Branson and Home

We drove from New Orleans to Little Rock, Arkansas yesterday, a little over 450 miles. Today, we re-entered fall colors as we went through the Ozarks of Northwest Arkansas. We stopped in Branson, M to tour the Titanic Museum. This museum tells the story of Titanic from construction till sinking, but it spends most of its space talking about the passengers and crew who rode it for 5-7 days. As you enter the museum, you’re given the boarding pass for one its passengers and at the end you find out their fate. It’s amazing how many artifacts from the passengers are contained in this museum – letters, postcards, telegrams, menus, boarding passes, etc. The stories of the lives of these voyagers both before and after the Titanic are told. A fascinating museum.

We thought of going to one of the shows here tonight, but nothing really took our fancy, though there was a lot to choose from. I’m not sure whether it’s vacation fatigue, or the fact that the Broncos (5-1) play the Chargers (5-2) tonight! Probably a bit of both, we’re going to drive tomorrow until we tire or get home.

How do I summarize this trip? We picked the ideal time to go - we had fall colors from Minnesota until Memphis. While it was a little cool up north, it was dry and in the 80's in New Orleans. The whole trip was quite a history lesson: the exploration of the Mississippi, the Civil War, World War II, the rise of the Blues and Rock and Roll and then finally the struggle for Civil Rights. North of Memphis - the scenery was the highlight, from Memphis to New Orleans the mansions and plantations were extra special, something we had never explored before. Our only wish was that we could have done it in our trailer, we got tired of different hotel rooms and restaurant meals every night. If you want to see more photos, view the 7 minute video on youtube 

Audubon Aquarium

Upside-down Jelly Fish

We spent most of our day at the Audubon Aquarium. They have sections on Maya and the coral reefs of the Caribbean, the Amazon, the Mississippi, and the Gulf Coast. There is something about aquariums, it’s relaxing watching the fish, interesting to learn about fish you've never seen, and the eyes are delighted by the colors and shapes. The section on the Gulf was most relaxing, the Amazon most interesting, and the Caribbean most colorful. They also had the penguins, otters, frogs, turtles, sea horses, and jelly fish (even upside-down and lion’s mane) to add additional interest. We also saw a 3D IMAX feature on Lemurs, which was good.

Jazz Concert

In early afternoon, we walked along the shore to the National Park celebrating Jazz. They were having a concert in the old U.S. Mint. The Park Ranger was a mean piano player in a small combo group. He would play various jazz numbers and answer questions from the audience on jazz in New Orleans. Afterwards we toured the mint – old equipment and coins from 1832-68 that were minted there. Then we completed our tour of the French Quarter. While we were having a beer at Lafitte’s Black Smith shop, the whole quarter was screaming with sirens. We walked down Royale Street and found why there was so much commotion, a side of a building and its iron balcony had collapsed. It looked like they must have also had some injuries. We stopped for a sandwich at the Clover Grill (an old fashioned tiny place). By the time we made it back to the hotel, it was 6 and we were tired. 

 Collapsed Building

New Orleans: World War II Museum

Higgins Boat

The World War II Museum was our primary stop for the day. It’s a new museum, in fact, later this year, the Campaigns of Courage pavilion should open. The 4D movie, “Beyond the Boundaries”, was a must-see. It really got me emotionally into the sacrifices made to win this war, both by the troops and at home. The exhibits expanded upon the sacrifices made at home to devote our resources to building a war machine: rationing, price controls, and the conversion of factories to make planes, ships, tanks, ammunition, and guns. Another surprise was the contribution of New Orleans: Higgins boats. A small boat manufacturer who built shallow bottom boats for the swamps, pushed the Navy to design the landing craft, allowing marine invasions of the Pacific islands and the Normandy Coast. Eisenhower declared that these boats allowed them to win the war! While the museum covers both the preamble to World War II and most of its major battles in Europe and the Pacific, the real focus is on D-day in Europe. One gets a feel for the finesse used to trick the Germans on the locations of the invasion, the tough decision of when to invade given the weather conditions, and the sacrifices made by the troops to gain control of Normandy. The Boeing Pavilion has a small collection of World War II bombers and fighter planes. We were here for almost five hours.

