Amana, IA

After we picked up the chairs we headed west. We over nighted in a lovely park in Utica, Il. The park, Hickory Hollow, was shaded with old trees and was a great place to stop.

We stopped for fuel and what was in front of us at the pumps? 'deja blue' . It looked from the rear very much like our old school bus conversion Mike, Frank and I worked on so many years ago. This one had many of the RV specific parts on it, like an awning, which weren't available to us at that time.

We got into Iowa and we saw the Iowa 80 truck stop. We stopped and went in and it was very much as described on TV. There was everything a trucker would ever want or need. From truck parts, truck repair, to a dentist. All in all a very interesting place. We used the restrooms but didn't buy anything.

We arrived at Amana RV park and got set up. We had dinner and worked out where and when we were going to next. We are planning a week in Interior, SD but it will take us 3 days to get there, about 700 miles. We will stop in Little Sioux, IA then onto Mitchell, SD to visit the corn palace, then onto the badlands.

We spent all day Friday walking around Amana visiting the different shops and learning about the Inspirationalists who occupy this area even today.
This was a commune that lasted from the early 1800's until 1932. It was "The Great Change".
The Amana Society was formed and the commune dissolved. They emigrated from Germany to upstate New York, where they had bought 500 acres. They soon outgrew this area and an additional commune was established on 26,000 acres here in Iowa. There are 6 colonies within this area and a 7th was purchased later for a rail head to ship and receive goods needed for their existence.
This area is still owned by the Society, and shares are owned by individuals who live here at least 6 months a year. This is an agrarian society so some of the land is cultivated by them while some of the land is leased to other farmers.
We walked around the area for about 6 hours and we were very tired. Donna had put on spaghetti sauce with meatballs and Italian sausage in the crockpot that morning, so dinner was almost ready when we got home.

Yesterday, we visited the other colonies which weren't as populated as Amana itself. all have museums of the different things that went on in each area. There was a blacksmith demonstration going on in Homestead, and a printer showing an old Linotype machine in the same building. Ted was very interested in the printing part as he has been in that business for many years.
It rained all day and there was supposed to be a fireworks display last evening, but was cancelled until tonight.

Tomorrow we hit the road again, moving further west.

Ta ta for now.