Look!! Up In The Sky!!! It's A Bird! It's A Plane! It's Superman!!!!

I was sort of working on heading back north, I'm missing parts of my life there. I thought I might get back home sometime next week but then I checked the weather for Minnesota. One day the low is going to be 7 degrees, another day 10 degrees. I'm sorry – I just can't do it – I'm not coming back until the Robins are guaranteed not to get frostbite. Hopefully I will get back there before July.

These last couple of days were culture filled days – culture at both ends of the art world spectrum and some in between. I think I will start with the high end culture and work my way down into the low end – the clever end perhaps?

In Paducah Kentucky (sidebar: I would love to live in Paducah, just so I could say the name – coolest sounding city name ever), there is the National Quilt Museum. I thought I would go see it, thinking it would be mildly interesting. Boy, was I wrong – this place blew my socks off. These were not your grandma's quilts. It is a contemporary quilt museum, for one thing. These were absolutely beautiful works of art and so creative, sometimes humorous, and many times it made you wonder “how did they do that?

I actually spent a whole two hours in this museum, believe it or not. One quilt was titled Beatles 1962-1970. There was a fabric square for each band member. There were album squares. For example – Sergeant Pepper had it's own square. Inside the square, the individual songs were portrayed. Lovely Rita standing next to her meter, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Fixing a Hole. There was so much to see just in this one quilt. While I'm studying it, one of the docents came up and whipped out his cell phone and started playing Beatle songs for me so that I could appreciate the quilt more.  Nice touch.

They don't let you take pictures so I'm just going to include a couple of pictures from the web. This museum is highly recommended.

Paducah is right across the river from the great city of Metropolis. We all know what Metropolis is famous for, right? Superman!!!!! In the center of town they have a giant statue and then there is the Super Museum. I paid my $5 and went into the museum. There was a ton of Superman/Supergirl/Superboy toys and memorabilia but the museum itself was a little short of substance. I did have, for me, rather a little brilliant flash. The first Superman I remember was named George Reeves. Later generations' Superman was Christopher Reeve. Both Reeves and Reeve came to unfortunate ends. Coincidence? The best part of the museum was a documentary that they had playing and I could watch 'my' Superman again.  I also found it interesting that the Massac County Law Enforcement and Detention Center was located right next door to the museum and the Superman statute.  Coincidence again?

Downtown Metropolis - Super Museum on the right

TRUTH - JUSTICE - THE AMERICAN WAY

And then there is me in my SuperGirl outfit

At the other end of the street, all by herself is Noel Neill who was the original Lois Lane.

Side note: She was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

My campground was in Metropolis.  It was the Fort Massac State Park(first state park in Illinois) where they had a replica of a fort from about 1803.  Good place to walk the dog, but nothing much to see. All the buildings were boarded up.

My final visit was a little place outside of Paducah called Apple Valley Hillbilly Garden and Toyland. This was probably one of the more unique places I've visited. Keith, the owner collected lots and lots of all sorts of castoff items and then created pieces of 'art'. His neighbors call it an eyesore and as you drive up, you think it looks like a junk yard. The sheriff has actually been by quite a bit to write his property up as a public eyesore but then Keith decided that he should call himself a folk artist and affiliated himself with the Paducah Art Council, so the public eyesore charge didn't stick.   Keith is an interesting man who seems to live for puns. My pictures don't even come close to all that he has scattered around his yard. When you finish the tour, he takes you into Toyland. Keith collects toys, mainly action figures. He had one building that was crammed full. He said that what was displayed was only a tiny bit of what he had collected. The rest of his collection is stored in the semi trailer that was on the property.

Keith - picture from web

The Reality TV section

The Potty Mouth Tree

Texas has Cadillacs stuck in the dirt - Kentucky has lawn mowers

Sink Holes

The ReTIREment Home

The semi trailer with the rest of the Toyland toys. The portraits were done by Keith. 

Keith said that he doesn't know how to draw so somehow every portrait he does turns out to be a clown

Here are a couple of pictures of Toyland - rather mind-boggling.  Keep in mind, these pictures are just two small corners of the building.  The building is packed with just a small walkway in the center.