St. Louis Cathedral

We then walked the French quarter from Bourbon Street near our hotel to Jackson Square. Even in late afternoon, there was music everywhere. We stopped to listen to a few jazz bands as we walked. For variation, we visited St. Louis Cathedral, and then down to the Mississippi just to record our southern-most point on the river. After some dinner, with renewed energy, we walked back to our hotel observing the crowd as we walked.

New Orleans View of the Mississippi

Two Plantations

Houmas House

Today, we had two plantations scheduled (two of the four famous ones in this area).  Houmas House, named after the local Indian tribe here, was the most spectacular. Our guide was superb, she was funny, had a lot of stories, and was made good use of her singing voice. This land was bought from the Indians in the mid-18^th century and a French Provincial style home was built. Today, this is now the back side of the mansion, in which the kitchen is situated (the first time we've seen an attached kitchen since it would be a fire hazard). The front mansion was completed in 1828. The home has been through 14 owners through the years, the most famous being John Burnside, who bought the home in 1858 and managed to hold on to it when the area was occupied by Union soldier during the Civil War by claiming he was British. The tour starts with a long walk through the gardens, which are just spectacular. Upon entering the home, the entrance hall is decorated with a hand painted mural (not the original but still impressive).  Only about 10% of the furnishings were originally from the mansion, but there were some very unique pieces like: a sterling silver lobster server (image the cost of getting lobster here), one of 8 remaining silver statues of Lincoln made by Gutzon Borglum of Mount Rushmore fame, and several plates to display apples and other fruit (another way of showing how rich you were). The home is still being lived in by the current owner, so you can walk the entire home (except for his living quarters) with few restrictions (you can sit in the chairs, walk the carpet, and  touch the furnishings). We also heard about the typical funeral arrangements. The body would be displayed in a reed casket with fragrant flowers above for two days, just in case, the person wasn't dead. Even after being buried, they would put a cord in his or her hand attached to a bell above and a servant would stand all night above the grave. If the unconscious person woke up he could be “dead ringer” “saved by the bell” as observed by the “graveyard shift”.

Houmas House Gardens

Our second stop was a very different plantation: Laura, a Creole Plantation. Creole society was a mix of French, West African and Native American where class, not race, was key to social standing. For example, at one point there were more black slave owners than white. The original owner of the plantation, Guillaume Duparc, used to be the Spanish Governor, when the Louisiana Purchase occurred. He petitioned President Jefferson for some land and was granted this stretch of the Mississippi inland for 7 miles inland. He built this home/office in 1804. The architecture is West African and was constructed by Senegalese workers in a prefabricated manner. The Cypress trees were cut and shaped and brought to the site to be built without a nail. Then brick was laid between the pillars. When he died, his wife became the President of the Plantation. In Creole society women had full rights, including property rights. She had two sons and a daughter, but the daughter became the next President because she was the smartest of the children. The plantation is called Laura, because her granddaughter wrote about her life here, telling the stories from her childhood, including tales of both brutality and mercy to the slaves. The interior of the house was quite plain, but this was an interesting stop to see the very different architecture and the stories of life here.

Laura Plantation

We arrived at the Quality Inn in New Orleans, a reasonably priced hotel, 3 blocks from Bourbon Street. The hotel staff were excellent.  They pointed us to the Crescent City Blue and BBQ Festival happening a few blocks away. We enjoyed both good music and Louisiana Barbecue at the festival.

