First of all, thanks to everyone who’s watching. Secondly, I was having technical difficulties yesterday and after conferring with my web master it’s really me who’s the true difficulty. Now I need to ask him again to fix it for me and all he can say is MOM you can’t do it that way. The tables sure do turn when your kids become smarter than you. Anyway, this process will improve.
Today, it’s a little chilly, only in the 40’s and cloudy. We’re finally leaving the beautiful river town of Le Claire and heading to Burlington, IA 103 miles down river. We’ll be at the John Deere Pavilion, we were just told that our factory tour is cancelled due to a factory shut down. Then we have the Putnam Museum of History & Science and Snake Alley, “the crookedest street in the world”. Check back for pics later and maybe tonight I’ll attach words to Thursdays post.
Mississippi River fact of the day: Elevation ranges from 1475 feet at Lale Itasca to 0 feet at the Gulf of Mexico. More than half of that drop (795 feet) occurs in Minnesota.
Jerry, Jim, Jeff, Penny and Barbara.
Joanie and Barb
What do ya think, second job?
We had to share with 4 busloads of school kids.
Roy playing with a simulation machine.
Our next stop the Putnam Museum of History & Science in Davenport, Iowa.
The Putnam Museum of Science and History in Davenport, Iowa.
Believe it or not this is all crocheting. It’s a beautiful work of art.
More from the Putnam Museum.
We caught this Imax movie. About 2 women in different parts of the world who have dedicated their lives to rescuing baby Orangutans displaced by the desimation of the rain forests and baby Elephants needing rescue due to the killing of their parents for the tusks. Heart wrenching story with a happy ending.
Oh ya, it was in 3D.
The next stop was the Muscatine History & Industry Center/Pearl Button Museum. We learned the button making process, from collecting the shells in the river to the finished product. Very interesting how the button making industry supplied jobs to men, women and children in Muscatine.
Downtown historic Muscatine
Very collectible today, pearl butons on their cards.
You should have seen the pictures of the boat loads of shells that filled the streets and yards of the town, everyone was involved with the making of pearl buttons.
The counter, 144 buttons fit in this counting tool.
Finally, we ended our tour in Burlington, IA. If you’ve ever been to San Fran and Lombard street, Snake Alley has the billing for crookedest street in the World. When we arrived we found it closed off to traffic so we went after a local police officer who allowed us to drive our cars down.
The crookedest street in the world so says the Guiness Book of World Records.
Dinner was at Big Muddy’s in Burlington, Iowa, great food, good atmosphere, Ribs, Pork Chops, Turkey Breast and Salmon were excellent I’m sure everything else was just as good.
Here’s the gang with one extra couple, friends of John and Mary Carol.
They like to record their floods, I suppose the restaurant is 200 feet from the river uphill.