Living Our Dream

The previous day we saw sandbagging going on in downtown Davenport because of expected high water. There were several additional things we wanted to see before the rains and high water came, so we headed back into town.

Davenport is the home of Palmer College of Chiropractic, and we stopped to see the museum. Daniel David Palmer was an innovative thinker who was unorthodox in style and unconventional in action. He is credited with performing the first recorded chiropractic adjustment in 1895. At this time in American medicine, physicians would commonly treat their patients with harsh curatives which often did nothing to help at best and at worst produced harmful sides effects.

The photo below shows Margery checking out some of the photo displays relating to the worldwide influence of Palmer College of Chiropractic.

D. D. Palmer opened the precursor to Palmer College in 1897. Although chiropractic was not well accepted by the medical community in those early years and although some skeptics still remain, chiropractic today is seen as valid alternative medicine and is covered by most major medical plans.

After Margery got relief from 20+ years of debilitating headaches, Paul and Margery became believers in the validity of chiropractic treatment. We highly recommend our Pittsburgh doc, Dr. David Straughn. Whenever we need a chiropractor on our travels, we have had great success finding other Palmer College graduates who were trained in the same methods of treatment as Dr. Straughn by contacting the Alumni Office at the college.

We headed across the river to Rock Island and stopped at the Visitor Center at Lock 15 on the Mississippi River. They have some excellent displays on how locks work, historical photos of the building of the dam and locks, and an excellent video about the locks and dam. They also had an excellent video on bald eagles, which used to be plentiful along the Mississippi River and which are again increasing in numbers having recently been removed from the endangered species list.

There are guided tours of the locks on the weekends by advance reservation, but the tours were temporarily canceled because the locks were closed due to high water. In fact, all navigation on the Mississippi was suspended from Quad Cities down to Hannibal, MO.

We learned the dam at Lock 15 is strictly for river navigation, not for flood control. The dam was built at the downstream end of the rapids that used to run from Le Claire to Davenport. Removal some of the boulders from the rapids combined with the increase in water level upstream of the dam have eliminated the rapids. The photo below shows Margery with the downstream end of the lock in the background. The dam is hidden by the bridge. The bridge rotates out of the way when tow boats come through the locks.

On Thursday afternoon, the predicted heavy rains arrived. During the late afternoon and during the night, there was a string of strong thunderstorms that rolled through the area. Our weather alert radio began going off every 15 to 20 minutes as storm watches changed to warnings and as new warnings were issued or existing warnings were extended. Fortunately, although there was a lot of lightening and the rains were hard and continuous, there were no high winds or tornadoes in our immediate area.

In the morning, we heard on the news nearby Moline had 3.8" of rain, which broke a 1940s record for single-day rainfall. The campground is located several miles from the river, so there was no danger of us getting flooded, but there were numerous road closings in the area.

From the TV news, it looked like the Mississippi invaded several blocks into downtown Davenport, but major portions of the downtown areas of the nearby cities of Cedar Rapids and Iowa City were severely flooded. Some smaller towns fared even worse with essentially every building in town under water. I-80 west of the Quad Cities was also closed for 3 days where it crossed the Cedar River due to high water. Although the Mississippi crested 1.2' below the record flood level in the Quad Cities area, records were expected to be exceeded downstream. Our prayers go out to all those in the area who suffered losses in the floods.

Probably the most poignant moment during all the flood coverage on the news was when they showed  a Davenport Department of Public Works employee placing an American flag on top of one of the temporary levees. The levee, which was holding strong and keeping the mighty Mississippi out of that particular section of the city, was built by DPW employees and volunteers working side by side. When they asked the city worker why he placed the flag on the levee, he said he wanted to remind Americans what we can accomplish if we work together.

As is many times the case, the day after the storms dawned clear and bright. For the moment, all the weather disturbances had cleared out. We took advantage of the beautiful weather to continue learning about the area by driving the Cody Trail.

William Cody, aka Buffalo Bill, was born on Feb. 26, 1846 near Quad Cities and spent much of his childhood in this area. Since we knew we would be meeting up with Buffalo Bill again when we get to Wyoming, we thought we should see what we could find out about his childhood.

The Cody Trail is about a 25 mile route that starts a few miles north of Davenport and ends up in Le Claire, which is to the east of Quad Cities. The trail passes several historic houses, including the Cody homestead, which is one of several homes in the area occupied by the Codys and it is the only Cody home still in its original location. The original stone portion of the house was built by William Cody's father in 1847.