I just thought he was pretty

What Did You Have ForBreakfast OR Spiritual Health, Brawny Machines And A Little Dash Of Bix

I was raised on Kellogg cereal. Is there any other type of cereal? Looking at the map, I see Battle Creek, ancestral home of Kellogg's. How cool would it be to do a factory tour? I must say, I'm rather disappointed that there are no factory tours to be had. I did find something called Kellogg's Discovery Center which was interesting in it's own way. Back in the olden days (1800s) people thought fresh air and sunshine would make you sick. Fresh vegetables would kill you. In NYC, a guy on a street corner ate three tomatoes. People thought he was trying to commit suicide. Dr. Kellogg was all about health and exercise. He created a sanitarium where he could put his ideas into practice. He invented many machines that are still in use today in many gyms.

Discovery Center parking lot - evidently this was Not the hottest ticket in town

Some of Dr. Kellogg's inventions

Some of the machines we could try for ourselves. 

This foot vibrator was very relaxing although I could feel it all the way up to my fillings

One day, one of his patients at the sanitarium came to him and said “Dr. Kellogg, you owe me $10. I was eating this dry hard toast that you gave me and I broke my false teeth”. Dr. Kellogg immediately started working on an alternative to the toast and came up corn flakes. Ta-da!!!!

Dr. Kellogg also was a 7^th Day Adventist and Battle Creek is where this religion came to be. I spent maybe a half hour in the Discovery Center and then I got a tour of the Historical Adventist Village which took about an hour and a half. I was really curious about what the religion was about and asked my personal tour guide to give me a quick run-down on their basic beliefs. They believe in good health practices, the trinity and when you die, you just go on mouldering in the grave until the second coming when all true believers will rise up out of the grave. I must have asked a lot of questions about the Adventists because my tour guide gave me a book all about the Adventists which should answer any other questions I might have.

Spent a few days in Indiana at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. I spent time last year here, but I stayed in the Indiana Dunes State Park where there were hookups. This time I'm in the National Lakeshore where there are no hookups at all. That would be fine because I am pretty self-sufficient, but it has been raining for the last couple of days and my solar is having a hard time keeping up. Miko and I just sort of vegged out – did a couple of hikes, found some ice cream but basically just putzed around.

Sometimes lily pads aren't all that pretty

My next big challenge was getting from Indiana around Chicago. I absolutely will not drive through Chicago which means I always end up going the long way around . I was hoping to stay at Starved Rock State Park where I had stayed at previously. The problem was that it was Sunday of a three day weekend and all the weekend warriors had taken every available camping spot. I ended up in the Quad Cities – Davenport, Rock Island, Moline and maybe East Moline? I had decided to stay at the Illiniwek Forest Preserve and as I drove up – it was packed. Not with campers but with a Renaissance Festival – jousting, flute playing, much hilarity. Illiniwek was a lovely park. On one side was the mighty Mississippi and on the other side was a huge bluff with some beautiful hiking/mountain biking trails. Miko and I would go hiking every morning up on these trails for a couple of hours.

Miko in a gnarly tree trunk

Moline is the home of John Deere. I, again wanted to do a factory tour, but you had to reserve a spot 48 hours in advance which was not going to happen, given my tendency to not commit to a plan. I did the second best thing though which was to go visit the John Deere Pavilion. I learned how John Deere got his start – he was a failed blacksmith who came to this Midwest area from Vermont to try to find work to pay off his creditors. New England soil is hard and rocky while Midwest soil is rich and damp. Farmers in the Midwest would have to stop every few feet to clean the muddy mess off of their iron plows. Mr. Deere fashioned a polished steel blade that cut like butter through the dirt and thus, the John Deere company was born.

While that was interesting, the great thing about the Pavilion was that there was so many interactive displays. I got to go into a simulator and operate a back hoe. I couldn't quite get the hang of driving a bulldozer. I built gears that twirled. I hand cranked videos (although some little kid butted in and wanted to play also – I guess I was in the children's area, but still....). I also got to climb into a few cabs of various John Deere machines.

If you squint real hard, you can see me driving me a big honkin'   machine.  So big it doesn't fit all the way in the picture

Davenport is also the birthplace of Bix Beiderbecke , a famous jazz cornetist. He came up in the late twenties/early thirties. I knew nothing about him except his name, but some of my friends in the music biz thought he was the bee's knees. I really dislike the type of jazz where everybody seems to be playing a different melody at the same time, but Bix seemed to be more of the big band type of jazz which is way cool.