Baton Rouge

We started our visit of Baton Rouge at the LSU Rural LifeMuseum. Here is a collection of buildings from the 18^th and 19^th century which give you a glimpse of life in Louisiana. The museum starts with a large indoor collections of farm implements, buggies, and tools used in the houses and farms of the times. Maybe we've been spoiled by all the mansions we've visited in the past few days, but most of the buildings we saw today were in poor shape, but, of course, they were share cropper's and slave’s homes. What is even more amazing is that many of these homes and barns had been occupied until the 1950's. Most of the furnishings and artifacts are also in poor shape. But we did get a sense of the typical architectures of the homes and public buildings. For example, a Christian church, had painted windows with an angle wing and trumpet; and a devil’s wing and pitch fork on either side of the altar. The slave homes were interesting, because of their utter simplicity of straw bedding and rough furniture. The share cropper’s home was better constructed, but still very simple. Shot-gun houses were typical of rural Louisiana, 12 feet wide, the rooms went from front to back. The dog-trot house had two rooms separated with a porch and awning. We tried to find the associated gardens on this site, but they must have been closed because we never found the entrance.

Dog Trot House

Next stop was the State Capital, a 34 floor building built in 14 months and completed in 1932 by Governor Huey Long. His statue and grave are in front of the capital. He was assassinated here in 1935. Both the House and Senate chambers were fairly simple. The Senate chamber was known for the bomb that exploded in 1970 during a fight over Right to Work laws. While completely rebuilt, several splinters can be seen still embedded in the ceiling and columns. The other highlight was the observation platform on the 27^th floor. Here you get a good view in all directions: the Mississippi, the gardens below, and the Governor’s mansion.

Louisiana State Capital

But the highlight of the day was visiting the Old Capital. This building looks more like a church than a capital. The ornate central chamber has a huge spiral staircase with a stained glass ceiling above. The original building was built here in 1850, but it was burned down by Union Soldiers in 1862. The current building was built in 1883 and served as the capital until 1932. The chambers have been turned into event centers. Inside the building is a museum of political history devoted to telling the stories of Louisiana's governors. The largest exhibit was on Huey Long, who either is considered a savior of the poor or as a dictator. From what I can tell he was both. He set up a system that heavily taxed the rich and used that to provide free text books, new roads, and other public projects. But he also had a large party machine, with a lot of corruption, and maneuvering to keep his friends in power. For example, he was elected a U.S. Senator in 1930, but wouldn't resign the office of governor, because he was opposed to his vice-governor. In 1932, the state elected a new govenor.

We completed our day by about 2:00, but decided to go back to the hotel and relax for the rest of the afternoon – our first day of rest in two weeks. 

Old Capital Ceiling

Natchez to Baton Rouge

We traveled for about an hour and began looking for the Afton Villa Gardens. We had been warned that it was hard to find, but we couldn’t find it, even with the help of Google maps and turning around twice. The turnoff it suggested had a closed gate and no signs, so we continued on to Rosedown Plantation. They assured us that the Gardens should be open, so we decided to take another attempt after our plantation visit.

Rosedown Gardens

Rosedown was built by Daniel and Math Trumbell in 1835. He owned 2 cotton and 2 sugar cane plantations, making him a very wealthy man. The mansion remained in the family’s possession until 1955, preserving most of the original furnishings. Inside the house, the entry hall makes quite an impression with its scenic French wall paper (though not original it is similar to what was popular at the time). The house also has a shower from 1845, one of the earliest known. It is fed from a cistern on top of the house. The outstanding feature of the plantation is its gardens. The first live oaks were planted in 1830 before the house was built and a variety of gardens surround the mansion in French, English, and Italian fashions. When the house was sold, what attracted the new owner was the gardens, but they also spent over $10M restoring the home to its former glory. Today, the plantation is a state historical park and well worth a visit.

Entrance Hall Wall Paper

We looked up the website for Afton Villa Gardens and found out that Google was off by about half a mile. The signage was still poor, but we found it and sure enough, there was a car parked there to take admission. After the Rosedown gardens, these gardens were quite disappointing. It was decked out in fall flowers, but most of the rest of the garden was grass, bushes, and trees.