Also along the route in the village of Long Grove is the Brownlie House, which was built in 1838 and which is the only known 2-story sod house. It is believed the siding was added shortly after the house was built.

The trail also passes Walnut Grove Pioneer Village, which is maintained by Scott County. The village was a stage stop in the 1860s and today consists of 18 historic buildings, some original to Walnut Grove and some relocated from different areas in the county. A few of the buildings are reproductions in the style of the era. This is a very well done exhibit of life during this period. Many of the buildings are set up with antiques, such as in this log cabin.

With the quality of the campground at West Lake Park, this free attraction of Walnut Grove, and the way Davenport has managed the flood, we are very impressed with Scott County, IA.

The Cody Trail ends at the town of Le Claire, which is on the Mississippi River at the upstream end of the rapids that were eliminated by Lock 15 in Davenport. In Le Claire is the Buffalo Bill Museum. The museum contains not only artifacts and memorabilia relating to Buffalo Bill, but also items of historical significance to the town of Le Claire. For example, James Ryan, who invented the flight recorder used in modern airplanes, was from Le Claire. James "Crash" Ryan also invented the retractable seat belt, which he tested numerous times himself (hence the nickname "Crash").

In the late 1800s, Le Claire, as well as a number of other towns along the Mississippi, had factories making pearl buttons. Muscatine, IA, which is the next sizable town downstream from Quad Cities, was know as the button capitol of the world by 1890. The buttons were made from the shells of river mussels (which are a type of fresh water clam) and had a pearly sheen. in the photo below shows shells, buttons, and tools used to cut the buttons. 

There were many machine shops in the area that machined various parts for the war effort during WWII. Ellwyn Kroeger, who had started Le Claire Manufacturing Co. as an aluminum foundry, was seeking new products for his company after the war so he and his father designed a conversion kit for reel-type lawn mowers to add a small motor and make the mower self-propelled. In the photo below, Margery is trying to explain to Paul how much more practical this set-up is when for when we buy another house than the John Deere tractor he looked at earlier.

While the museum seemed a little disorganized with a need for better labeling, it did contain some gems and interesting information, especially if you talked to the people who worked there. They also had a pretty good video about Buffalo Bill that gave information about his life as a scout and as the showman of the famed Wild West Show that thrilled audiences in the U. S. and in Europe.

Outside the museum building is the steamboat the Lone Star. The Lone Star was built in 1869 and ran from Davenport to Buffalo, IA. The ship had limited passenger accommodations and after the second season was sold to a Davenport sand dealer and converted to a tow boat. Unfortunately for us, the exhibit was closed because they were building a permanent shelter for the old, fragile boat.

Although we probably learned more about Le Claire from the museum than we learned about Buffalo Bill, and even with the Lone Star exhibit closed, we still thought the museum was interesting. Because the steamboat was closed to visitors, they even gave us a coupon for a free return visit.

We spent a few additional days in the area relaxing. Paul caught another cold, which went straight ot his chest, and he needed some time to recuperate. Then we are headed west toward Gillette with a few stops here and there on the way.

As we continued exploring the Springfield area, we thought it would be fitting to bring Mr. Lincoln's story full-circle by visiting his tomb, which is located in Oak Ridge Cemetery in the northern part of the city. Just outside the cemetery is the Museum of Funeral Customs.

Although the subject matter may seem a little macabre, it is handled very tastefully and respectfully by the museum. This is not surprising considering the museum is sponsored by the Illinois Funeral Directors Association. Their stated purpose is to enhance an understanding about ritual practices of death, grief, and mourning. The museum presents a history of embalming, a collection of various types of caskets and coffins, and information on funeral practices of the U. S.

Being so close to Lincoln's tomb, there is a lot of information on Lincoln's funeral. Abraham Lincoln was shot on April 14, 1865 (Good Friday) and he died the following morning. The display at the Museum of Funeral Customs includes a replica of Lincoln's casket..

They also have an excellent video on Lincoln's funeral train which ran a route of over 1600 miles from Washington, D. C. through numerous major cities such as Philadelphia, New York, Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago, and then on to his home town of Springfield, IL. The maximum speed of the train was limited to 25 mph by decree and the trip took 13 days. All the major cities along the route had their own funeral processions and services.

