Back to the shores of the mighty Mississippi ….
We have skipped across the border to Illinois for tonight however most of the day we continued our travels through Iowa. First task of the day was some retail therapy at the Williamsburg Outlets !
Williamsburg was also the home of one Eugene B. Ely, an aviation pioneer who is credited with the first shipboard takeoff and landing !
Eugene’s plaque – needs a bit of tender loving care !
Next we visited the Amana Colonies – one of America’s longest-lived communal societies. Persecution and an economic depression in Germany forced the community to begin searching for a new home. In 1855 they arrived in Iowa. Six villages were established, a mile or two apart, across a river valley tract of some 26,000 acres – Amana, East Amana, West Amana, South Amana, High Amana, and Middle Amana. Today, the Amana Colonies attract hundreds of thousands of visitors annually all of whom come to see and enjoy a place where the past is cherished and where hospitality is a way of life. They even have Iowa’s largest rocking chair !
Back to a bit of Pop Culture and Dyersville, Iowa is home to the “Field of Dreams” – the 1989 movie starring Kevin Costner. The movie tells the story of Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella who hears a voice in his corn field tell him, “If you build it, he will come.” He interprets this message as an instruction to build a baseball field on his farm, upon which appear the ghosts of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the other seven Chicago White Sox players banned from the game for throwing the 1919 World Series. When filming finished, the site was left to the owners who made it into a tourist attraction. They must have been right as there was certainly a pretty good rollup of visitors today !
Corn fields ! Who’d have guessed !
In Dubuque, right on the Mississippi River, we stopped at the 4th Street elevator – The Fenelon Place elevator is described as the world’s shortest, steepest scenic railway, 296 feet in length, elevating passengers 189 feet from Fourth Street to Fenelon Place. From the top there are commanding views of the river.
The funicular 
Views over the Mississippi
We then crossed the river into Illinois and on to our stop for the night in Galena. We drove through the Galena Historic District – right on the Galena River – before heading to our hotel. A notable resident of Galena was Ulysses S. Grant, U.S. general, commander of the Union armies during the late years (1864–65) of the American Civil War, and 18th president of the United States (1869–77). He moved here in 1860 before his appointment as a General in 1861. Returning victorious in 1865, he stayed until his election as president and did not return.
Dinner tonight was at the Irish Pub next door – Frank O’Dowd’s – tomorrow we head for Chicago.
Today’s Tour Trivia – Clear Lake, Iowa, is where “the music died.” Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson all died when their plane crashed into a field there in 1959.