Afton Villa Gardens

Our final stop was the Port Hudson Battlefield. Just like at Vicksburg, here the Confederates controlled the Mississippi with gun emplacements on the bluffs above the river. With control of Vicksburg and Port Hudson, they controlled a 125 miles stretch of the Mississippi, including the confluence of the Red River which allowed them to bring supplies from Texas and Mexico into the Confederate States. The Union Navy only managed to get two ships past this point, so they knew they had to mount a land assault. On May 23^rd, 1863, 30,000 Union troops were pitted against 6800 Confederates, but the Confederates were well-fortified. The Union attempted two assaults against the fortifications, but were repulsed both times with heavy losses. Our tour included a film about the battle and a walk to Fort Desperate, the northern most redoubt of the confederates. The deep ravines gave you an appreciation of how difficult it had been to assault this fortification. Just like Vicksburg, they resorted to a 48 day siege to starve out the Confederates. Only after the Confederates had learned of the fall of Vicksburg did they surrender. After visiting Vicksburg, this was much simpler, but worthy of an additional stop. 

Redought of Fort Desparate

Natchez

Wool carpet and canvas floor cloth

This was our day to tour antebellum mansions in Natchez, Mississippi. Our first stop was Melrose, the mansion built in 1848 by John McMurran. This is a National Historic Park and the tour given by the rangers was superb. We learned not only about the house, but about the families who lived here. McMurran suffered financially during the Civil War and sold the house to the Davis family in 1865. The entire house, grounds, and furnishings were sold intact for $38,000. The Davis family seldom visited the house and it remained unoccupied for over four decades, maintained by the servants during that time. The son finally returned to the home in 1901 and rather than updating the home, they restored the house to it 1865 look with the original furnishings. Thus the house today, still has everything from that period. What stood out to me was floor cloth, canvas painted in a pattern and then shellacked that was a precursor to today’s linoleum. The wool carpets and this floor covering had the same patterns!  Above the dining room table was a punkah, a giant wooden fan operated by a servant during dinner.

Rosalie

Our next mansion was Rosalie, owned by the Daughters of the American Revolution. As we arrived they were concluding their annual meeting at the mansion. The home was built next to the original site of the French Fort Rosalie on the Mississippi by Peter Little in 1823. This mansion was used as Union headquarters in 1863, but the furnishings were stored away to preserve them. So once again, most of the original furnishings are in the house. The parlor furnishings are quite interesting including a game table with attached chairs.

Stanton Hall

Our final stop was Stanton Hall, a huge home occupying an entire city block, built by Frederick Stanton just before his death in 1859. The family lived here until 1894. Unfortunately, most of the furnishings are not the original, but are from the period. The original mirrors in this house are from France and the fireplaces are made of Carrera marble. They have worked hard to make replicas of the original carpets and curtains, which along with the 17’ ceilings make quite an impression.  

Vicksburg

Union Battery at Vicksburg

It took us about two hours along the Great River Road to reach Vicksburg National Military Park. The visitor center had a great interactive map of the battles and a movie which provided a great overview. The story of the battle of Vicksburg was a fascinating one. This was the last city of the Confederacy along the Mississippi. Ulysses S. Grant took a lot of risk to conquer Vicksburg. He took his men deep behind enemy lines in Louisiana, South of Vicksburg. Meanwhile iron-clad ships and supply ships went South along the Mississippi past the forts of Vicksburg to both supply Grant and transport his troops across the Mississippi. From there he drove North to Jackson, engaging in multiple battles and winning each time. Then he began the move to Vicksburg, but found that the city was heavily fortified. He twice tried to assault the city, losing 3000 soldiers, while the Confederates only lost a few hundred. After seeing this slaughter, he decided to lay siege to the city, which lasted 45 days. Several tunnels were created underneath the fortifications, mines were laid in the tunnels, and exploded to try to reduce the walls. Meanwhile, the soldiers and citizens in Vicksburg were quickly running out of food. Another tunnel had been constructed and Grant was planning on attacking on July 6^th, when the confederates surrendered on July 4^th. With the defeat of Vicksburg, the Union army controlled the Mississippi splitting the Confederacy in two. We toured the battleground, getting a good feel for the defensive formations in the city and the trenches dug by the Union Army. The battlefield is filled with monuments for each troop unit and their state. We made good use of the phone app that explains the battlefield. 