Mr. Lincoln was initially buried in a crypt in Oak Ridge Cemetery as requested by Mrs. Lincoln. A monument association was quickly formed and began seeking donations to build a fitting memorial. Work on the monument was begun in 1871 and completed in 1874. Mr. Lincoln, his wife Mary, and three of his four sons are buried in the 117-foot tall tomb. His fourth son, Robert, is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Lincoln's casket has been moved 17 times for various reasons since the first burial. There were even attempted thefts of the body to hold it for ransom. In 1901 in a final effort to prevent the possibility of theft forever, Mr. Lincoln's son, Robert, had the body buried 10 feet deep in the tomb, surrounded by a metal cage, and then had the cage encased in 4,000 pounds of concrete. Because of the permanency of this burial, those present during the final moving of the casket decided it would be best to open it to make sure none off the attempts at theft had been successful. Lincoln's features were clearly recognizable over 30 years after his death and several people present who knew Lincoln personally attested that the body in the casket was indeed his.

In Land of Lincoln Part I, we mentioned the house in Springfield designed by Frank LLoyd Wright. The Dana-Thomas House was commissioned in 1902 by Springfield socialite Susan Lawrence Dana, whose father was industrialist Rheuna Lawrence who had died the year before. The new house was supposedly a reconstruction of the family 2,000 sq. ft. Italianate-style house, but it ended up at over 12,000 sq. ft. and completely engulfed the original home. The house was built at a cost of $60,000 - $45,000 for the structure and $15,000 for the furniture. Wright's commission was 10% or $6,000.

The Dana-Thomas House, which has 35 rooms, 3 main levels, and 16 varying sub-levels, was designed for entertaining on a grand scale. The entry itself is impressive with art-glass windows and a sculpture specially designed for the house. The entry is overlooked by a balcony from which Mrs. Dana could greet her guests. There are also several balconies throughout the house where musicians could play and be out of the way. The bedrooms are of modest size as is the kitchen. Most of the entertaining was catered.

The house is the 72nd building designed by Wright, who was essentially given a "blank check" with free reign over the entire design. Wright designed the house, furniture, and all decorative items leaving no room for customization and personalization by the owner. He didn't want anyone altering his design intent. In this case, the only personal items used by Mrs. Dana was her china, and that was only because Frank Lloyd Wright had not yet started designing dinnerware.

The house contains the largest collection of site-specific original Wright furniture and art-glass windows. The Dana-Thomas House is designed in the Prairie Style with Japanese influence. Wright liked to emphasize the horizontal lines in many of his designs. For example, in the Dana-Thomas House, the vertical mortar joints in the bricks are essentially flush with the bricks while the horizontal joints are raked about 1/2" deep creating horizontal shadows on the walls.

Charles C. Thomas was the second owner of the house. He purchased the house in 1944 and used it for offices for his publishing company. The house was purchased by the State of Illinois in 1981 and opened to the public as a historic house. The house was restored from 1987 to 1990 to the way it was in the early 1900s. Although Mrs. Dana's belongings were sold at auction in 1943, it was amazing to us that all but 2 items have been found and purchased for placement in the house in their original locations.

Overall, the house is quite impressive, but without personalization, it is a little "cold." The Dana-Thomas House was designed just at the beginning of the use of electrical lighting. Although other houses had had electrical wiring added, the Dana-Thomas House was the first house in Springfield to have electrical wiring built in to the original structure. For reasons of authenticity, the lighting is kept at original, low levels; therefore, the house is also a little dark.

We also stopped by the Washington Park Botanical Garden. The botanical garden is not real big, and we seemed to be sort of between seasons - the May perennials were done blooming and the summer annuals hadn't taken off yet. All the cloudy, rainy weather is probably holding the annuals back. We could see the rose garden down the hill from us was in full bloom, but it was spitting a little rain so we decided not to take a chance walking there. We did stroll around the upper part of the garden a little and stopped for the snapshot below.

Adjacent to the garden in Washington Park is the Thomas Rees Memorial Carillon, which is the world's sixth largest carillon. The carillon consists of 67 cast bronze bells hanging in an open tower. The total weight of the bells is 82,753 pounds. The largest bell (G flat) weighs 7 1/2 tons while the smallest weighs 22 pounds. The bells were cast in a 300-year old foundry in The Netherlands. The carillon, which is shown in the photo below, was dedicated in 1962.

