Great River
Road - Bus Tour on Day 11
Linda &
Darrell Marshall - Adventure 11
We started out with a beautiful, sunny day
to get on a tour bus for the Amana Colonies.
While in route, everyone sung Happy Birthday to Darrell (I'm not saying
how old he is, but it's in this blog someplace). As we travel we are seeing fields of soy
beans and corn on rolling hills.
Our first stop was the Amana Colonies town
of Amana. In the Amana Heritage Museum (an
old school) we watched a movie which told us how the Colonies came about. In the early 1700's in Germany a group of people
faced persecution when they broke away from the Lutheran Church. In 1882 they immigrated to America where
Christian Mertz led them to Iowa where seven Colonies were established in
1853. The Amana Colonies shared a
communal kitchen in the town while they worked the surrounding land. Amana comes from the Bible in the Songs of
Solomon. They lived in this way until
1932, when the “change over” happened.
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| Amana Colonies Heritage Museum |
The next stop was just next door at the
Heritage Wine, Cheese & Jelly Haus where most of us did some wine and
cheese sampling. Both very good!
We had lunch at the Ronnenburg
Restaurant. No one walked away hungry
after a family style meal of bread, cottage cheese, slaw, Jager Schnitzel,
Swiss Steak, Broasted Chicken, fried potatoes and gravy, corn and pie. (Did I see a Philips 66)
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| Lunch at Ronnenburg Restaurant |
After our meal Darrell & I (I found a
quilt shop!) walked to the next stop, The Woolen Mill. We saw an old 1940’s loom that can make a
blanket in 10 minutes. But with modern
technology, the new loom can make a blanket in 3 minutes and is quieter.
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| this is the 1940's loom making a blanket |
Next came the Millstream Brewing Co. Nothing brewing today, but a few had bellied
up to the bar.
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| Ken Adams and Ira Miller tasting some beer in the brewery |
The Meat Shop & Smokehouse was
next. Again we could do some
sampling. We could have eaten our way
through Amana.
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| The Amana Meat Shop and Smokehouse is about to fill up with caravaners |
Our last stop of the day was the Herbert
Hoover Library & Museum. He had a
Quaker upbringing and went to Stanford University to be an engineer. While at Stanford he met his future wife,
Lou. After graduating he first worked in
a gold mine, then joined a British firm and was sent to Australia and
China. In 1914 he helped stranded
Americans return home when WWI broke out and started the Commission for Relief
in Belgium. In 1917 he was asked to help
the U.S. People conserve food such as meatless Monday & wheatless
Wednesday. It became known as “Hooverize”.
In 1921 he was appointed Secretary of Commerce, \where he became known
for standardization (same size tires, green lights throughout U.S. &
maps). 1927 saw him help with the flood
in Mississippi with food and tent cities.
He was so well known in America and Europe it was a good time to run for
President. The depression came and it
was completely blamed on President Hoover.
He was not re-elected, but went on enjoying fishing.
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| Herbert Hoover as a young man |
We arrived back at the campground after having a great day!
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