ride on a train. When he got off the train, he heard them calling the “cotton-pickers” to come to work. So, since he was the “best cotton-picker and cotton cutter around”, he took the work. About that time, he met up with a white plantation owner surveying his pecan trees. He told his sorry tale to him and he asked, “What can you do, boy?”. Well, he told him about being the best cotton-picker, cotton cutter and farmer around- so the man let him have one of the empty rooms on his plantation in exchange for work. He said that everyone would taunt him, calling him “nigger, ape, monkey” and he would just smile and “Yassir, yassir”. Finally, the man said, “Why do you keep smiling and saying Yes Sir when they call you a nigger?”. Dennis replied, “ My grandma taught me manners and respect for the white folk”. So, eventually, when he would go into town with the white man and they’d ask him why he had that nigger with him, the white man would answer, “He’s no nigger, he’s the black sheep of the family”. About this time, John was getting a bit antsy. We cut his WWII experiences a bit short, got the rest of the story about his return from service in the Pacific, his 4 year contract to learn the trade of brick layer and his skills in wood working, bricklaying, etc. He took us into his church- filled from floor to ceiling with Mardi Gras beads, Christmas tree lights, religious signs and posters, stuffed animal on turntables, and 9 donation boxes. He proudly showed us the numerous write-ups about him- including one that he proudly read out loud: “One Man’s Ridiculous Dream: Reverend Dennis and Margaret’s Grocery”. With his red suspenders and painted stained shirt, the safety pin in the zipper of his jeans, cataracts in his eyes, a hearing aid in his ear and only a few bottom teeth left in his mouth, he was quite a charmer- or was he a con artist? Who knows – or cares--- another bit of eccentric America!
Natchez, Mississippi
It was just a short drive to Natchez from Vicksburg- down Highway 61. We were so glad to leave the Isle of Capri Campground. While the campground was great, our neighbors left a lot to be desired. One of them had an old city bus ‘converted’? to a motorhome. He had no outside hookups and left his generator running. It was truly hideous.

We pulled into a beautiful campsite in Vidalia, Louisiana- just across the river from Natchez. Our campsite looked out on the Mississippi River and was almost completely empty. We took in the visitors center movie (one of the nicest visitors center ever) and got a great lunch at “Biscuits and Blues”- a crawfish and mushroom beignet.

Red Bay, Alabama

The road from Huntsville to Vicksburg took us almost directly through Red Bay, Alabama- home of Tiffin Motorcoach. Not wanting to miss a motorhome tour, we stopped by and stayed at the night at the Allegro Campground ($10.00 for full-hookup if you’re not in for service). We were the only non-Tiffin coach in the lot and drew a bit of attention. The town was 3 stop light town with 3 restaurants and no bars- a dry county. The tour was a hoot. Our tour guide was a retired worker- hired to run the tours. He had very little knowledge of the production process, the coach specs or even the differences in the engines. John was filling him in on the difference between the ISC, ISL and ISM engines. He was the nicest guy, but completely useless in the information department. And, we used headsets through the tour and could hear him chomping his gum the entire time. We were touring when the plant shift ended at 2:30 and by 2:25 the entire plant was lined up in front of the time clock. The difference between the Midwest manufacturers and this Southern plant was spectacular- there was only one woman and not a minority in site. All of the workers looked like good ole boys. The manufacturing process was very loose- there didn’t appear to be much in the way of standards and procedures. The coaches were, however, very nice.

Huntsville, Alabama

On the drive to Huntsville, we stopped at the Unclaimed Baggage Center- the home for all of the airlines unclaimed baggage (and for store’s lost merchandise). It was filled with clothing, electronics, books, tools, toiletries—everything imaginable. The deals were pretty amazing- if you shopped hard enough. We stayed at the US Space and Rocket Center Campground in the overflow area. Mija was having some skin problems, so we tracked down a local vet and arranged for some tests (and grooming) and picked up some wine and beer. John invited our “neighbors” in overflow over for drinks. They came over at 6:00 and stayed until 10:00—2 huge bottles of wine and lots of beers later and we were best friends. Chet and Lupe were from Alexandria, Minnesota and were quite a strange pair. She was a hot blooded Mexican and he was a cold blooded Norwegian. They owned over 50 apartment buildings in Alexandria and had their son and daughter-in-law managing their operation while they traveled in their motorhome. We had a great time laughing and talking with them.

