To Minneapolois

June 3, 2019 Monday Day 16

My son went off to work and we belatedly left for Minneapolis at about 10 am. That required us to retrace our route back to Des Monies, windmills and rolling farmland, then 4 more hours to Minneapolis. We left with a full battery, 52 miles.

The trip up I-35 after Des Monies and to Minneapolis was pretty boring. Lots of flat farmland and no cites of any size.

We visited a friend for a barbecue dinner. Nice and tasty food. They have a beautiful house on a lake in a near west suburb. The house is very large. Nice and I am a bit envious, but I did my large house phase.

After the visit we descended upon our son for visit and bonding with 2.5 year old grandson whom we will take to Europe for family wedding celebration. Also checked in on the 6 month old grandson.

Back to Omaha, or Really Bellevue NE

June 1 and 2, 2019 Saturday and Sunday  Days 14 and 15

Saturday

We packed up in the morning and finally met our Airbnb host. Complimented her on her guest quarters and thanked her for the electricity that filled up the battery. So we took off for a return trip to Omaha/Bellevue with 53 miles. Driving westward on I-80 we gain saw the forest of very big windmills in the fame lands along the highway. A rest stop in Iowa had a big exhibit on renewable energy. There was a windmill blade there and it was very large. We had learned that these and the towers are now manufactured in Newton in a former Maytag facility. Iowa is the second largest producer of wind energy in the country. Yet there was no electric charging station at the rest stop.

We arrived in Omaha in the early afternoon. Lewis and Clark passed through this area in 1804. The Kansas Nebraska Act (which repealed the Missouri Compromise and set the country on an inevitable path to a civil war) spurred development and the city was founded in that same year by land speculators from across the river in Council Bluffs, IA. In 1859 it was the eastern terminus of the Pony Express and in 1862 it was designated as the eastern terminus of the trans-continental railroad. Construction by the Union Pacific began in 1863. There is a terrific railroad museum by the Union Pacific in Council Bluffs which tells the story of the westward expansion of the railroads in the US. It became a transportation hub and in the 20 century it had the largest stockyards and slaughter houses in the world. By the 1950s over half the workforce in Omaha was engaged in meat slaughtering, packing and processing.

The city has a stories history of labor and racial strife. As early as the 1890s there were several instances when the state militia or federal troops were called out to protect either striking workers or struck company's replacement workers. In 1891 a black railroad porter was lynched because he allegedly raped a white girl. And in 1919 while in the middle of that summer's Red riots, a mob burnt down the county courthouse to get at and lynch a Black man for allegedly having sex with a white woman. The mayor attempted to stop these proceedings, but he too was lynched, although he was saved for death.

The stockyards are now all gone along with the historic district along the riverfront, demolished at the insistence of ConAgra which wanted the land to build a new campus.

Fontenelle's Post was established in 1823 as a fur trading post in what became Bellevue. That city is now home to Offutt Air Force Base which was created during WWII. The Enola Gay was built at Offutt. It is now the largest employer in the metropolitan area. Fontenelle was a Chief of the Omaha tribe who signed treaties which ceded much of the land that eventually became Omaha to the federal government.

After meeting my son we went to Fontenelle Forest. That is essentially a private park, we got in via a military discount, which has preserved a large forested area along the Missouri River and also treats injured raptors. It keeps and displays the raptors who cannot recover sufficiently to return to the wild. We spent a few hours viewing the raptors and walking the trails through the Forest.

View from the Forest across the flooded Missouri River

The view across the Missouri River showed much flooded farmland.

We ate dinner at a burger joint, Stellas, and then watched a movie

Sunday

Walked around my son's neighborhood and then went out shopping. First we went looking for an electric lawn mower for my son. He has a large back yard and has been borrowing a neighbor's riding mower. We looked at several models in several warehouse stores, but realized that they would be on sale over the July 4th weekend, so the purchase was delayed (It was subsequently made.) Then we went to a T-Mobile store at my son's insistence to replace my 4.5 year old cellphone. My current one is still working but has very limited storage and the battery has degraded to the point that it does not hold a charge for a full day. Presto, problems solved with a new Google Pixel 3a.

We purchased some salmon and food for dinner and cooked at my son's home.

Des Moines 2

May 31, 2019 Friday Day 12

We a woke early and had breakfast in our  lodging from our store of food. Yogurt, fruit and muffins. The memorial service we had come to Des Moines to attend was scheduled for 10:00 at St. Augustine Church. a large building on the west side close to our Airbnb that we easily found. Dressed in our finery it was hot, but the cathedral offered shelter from the sun. the service was nice, but it was clear that the priest did not know the deceased, who while married in that church, had long ago moved away.n The service ended about 11:30 and we did not go to the graveside service. The reception began about noon. During the reception I spoke with several people who knew the deceased at various stages during her varied life including a stint living in Japan as a trailing spouse for an IBM executive. The very limited sample of people I spoke with had a mixed view of Trump. Many disliked his style, but supported what they perceived to be his policies on improving the economy, lowering taxes (they felt that businesses needed a tax break to create jobs) and eliminating regulations. They believed that he would win the trade war and that American agriculture would ultimately benefit, acknowledging that it was now being hurt by his actions.

