After Escapade

 

Escapade was a busy time for Carol and I. Part of our responsibilities involved getting all the banners, including the stage back drop, photo booth, stage decorations, and table decorations in place.

This year Escapade tried something different regarding the photo booth, so all I needed to do was build a frame, Carol created accessories for the booth, again. Besides the photo booth accessories, she made the decorations for the tables and stage.

Once setup was complete, all we needed to do was help ensure it only needed coaxing from time to time. This year we had the opportunity to train our replacements. Carol and I have decided to call Tucson our last Escapade, and will function as assistants. The event went off without a hitch. Without pulling out one of the schedules (which I don't have), there were several new and different classes, besides the usual ones. Again, Boot Camp was held before Escapade started. For those unfamiliar with Boot Camp, it is classes to teach new RVers on how to maintain and safely operate their RVs.

The only negative I have about this years event occurred when the facility was maintaining one of their rodeo arenas. They chose to dress (rake) the arena during high winds, which blew the dirt/dust over to our rigs. Apparently all that dirt/dust caused people to get sick, Carol and I included.

After Escapade we continued heading northeast to Wisconsin to visit our oldest son, his wife, and the grandchildren.

We couldn't get to Illinois until we passed through Kentucky. 

Our first, and only stop in Illinois was for a couple of days. The only reason we stopped in Illinois was because we noticed that in all our journeys we seemed to have driven right around the state.

If you happen to notice the Illinois sign is a little wacky, it is because we hit one of those finely engineered highway potholes as Carol was snapping the picture. The campground was in Marion IL. It was a small quiet campground off the freeway. Carol and I used this stop to continue to get better from the incident in Tennessee.

We left Illinois, and headed for Columbia, Missouri.

We like to use the smaller highways of America so we get to see the small towns, but that doesn't always get to happen. Traveling through Missouri took us on the freeways of St. Louis. God took the lemons and made them lemonade:

We were fortunate to get a glimpse of the Arch as I was fighting traffic. Besides the Arch, there were a couple of bridges we had to cross to continue our excursion.

Maneuvering our way through St. Louis, we were on our way to Columbia.

Cottonwoods Campground was a nice campground, but was originally built for smaller RVs.

Pulling into our site, I had a tree on each side to maneuver around. The site was long enough, no problem, just narrow. That concrete slab you see at the front of the trailer... that's our neighbors picnic table. The hot weather followed us up to Missouri, and I took advantage of their pool a couple of times. When we decided not to swim, he went into the mini store and bought ice cream to cool down. We stayed a week here, which completed our healing process from Tennessee. We stayed home, except to get gas so we could move on.

We made our way out of Missouri, and into Iowa.

The next campground was a Corp of Engineering (C.o.E.) park on Rathbun Lake. I have probably mentioned before that most of C.o.E. campgrounds are on lakes, because of the dams they built, no exception here. This is the road down to

our section of the campground. The campground itself is three sections, our section was closer to the water, a section is more in the trees on higher ground, and a group camping area. There is also a boat ramp, which was obviously needed for all the boats at some of the sites.

Our site was a very nice site, backed up to the high grasses. We were on the side that had more spacious sites. This campground is not like many other C.o.E. parks, it is electric only at the sites. Visitors can fill their fresh water tanks at the dump station near the entrance to the campground. We are fortunate to have large storage tanks for fresh, gray, and black waters, meaning we only need to dump on the way out. 

This stop reminded me of God's mercy and kindness. We arrived at the park, got setup and unhooked... it was the next morning that made history. I talk of God's mercy and kindness because there were fellow RVers willing to help in a time of need. When I tried to start the truck the following morning (Sunday)... no bueno. I walked over to one of the locals camping here, and asked if he could give me a jump start. Little did I know that he and his group of camping buddies were getting ready to leave and head back home. Instead of staying no, he went to look for one of his buddies that might have cables. They tried to jump my battery without success, when another one of the group came over with his diesel truck and jump started our truck. You see there is something different about diesel trucks, most of them have two batteries. When one goes bad, it puts a strain on the other. So, to jump our truck the gentleman had to run two sets of cables off one of his batteries, because the cables couldn't reach his second battery. We got the truck started, and I kept it running while I prepared to run to AutoZone for new batteries. What it showed me that day was that God was willing to help, as long as I was willing to ask for help. I did get to AutoZone and replaced the batteries right there in their parking lot.

TAKE A BREAK AND STRETCH FOLKS.

With Carol and I feeling better, we went out on adventure. We took a drive to Centerville to visit the Appanoose County History and Coal Museum.

The museum was the original post office for Centerville.

When visitors walk into the museum, they will note the eclectic

exhibits of the region. One example is what would have been the back porch of a family living in the rural town in the summer.

You might have seen a baby's crib, washing machine, and a clothes line with drying clothes. 

