Category: Cruising the Upper Mississippi

August 25, 2024
Viking evicted us at Alton but continued the cruise on land for a few days to help adjust from cruise lag. For example. Breakfast included one juice rather than four, dinner was find your own restaurant, rather than venison, lobster. Or both. We do now have a pool and a nice gym. Both were absent from the Viking Mississippi.

We dawdled in Elsah, North of Alton for a two-part tour. The first part was the town, started in the 1850s to provide the passing steamboats (average life of five years before sinking or explosion) and then quarried limestone. Owner Samples gave lots to purchasers of building materials and the 60 homes reflect those origins. The guide also pointed out a restore Sears house. It’s the yellow one. As you might imagine it’s cutesy town, with a few bed and breakfasts.

The second half was a tour of Principia, an interesting college perched on the bluffs it moved to around 1930 from St Louis and hired a California architect whose building style earned the campus a spot on the National Register. What is most unusual is that it is the only Christian Science College in the world. Covid reduced numbers from 1100 to 350. which seems to me a big financial problem. But the school must be heavily endowed. The 350 students, 49% international, claim $13 million in scholarships. They found mastodon bones on campus so there’s a class featuring archeological digs, and a division 1 championship in rugby. Who knew?

Today was an intro to St Louis, including a visit to the Arch, where I realized I’d never been. The museum had some nice information on St Louis’ authentication gateway to the west. The first exhibit was about the folding of the city. I had assumed the garrison at fort de Chartres surrender and crossed the Mississippi and founded St Louis. However, the fort was not handed over until 1765, but a French trading group stopped at the fort before establishing the new city.

I think we may be almost cured of cruise lag, though nostalgia is starting to settle in…

August 23, 2024
Our boat docked for five hours today at Hannibal, another old river town capitalizing on its past . Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher in their latest incarnations greeted us and directed us to the homes and people Sam Clemens made famous in his novels. Though he lived in the town only until the age 17 or 18 when he went on the river, eventually earning a captain’s license,  his early years as a journalist eventually won out. The museum campus recreates ante bellum South, including uncle Dan, a slave who is featured in the novels. The recent novel, James, engagingly recreates Huck Finn told from the slave’s perspective. Seems hard to realize but Missouri was a slave state. There’s a new addition to the museum about Jim, that we didn’t get to. For a time after his father’s death. Clemens lived upstairs of Dr. Grant, a relative of Ulysses. That paid dividends in a friendship that culminated when the dying Grant penned his memoirs to pay off the debts he had incurred. Clemens published them. Hope our water depth measures at least Mark Twain. I think the Viking Mississippi draws 12 feet, and that’s “Mark Twain.”

If you have followed my blogs over the years you can probably guess where I chose to go this morning when I tell you the name of the town..Fort Madison. Forts, museums, palaces, old churches rànk at the top of my list.

Twenty or so miles south of our boat in Burlington, Fort Madison claims to be the oldest fort in the upper Midwest. I’m not sure how that happened because Zeb Pike in exploring the Louisiana Purchase recommended Burlington. The fort, actually a trading post, has been rebuilt at a different site by some “residents” of Fort Madison’s other industries… inmates at the high security prison, using original mitre and no nails. The fort got caught in the war of 1812 when Tecumseh allies besieged it and the army burned it and evacuated to St. Louis. The other claims to tourist fame include a railroad museum with a railway express display, the original home of Schaefer pen (easier to fill without leaking) and 60 to 89 trains a day. Walt Disney sold newspapers in the area and a Disneyland train station is modeled after the old Santa Fe station in Fort Madison. Like many of the river towns it battles to stay dry, and has fond memories of making money off settlers moving west.

Burlington seemed more successful. While it did not get the fort, it got government. It was briefly the capital of the Wisconsin territory, and boasts famous sons Aldo Leopold and Fred Merk who loved Lucy on TV, and elegant homes on the National Register. One, the former Des Moines County public library, is now a history museum with a stained glass window of Hespacia. and recently added the third largest collection of crinoids in the US, the gift of an alert quarry man. Snake Alley in Burlington claims to be the most crooked steepest street in the US, but I didn’t think Carolyn’s wheelchair could navigate it. A local criterium has bikers going up and down 21 times! Finally, troop 19 stayed at camp Eastman near here, the gift of a Burlington family.

Oh Deere
The afternoon excursion rounded out some of my previous knowledge about one of the Quad Cities’ most famous companies and families, John Deere. I had been to the Grand Detour on the Rock River where Deere arrived from Vermont in 1837 to forge a self-scouring steel plow. There were others about the same time who developed similar steel plows. One was Abraham Brokaw in Bloomington who said, “this is so good it will sell itself”; the Quad Cities offered Deere land along the Mississippi and “nothing runs like a Deere” proved a better marketing slogan than “it will sell itself.” While neither John nor his son and successor had ever seen a tractor, by the 1920s the company started producing them, rather like its Peoria competitor.

I’ve also been to Deere in Beijing, usually one of my last stops on student trips. It provided a healthy corrective to the China as Michigan Avenue view of China. At the time Cat executives were grappling with relatively high prices, in a country dominated by small farms and cheaper competitors.
It was interesting to see the Deere family houses and the evolution of corporate agriculture. The multi- million dollar ones are fully automatic with incredible man-hours saving. However, the machinery is not for Jefferson’s yeoman farmers.. The corporation is no longer a family business but the last family ceo managed to keep headquarters in the Quad Cities and donate the huge family homes. 25000 feet as civic treasures and a meeting place for not for profits.