We happened to be there during the Annual International Carillon Festival when guest players from around the world come to play. We were able to hear the music as we strolled around the gardens.

Springfield is the capital of Illinois and there are tours of the capital building and the executive mansion. We opted to tour the executive mansion, which is shown in the photo below.

The Greek Revival-style executive mansion has served as the official residence of Illinois governors since 1855 and is the third oldest governor's mansion that has been in continuous use. However, the current governor has chosen not to live there for reasons that were not explained, although the mansion is still used for offices, overnight guests, and dinners. The tour guide and several Illinois residents along on the tour were very unhappy about that fact. We're not sure of the reason, but it seems the current governor does a number of things that upsets the residents.

We spent a week in Springfield and there were still many more things we could have done and seen. But we felt we had hit the highlights (and then some), and now it was time to move on because we don't want to have to push ourselves to make it to Gillette, WY in time for the Escapees rally. We want to be able to take our time and see some additional sights along the way.

We left Caesar Creek on Monday morning and made a fairly easy, four-hour drive just west of Indianapolis to Crawfordsville, IN. Here we made an overnight stop at Sugar Creek Campground. Sugar Creek is a Passport America campground. For those not familiar with Passport America, membership costs $45 a year and provides half-price camping at nearly 1500 campgrounds nationwide. There are sometimes limits on the number of days, the days of the week, and the time of the year the discount is given. We've found some campgrounds that are very nice, others not so nice. But overall we have found our membership to be worthwhile, especially for one or two night stops.

Sugar Creek CG is a fairly decent campground, especially for half price of $12.50 a night (2 night limit, excludes weekends). They could use a little fresh gravel on the roads and parking pads, but the site size isn't too bad for a private campground. They have a lot of shade, but the office was very accommodating in allowing us to change sites to be able to get satellite. We were even able to get a pull-through so we didn't have to unhitch our toad.

The next morning we headed out to Springfield, IL, our next destination. We drove through moderate rain about half the time, but there was a 20-30 mph cross wind (with higher gusts) from the south that meant Paul had to give steering his undivided attention the entire way. There was one point just past Champaign, IL, when a turn in the road unexpectedly headed us right into the path of a very dark, ominous-looking storm. The rain began to pelt us and reduce vision, but Paul was not comfortable pulling such a large vehicle as the motor home onto such a narrow a shoulder leaving us so close to the traffic lane with such poor visibility. We, and most of the rest of the traffic, turned on our flashers and slowed to about 40 mph. The wind began to blow even harder and changed direction to blow from the opposite side as though it were being sucked into the storm. Fortunately, we were on the northern edge of the storm instead of in the middle of it, and the real heavy rain and wind subsided after a few minutes. Those few minutes, however, were pretty scary.

We didn't have campground reservations for Springfield because we were intending to check out Riverside Park, which is run by the city of Springfield and which does not accept reservations. We were arriving early enough in the day (the time change going into Illinois worked in our favor) and early enough in the week that we weren't worried about not having reservations. We have found city and county campgrounds in the midwest can be real gems. This campground had 67 sites with water and electric, but only 8 with full hookups. Having spent 2 weeks in Caesar Creek with electric only, we were looking forward to full hookups.

As we approached the campground, we saw numerous large trees and branches down. The road just inside the park entrance was strewn with small branches and leaves and there were recently-cut logs, large branches, and tree trunks along both sides of the road. We wisely decided to park the rig and walk into the park to investigate.

It turns out the trees were brought down by a big storm the night before. Judging from the fact the majority of the trees fell the same direction, it was probably a micro-burst rather than a tornado. The main road into the campground had been cleared and the main part of the campground itself farther in the park was untouched. But since they didn't have any sewered sites left, we decided to move on to our backup plan, which was Double J Campground south of Springfield.

Double J Campground got excellent reviews on rvparkreviews.com, but we wanted to try Riverside Park first because Double J is considerably more expensive and a little farther from some of the things we wanted to see in Springfield. Double J is a very well-maintained campground with nice landscaping at the entrance, neat grass patches between fairly well-spaced sites, and shade trees between most of the sites. Double J is located right on Old Route 66 and just off I-55, so there is a fair amount of traffic noise, although nowhere near as much as the KOA in Washington, PA where we stayed in early April.

It was very hot and humid the whole time we were in Springfield so we did something we don't often do - we closed the windows and cranked up the air conditioning. Not only did that help with the heat, it made the traffic noise less noticeable.