Pretty prolific guy

They wanted you to feel like you were actually listening to Bix as he played at Hudson Lake

I also tried to go on a chocolate factory tour, but even though the building's operating hours stated they were open, all was dark – so no factory tour. I guess factory tours were not to be for me.

Wisconsin has a bar on every corner - Davenport has a chiropractic office on every corner

I spent four days in the Quad Cities. I am learning to slow down. I am learning that I don't have to be doing something touristy every single moment. I still have a long way to go, on this slowing down stuff, but I think I am beginning to get a glimmer of how this works. My time on the road is winding down - I'm sad that I have to go back.  My time was way too short but I'm also thrilled to head home and reconnect with all that is near and dear to me. 

Wildcat Canyon

Starved Rock is a most excellent park. I love the trails here – they are well marked and very very scenic. Today, we walked up to Lover's Leap and Eagle's Nest up on the bluff and then wandered over to Wildcat Canyon. Wildcat Canyon had the best waterfall yet. I don't know if it was because we really worked to get to the canyon – can you say fifty million steps all at once, going up – or perhaps it was because I actually stopped, sat on a log, contemplated the universe for a bit and really got a chance to feel the surroundings and appreciate what I was seeing. So many times when you are on the road, you go to a site, do the obligatory see-all and then move on. All too seldom do I really get to spend the time to really “see” what I am seeing. I know when I would go to a cathedral in Europe, I found that if I just sat in a pew, took the time to feel and absorb what I was seeing – it made for a much deeper experience. That was Wildcat Canyon for me.

View of the Mighty Illinois

View from Eagle's Nest - It is an optical allusion - the left side of the dam is lower than the right side

Wildcat Canyon Waterfall

Miko really does not like her picture taken - ' Gee Mom - just cut out this foolishness'

Looking at the falls from after climbing the fifty million steps

Funny thing is that we never climbed up to the namesake Starved Rock - where a band of First Nation people starved to death.  We could see it from Lover's Leap which was good enough for me.

A Day For Waterfalls

Illinois is one long, long, state. It takes forever to get from bottom to top. I moved up to Starved Rock State Park which is about 90 miles southwest of Chicago. It is the most visited state park in Illinois (probably because of it's closeness to Chicago), but it is one of the most scenic. It is impossible to get into this park on the weekends unless you make reservations. I am here for four nights – Monday through Thursday nights and currently there is only one other camper here in my area. I will be leaving before the weekend rush.

This park is located on the Illinois River. I've been amazed at how wide the rivers are down here. The Tennessee, the Ohio, the Illinois are all monster rivers. They put my Mississippi to shame. Of course, I'm used to the Mississippi up close to it's source, the river has hardly had a chance to get going and grow into the monster river that I know it will become.

I use my phone to access the web and for the last few days I have not had any internet access. I can make phone calls and occasionally text. I am sort of ashamed to realize how dependent I have become on being plugged in. I could not navigate, I could not figure out where to stay, I could not look up the answers to all the silly questions that pop into my head. I was hurting. I finally found a place where I could use their WiFi and looked up a Verizon store. There was one in Peru, about 15 minutes away. I get to Peru and since I don't have any navigation, I'm wandering up and down the street that I know it is on. Finally, I stop for directions. At a Sprint store. They were so happy to see me walk in, but boy, did their faces fall when I asked them for directions to Verizon. I got my phone fixed and I am now connected to the world again. What a relief.

Miko and I hiked into St. Louis Canyon. It is cloudy but everything is very green. There is a nice little waterfall at the end of the canyon.

 

Miko checking out the waterfall in St. Louis Canyon

 

The next day, the winds came up and the clouds got more threatening. I waited around to see what the weather was going to do and it seemed like nothing was going to change so we headed out to hike LaSalle and Tonty Canyons. The trail goes into the woods, down 140 steps (I counted them) and then winds along the Illinois river. We get down to the river and the skies open up. I'm trying to decide if I should go on or not, but I have a raincoat, I'm not going to melt – I'm going for it. Miko, on the other hand, is not too happy with the decision. I have never seen a dog who hates to get rain wet as much as Miko. But she soldiers on.