Mija went in for a day of tests and grooming and we took off to the west of Huntville to visit a cotton gin. It was quite an operation and hard to imagine working in the cotton dust all day long. With Mija occupied for the day, we went to the US Space and Rocket Center (right next to “Space Camp”). (Photo courtesy of Flickr.com) It was another NASA hardware focused presentation of the space program and filled with kids attending Space Camp. The space program and the US Army have brought a lot of money to the Huntsville area and the road network is amazing and the city is beautiful. The old neighborhoods in the downtown Historic District were charming. They houses were originally built by wealthy merchants and planters and many of them are still there today- in great condition. And- with the space program- came a host of ethnic restaurants. We had another great Korean lunch- with take home galore.

Tennessee

Shenandoah Valley to Knoxville, TN
Aware of the DC traffic problem, we asked about the rush hour and learned that the AM rush hour ran from 6:00-10:00 am. So, we woke up at the crack of dawn and were on our way by 5:15am. Even at that early hour, the beltway was full of traffic. We managed to get through the worst of it- the beltway- before the real rush hour started and were stunned to see the inbound traffic piled 45 miles outside of DC. Our reverse commute was a blessing. We decided to drive as long as we could stand it- and managed to drive 500 miles- all the way from DC through the Shenandoah Valley to Knoxville, Tennessee.

We stayed just outside Pigeon Forge (Dollywood) and after settling into the KOA started on a search for wine and beer. It turned out that we were 10-20 miles away from anyplace selling wine. We drove into the city of Knoxville and explored the historic areas…. It didn’t take too long. The major attractions were the Woman’s Basketball Hall of Fame and the Sunsphere (the remnant of the 1982 World Fair. We drove through the University of Tennessee area and found a few older houses and a lot of chain restaurants.

September 27-28, 2003 Chattanooga, TN
Hoping that Chattanooga would be a step above Knoxville, we headed out in the morning. The city was quite lovely with several historic districts with beautiful homes. We drove through the inner city historic districts in a pouring rain- so it was relatively free of traffic. The following day, we drove up to Lookout Mountain and saw the Battle for Chattanooga Electric Map and Museum and Point Park. The highlight had to be the International Towing and Recovery Hall of Fame and Museum. Yes- a tow truck museum with about 15 old tow trucks and towing memorabilia.

The aftermath of Hurricane Isabel

We headed out the next morning to find that power was out in most of the area. The roads were deserted heading into DC- which we later learned was a blessing. The traffic into and out of DC was horrendous- bumper to bumper around the beltway and virtually stopped at the feeder roads to/from the beltway – for 45 miles outside of DC. Hurricane Isabel had pretty much stopped the entire city. We noticed a few more trees down as we headed into DC and found our way to our campgrounds. We arrived to find that the campground was empty and that power was out everywhere. 1.1 million DC area residents were without power and the utilities were warning that it could take up to a week to get them back. The coast of North Carolina was devastated and the streets of Annapolis, Baltimore and Alexandria were flooded. And, we had slept through the entire storm.

We decided to drive into DC and brave the downed trees and lack of traffic lights. Everyone was very disciplined- treating traffic light intersections like 4 way stops and it was a great way to see the city. We quickly figured out the DC street patterns and found our way to Adams-Morgan- the heart of the funky, ethnic area. It had originally been a few streets of Ethiopian restaurants, but now was a full fledged area filled with sidewalk cafes and ethnic restaurants. There were more Ethiopian restaurants in DC than we’d ever seen before. We stopped for lunch and had a great time. We drove through Dupont Circle and Georgetown. Georgetown was charming- 18th Century buildings now converted into apartments, houses and stores. We finished our tour with a drive through northwest DC, stopping by the National Cathedral and a drive through Chevy Chase.

It brought us to the beltway and the amazing LDS Temple that looms over the beltway. We stopped by and found that they had a huge list of movies to watch and a special showing of “One Shepherd, One Fold”. We caught the 4:00 movie on Sunday and were stunned to find that the huge theater was filled – mostly with teenage girls. The movie was a story of the Nephites just prior to their visit by Jesus. It was a love story/Indiana Jones movie combination with the most amazing special effects (every bit as good as any Hollywood film) and a tear-jerker ending that all the women in the theater sobbing. They are truly great marketers.

On Sunday, we did another drive into the city- taking advantage of the continued power outage. We drove through the Capitol Hill area and were stunned to see block upon block of beautiful houses- in a white neighborhood. We drove through the Tidal Basin area and the Navy Yard (almost running over a black guy who ran out in front of our car. We weren’t sure if he was just stupid or trying to get the white folks to run him down). We took a drive through the Howard University area and found “Ben’s Chili Bowl”- a great black dive that served chili- in bowls, on hot dogs and on hamburgers. John managed to eat two bowls!