Double J was very accommodating in allowing us to pick a site where we could get satellite after the first site they gave us had a large tree blocking our dish. We probably would have been OK if our satellite dish were on the front of our rig where most TV dishes and domes are located, but since ours is the larger internet dish, there wasn't room at the front so they had to put it at the rear.

The primary reason for our visit to Springfield was because fellow RVers we met last year highly recommended it. It is the home of Abraham Lincoln during his law and early political career. Springfield has numerous historical sites including Lincoln's home, law office, and tomb as well as other interesting attractions such as a home designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright and a botanical garden.

At the Union Station Visitors Center we met up with a wonderful gal by the name of Katie. Katie, who was originally from Monroeville, PA (near where we used to live just east of Pittsburgh), moved from San Diego to Springfield several years ago because she liked the area so much, and you could certainly tell that from her enthusiasm. She was delighted to learn we would be in the area for a week (she said most visitors don't allow enough time and want to know what they can cram into a day or two), and she went to work outlining all the things we should see.

We were pleased to learn most of the tourist attractions around the area are either free, low cost, or by voluntary donation. Even the downtown parking is reasonable with a good deal of on-street, metered parking at $.25 per half hour with a more than ample 5-hour limit. In the event you don't have change for the meters, parking lots and garages charge a little more at $1.50 to $2.00 per hour.

Armed with a whole bagful of brochures and maps from the Visitors Center, we headed back to the campground to decide what we wanted to see and do. On the way back, we made a stop at Lincoln Home National Historic Site. This historic site is a four square block area right in the middle of downtown Springfield that has been preserved to look the way it did back in 1860. There are tours of Lincoln's home, which is in the center of the historic site.

Lincoln was born in a one-room log cabin in Kentucky on Feb. 12, 1809. In 1816, the family moved to Indiana because of land title difficulties in Kentucky. Then in 1830, they moved again to Illinois because of more land and economic problems in Indiana.

At age 22, Lincoln struck out on his own and moved just to the west of Springfield to New Salem. He was elected to the state legislature in 1834. In 1837 he was admitted to the bar and moved to Springfield to start a law practice. In 1842, Lincoln married Mary Todd, daughter of a prominent Kentucky family. The Lincolns bought the house that is now part of the Lincoln Home National Historic Site in 1843. The house was a small cottage when they first purchased it; but because of their growing family, they expanded it to 2 full stories by 1856.

When Lincoln campaigned for the presidency in 1860, he wanted to overcome the popular misconception that he still lived in a log cabin so he commissioned several photographs of his home to show he was now a successful, upper middle-class lawyer. The vantage point of these photos is marked by reproductions of period cameras and is shown in the photo below.

The absolute gem in the Springfield area for Lincoln history is the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum. The museum is one of the few places in the area that charges admission ($10 for adults with $3 discount for seniors, military, and students) and it is worth every penny!. There are exhibits that cover Lincoln's early, pre-election years. This part of the tour starts through a reconstructed log cabin.

There are also exhibits that cover the White House years including the Civil War and Lincoln's assassination. Entrance to these exhibits is through a reconstruction of the South Portico of the White House. Here you can see Mary Todd Lincoln in a reproduction dress with embroidered violets, her favorite flower. There were more dresses on display worn by prominent women of the day and a short narrative of their 'place in society.'

The photo below shows Margery and Paul with wax figures of the Lincoln family as they appeared in 1861 in front of the White House. The children shown are (L to R) Thomas ("Tad"), Robert (the only child who would survive past the age of 18), and William ("Willie"). Their first son, Edward, died back in 1850 at age 4.

If you go to the museum, be sure to see the two shows. These are very well done, high-tech, special-effect productions equal to just about anything Disney could do.

The first show we saw was "Lincoln's Eyes" which attempts to get the viewer to see the issues of Lincoln's day through his eyes. It uses multi-layer projection screens, rotating sets, and special effects to explore Lincoln's personal and political life.

The second show is "Ghosts of the Library" which uses holograms, special effects, and a real actor to convey the stories and discoveries behind some of the artifacts and documents that are found in the Lincoln Presidential Library. Paul had to see this show twice just to try to figure out how they did some of the astonishing things they did.

After visiting the Lincoln Presidential Museum, there were still many more things to see in the Springfield area. Fortunately, we were still planning to stay in the area several more days.