Pearls Before Cows

 

I found a county campground right between Davenport and Muscatine Iowa where I could actually stay for several days. I felt very fortunate because it is so hard to get into these county, state, national campgrounds, especially on a weekend, which this was. There are four, count them four lakes with many trails around them. The only problem was that last summer they had drained all of the lakes to do lakeshore restoration. All I saw were big muddy holes. They were going to start filling the lakes on Monday, the day I was leaving. Timing is everything.

I had planned on going to the Figge Art Museum in Davenport for a little more upscale culture. Then I saw, just down the road in Muscatine, the National Pearl Button Museum. How could I pass that up?

Muscatine was the Pearl Button Capital of the World back in the day. In 1905, Muscatine produced 1.5 billion buttons annually. This boom lasted only 75 years before the plastic button took over. The fact that the fresh water mussels had been pretty much decimated also was a factor. In the late 1800's, there were 300 mussel species native to North America. More than half of these species are now threatened or endangered.

Several different species of river mussels
Those chains are dragged along the bottom of the river and the mussels grab on to them.
One of several ways to harvest mussels

A Pearl Button salesman's jacket

After visiting this museum, I now know how to pull mussels out of the river, make them open their shells, punch holes in the shells and finish/polish the buttons. Too bad this is not a skill that I will get a lot of use out of.

I'm not so sure I want to stay too long in Muscatine

I joined an organization called Harvest Hosts. They contract with individual businesses to let Rvers stay on their property. Think wineries, breweries and farms. In exchange, we are supposed to buy a small amount of merchandise from these hosts.

I stayed a night at Hansen's Dairy in Hudson, Iowa. They are a single source dairy in that they raise the cows and have a creamery right on site. Every afternoon, they take you on a tour showing you the inner workings of a dairy farm. This was no small potatoes operation either. They have 300 cows of which 150 are being milked (twice a day at 4:00 am and pm) and the other 150 are babies or pregnant. I got to milk a cow, feed a calf, make butter by hand and, wait for it......feed and pet kangaroos. Evidently one of the owners went to Australia, fell in love with Kangaroos and decided the farm needed them.

This sign was along the side of a one million gallon manure pit

The old man of the mob

I'm feeding Roo-dolph here - all the kangaroos had names starting with Roo
I think he is threeyears old

This is one year old Roo-dy

This is Aztec, the calf I got to feed.  She is less than a month old. 
 Don't let that sweet face fool you - she was a hellion when it came to her bottle

The milking station, they milk 16 cows at a time

Gazing off into the distance

On my last leg home, as I was merging onto I35, all of a sudden there was a ding, ding, ding and my truck told me  'Engine Power Reduced'. The truck wasn't kidding, I couldn't go above 30 mph. I pull over to the side of the road and look in my manual. They tell me the engine is overheating, which was not the case. I checked my phone for Chevrolet dealers and luckily there was one just two miles down the road. I limped along the shoulder at about 10 mph and got to the dealer. I'm very proud of myself because as we all know, car dealers fill their lots with tons and tons of cars. My 36' camper and I threaded our way through all those cars and got to the service area. They ran some codes and it turns out that my turbo had locked open. I was about two hours away from home. They told me that I could make it, if I got the message again, pull over to the shoulder, turn off the truck and let it reset itself. Then I could drive on. It was a stressful two hours but I made it back to the Motherland without incident. Just another very expensive thing that will need to be fixed.

Way Out West in Indianapolis

 

As I start my slow trek westward, back toward Minnesota, it turns out that Indianapolis is right smack dab in the way. Indianapolis has a state park located downtown on the canal. There is lots to do in the park – they have walking paths, museums, bikes and kayak rentals, IMAX – it is impressive that Indiana allocated all this land and planned this out. The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art called to me. I wanted to see Hard Twist: Western Ranch Women Photographs but the exhibit closed three days before I got there. It was a small museum, but they had some big names there: Remington, O'Keefe, Thomas Hart Benton among others. Looking at the landscape art really made me want to go back out west again. As one friend told me – some people are just never satisfied where they are at.

I need to go here.

Not a photograph

The American Indian artifacts were cool – they were mostly western tribes catagorized by area: Alaskan, Californian, Pueblo. I suppose that makes sense given the name of the museum. Besides the traditional baskets, blankets and moccasins, there was also contemporary art also.

Bluegrass Capital

 

A friend of mine told me about an exhibition at the Speed Museum in Louisville, Kentucky that sounded interesting. “Promise Witness Remembrance reflects on the life of Breonna Taylor, her killing in 2020, and the year of protests that followed”.

Artist Nari Ward
These are shoelaces.  

One of the art pieces consisted of two flags, which were draped from the ceiling to the floor. Each star in the flags represent a life lost to gun violence. The artist thinks of these lives as “fallen stars”. 15,433 were killed by gun violence in 2019. 15,433 people, including Breonna Taylor were killed by gun violence in 2020. As you move through the galleries, a portrait by Amy Sherald (she did the official portrait of Michelle Obama) of Breonna dominates the last wall – it was quite moving.

This is the 2020 flag

There was another exhibit by Isabelle de Borchgrove – life-size clothes made out of paper. The amount of detail and craftsmanship was stunning.

Sometimes there were portraits behind the dresses
which were the ones that inspired the artist for a particular dress

I am vehemently opposed to the racing of two and three year old horses. These are baby horses – their bones haven't even finished growing yet. I have to say, though, that when I walked on the grounds of Churchill Downs I got a little weak in the knees. There is so much history and tradition here.

The grandstand

The Track

The horse when he has finished the race

I am a sucker for factory tours – automation, machines whipping out hundreds, thousands, millions of the same article in a matter of minutes. So, I jumped at the chance to tour the Louisville Slugger factory and museum. I have to say, I was surprised at how small and intimate the assembly line was. The Louisville Slugger bat has been manufactured since the late 1800's. The wood for the bats all come from a forest on the PA/NY border. Bats are made from maple, ash and birch – each type of wood has different characteristics. For example, birch gets harder the more it gets hit.

This is how the factory gets the wood from the lumber mills.  
They call them billets.

All colors that are to be used in professional baseball must be approved by the MLB

A maxi bat

Everybody got to take home a mini bat. 
I'm thinking another self protection item in my arsenal.

There is a new type of hotel that is beginning to pop up called Museum Hotels. There is one in Louisville, the 21C. They have exhibitions just like a regular art museum, but you can also sleep with the art. They tend to specialize in more contemporary art.

A limo outside of the 21C

This was carved out of books

More book art

Just a small portion of what they call Finn's Flock

At The Farm

 

My bestie, Kathy, lives in an equestrian community in the mountains northwest of Knoxville, Tennessee. Anytime I am anywhere close to her, I feel that I must stop by because I certainly don't want to miss any opportunity to see her. Kathy has a couple of new horses, one is an Icelandic named Andvari, the other is a little hinney named Mrytle. Myrtle is a little goof ball, always getting into trouble, while Andvari is one of those great horses that lets most things roll off his back. They are a good match for each other.

I could almost touch the ground on both sides.
 Mrytle was very patient with me

The Peanut Gallery - Miko and Tux
Miko does not look like she approves

Andvari and Mrytle

Besides lounging around the farm, eating chocolate and binge watching TV, we did get out and about for a few hikes. This area of Tennessee is breathtaking.

Pickett State Park

Kathy even has a waterfall just down the road

The best news is that I was able to get my second Pfizer shot near Kathy's house. I heard that the fairgrounds had vaccines and I called them up for an appointment. Two hours later, I had my totally filled in vaccine card. I'm feeling rather invincible again and also feeling very lucky.