We decided to try the Metro system and took the bus to the train on Monday morning. The Metro was incredibly efficient and the stop at Union Station was amazing- restaurants, shops and a beautiful renovation of the old train station. We took the hop on/hop off bus tour and did the entire DC loop, taking in all the sites- from the White House, Capital, Smithsonian Museums, Arlington Cemetery, all the Presidential memorials and the Korean and Vietnam War Memorials. It was a full day and we dragged back to the campgrounds just in time for dinner with Larry, an old Deltak friend. We had drinks in "Maby Dick" and filled Larry in on the motorhome lifestyle. Then we headed out in the pouring rain for the Korean restaurant in the Days Inn just down the street. We had a great dinner halfway through the meal noticed that there was water puddling on the floor and my skirt was soaked. The rain was starting to pour through the ceiling- just over our table. We huddled around the table to the area that wasn’t getting rained on and by the end of the meal, the rain was pouring all around us and we were laughing hysterically. As we headed into the lobby of the hotel, there were buckets everywhere catching the pouring rain.

On Tuesday, we took the Metro again and headed to DC for a museum day. We took in the Air and Space Museum and the Omni Theater “To Fly”. Then, we took the Metro over to Capitol Hill and the Eastern Market. We had a crabcake sandwich and walked around before heading back for the night. Larry left a message asking if we had any reaction to our meal—he claimed to be part of George Bush’s WMD program and had been banished from the house.

Our last day in the DC area and we decided to drive to Baltimore. (Photo courtesy of Flickr.com) Fortunately, we were once again on the reverse commute and watched the incoming DC traffic as we breezed into Baltimore. We stopped in the Federal Hill area for breakfast at their local market then took a great 3 hour bus tour with a guide who grew up in the area and was passionate about the city. We got to see the Inner Harbor and all of its’ renovations, the Mt Vernon area with its’ beautiful old homes, Fells Point and Little Italy – filled with old homes and neighborhood bars. We asked our guide for a lunch recommendation and he sent us to Samos in “Greek Town” and we had an absolutely wonderful lunch- greek salad, gyros and spinach pie.

Battlefields and Hurricanes

From Louisville to Maryland, we crossed through some of the most beautiful landscape- from large expanses of Kentucky bluegrass and horse farms to crossing the Appalachians. We arrived in Hagerstown as it was just starting to turn dark and found that the motorhome has spewed oil all over the car and the motorcycle. The VW was black and we were put into a site without satellite access and had to set up in the dark. The next day, we changed sites, got satellite access and got on the phone to try to figure out what the engine oil problem was. John tracked it down to the ‘breather’- the good news; it wasn’t a show-stopper, but it will mean a future visit to Cummins.

We spent the week doing Civil War Battlefields. Antietam was the bloodiest battle of the Civil War and in U.S. history. We watched the requisite Park Service movie and drove through the 8 miles of the battlefield. We drove through Frederick and the 50 square block historic district- and found a Korean restaurant. We had a great meal and took enough home for 2 more dinners. We spent a day at Gettysburg. We watched the Electric map chronicling the battle and then did our own self-guided tour of the battlefield.

We were watching the daily progress of Hurricane Isabel which was projected to roll right over our campsite. The KOA staff was recommending that everyone leave the campsite since there was a strong likelihood of flooding. Having experienced the “stuck in the mud” problem, we decided that it was worthwhile finding an alternative place to spend the night. John found an un-manned truck station just up the road from the campsite and we settled in between tractor trailers for the evening. I went to WalMart for groceries and to the liquor store for some cheap wine and we settled in for the evening. We went to bed with just a bit of rain and woke up to find that there were some branches down and it had obviously rained- but we had slept through the entire hurricane.

The Dixie "Die-Way" and Mar-Mar

It was a beautiful drive to Louisville- and we pulled into our KOA just north of the city- or should I say, squeezed into our site. We got ahold of Martha and Jeff and had them over for cocktails in "Maby Dick" before going out to dinner. I think Martha was stunned by our lifestyle- and Jeff was fascinated. He simply didn’t want to leave- suggesting take-out. Martha was anxious to get him out before he got any “ideas” about life in a motorhome. It was good to see her again- she still looks wonderful. It was, however, a bit strange- my memories of Martha were of the “life of the party” girl- always off to some exclusive party or flying off to the Derby- and full of adventure. How life changes- she’s become a suburban, golf playing mom with an SUV – traveling on Disney cruises with her son. Irrespective, we had a great time at a river side restaurant and it was wonderful to catch up after all these years.

