Is That a Refrigerator?

Thursday, July 16, 2020 – Milwaukee, WI to Stone State Park, Iowa

It was only a three-day work week for me, but there was a full week’s worth of stress. After a couple of long days of getting ready to be gone and a long evening of packing it was time to hit the road. Eleven days off with nine nights of camping. Not glamping, not RV-ing, not a pop-up. Tent camping. Nine nights in five different campgrounds, including two one-nighters. I think our friends and family placed bets on our marriage.

I was looking forward to eleven days of waking up with no alarm, but I was still up at 5:00. Old people get up early. I’m not sure why it is happening to me. All I know is the sun was up and I was ready to go. The Subaru was loaded the night before, so a quick shower and some coffee and off we went. Our route took us across southern Wisconsin to cross the Mississippi River at Dubuque, Iowa, then straight across Iowa. Iowa has corn. Lots and lots of corn. Miles and miles and miles of corn.

Iowa also has the Field of Dreams movie site. Knowing it was in Iowa somewhere, Chrissy Googled it as we drove and found out it was about 20 miles ahead of us. I’m glad we thought of it and looked it up when we did, because it is not marked on the highway at all. It is preserved and open for all who find it, but the owners wanted it to be a special place of memories, not a major tourist attraction. So if you look for it you will find it and you will be welcome, but no one is going to beckon you to it. “If you build it, they will come.” If you are ever in eastern Iowa near Dubuque, look it up and go. Field of Dreams

On the way back to the main highway we passed through Dyersville, Iowa, home of the Basilica of St. Francis Xavier. You can see the double steeple over the corn from quite a distance. There are only 85 Basilicas in the United States. Most are in larger towns, but not this one. We didn’t stop to go in, but we took pictures of the outside – a very pretty church. Xavier Basillica

From Dyersville the drive got pretty boring. (Did I mention there is a lot of corn in Iowa?) But where there is corn there are crop dusters. We saw two at different points along the way, which was nice since the Milwaukee Air Show was cancelled this summer. We stopped at the Firehouse Saloon and Grill in Eldora for lunch and pressed on to Sioux City.

Sioux City was not the main attraction for the day, rather the smaller town of South Sioux City, Nebraska, across the Missouri River. Why Nebraska? Chrissy’s 47^th state! We couldn’t just drive through – you have to do something to stake your claim to a new state. So we got Blizzards from Dairy Queen and took them to a city park to enjoy them in the fine Nebraska shade. I also made her pose for pictures with the “Welcome to South Sioux City Nebraska” sign. She was thrilled. Only three more of those for her to endure, I mean enjoy.

With Chrissy’s exploration of the northeast corner of Nebraska complete, we crossed back over into Iowa, passed through Sioux City without stopping, and went just north of town to Stone State Park. Stone State Park We got barked at by the yappy dog, “Buddy”, owned by the folks who were camped right next to the check-in station. It was a perfect spot for the little yapper – he didn’t miss barking at anyone as they came or went. The folks in the campsite were kind enough to yell at Buddy for us and anyone else who came through. Buddy didn’t pay any attention to the yelling, so the combination of yelling and barking made a nice harmony on and off throughout the day and evening.

A friend joined Buddy’s owners later in the afternoon. One of their party went up the hillside behind their site and then they started yelling to each other.  “Where are you?” “Up here on the hill.” “Where?” “Up here by the marijuana plants – oh, oh, oh – I fell down the hill.” It was quite entertaining, but it got even better. While we could hear Buddy’s party all around, we could only see their campsite when we went to the bathhouse. I came back from a shower and asked Chrissy – “Is that a refrigerator in that campsite?”. And it was. A full size upright refrigerator/freezer, plugged into the power outlet and sitting out in the middle of the campsite. I guess they’ll save a lot of money on ice.

Before the shower and refrigerator adventure, we hiked a short trail – about a mile or so. In the short distance it took us through woods, a ravine, and a prairie overlook. Dinner was chicken and rice that Chrissy pre-made at home and we only needed to heat up. We scavenged free firewood from an unoccupied site and sat around a fire and watched fireflies, which both of us like to call “lightning bugs”. I think I will always be fascinated with lightning bugs. For all the insects that infest Florida, we never had lightning bugs. They still take me by surprise when I see them, and I love to simply sit and watch.

On the first day of the trip we started at home a few blocks from Lake Michigan and crossed the two of the most important rivers in the United States. As a “water guy” I couldn’t help thinking about water – rivers and rainfall shaping the land, enabling agriculture (more corn!), and influencing natural and human history. I would think about water in relation to our surroundings every day of this trip.