Experiencing Two CulturesJun 30, 2010
|
|
Brian, Sue, Tim (standing); Pete and Jerry (sitting) just before we ate...
African American Museum of Iowa
Map shows underground railroad in Iowa
| We're really relaxing these days. Last night we had dinner with my brother, Brian, sister-in-law, Sue, and two of their sons, Tim and Peter. We had a "traditional" Iowa meal at their house of a pork roast (one of my favorites), sweet corn, carrots and rice. We had lots of stories to swap and had a great time together. We enjoyed a bottle of wine from Alsace, France where our Lehmann forebearers came from. I did some grocery shopping this morning and got our mail which we had sent to my brother and sister-in-laws home. We've driven a lot of miles in the past month and it's nice to be stopped here for awhile. This afternoon we went to Cedar Rapids, which is a city about 30 miles away. We went to see the African American Museum of Iowa. There are so many interesting small museums in our country and this was one of them. It is a fairly new museum with the mission of helping people learn about the experiences of African Americans in Iowa. We saw a recreation of the hold of a slave ship, a representation of a sit-in which occurred in Iowa in 1940s and the podium that Barack Obama used when he won the Iowa caucuses in early 2008. From Cedar Rapids we drove another 30 minutes to the Amana Colonies, which are seven small villages that are close together. They were founded in the 1850s by German immigrants who came to the U.S. for religious freedom and for the opportunities to build a good life here. Some people get them confused with the Amish, but the people of the Amanas live with all modern conveniences. There are no horse and buggies in the area. You may have an Amana product in your home. Our stove top in our motorhome was made by the Amana Company which manufactures kitchen appliances and heating and cooling systems. Most of the towns are small villages but the main town of Amana has lots of shops, bakeries, restaurants, businesses and B & B's. We stopped for a cup of coffee and a cookie called the Pride of Iowa. It had nuts and coconut in it. It was a pleasant ride home on beautiful rural roads. When we got near the Iowa City area, we are more and more impressed with how much it is growing. There are new housing developments everywhere. The weather has been perfect and is expected to be this way until Sunday night. Jerry just gave me the total mileage we have for the entire trip thus far with two months to go: Motorhome - 13,603 Car - 14,063 I was way off in my budget for fuel! Fortunately the camping costs have been less than expected. |
Advertisement 
|