All the counties in Iowa were named by the Iowa Territorial Legislature way before the territory was organized. Many of the counties were named after past presidents, explorers, and historical figures. Appanoose county was named after an Indian chief over the Sac and Fox tribes in this area. Chief Appanoose was destined for making history; he was the only leader of the tribe born west of the Mississippi river, and was considered a friend of the white man. 

Chief Appanoose became famous when he traveled to the Massachusetts Statehouse in Boston with other chiefs in 1837. He became well known for his oration, which concluded with the statement "where we live beyond the Mississippi, I am respected by all people and they consider me the tallest among them. I am happy that two great men meet and shake hands with each other."

This was an interesting display, each one of the spinners is four sided. One side is the name of a person, the second side is a picture of that person, the third side is their accomplishment, and the fourth side may have been an article or advertisement pertaining to the them.

This gentleman, Oscar V. Payne,  was made famous by gangsters. His invention was known as "the chopper", "the typewriter", "the Chicago piano", and " the gun that made the 20s roar". Have you figured it out? its the sub-machine gun, also called the Tommy-gun. It was invented too late to help the Marines during WWI, but helped gangsters rule the big cities.

Oscar was born in Centerville, in 1894. As a youth he was very good at taking an abstract idea and turn it into a suitable design. At age 16 he was working in Washington D.C. for a propeller manufacturer. While working there he invented a "propeller pitch indicator", which is called "Oscar" to this day.

To give you an idea how smart this young man was, at age 20 he read patent drawings and disassembled, then reconstructed an antique Robert's firearm in the U.S. Army Ordnance Department... which was considered by experts to be an impossible feat. His feat was recognized by higher authority in the department, and he was hired to work on war machinery, and design a light-weight, one man, hand-held automatic machine gun.  Unfortunately Mr. Payne did not complete his invention until the eve of Armistice Day of 1918.

Does anyone know this strappin' young man? This is James Stevens. He was born in 1892, and lived on a rented farm in Monroe county. His dad wasn't around too much, and was considered a "gypsy father", always roaming. Mom was a hired hand working for $12.00 a month. At age 10 he was sent to live with relatives in Kansas City. At 15 he was expelled from school because of his tobacco habit.

James fought in WWI, and after the war he worked in the sawmills of Oregon. He settled in Portland, and began writing. Lets see if you recognize some of his books: "Brawny Man", "Matlock", "Homer in the Sagebrush", "The Saginaw Paul Bunyan", "Paul Bunyan's Bears", "Big Jim Turner", and "Tree Treasure". If you haven't guessed it, he was the Paul Bunyan author.

You can see that there were/are many famous people from this region we call, Iowa. Moving along visitors will see exhibits celebrating our military, weaving machines, looms, and back years of the local news.

This newspaper is dated Friday, April 13, 1883. If you are able to expand the photo you can see that many of the articles deal with politics, local news, grain quotations, and the death of a prominent citizen. The area also had a major event occur in 1962.

The news said that there was 45 killed, and 1 survivor, which later died in the hospital, does that mean that 46 really died due to the plane crash. This plane crash was such a big thing in Centerville, that a book was written about it by one of the locals.

Before we go to the basement, let me show you this building was really a post office.

The lobby is pretty much the same as it was in its early days, with the exception of all the advertising pamphlets. The pigeon hole sorting is still used today in some of the smaller post offices throughout the country, and some campgrounds.

Ok, back in and down the stairs to the basement. The basement is a tribute to the coal industry that existed one time in Iowa. In the foyer is an exhibit from a local artist.

The paintings were mines in the area. A lot of the old mines are gone now. It was fun to look through some of the old mine ledgers that are available for perusing.

After enjoying the paintings, it is time to enjoy the other exhibits. On the left is their display of lanterns that could have been found while working the mines. Some of the mines traveled inside the Earth, others were surface mines. 

How is this for a chunk of coal. This father and son loaded this 5,200 pound chunk... I think the smaller guy did most of the work.

There are two sections in the hall that provide visitors the opportunity to feel what the coal miners, and animals experienced on a daily basis... so here we go.

It is time to get to work, and this is the entrance to your office. Most of the time you would probably be getting to work when it was still dark, so entering your office isn't a big deal.

As you see, you vision is limited due to the light available in the tunnel. Ok, now its time to get on your knees and accomplish the goal of your boss. This is probably more light

than was available , but you enjoy the extra light.



After we finished the museum we took a walk around the Centerville square. The square is one of the unique squares, in that it is two blocks long on each side, vice the usual one block. The square did have a couple of shops that deal in odd items like these:

Mom and pop farmer. Look closely and you will see that they are ironing boards. We did not miss the important shops on our stroll... we found the ice cream shop before we found our way back to the truck.

We have always heard how Howard Hughes flew around the world in 3 days,19 hours, and 17 minutes (91 hours).

Well a local boy helped make it happen too, his name was Albert Lodwick.

One parting note before we leave Centerville.

You are looking at the Rathbun Dam and spillway, but the spillway wasn't spillin' much, but there were guys fishing. Most of the C.o.E. dams are earthen style dams. Our campground was on the other side. 

We will see you up the road.