U.S.S. Cairo

The most interesting exhibit, however, was the iron-clad vessel, Cairo. This was one of the seven ironclads built by Eads (who we learned about at the  Missouri History Museum). It was sunk with a mine in the Yazoo river and sank in less than 15 minutes. In the 1960’s they were able to raise the ship out of the silt and mud. Many artifacts from inside the ship were recovered as well as most of the iron panels and cannon. It was fascinating to walk around  the ship. Especially interesting was the steam engine, and the drive mechanism for the paddle wheels. You also got a good feel for the iron plating supported on an oak frame.

Engine and Paddle Wheels

Our last stop of the day was Achuca Mansion, the Vicksburg home of Jefferson Davis’s brother, Joseph. The outside is Greek revival architecture while the inside was filled with cabinets, chandeliers, paintings and musical instruments from the early 1800’s. I was disappointed in the tour, however. We watched a video of what we were going to see and then were left free to wander the house.

Achuca Mansion

Northern Mississippi

The Great River Road

We continued our trip down the Great River Road. But in this part of the lower Mississippi, we seldom saw the river for two reasons: The river has changed channels many times, leaving swampy lowlands near the river as well as the second largest man-made structure, the levees built on both sides of the river in modern times to control the channel and reduce flooding. We stop at the Tunica River Park for our first view of the river. We arrived before opening time of the museum or the steamboat ride, but we get a look at the sandbars on the river.

Our first major stop was the Tunica, Mississippi museum. As we enter the docent greets us with the brief history of the county: this was the poorest county in the country until the casinos were allowed along the river and attracted the crowds from Memphis. The town has been transformed: this museum, 4 lane highways, new public facilities, and the biggest factor, jobs. The museum told the story of the county from prehistoric to modern times. It was a more personal trip through the history we had seen yesterday in the Civil Rights Museum and worth the stop. The county has been 80% black ever since cotton became the primary crop in the early 1800's. Some interesting factoids: during the civil war, all the money collected for schools, went to the army. The county went without schools until after reconstruction (in the 1870's). Even then the funding for schools was haphazard, largely because most of the land here was in private hands, bought directly from the Indians, rather than the plan through most of the country, where one sixteenth of the land had been devoted by the federal government to support local schools. After the civil war, most of the blacks became share croppers, working the land for a percentage of the crops, but, of course, they got most of their supplies from their landlords and were perpetually in debt. During the civil rights movement, this area escaped most of the violence. But the court decision that integrated schools “now” instead of “with deliberate speed” caused most of the whites to leave the public schools. Even today, the public schools are mostly black with a few poor whites.

Cotton Gin

In the afternoon, we visited the B.B. King Museum providing the story behind this great blues artist. Both his parents had died by age 9 and by age 10 he was living alone until age 14. He began life in the fields, eventually driving a tractor. But when he had an accident with a tractor, he fled to Memphis to try out his talent playing the blues. He would play on amateur night at the Beale Street clubs. After being told that if he got a show on WDIA, the black radio station, he could have a permanent job at the club. He did get that job, which allowed him to advertise where he was playing. His real name is Riley B. King, but he called himself Blues Boy King, which was shortened to B.B. King. His radio show eventually led to traveling the Southern Black circuit, the beginning of his life on the bus (which he still does today). At that time, in the segregated South, the problem was finding rest rooms, restaurants, and hotels which would accept blacks. Rock n Roll was replacing Blues throughout the country in the late 50s and early 60s, but B.B. continued on. In the 60’s he had a date in San Francisco playing for the hippies, his first mostly white audience and he was shocked when he was received with a standing ovation. This began his world-wide career playing the blues for a world-wide audience, including us in Fort Collins a few years ago.

