Trish & Anne RV Adventures

On Sunday, Aug 20 we took off from our smelly RV site and headed to the Sheldon Marsh Nature Preserve. This is over 400-acres that is one of the only undeveloped parcels on the Lake Erie coast in this area. It is also a stopover point for the spring bird migration. There is a swamp, a barrier beach, forest and marsh – so a varied habitat. We didn’t see a fraction of the 300 species that are said to visit the preserve.

I took the left photo of some female wood ducks – after I moved it to my computer and enlarged it you may be able to see that there is actually a male wood duck behind there – our first of the trip!

I took about 75 pictures of this osprey – first sitting on his perch and then soaring and fishing. We were disappointed that we didn’t see it catch anything.

Great blue heron in the marsh and sailboat on Lake Eire.

Maybe an immature wood duck, a green heron and a belted kingfisher.

Downy Woodpecker and Red-headed Woodpecker

Giant White Egret with some ducks and a flying Great Blue Heron

There was also some flora, not only birds. Lily pond and a beach hibiscus.

That’s a water snake and a view of Cedar Point – the 2nd oldest amusement park in the US. (I didn’t look up the first oldest.) The road into the marsh is where one of the first concrete road in Ohio was built in 1913, as access to Cedar Point. It went 2 miles inland and then along the coast for 6 miles.

After our walk Trish found a farm stand and we got some some local corn, tomatoes, peaches and cantaloupe. Then we drove around downtown Sandusky – it seemed very quiet for a Sunday. And we wanted to visit the Merry-Go-Round Museum, but it was closed for a private event – maybe next time.

Funky architecture in Sundusky and a Floral Clock – I didn’t realize until I looked at the photo later that it had the current date – not sure whose job is is to keep that up to date.

And then there were these funky statues/sculptures just hanging around the city hall.

Another sculpture – I guess they are supposed to be running into the water at the beach. And the closed museum.

And I leave you with this shot of the fountain and the courthouse that are in Sandusky. But our last stop there was Cobb’s Ice Cream, for hot dogs and milkshakes – a good choice.

Then it was on to Indiana Dunes State Park for our overnight stop. We have been here two times before – we obviously like the place. But before the state park was within the borders of a National Lakeshore – since 2019 it Indiana Dune National PARK. After hot dogs for lunch, we had burgers and corn on the cob for dinner. Before we left the area on Monday, August 21 we stopped at the National Park headquarters to pick up a new magnet that said PARK instead of Lakeshore.

Monday was a day of driving – I maybe scheduled too long a day, and we had a deadline just outside of Des Moines to pick up a rental. Despite a accident on I80 that held us up for half an hour by just making PB&J sandwiches and eating them on the road we were able to get there on time.

Most of what you see driving this stretch of highway are corn and soy fields, and of course windmills. And occasionally some really small campers being delivered. When we got to our campground it was in the high nineties – way too hot to cook – so it was cheese and crackers and then a Hunt’s pizza from the campground.

We spent Tuesday, August 22 exploring Des Moines. The first place we stopped was the World Food Prize Hall of Laureates. Don’t worry, we had never heard about it either. The World Food Prize was created by Norman Borlaug, an agriculturist who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his work developing disease resistant varieties of wheat – first in Mexico and later in Pakistan and India. It is said that his work kept over a billion people from starving to death. Unable to create a Nobel category for Food and Agriculture, Borlaug sought other sponsors and in 1986 General Foods stepped up and created the World Food Prize. When they were bought by Phillip Morris their dedication to the prize waned. It was saved by John Ruan, a real estate developer from Iowa. The Hall of Laureates honers Borlaug, Ruan and all of the winners through the years.

The Hall is housed in the former Des Moines City Library. It was originally built in 1903 as part of the City Beautiful movement. When the library moved to bigger digs in 2006, Ruan stepped up to save the building as the home for the Hall. It was completely renovated and is now LEED certified (that means it is energy efficient – it took a lot of work with a building that old.)

At the left is the main entry hall – at the four corners were sculptures of the four main grains – wheat, corn, soy and rice. The right is the room that used to contain all the stacks of books. Each of the spots that has the diagonal flooring is where a book shelf stood.

That’s Norman Borlaug on the left. The center are two of the tapestries that show scenes from his life – here are his childhood home in Iowa and him working in the fields in Mexico. The right is detail of the frame of his portrait – with wheat shafts and the asterisks he used to indicate how well a particular version of seed seemed to work.

This globe does not show counties, just the type of climate. But what fascinated me were the circles – which indicate where particular types of agriculture originated.

In the basement of the library was a WPA mural that depicts the history of Des Moines from prehistoric times to the 20th century. The panel to the left show Jefferson buying the Louisiana purchase from Napoleon. The one on the right is looking forward from the 1930’s.

The library used to contain an art gallery, and the Hall of Laureates continues the tradition with art by Iowas that relates to agriculture. This painting shows Jessie Field Shambaugh, who was the founder of 4-H Clubs and one of the first female Agriculture instructors in the nation; Herbert Hoover, before he was president was known for getting food to Europe after the end on WWI; George Washington Carver; Henry Wallace, who was the Secretary of Agriculture; and on the right, Norman Borlaug. The right picture shows the garden and a statue of Borlaug.

We had a great tour guide and we learned a lot more, but it is time to move onto our next stop, which was the Iowa Capitol Building. Again we had a great tour guide and learned much more than I’ll write here.

That’s the Capitol and its reflection on a building nearby.

There were beautiful tile floors and wonderful ceilings.

This is the Supreme Court Room with incredible wood carvings in front of each judges chair.

There was marble every where, I can’t remember how many different types there were – and 95% of it was real. And most of the main rooms had large fireplaces.

These are some mosaic murals – I walked up the two flights to get a closer view – Trish didn’t.

Oh, there is a senate (and house) chamber, and those are the mementos that are on the current state auditor’s mantle piece, yes we were able to waltz right in with our tour guide. (He also had a Captain America shield – guess he’s a fan.)

They have a five story law library – it was originally 3 stories, and then some legislature went to some other capitol and theirs was five, so Iowa’s became 5 too. And there are two of these statues at the base of this grand stairway. They were originally made for the Illinois Capitol, but were deemed too risque, and Iowa agreed to take them. Apparently a few years back, Illinois asked for them back, but Iowa said no, so Illinois had some smaller replicas made.

This is the second time we have seen displays of the governor’s wives in their inaugural gowns – and yes, that’s the current first gentleman in his tuxedo. We had left our mini Swiss army knives in the car, so we were okay.

After our two tours we were hungry, so it was off to the Iowa tap room. We started with a flight of Iowan beers and cider. We tried the Hamballs as an appetizer, they were kinda weird but the sliced pineapple that came with them was good.

Driving around Des Moines there was clear evidence we had just missed the State Fair. We then drove by the PapaJohn’s Sculpture park. I braved the heat to snap a few pictures, then we drove by the governors mansion and Salisbury House – neither of which were open for tours.

Finally one of our favorite stops of the day – no not coffee but ice cream. Then it was back to camp for crackers and cheese for dinner and to get ready for the next leg of the trip – next stop Lincoln!