Iowa I: Checking Out the Quad

It all starts with Deere.  On September 30, 2021, Mike, Dave, and I flew to Chicago and then drove west to the Quad Cities, along the Mississippi, to visit Jonny and Jenny.  The event was Sam's baptism, but we also explored Moline, Illinois, where John Deere headquarters is located, and then parts of Iowa.  We stopped, first, at the John Deere Pavilion, with its collection of excavators, ag equipment, and simulators.  The Pavilion was being remodeled, but we browsed the Pavilion store, with everything Deere--models of equipment for adults and for children, and every variety of clothing with the Deere logo.  We also looped past the elegant Deere headquarters, surrounded by lush gardens, as well as farmland.

Dave added to his collection of sweatshirts.

Mike and Jonny posed, for me, next to the Deere deer.

Jonny then took us to see a line-up of excavators.  Jonny's prior job at Deere was supervising the marketing of excavators in North and South America.  Jonny walked around each machine, pointing out its virtues.  Jonny's new job was not quite so visual--improving the customer experience by reorganizing the way products are presented.  

The heartland of America retains proud bits of Old Country culture.  The Quad Cities includes a German restaurant we visit over and over.  We sat on the porch and talked, as we ate our jagerschnitzel, spaetzle, and rotkohl.

On Friday, October 1, 2021, Jonny worked, while Dave and I took Michael to some of our favorite Iowa places.  Michael has visited North Korea and Tibet, but he hasn't spent time in Iowa.   A pity.  We stopped first at the Mormon Handcart Park in Iowa City, where the handcart companies of the 1850s began their trek west to Salt Lake City.  "We have handcart pioneer ancestors, don't we?" Michael asked.  I had to admit that I had perpetrated a myth.  I told the kids my great-grandmother, Mary Bomelli Eyring, crossed the plains in a handcart, but I later learned she actually rode in a wagon.  We do, though, have ancestors, in both Dave's and my families, who drove oxcarts from SLC to Wyoming, through early snows in 1856, to rescue the Willey and Martin handcart companies, who were trapped along the high plains of the Continental Divide.  My great-great-grandfather, John Bennion, was one of those rescuers.  

We then drove on to Cedar Rapids to see the National Czech and Slovak Museum.  It is a first class attraction, affiliated with the Smithsonian.  There were two special exhibits—one elaborate, be-ribboned Czech wedding headdresses, and the other on Slovak history.  The regular exhibit was also excellent.  It included chilling, original radio broadcasts and newsreels about Hitler’s take-over of Czechoslovakia.  I thought of my grandson, Grant Flindt, who was an LDS missionary to Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

Before returning to Jonny's home in Bettendorf, Iowa, we stopped at Sykora Bakery, in the Czech Village of Cedar Rapids, for a selection of kolaches (lemon, poppy seed, and rhubarb) and savory pastries stuffed with mushrooms and sauerkraut.  For Michael, interesting food is an important part of travel.

Note the t-shirt:  "You bet your 'prdel' I'm Czech...."