Herbert Hoover once said that each day should be filled with "adventure and great undertakings." So, this pat weekend Greg and I, along with our good friends David and Teal, heeded President Hoover's advice . . . and went to Herbert Hoover's house! Herbert Hoover National Historic Site is located in West Branch, Iowa, and it was a very neat place to visit. The site includes the house where President Hoover was born, his father's blacksmith shop, the schoolhouse where he attended school, and the Quaker meetinghouse where he attended church. The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum is also on the property, which is a very cool place. I feel bad for President Hoover. People blame him for the Great Depression, but it wasn't his fault, and he did many things during his life to help people all over the world. We were also able to visit his grave site there in the beautiful setting of the Iowa fields.
Speaking of Iowa fields, our next stop was the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa! We got to play catch on the actual baseball field where the movie "Field of Dreams" was filmed. We wandered out into the corn, but it only came up to our knees, so it didn't have quite the dramatic effect that the movie did. That movie used to scare me to death when I was little! I was pretty afraid of ghosts, and so I thought it was a really scary movie, but I remember Mom and Dad watching "Field of Dreams" with me and telling me that the baseball players were nice ghosts. It was fun to be there and especially to play catch with Greg, David, and Teal.
Next it was off to McGregor, Iowa, where we were to spend the night right outside of Effigy Mounds National Monument. Some of the Iowa towns we drove through along the Mississippi River were absolutely stunning. I couldn't believe we were in Iowa! The terrain gets very lush and hilly as you go north along the river. In the process of looking for a deal, we ended up at a place called Holiday Shores Motel (there aren't a lot of lodging options in McGregor). Let's just say that the one redeeming feature the motel had was this nice view from our room--you can't beat that! We were literally staying right on the Mississippi River. Though our motel wasn't the best, the town of McGregor was very charming. It almost even had an Old West feel to it. That evening we ate dinner at a fun place called Old Man River.
The next morning we went over to Wisconsin for breakfast, then came back to Iowa and Effigy Mounds National Monument. It is beautiful!!! We had to hike up some pretty steep hills to reach the Indian mounds, but once we were up there we had an unbeatable view of the Mississippi. The river is very wide there, with a lot of large islands and bridges. The Indian mounds there are shaped like animals, which is totally intriguing. How did they know how to make the mounds, which only look like animals when you see it from far above?
We spent a few hours at Effigy Mounds and then hit the road. I was beginning to feel my legs itching. I assumed that I just acquired a large amount of mosquito bites, but there was some poison ivy along the trail, and I hoped I didn't accidentally hit it with my legs--more on this to come. After leaving Effigy, we drove to LeClaire, Iowa to visit Antique Archaeology, home of the new History Channel hit TV show, "American Pickers." All four of us love "American Pickers" so it was fun to be there at their headquarters and see some of the finds they've made. They have the best job ever--rummaging through people's old stuff looking for treasures. Their headquarters looks a lot smaller in real life than it does on TV, so both David and Greg were quite certain that this was not the same building you actually see on TV. But, when we watched the show last night, Greg admitted that he was wrong and it was actually the same building we visited. After our Antique Archaeology adventure, we headed back to central Illinois and had dinner at Athens' new hit restaurant: Uncle Tykie's Pizza and BBQ. Then our mini trip came to an end. It was so much fun! We will really miss David and Teal when they leave for Atlanta in just one more week :-(Back to the bites on my legs. The itching got progressively worse as the trip continued, and last night I sprayed some Bendadryl anti-itch liquid all over myself--this usually does the trick. But, I was up all night itching (the big thunderstorm didn't help me sleep either), and when I got up this morning, my legs were all swollen and red. I either have about 100 mosquito bites, or else some sort of poison ivy induced rash--not sure which. So I called in sick to work (didn't think I would be much use to them today) and went straight to the store for some Calamine lotion. I don't think I've used that stuff since I had the chicken pox a long time ago, but it is heavenly! I also took some Benadryl, so immediately after Dad's devotional talk, I zonked out for the entire afternoon. My legs still itch, but the lotion helps a lot. I think I'm going to go put some packs of frozen veggies on my legs.
So I went out in the front yard and saw THIS!! The storm was moving so fast. It was completely calm outside, and all I could hear was a low, constant rumble of thunder. There was lightning up in the giant cloud coming at me, but it wasn't raining or anything. So I just stood there and watched this freaky, tornado-dropping-looking cloud fly over. Greg got home just as it passed over the condo. Then . . . the rain came. Behind that cloud was a heck of a thunderstorm. The wind was blowing like crazy, and there was thunder and lightning everywhere. It was the weirdest thing--seeing that wall of a storm come over, and immediately behind it was crazy weather. The only thing I can think of to compare it to when it was coming at me is a flock of dementors from "Harry Potter." It was really scary, but at least the world did not really end.