The following day, we explored Louisville- seeing Churchhill Downs and the huge historic district downtown. We were stunned by the block after block of beautiful old houses- in white neighborhoods. For old times sake, we drove down “the Dixie Die-way” to Fort Knox, where John did basic training. We took in the Patton Museum- the largest collection of military hardware- tanks- that I’d ever seen and drove through the base trying to find a bit of John’s past.

On Blueberry Hill...

From the “Jazz” of Kansas City to the “Blues” of St Louis. We stayed at a RV Resort at St. Charles, just outside St Louis. The campsites were great- wide concrete pads long enough for the motorhome and tow car. It was, however, a bit of a drive to downtown St Louis.

We explored St Charles- it was a bit like New Hope, PA. Brick streets with quaint old shoppes and restaurants. We took a City Tour and got a bit of an overview of the city. Part of the tour was a stop at Anheuser Busch Brewery- the largest brewery in the world and home of Budweiser. They have 49% of the American beer market with Bud and Bud Light! The tour was quite well done, but didn’t really give you much of a plant tour. We saw the Budweiser Clydesdale horses and had a few beers at the tasting center.

While the City Tour was a bit on the “lite” side, we did our own driving tour and saw the various neighborhoods around the city. Soulard and Cherokee Street, just south of downtown, were filled with 19th Century brick homes. It has become a residential area with an infrastructure of pubs and restaurants and Cherokee Street- 4 blocks of antique and junk shops. Lafayette Square was a beautiful square surrounded by Painted Ladies. We drove through the Central West End- what they call “Little Europe”. It was a bit more like Jewish West End. The Loop, by St Louis University, was a funky college street filled with ethnic restaurants- Thai, Ethiopian and even Nigerian. We had lunch at “Blueberry Hill”, a nostalgia restaurant where Chuck Berry still comes to play. The Grand South Grand area was filled with beautiful Victorian houses- in a largely black and Asian area. We stopped for a famous Ted Drewe’s Frozen Custard (called a “concrete”- and probably the inspiration for the DQ Blizzard). Just blocks from Grand South Grand was an area called “The Hill”- their Little Italy. The fireplugs set the boundary for the neighborhood- painted in red, white and green. The neighborhood went from totally black to totally white and from Asian and ethnic restaurants to Italian bakeries, grocery stores and pasta places.

We spend an afternoon at the “Arch”- taking the ride to the top of the arch in little astronaut like carriers. Under the Arch was the Museum of Westward Expansion with a special section devoted to the Lewis and Clark Expedition. We had lunch at Lacledes Landing (the “Flats” of St Louis)- where old warehouses have been turned into clubs and restaurants.

Finally, we visited the “Museum of the Dog”. They accept “well-behaved” dogs so Mija got to see her first museum. She promptly threw up after being in the museum for only a few minutes. I guess that she’d rather visit PetsMart than see old painting of other dogs.

Mormons, Harleys and Truman

With Mormon books to keep us from boredom, we headed from Nauvoo to Independence, Missouri (the supposed site of the Garden of Eden as well as the site for Christ’s second coming – according to Joe Smith). We had a campsite in the middle of town- in fact, within walking distance of all three of the LDS Visitors Centers. The Mormons/Salt Lake City group had their own visitor’s center. The Community of Christ (the smallest of the three) had a visitors center and church (built on the site of the original stones set by Joseph Smith). The Church of Christ (formerly RLDS) had their “Dairy Whip” temple and auditorium. We, of course, visited all three.

At the Mormon/SLC group, we got the standard film and the young female guide giving us her personal witness to the truth of the faith. (Interestingly, the film was done without any speaking parts. It showed the miracles of Jesus followed by the story of his visit to the America’s. Virtually all of the America’s footage showed little brown people looking remarkably like South/Central American Indians. It would be quite a propaganda film to attract the peoples of South America.).

At the Community of Christ, we met a very nice man who took the time to explain the differences between the various LDS churches. And, at the Church of Christ, we got a personal tour of their new temple.