We then took off for the Des Moines Art Center, an art museum that has won acclaim for its architecture. It is housed in builds partially designed by I M Pei that form a quadrangle around a reflecting pool. It has a lot of modern art and featured an exhibit of anti-fascist art by Lea Grundig. A Communist and a Jew, she created art in the 1930s in defiance of the Nazi's bans and ultimately ended up in a concentration camp. Surviving that and WWII she ultimately immigrated to Palestine.

Modern Art at the Center

We then headed to downtown Des Moines for a tour. It was surprisingly quiet there for Friday afternoon. The city's European history dates to the 17th century when initially French priests, explores and fur trappers ventured into the upper Midwest for French Canada, to be followed by a few colonial settlers. They largely left after the British conquered Canada and ownership of this area (I doubt that the Native Americans were consulted) was successively transferred to Spain, then back to France and finally sold to the US as part of the Louisiana Purchase. The city was originally named Fort Raccoon.for the river that joins the Des Moines River, but the War Department vetoed that and the new name was drawn from the French colonialists who referred to the area as Des Moines, from the Monks. It grew rapidly as a railroad hub in the late 19th century and as a manufacturing center in the 20th century as well as being the capital city of Iowa. It declined in the 1970s and 80s but has rebounded as an insurance center.

We parked downtown and walked down to the river. Like the Missouri, it too was flooded beyond its banks covering the balustrades, walkways and embankments built by the CCC.

The Civic Center Historic District has many government buildings that are over 100 years old and are imposing large stone structures. The sate Capital and City Hall were impressive and we took a quick tour of the State Historical Building. The downtown was getting ready for a Pride celebration and we stopped into a local store and purchased some hot sauce for our two Midwestern sons who enjoy that.

We then visited the Pappajohn Sculpture Garden. Many unusual shapes.

On the way back to our residence we food shopped and cooked dinner and ate on patio. A very pleasant experience.

Des Moines

May 30, 2019 Thursday -Saturday Day 12
My son is working the swing shift so he did not have to leave for work at the AF base until about 2:45. We went out for lunch at Chipolte. I could not eat an entire serving when I  used to be able to gobble it all up.There were many service members there. We then drove around Bellveue and down to the swollen Missouri River. The fields and parks on both sides of the river were flooded and showed no prospect of drying out soon. If this is representative there will be many Midwest farmers who will not be able to plant on time and probably will suffer serious financial harm.

Flooded Missouri River

About 2:45 pm we set out for Des Monies, along I-80 about a 2 hour trip. After we passed Council Bluffs, IA. on the east side of the river the land began to flatten out and was more agricultural. Very few trees, but lots of very large windmills. Before reaching Des Monies our only stop was for gasoline. We arrived in Des Monies about 4:45 and without any problem found our Airbnb, Forestdale Guest House, on the west side of town. I picked this place in part due to its proximity to the memorial services we would be attending tomorrow. It is a guest house attached to the rear of the main house with a large screened porch. It is in a very nice wooded residential neighborhood. Our host left an extension cord that I immediately used to begin to recharge the car's battery.

Des Monies Airbnb

After changing we drove out to Newton, former home of Maytag, for a barbecue. It was about a 45 minute drive east, so Newton is really not a bedroom suburb. The barbecue was at the home of our friend's brother, whose mother recently died. Nice residential neighborhood with well maintained medium to larger sized homes and well tended yards. The part of Newton which we drove through did not seem to be economically depressed.

Maytag was founded in Newton and had not only its corporate offices there, but also its primary production facility which had 3000 manufacturing jobs. In speaking with people at the barbecue, they felt that the last CEO of Maytag was brought in by the family owners to sell the business. He did that and it was sold to Whirlpool, which promised to retain the Maytag operations in Newton. That promise was not kept and when the entire operation was moved and all the Maytag facilities closed, these people felt that it had a devastating impact on the town. Some people left, others got retrained for mostly non-existent jobs, many went on welfare. The consensus of these people was that Newton had not fully recovered. I wonder if this is Trump country?

We met a retired couple (they did not look that old) at the barbecue who lived in Florida during the cold months and traveled around the west in an RV the rest of the year. They park the RV in various western cities when not using it, it is currently in Portland, and are convinced that is the best way to travel.

We drove back in the fading light of late evening, the daylight is getting much longer, and got back to our residence about 10:30.