B.B. King on WDIA radio

Memphis

National Civil Rights Museum

Today, we visited two fascinating but very different museums in Memphis. The National Civil Rights Museum is located at the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King was assassinated. They have preserved the exterior look of the motel and the room where he was staying, while having a modern museum inside. The story begins with slaves being sent to America, when all 13 colonies allowed slavery. America’s economy was jump started with slave labor, at first farming tobacco and after the invention of the cotton gin, the growing of cotton. It then tells the controversial story behind the preservation and abolishment of slavery from the War of Independence through the Civil War. The Emancipation Proclamation introduced a brief period where blacks held political office, but this was quickly replaced with Jim Crow laws that placed restrictions in voting and separate facilities for blacks and whites. This arrangement became the law of the land when the Supreme Court affirmed it. Most of the museum, describes the many years spent trying to regain their civil rights. The court cases (particularly interesting were the cases before Brown vs. the Board of Education), the defiance of the blacks to the laws, most of them non-violent protests, the strikes and boycotts. But it took the violent acts of whites against the blacks for President Kennedy to finally take action, sending troops to integrate the school system. It was also stirring to listen to the famous speeches of King, how he gave hope to blacks while recognizing the high possibility of his death. Finally, the museum talks about the assassination, the investigation to find his killer, and whether there was a conspiracy to killing. We spent about 3 hours touring this museum. I highly recommend this museum.

Lunch Counter Sit-in

We ate lunch at Dyers on Beale Street. Beale Street was in the heart of the black district and famous for the blues. Here we visited the Rock and Soul Museum. We were given a set of headphones which allowed us not only to listen to the story of the music, but also listen to examples of the music. The story starts with whites performing country music and blacks playing the blues and gospel music. Rock and Soul music came about as the white lyrics were married with the rhythms of black music. Music was changed forever, when a disc jockey named Dewey Phillips started playing black music on a white radio station. Teenagers loved it! The museum also told the story of the local music companies like Sun Records from which many of our famous rock stars were born: Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Cad Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis. By accident they all met at the studio one night which forms the basis of the musical, Million Dollar Quartet. The museum finishes with the other famous recording studios of the time, Stax records and Hi Records. If you're interested in music, this museum is great. 

Rock and Soul Museum

Mud Island River Museum

Riverwalk: the Arkansas joins the Mississippi

We had planned to stop at an historic house in New Madrid, Missouri, but it was closed for restoration, so we headed to Memphis and Mud Island. Unique to this museum is the river walk, an exact scale model of the Mississippi river from Cairo, Illinois to the mouth of the Mississippi. Plaques explained many of the details about the history of the river. I was surprised how often the river cut new channels and left river towns suddenly high and dry – like Natchez, Mississippi. We also learned a lot about the civil war along the Mississippi, how the Union army took control of the river to stop supplies from reaching the South. It was also clear how dangerous it was to travel by steamboat – running aground, exploding boilers, and colliding with other boats were all common occurrences.

Parlor of a Steamboat

The museum furthered our learning about the river’s history. Inside they explained about the early explorers of the river as well as the forts that were built by the English, French, Spanish, and Americans to claim and hold the river. We learned about the various boats used to traverse the river from rafts and keel boats to steamboats and eventually diesel driven barges. I never knew that iron clad ships were built by both sides during the civil war nor that a river barge carries the equivalent of over 300 truckloads of cargo. They had rooms designed to feel like we were aboard a steamboat from the parlors to the wheelhouse and another that was the interior of an ironclad and finally, the pilot room of a diesel barge going down the river. The museum finished with the music of the city from the blues to rock and roll. Definitely worth a stop! 