The rock island line
180 crow miles from LA Crosse took us to the Quad Cities. In the morning. I took advantage of a bile tour along the Mississippi, which I thought was a great way to see the city. It also offered a chance to atone for the gluttony of cruising. At least I hoped it would make a dent. The 120 miles (I insisted on senior markup of ten to one) took us to four of the five cities that make up the area: Rock Island, Moline, East Moline. Davenport and Bettendorf. Calling it the Quint Cities never caught on. We went past the arsenal, I think the second biggest in the US, that once housed Confederate prisoners. As was the case during the Civil War,modern weapons and medieval hygiene left some 2000 dead and buried in the compound. The riverfront has been converted into parks and lots of bike paths and the bridges accommodate pedestrians and bikes. We later traversed through an unusual 6 span bridge which allows each span to turn 90 degrees, and later went through it. The ride across Iowa this summer concluded here and we celebrated as they did, by getting our tires wet. That picture is captioned. Last biker finally finishes Ragbrai 2024

The Wright Place
When we got into Dubuque this morning, I realized I was in the right place to right a wrong: one of the optional trips was through the driftless area to Taliesen, the home of Frank Lloyd Wright. Although we lived in Madison for seven years–about 50 miles away–we never seemed to find the time to get over to Wright’s home for 50 years near Spring Green.

I have to admit to some familiarization with Wright’s 290 or so remaining buildings. I’m indebted to the Unitarian Meeting House in Madison, where on September 4, 1966 Carolyn and I were wed. Of course, I eventually got around to the Oak Park studios where Wright lived until his first scandal (an affair that wound up as headlines in the Tribune) drove him out of the western suburb, back eventually to his home in the Wisconsin River Valley. The Scout trail in Oak Park on one of Troop 19’s “urban campouts” yielded a Wright- like patch and an intriguing look at the Unitarian-Universalist temple. (Wright was a Unitarian) I really enjoyed the Dana Thomas home in Springfield, where Wright had all the money he needed (he frequently built as though he had all the money he needed, even when he didn’t; when we lived in Madison, there were still stories of his welching on debts) and spared no expense with home and furniture. I remember thinking, lovely to look at, but uncomfortable as all get out. And the Robie House down the street from my fraternity at the University of Chicago. And the spectacular Fallingwater we stopped at on the way to the Summit High Adventure Base.

About time we got to the mother church, and it turned out to be the wright time at the wright place. Our guide regaled us with the scandal ridden stories of a genius (who can be called eccentric if not crazy) in what he did experimenting with his own house, executing some things he would never have done for clients. On a trip to the Far East, he bought lots of artifacts, including an antique rug. He expanded a room to house the rug, but mismeasured and used kitchen shears to make it fit. His attitude? “I’m going to change things anyway, and it’s mine to do with as I wish.”

While the ride there brought back memories of my truck driving days–the pasties on Shake Rag Street in Mineral Point (the lead deposits extending to Galena that made that charming village larger than Chicago till the mines dried up and the trains reached the hog butcher of the world), and the days spent in Rewey and Belmont (first capital of Wisconsin), the highlight was still Taliesen. Glad I finally got to the Wright place (and hope I can figure out how to share pictures from my camera)…

August 19, 2024

We awoke in La Crosse (named by the French for the now popular sport) but left early for a three-state tour to Decorah Iowa; at least we touched on Minnesota and Wisconsin and Iowa. The tour introduced us to the large Norwegian immigration that settled in the Midwest; the first organized tour group came from what was then one of Europe’s poorest countries in 1825. When it tapered a century later almost 1 million Norwegians had immigrated into the US, a higher proportion of the population of any European country than Ireland. Decorah was one of the beneficiaries, starting a museum in the 1850s. Norway contributed artifacts in 1925 including a Viking sword. The museum features folk art. Decorah has Luther College too. The ride took us through the driftless area. The most interesting art to me were the marriage proposal boards. You left it at your sweetie’s house. If she took it in, you were engaged. If not, you had to carve another board and find another candidate!

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August 17, 2024

Our trip down the Mississippi began in St. Paul, a city I’ve been more likely to go through than visit. A long-ago visit to the Historical Society to view the papers of Secretary of State Frank Kellogg was probably in 1960s or early 1970s and probably meant a lot of time in the Society and little for touring. It was thus a treat to spend a few days here before journey began. The lovely 1910s Hotel St. Paul served as the base for an introduction to St. Paul that included a brewery, the History Museum, and the beautiful million dollar mansions along Summit Street. One housed Governor Tim Walz, current candidate for VP of the United States, so you get an idea of the poshness of the neighborhood. I couldn’t believe how clean it was, but when you have multimillion dollar mansions, trash is not welcome.

Across from the hotel was the wonderfully restored Landmark Center, spared from the wrecking ball and life as a parking lot. At one time, it housed most of the federal offices in St. Paul, built Romanesque in the late 19th century.

The other treat was a visit with Lori and Al Lohman, academic friends that we’ve spent many years with at various MMA and MBAA conferences. They introduced us to a “genuine Minnesota meal” –wild rice and mushroom soup, walleye, and a brandy old fashioned. Good time with old friends.

August 18, 2024
Pleasant surprise yesterday when we learned we’d board ship in St. Paul and cruise south to Red Wing, still home to some of the town’s famous Red Wing shoes, which had helped the US Army in WW II.  The river level had dropped enough for the cruise ship to pass under bridges on its way to St. Paul.

Red Wing was once the wheat capital of US, but now gathers and distributes corn and soybeans. The Historical Society visit featured a peek in the archives which took me back to my history days. Town claims to have been birthplace of ski jumping, but fortunately there was no snow so I wasn’t tempted. Great pottery museum. From there we went along the river to Wabasha, home of grumpy old men and the National Eagle center. Four kind of Eagles were named–sea/fish, booted, forest,serpent. I wanted to add a fifth, bsa. Wabasha is the start of a wildlife refuge that extends to Rock Island. Great places to see Eagles, especially given the number of dams and locks that have open water all year round.