Leaving St. Louis-Hannibal Mo.-Springfield Il- Amana Ia-Forest City Ia-Amana Ia Forest City Ia.

Thur. Our last day with the Niebrugge's.  Linda made a Tammy's special dinner for her and the family.  Cube steak with potatoes and gravy and carrots.  She also made some soups and blueberry cake.  We took Hope to cheerleading practice then to Brandan's boy scouts.  After the meeting they launched 2 liter soda bottles.  We picked up Hope from practice when we got her home we said good buy to everyone and went to Park Avenue coffee.  They were on the food network for the home made gooey butter cakes,  Shannon gave Linda a gift certificate for Mother's day.  We were to have one gooey butter cake and two for the road tomorrow.  We ate the key lime one then thought that the traditional one had to much power on it so we didn't want to make a mess in the rig we just had to eat it there. We have the turtle for the road treat.  We got a bag of coffee and they fixed Linda a special cup for there.

Fri. We drove to Hannibal Mo. where Samuel Clemens who is Mark Twain grew up and wrote a lot of his books about the town and people in town.  Top left is Grant’s Drug Store, above it is where he and his family lived.  Bottom left is one of the many pictures Norman Rockwell drew about Mark Twain’s books.  Bottom middle picture is two of the folks Mark wrote about Jim and his mammy.  Top right is a picture of the sculpture the town wanted to do, it shows some of the character’s from four of his books.  Because of the great depression it was never built. Right middle is Becky Thatcher’s house who is really Laura Hawkins. Top middle is the island Mark Twain wrote about in his books. Just a side note Unsinkable Molly Brown was born there also.

We left there and drove to Quincy Il. We got to the campground and got set up then drove to town.  We went to the Il Veterans Home which has an  All Wars Museum(first four pictures). They had two area of animals.  One of deer the other buffalo middle picture). The area was training for the army before the civil war.  We left there and went to Saint Francis Church. The picture does not show how big and beautiful it is(bottom left).  Bottom middle is the organ and bottom right is just one of the many statues.  Middle right is an old house downtown near the river.  We also went to the Woodland Cemetery  and other sites in town.  

Sat. We got up very early and drove to Springfield.  Linda had made her famous blueberry coffee cake which we ate on the way.(42 degrees when we left at 6am for 2hr ride! It only warmed up to 52 but was extremely windy. Linda said coldest she's been in along time)  We got tickets for the first group to tour Abe Lincoln's home. Top left picture is of his home.  It was a single family home and as the family grew and his income grew they added a floor. Next two top pictures is the formal living room where the Lincoln's entertained guest.  It is also where the democratic party came and offered Abe the nomanation for the party in 1860.  The middle picture is what we call the family room.  The boys were allowed there but not in the formal living room.  The rest of the pictures are of the Lincoln's home.

We walked to the Lincoln Presidential Library.  Top middle picture is one of the many sculptures of Abe.  They had a miniature Funeral train and maps of the train route.  They also had kids from all the grades make pictures for the Library's 10th ann. Some of the pictures are the second one below.

 

Across the street is the Lincoln Museum.  They had exhibits from the one room cabin he was born in(middle top picture), slave traders(top right), When he left home his first job as a merchant (middle left).   In the middle is when he courted Mary Todd. Middle right is a display of the Lincoln's family we stepped into.   Bottom left is Mary and some of the gowns.  Middle bottom is when the Lincoln's son got sick and died while he was in office.  Bottom right his hat, you can see two of the three finger marks he made when he tipped his hat.(Awesome museum)

We walked to Lincoln-Herndon Law Office.(it was being redone)(middle top row).  Then across to The Old Courthouse(top left) in the square there were statue(top right) and the next two rows are of the courthouse. 

We then went back to the old neighborhood of the Lincoln's(middle two top pictures).  There were a lot of homes from the Lincoln's time and they had a sign in the front of the house saying who owned the house at that time and how they knew the Lincoln's or why they did not like the Lincoln's.  By this time we were hungry and drove to Maid-Rite.  They were the nations first drive thru.  They offer hamburgers (which is ground beef that looks like sloppy joes without the ketchup).They have fries and home made rootbeer.  The last place we visited in town was Lincoln's tomb(bottom left).  They had a statue of him which you were to touch his nose for good luck(bottom middle).  Bottom right is the tomb marker because the casket is six feet under it.  Two men from Chicago once tried to steal the casket they were caught and since it was not a crime to steal caskets they were put into prison for two years for breaking and entering.

We drove East out of town to Clayville where Broadwell Inn(bottom right) is and where Abe would have stopped for the night when he was a circuit lawyer.  The rest of the pictures are of the Inn and a one and two room cabins. Bottom left is a amour that has never left the building. Bottom third picture is the original steps and wall paper on the walls. 

The last place we went to was Lincoln's New Salem(pictures below).  They have gotten 23 historically furnished buildings as you walk around the interpretive site.  This is where Abe read poetry worked as a store clerk, postmaster, rail splitter, and other jobs before being a lawyer and politician.

Sun.  After church we left for Coalville Iowa.  After we got set up we saw a movie of the area over time.  It is known for it's fossils which we hope to find.  We had a great day getting here and setting up but both of us are very tired.

Mon.  We walked around the camp area.  Then to the over flow water area of the dam.  It has over flowed 3 or 4 times.  Each time it peels back layers of rock which exposes the fossils. The top row is some of the fossils.  The middle left is a walkway along side the spillway.  We drove to Amana Colonies (they were formed just  at the same time as the amish that is 50 miles away.  They are like the Amish, they work directed by the elders of their community.  They are given jobs as they got older (age 14 last time for school).  They did not get paid nor did they owe money.  The houses did not have kitchen’s they ate together in a community area.  It all ended in the 1930’s with the depression. they were known for making furniture and clocks. Later they had to buy hard wood because the area they lived did not have enough.  There is 7 colonies the first one  we went to Amana seemed to be the biggest. Middle picture is a barn with the corn cribs on the sides.  We went to a Furniture and Clock Shop est. 1855 they took the best workers in the 7 colonies and made one shop. They have a walkway where we were able to watch the craftsmen at work. They made furniture, toys, and clocks(middle right and bottom left).  We went to a woolen mill (only one in Iowa still working est. 1857)(bottom right 2 pictures). 

Top left picture is me holding a root beer and German Pilsner at Millstream Brewing Company. It is Iowa’s oldest craftbrewery. They also have three wineries which we did not visit(bottom left picture).  They had rhubarb, flower(top middle), statues(top right) and lots of stores.  We ate at a German restaurant called Ronneburg.  Linda found a boy to entertain while their food way coming out.  We went to Amana refrigerator's  which was bought out by Whirlpool.  We were not allowed to go on the tour only employees.  We did see a display of fridges (middle bottom).  We drove to West Amana to the Broom and Basket Shop.  Inside the 11-foot-tall walnut rocking chair(bottom right), weighing 670 pounds.  When we got back to the camping area we drove around to see three of the other campgrounds.  

Tues.  We got up and drove to Forest City where the Winnebago is made.

Wed. We dropped off the rig to the Winnebago folks and he worked on the rig.  He got most of the list done and will finish tomorrow.  We did take a factory tour and enjoyed seeing how they put these big things together.