Take the Road to Grant Wood Country

Eastern Iowa is Grant Wood country. Not far from Cedar Rapids is a road that runs north of State Highway 151. On county road X28 the Grant Wood Scenic Byway commences. It leads to nearby Stone City where you can see the stone quarry, church and general store that Grant painted (titled, Stone City.) The byway continues to nearby Anamosa where Wood is buried. Back in Cedar Rapids Wood's studio has been preserved for visitors and much of his work can be seen at the art museum. His most famous work, American Gothic hangs at the Art Institute Museum in Chicago.

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Modern Day Tom Sawyer Drawn to the River

Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer lived along the Mississippi River in fiction a century and a half ago. Fast forward to 2013 and you can still see the how the river attracts youth to its banks. Fishing just feet from Lock & Dam 11 at Dubuque, Iowa this boy forgets about catching a catfish while focusing on Marquette Transportation's downbound barge and tow named, Show Me State. The barges contained covers, scrap metal and coal. Churn from the tow activates fish and lures nearby pelicans to feed.

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SOO 4410 - A Rare Locomotive Still in Red & White

The SOO Line Railroad operates in the upper Midwest and is now part of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Last Saturday I spotted engine 4410, built in 1978, and is presently sitting at the Dubuque, Iowa CP yard. Since the early 2000s SOO locomotives have been repainted into the CP color scheme or have been scrapped. To discover a SOO colored locomotive, let alone an active engine is becoming quite rare. It's a piece of railroad history that is almost gone.

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Rusty the Giant Sloth To Get Company

Ice Age Iowa hosted a particularly interesting creature - a giant sloth. At the Natural History Museum at Macbride Hall, in Iowa City is this display of a life size giant sloth, nicknamed Rusty. Recently nearly complete sets of huge sloth bones have been found in the state and are being prepared to join Rusty on display. For 28 years this display has been the center point for the museum including dressing Rusty on holiday ocassions. This practice ended sometime this year as his fur has shown wear from festive use. There is no timetable for the bones to be on display but the chatter around the museum is that the display will be forthcoming soon.

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Been Off Line

I have been off line for a few days with a family matter. I will be posting again soon.

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A Grandmother's Joy in a Water Fountain

On the tenth day of Summer 2013, this grandmother took her 1-1/2 year old grandson to play in Iowa City's pedestrian mall water fountain. Jets of water spray patterns at different intervals allowing the two to enjoy several minutes of watery fun. Grandma Lonnie told me that she looks forward to spending time with her first and so far, only grandchild.

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Out of the Dust, Back into the Mud

The Iowa Department of Transportation in the 1930s touted the saying, 'Iowa- Out of the Mud' to attract drivers to roll through the state on fresh concrete roads. Prior to that time the image of a Model T slugging through axle deep mud was all too common a sight here in the tallcorn state. Today miles of gravel roads help tie rural Iowa with towns and cities. Its very common to see this sight (above) of a vehicle churning up rural roads and producing lingering plumes of fine partical dust. Overly abundant rains this year make this scene a rareity and may signal a return to mud conditions for some roads during this wet period.

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