Ironclad Cannons

Missouri History Museum

Missouri History Museum

We left the River Road today and started heading directly to St. Louis to visit the Missouri History Museum. We’ve been to St. Louis numerous times so our objective was to tour a new highlight. The museum is in Forest Park, the site of the 1904 World’s Fair. The museum’s permanent collections are about the history of Missouri and the 1904 Exhibition, but we headed immediately to the temporary exhibit celebrating the 250^th anniversary of the founding of St. Louis. The exhibit featured 50 people, 50 events, 50 images, 50 places and 50 objects. We spent most of our time reading everything about the 50 people. These people weren't necessarily the most famous people, but they were people who were influential. Some examples: James Eads who built the longest cantilevered bridge in the world over the Mississippi. He taught himself engineering and started his career building iron clad river ships for the Civil War. Susan Blow was the first to take the kindergarten concept of Germany and found a kindergarten in the U.S. The people selected seemed to have a lot of diversity, blacks and women in particular. For example, one woman was a Madam of a house of ill repute, but became the richest woman in St. Louis and was a key benefactor for the poor. The images were primarily photos of ordinary folk, but gave you the sense of how life was in St. Louis from the mid-1800’s until modern times. After lunch, we toured the permanent exhibits. The most interesting portion was on the civil war history and the conflicts Missouri had between slave holders and those who felt slavery was wrong. During the Civil War, families fought for both sides. I really wanted to see the 1904 World’s fair exhibit, but it was somewhat disappointing. Most of the saved objects were from the foreign countries which exhibited at the fair. For the people at the time they could learn about the Philippines, Japan and China. I was hoping they would have more from the exhibits predicting the future at the time. One interesting tidbit, the Jefferson building housing the museum was built using the profits from the World’s Fair. 

1904 World's Fair Exhibit

Nauvoo and Mark Twain

Nauvoo Temple

Nauvoo is where the Joseph Smith and his Latter Day Saints created their own community in 1839 after being chased out of other communities. The name means “beautiful place” in Hebrew. In a little over six years this area changed from wilderness to the largest town in Illinois other than Chicago with 12000 inhabitants. Most of the town was laid out in 4 acre plots, each house had an acre. The residents started in log cabins, but many built brick homes. They began to build a temple in 1841, but it was never completed. After Joseph Smith was killed in jail, the people realized that here too, they would be harassed and they started to cross the Mississippi on their way to Salt Lake City. We stopped in the visitor center and then toured the old city on a wagon ride. Many of the original brick building are there including Joseph Smith’s Store and Brigham Young’s house. Other lots are empty or just have foundations, but you get a sense of how this community might have looked in the 19^th century.  In 2002, they rebuilt the temple in the style of the original. The town obviously must be filled with Mormons on tour during the summer when they have pageants celebrating the history of the town.

Villa Katherine

We stopped briefly in the town of Quincy, Illinois to see Villa Kathrine. Built in 1900 by George Metz after his world travels, the villa overlooks the Mississippi. It is a unique piece of architecture modeled after a villa in Morocco. Outside, you immediately notice the minaret on one end. Inside it has a courtyard with interesting Arabic style lamps and small rooms around each side.  It was very different from anything else built here.

Our final stop was Mark Twain’s boyhood home. The town has created quite a museum around Mark Twain, his boyhood home, and some of the other houses and shops nearby. It was clear after visiting how much of the stories that he told were based on his own experiences here in Hannibal. Many of his characters also come from friends and schoolmates during his childhood. The Mark Twain museum had displays based on some of his most famous stories: Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, and Innocents Abroad. Upstairs were the original works of Norman Rockwell used to illustrate Tom Sawyer in the 1940’s. This is a must stop for fans of Mark Twain. 