As a break from the Mormons, we spent some time in Kansas City exploring the city. The city felt like Cleveland years ago- a few pockets of older neighborhoods with some character that were filled with restaurants and clubs, a new development with “the stores of Newbury Street” and a significant part of the city left to decay. In the city limits of Kansas City, there was only one building designated on the National Register of Historic Buildings- and it was at 18th and Vine, the old Negro Jazz area.

Independence, the home of Harry Truman, was a charming little town. We had a great German dinner at the Rheinlander Restaurant, toured Harry Truman’s home and bought strudel at a Croatian bakery.

The highlight- a trip to the Harley Davidson "Vehicle and Powertrain Operations" plant. We timed our visit perfectly- they had an open house at the plant- so it was a free-form walk through the plant with the chance to talk to any of the assembly line workers- not a canned tour. The KC plant does assembly of the dyna-glide and the sportster models and just started doing assembly of both the frame and engine for their new V-Rod. I did have a great tour guide- John..... I not only got the plant tour, but a full explanation of all the pieces and parts. It was fascinating. After all these motorhome factory tours- and the almost total lack of automation, I was surprised to see the robotic technology at the Harley plant- huge robots doing the welding, polishing, frame-bending, and painting.

Finding a family connection...

The drive through Iowa seemed to last forever. After a terrifying ride on a narrow toll bridge across the Mississippi, we finally got into Nauvoo, Illinois. The entire town was Mormon and the first thing John had me do was ask where we could buy wine and beer. This was not an easy task- since Mormons don’t drink alcohol- they don’t even drink anything with caffeine! Our campground manager was a dyed in the wool Mormon who told us long stories about his ancestors and their role in the pilgrimage to Salt Lake.

We stopped at the LDS bookstore- snagged a Joe Smith plate and marveled at the young (20 year olds) women in their long skirts with their 50 year old husbands.

We started our Mormon pilgrimage at the Carthage Jail where Joseph Smith was murdered. We had the story told by a Morman elder and again via their canned film and audio presentations in the jail. The LDS Church has put a tremendous amount of money into presenting their story via extremely high quality video presentations in all of their major pilgrimage sites. We think that it’s to make sure that the story is told consistently and at a high level. After seeing where Joe was killed, we went to the LDS Visitors Center in Nauvoo. We saw the requisite film about Joe’s life and prophecies and started to walk around the exhibits. As we stood in front of the “Government in Nauvoo” exhibit, we found ourselves looking at two of John’s ancestors. The Mormons had a short tenure in Nauvoo- only enough time for 4 mayors to hold office. Two of them were Spencers- one was John’s great, great, great, great grandfather, Daniel Spencer and the other Daniel’s brother, Orson.

Seeing the faces of his ancestors started us on our own search for any records of these people. We spent a morning at the Land and Records Center and walked away with pages of information on the lives of Daniel, Orson and their children. As we started to put together a simple family tree, we began to see the complications- Daniel and his son, Claudius Victor, had both embraced the concept of polygamy whole-heartedly. It took a bit of time to try to figure out which of their multiple wives fit into John’s family tree.

Winnebago...

On our drive south, we couldn’t miss the Winnebago factory in Forest City, Iowa. The tour was quite unlike anything we’d seen in other motorhome factory tours. Winnebago was truly a manufacturing plant complete with some degree of automation on a large scale. (Didn't get to see the "drop test" -but, when we came back from the tour to a broken refrigerator, we would have considered a drop test for our "Maby Dick". John quickly became a refrigerator mechanic- studying wiring diagrams, checking fuses and through the process of elimination, found the problem. Heading into the Labor Day weekend without a refrigerator wasn’t a problem that we really wanted to deal with!

Our State Fair is a great State Fair!

After 2 weeks of rural Wisconsin, we were dire need of a city fix. We had a great campsite just outside St Paul (right by 3M headquarters). We made it to the campsite in time to clean up and head out to meet Jack and his wife, Walker. We had an absolutely hysterical time. Jack and Walker are the perfect complement to each other. They had us in stitches talking about being Southerners (Charleston) living in Minneapolis. The time flew by at lunch and we had to get Walker back for a nap (but not until she had two scoops of Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey ice cream). Jack took us for a quick tour of Macalester College and we got to see his office- a bit of a tribute to Mongolia.

We took a tour of Minneapolis/St Paul. It was interesting to see the city from a tourist perspective- and re-visit both downtowns, Minnehaha Falls and the Chain of Lakes. After our intro tour, we did our own driving tours of both cities – enjoying the sites and the ethnic restaurants. We had Korean, Afghani, Ethiopian and Southern Indian. We ate and ate and ate. We also toured Stillwater, my old stomping grounds in WBL, the U of M and Dinkytown, Old St Anthony.

