Homeward Bound . . . but First . . .

There's no such thing as a straight drive home for us. 1. There are too many interesting things along the path to just pass by, and who knows when we'll be this close again? 2. Being in a van for that many hours becomes a physical challenge, even though the new van is significantly more comfortable than our previous version. Besides, I'm pretty sure Brennen grows by the minute, so if we let him sit still too long his legs might grow into the back of the seat in front of him and then we'd NEVER get him out! ;) Now, when it comes to the final push to make the driveway by bedtime--bathroom breaks go out the window (that sounded grosser than I meant it to), you better not get hungry until  you see the lights inside our fridge, and pretty much any method of keeping the driver awake and comfortable is engaged.

But before we reached that point, we arrived in the charming little town of Le Claire, Iowa. We've watched the American Pickers show on the History Channel for years. Once, Graysen even built a Lego Frank and Mike. We sent them a picture via email, and they sent an email back saying how cool they thought his truck and treasure depiction of them was.

If only this email would have included a discount coupon for their business establishment . . .

Good gracious! There were very few antiques on site; most that were were not for sale, just for cute or cool. Both buildings had Antique Archeology souvenirs at break-the-budget prices. We bought--two post cards . . . it cost us--almost $5! For two post cards! Okay, I will end my retail rant :) Pictures by the truck . . . free! 







Just down the road in the sunny little town beside the Mississippi River, there was an aged museum dedicated to Le Claire's own hometown hero--Buffalo Bill Cody. Who knew? We'd previously visited Bill's home in western Nebraska, toured a traveling exhibit about him at the Durham Museum in Omaha, and now, why not see a bit more about him on the eastern edge of Iowa? 

Notice the continuation of the Crew plus Bison photo scenery (prepping for a Buffalo Book Edition II for my sis someday :) We were a little iffy about the receptionist inside--she was nice to us, but super bossy to the quiet, elderly lady who seemed to be a volunteer in training? This museum also offered a treasure hunt for prizes, so the boys each set off with a clipboard to locate the unique items the local staff decided were on the "must see" list.





You may have noticed the sign on the outside of the building mentioned "regional history." I actually found this more interesting than the Buffalo Bill stuff. There were lots of old things, some that we'd never seen before--such as the cool vacuum in the picture above. You know I love to vacuum (but I'll stick to my Dyson, thank you :) You can also see, that no matter where we go we just can't keep the kids out of school. They love it! Can't get enough of it! So studious!

Another major part of the museum is the boat in the greenhouse (that's probably not their technical terminology for the set up). It's late and my brain is getting mushy, but my understanding is that this boat was the longest running working ship on the Mississippi (of the steam and paddleboat style). This was not a cruise ship or passenger ship--it was for sucking sand off the bottom of the river for deposit in other areas along the shores (industrial purposes, rebuilding sandbars, and what not). The Lone Star began its service when Buffalo Bill was starting up his Wild West shows . . . and ended its service around the time that man launched into outer space! Nearly 100 years, and it was retired not a moment too soon. I can't imagine that it is water-worthy any more, but it was fun to climb around on the decks and inspect the gears and gadgets. Seeing the crew and captain's quarters confirmed my suspicion that I was not born to live on the water (although our old houseboat was pretty sweet :)




For me, the ride home from there was pretty rough. It was like all the various emotions of the weeks leading up to and in to the weekend time in Michigan just rolled out and dunked me. I don't know that "cry across the complete width of a state" has ever made it on anyone's bucket list, but I'll just go ahead and check that off of mine, because it's not a situation I'd care to repeat. I was stuck in that funk for the entire day after we finally reached home. Surrounded by laundry. Crying. Ugh. But . . . we had lots of catch up projects to do and some things in the garden, so I did get back on track. And now, I can say that the vast majority of this trip was good for our family. Sad circumstances can have repercussions of happiness.