Mark Twain's boyhood home

Grant's House

Ulysses S. Grant Home

We started today at the Funicular in Dubuque. It is one of the shortest in the world and since our parking spot was at the top, we said “Why take this?” The view was pretty, the fall colors are still showing in all the trees here. We headed off to Galena, Illinois to visit the home of UlyssesS. Grant. A graduate of West Point in 1843, he fought in the Mexican American war and then left the army to become an unsuccessful farmer, then he worked for his father in the tanning business. When the civil war began he immediately volunteered for the army. Of course, he quickly rose in rank and left the war as the hero of the war. The townspeople gave him and his wife a modest home in Galena in appreciation at a cost of $2500 for the house and its furnishings. He was elected president in 1868 and served two terms. After that, he, his wife, and youngest son toured the world for two years. He ran again for President in 1880. The house was fairly typical of the time and much of the furniture is the original, including his green chair which went with him to the White House. His wife, Julia Dent Grant was the first president’s wife to be called “First Lady of the Land”. She was quite active, employing a press secretary, and was a friend of Susan B. Anthony, working to get women the vote.

Mississippi Palisades State Park

We continued on to Mississippi Palisades State Park, which is a huge bluff over the river and had spectacular views of the river from the bluffs. The sun was warm, the leaves are colorful, it was a beautiful time to be up there. We continued down the Great River Road for 250 miles, stopping occasionally to view the sights. We stopped for the night in Nauvoo, Illinois. We had a great buffet dinner in the Nauvoo hotel. I was worried about finding a place to stay, since this is a small town with only a few small hotels. But we have a quaint room in a traditional motel, the Nauvoo Motel – 12 ground floor rooms in a row. 

Fulton Windmill

Return to the Mississippi

Sand Cranes

We celebrated Eric and Lauren’s wedding, then my parents 68^th anniversary on Sunday. We hung around Appleton on Monday. Tuesday, and took my folks to Door County. Once we got north of Sturgeon Bay, the trees became quite spectacular – lots of reds, oranges, and yellows. We ate at Al Johnson’s in Sister Bay, and sure enough, the goats were on the roof. I had to try some Swedish pancakes. 

Mississippi from Effigy Mounds National Monument

Today, we headed west back to Lacrosse to pick up the Mississippi where we left it. First, stop was Grandad Bluff with a view high over Lacrosse. Looking at the town, it was amazing that the town doesn’t always flood with all the low land between bluffs on both sides. We headed down into Iowa to the Effigy Mounds National Monument. Here ancestors of the Indians, buried their dead in mounds, many of them shaped like bears or birds. We hiked up to the mounds and caught the views of the Mississippi. The sun was lighting up all the colored leaves – really pretty. By the time, we finished our hike it was after 5 PM. We headed back into Wisconsin to the National Brewery Museum in Potosi. We had a pub dinner and I had a porter beer then we toured the museum. Wisconsin beer history was well represented from the 1890’s until present day. They had advertisements, and bottles and cans from Shlitz, Blatz, Adler Brau, Rahr, and many of the more famous beers. I found that the old bottles were especially interesting.

National Brewery Museum

Back to Minneapolis

Mississippi in the rain

We woke up to overcast and rain and most of our trip along the river was disappointing. We managed again to get lost a couple times, but quickly recovered. The hardest part was a bridge that had moved, so our directions set us off in funny directions. We discovered that we were backtracking where we had been, took up the phone, and found out that we should have headed straight off the bridge rather than taking a right turn. We had lunch with Cindy in Burnsville and then headed off to Laura’s. We went out to dinner at the Chianti Grill in Roseville. We should have made a reservation because our 40 minute wait stretched to over an hour before we were seated, but the food was good. 

The next day, we headed on down the Mississippi river on U.S. 61. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and foggy along most of the trip. At Lacrosse, we stopped for lunch and then headed to Appleton for Eric Balza’s wedding on Saturday.