Yesterday I went with friends from Lowe's on a 170 mile journey through rural Illinois and Iowa. First to Erie, Illinois, to see Joy and Alan's modern log house-home and to see their Belgian Draught horses.
From there we drove through very rural roads of Illinois into Iowa. We stopped at Alamosa to visit the terminus of the "Orpahn Trains" that, for nearly 100 years, brought orphans from New York City to relocate them to Iowa and Illinois farms and factories. Not always a good adventure for the orphans, some just infants, many were adopted but used as farm laborers or factory workers, and all lost all their ethnic or cultural identities, many from Eastern Europe, or Jews from Poland and Russia, today there is a statistically high incidence of Tay-Sachs Disease in Iowa-Illinois areas where these orphans were re-settled.
We went to Maquoketa Caves State Park in Iowa and from there to a restaurant about three miles down a gravel round called Bluff Restaurant, where we enjoyed the "all-you-can-eat" fish dinner--Pollock, an ocean fish, cole slaw, thick broiled potato "chips" and a pitcher of beer...a great feast in a very unlikely place.
( PHOTOS ABOVE...I haven't learned how to place photos into text, so, as they appear here, they are a little out of order and have no discriptors. The first photo (top) is pumpkins at the Savanna Produce Market; the second photo is "Honey, Joy and Alan's female colt, born May 1o, so about 5 or 6 months old; third photos is the depot in Alamosa where "Orphan Train" kids disembarked for new destinies.)
On the way home we stopped at the Mississippi Palisades State Park (Illinois) and watched as the sun was setting to the west, over Iowa. We travelled to Savanna, Illinois and went to the Savanna Produce Market an in-door/outdoor ancient barn, loaded with tons of local produce, and for autumn celebrations, gourds, Indian corn, pumpkins and squash.
A great adventure for me; probably the best trip I've had since living here...good company, great adventures, good food...I had a wonderful time.
( PHOTOS ABOVE...I haven't learned how to place photos into text, so, as they appear here, they are a little out of order and have no discriptors. The first photo (top) is pumpkins at the Savanna Produce Market; the second photo is "Honey, Joy and Alan's female colt, born May 1o, so about 5 or 6 months old; third photos is the depot in Alamosa where "Orphan Train" kids disembarked for new destinies.)
No comments:
Post a Comment