A Spring (O.K., late Winter) Getaway

We were all getting a little housebound mid February. Pam suggested we take my folks for a weekend away. A great idea. We couldn't go too far as distant travel for Dad is not comfortable. So we had to come up with a destination that was relatively near, and yet interesting. There are several casino / resorts over in the Quad Cities area of Illinois / Iowa. However, basically the only entertainment is gambling.....too much $$. Thinking of that region though, Mom mentioned that Dad had been wanting to go to Moline. A couple years ago, they had gathered some info on the John Deere museum but never made the trip. A little research, we found Moline to only be about 2 1/2 hours away. There is a nice hotel with a swimming pool and hot tub right next door to the museum. We ended up going out on Saturday morning and came back Sunday evening. Winter weather was there too, but it was different scenery. The weather cooperated and was sunny and bright. Driving west through rural Illinois, there was lots of snow covered farmland. As it melts with spring weather, the farmland should be nice and moist this planting season. What we really found interesting was the windmill farms out past DeKalb. Huge, 3 armed windmills spinning ever so slowly. Odd things were, there was no evidence of transmission lines for the electricity to travel from the windmills to a collection / distribution point (might have been underground), and they were all built on the south side of I-88, facing north / northwest.

John Deere Museum and Pavillion

Some early design models. Note the steel wheels on the tractor on the left.

Dad in front of a big JD endloader.

Get that gold Buick out of my way !!

Pam and Mom checking out $600k worth of machine.

They make them BIG now. Everything gets funneled in the front.........

...........and gets processed through all the machinery and discharged out the upper chute into a truck driving along side.

John's Deere ?

Sunday morning, being early risers, Pam and I went downstairs and sat in the hot tub for a bit. Nice warm way to start the day. A little later, we all had fresh waffles, juice and coffee for breakfast, and then packed up our stuff to hit the road. It was too early though to head home, yet we had pretty much seen what Moline had to offer. So a detour.....we followed the Mississippi north about an hour and change to Galena, a quaint, touristy, civil war era historical town, home of Ulysese S. Grant. Got there in time for a nice lunch in a period restaurant / hotel....seemed odd having flat screen TV's in a 150 year old building. From lunch, we headed home.
(Pam and I have been to Galena several times with our Boy Scout troop for spring camporee which was coordinated with Grant's birthday celebration.....imagine, 6,000 Boy Scouts and Scouters all clogging up the streets and stores of Galena. This visit was much calmer, and yet I was still surprised at how many people were in town. Look at how many cars are along the street. But, it was a beautiful sunny day. Perfect for a Sunday drive.)

Being a Civil War era town, just think of all the different things Galena has seen over time.....