The problem with the rain is that it makes the ground muddy (and slippery) and if you have to clamber over rocks, they are slippery also. I am so happy that I had my Walmart walking stick with me. It would have been perilous is I hadn't had it.

LaSalle Canyon's waterfall was special as you could actually walk under it. I don't think I have ever done that before.

 

Approaching from the left

 

And we are under the waterfall

 

And from the other side

 

And we are leaving

 

 

I continued on to Tonty Canyon. There were supposed to be some waterfalls down at the end, but it had rained so much that the mud was becoming deep and threatened to suck you down. I had visions of becoming mired waist deep in the mud and never getting out alive. As great as Miko is, she is no Lassie and I don't think she could have pulled me out or gone for help. So I turned back before I got to the end of the canyon. As they say – oh well, next time.



Tonty Canyon - there is a waterfall someplace down there

This Isn't The Illinois I Knew

I am staying at Ferne Clyffe for four nights. It is such a luxury. I can spend more time exploring the area and also spend more time sitting in my lawn chair. You can never spend too much time sitting in a lawn chair.

Just down the road a piece is another Illinois State Park called Giant City State Park. It got it's name because there are a bunch of big sandstone bluffs and the way these rock formations are laid out, it could resemble city streets. After seeing the City of Rocks last year in New Mexico, Giant City was a bit of a disappointment. We did the nature trail and there were a few places where you walked between the rocks, but the trail mostly just went around the bluff. It was still a pleasant walk, but I guess I wouldn't go out of my way to see this.

 

On the other hand, I would definitely go out of my way to see the Garden of the Gods in the Shawnee National Forest. It is sort of the same idea as Giant City, but much bigger and better. The trail winds in and out of some massive rock formations. I was really surprised that people were able to climb all over the rocks. Seems to me that it would some sort of liability issue or something. It is a long way down from the tops of the rocks into the valley.

 The trail is only a quarter mile long, but it takes over an hour to do the whole trail because you just can't help but veer off onto the tops of these rocks. Let me just say here that Miko is much more sure footed than me. She also has no problem going out to the very edge. Just watching her out there was enough to give me vertigo.

These two girls were maybe around 12-13 years old

This sad guy was hanging out right outside the Garden of the Gods

Ferne Clyffe - I Feel Like Such An Elegant Speller

I skipped over Kentucky. Sorry Kentucky but I'll be back. I made it into southern Illinois. I was racing rain that was supposed to be coming in and I wanted to get to the campground and make camp before the weather started. It can get sort of miserable setting up in the rain. I rolled into Ferne Clyffe State Park  named because there are supposed to be a lot of bluffs and ferns here. They thought they would class it up by calling it Ferne.

I stop by the camp host, he tells me pick any spot that doesn't have a reserve tag on it. I find the spot and get all set up, including putting leveling blocks down. It is starting to sprinkle – whew, I made it. Mr. Park Ranger shows up and says – hey, you can't park here, it is reserved. I'm putting the tags up now. What? I asked when did the site get reserved? He says they came in at 4:30 this morning. It is now late afternoon and he is just putting the tags up now? I have to move. I only had to move across the street, but it was a hassle and it was raining pretty good by this time. What do they say about the best laid plans of mice and men?

I wanted to stop at Ferne Clyffe when I was heading south this trip but it just didn't work out time/distance wise. I'm glad that I couldn't stop because that was way back in March and it would have been way too cold and icy to hike. Yes, I'm a wimpy hiker. Besides that, there is a waterfall here and as nice as frozen waterfalls are, I really like rushing waters.

 

A little dribbler of a water fall

Just cause I thought this was pretty

A lovely waterfall

The other reason to stop here was that the park contains Illinois' largest shelter cave – one of those caves that First Nation people used back in the day. I followed the trail and came to a cave. It was a nice size cave, but rather under whelming. I thought to myself: well, this is Illinois. Illinois is not known for being a place of massive hills. Maybe this is huge by their standards. I spent a good amount of time here, took the obligatory photos and moved on.

 

The first cave. You could stay here and it would keep the rain off

 

I left the cave, rounded the corner and Wowzer – there was a massive shelter cave. Evidently my first cave was just a warm up act.

 

Miko in the giant shelter cave

 



Ok, now see Miko on the rock - you can see how huge this shelter cave was