I think that the highlight had to be the Minnesota State Fair. After much protesting, John finally relented and we spent the day at the fair- eating and watching huge people eating – constantly. Every food you could imagine was offered- on a stick: walleye, pork chops, cheese, meatballs, catfish, pickles, and key lime pie. If something on a stick wasn’t enough, you could get a huge bucket filled with French fries or chocolate chip cookies. We grabbed a beer and watched the people- eating and the X-er’s taking rides like the “Free Fall”.

Viola Lake

More rural Wisconsin time- we headed for Mom’s house on Viola Lake. We had limited electrical power, but a great lake view out of our front window. We had happy hour on the pontoon with Mom and ED and Denny and Sharon. It was a complete tour of the lake complete with commentary.

We drove to Duluth for the afternoon and explored the new developments by Lake Superior, Park Point and saw my childhood house. We topped off our evening with a “Fish Boil” at the local lodge. Evidently a Scandinavian tradition, it was a process of boiling water in a huge kettle, adding onions and potatoes and finally adding the fish. The finale was a dousing with kerosene and a huge whoosh of flames as it was lit. Then, it was time for a taste test. The fish was actually fairly good- quite bony and not much in the spice department, but worth a one-time try. We had dinner at the “Sip n Suds” – taking advantage of the $1.00 hamburger night. Since Mom was in the middle of her “porch project”, John signed me up for a painting day. Mom and I attacked the trim priming and painting. It took us all day, but it looked great at the end.

Eccentric Wisconsin

On the road again. We headed off from Indiana, leaving the land of motorhomes, to southwestern Wisconsin. Jane’s nephew, George, and his wife just opened a campground on the bluff of the Mississippi River just outside Cassville. The campsite was still pretty rough; they just opened on Memorial Day this year. With a bit of landscaping and some leveling, it should be a good site. His real business was the tavern/restaurant- filled with locals every night. They made a great cheese burger and it was a pleasure not to have to cook dinner every night.

We spent the first day on the bike- the roads in this corner of Wisconsin were heaven made for motorcycling. The terrain was unaffected by the glaciers that flattened the rest of the Midwest and the pavement is baby-butt smooth. We drove into Dickeyville and saw Holy Ghost Park. The park was created by Father Mathias Wernerus in the 1920’s from material collected from all over the world. It was filled with altars and shrines made of concrete encrusted with glass, pottery shards and fossils – with commands like “Faith, Peace, Chastity, Mildness, Long Suffering, Fortitude. We drove by the world’s largest “M”. It was the work of students from the Wisconsin Mining School in the late 1930’s.

Wisconsin may be the capital of Eccentric America. Nothing, however, comes close to “The House on the Rock. It was built by an eccentric, wannabee architect back in the 1940's. It is perched on the pinnacle of a huge rock. He built the original studio by carrying stones and mortar up to the site in a basket strapped to his back. Eventually, he built a ramp through the treetops to make the site more accessible. He built a 14 room "hump-a-rama" house- low ceilings, dim lighting, carpeted surfaces instead of furniture. He built the "Infinity Room"- a 218 foot, glass walled, cantilevered room with 3000 windows that juts out over the valley - fifteen stories straight down. Over time, he kept adding on to the house- expanding to include rooms for his collections- doll houses, suits of armor, a one million piece miniature circus, giant pipe organs. He even has a carousel with 240 animals and room filled with the old European mechanical orchestras.

While not much could come close to that bizarre site- we visited the St John’s Mine- which must hold the title of “worst place to work”. It was an old lead mine and we got to see the original mine and imagine life for these Welch miners…picking for lead veins in tiny caves and hand-carrying out the heavy metal in buckets.

We spent an afternoon in Dubuque-saw the old Victorian homes overlooking the Mississippi and the horrifying casino on the river. George introduced us to his friends who own a custom bike shop. They do a spectacular job of both building and converting bikes. John got to re-connect with his old buddy, Horton. He met us for lunch and joined us for another highlight- the AMA Amateur Hill Climbing Championship. What a show! 500 feet at an amazing incline- and quite a few of the bikers made it up the hill. After a few hours at the Hill Climb, Horton brought his potato gun back to the campgrounds and shot a few potatoes into the corn fields.

Billboard: “You drink, you drive; You crash, you die; your brother-in-law gets your bike …Bummer”