The River is Rising...

Lake MacBride State Park, Iowa

Reluctantly, we said our good-byes to Owen and Brian and headed toward the Iowa border. It sure was good to spend time with my family this weekend, I only wish we had a week and not just a few days.

This part of the country is beautiful, especially this time of year. With the rolling green hills of knee-high cornfields and the straight roads that seem to go on forever, it's hard to believe that just a week ago we were leaving Quebec. As we traveled across Illinois and into Iowa along the Old Lincoln Highway, we noticed how swollen most of the rivers were. The Mississippi River seemed just as overflowing as we remembered her from last year. We stopped in Clinton, Iowa for awhile to take in the riverfront and sure enough large parts of the river walk were under water. I had just finished reading Edna Ferber's "Showboat" and was immediately drawn to the Showboat that was docked along the river. Upon closer look I noticed it was "docked" in sand. So weird, and not quite sure I understand it, especially since everything else was flooded.

By the time we reached Cedar Rapids, IA we were ready for a bike ride and to explore the city. We parked our car in the Czech-Slovak Village, walked around the village and visited the local museum. Cedar Rapids has a huge Czech demographic. At one time a little over 30% of their population were from the Czech region. The big wave of immigrants came over in the late 1840's to homestead the area and get away from the political and economic depression. "After the Homestead Act of 1862 large amounts of land in the American West were available. At the same time, land was becoming scarce in Bohemia and Moravia. Immigrants were attracted by the prospect of abundant and affordable land in America. Traditionally, Czechs and Slovaks lived a village centered life with an emphasis on community and family." Thus, Czechs and Slovaks came over in waves to be with family that had already settled the area, spoke their language and practiced the same customs and traditions.

The other part of the museum focused on the great flood of 2008. The very building we were standing in had a painted "water line" near the ceiling indicating how high the water had risen. There were lots of aerial shots showing most of the city under water. The Czech Village was hit especially hard. Today, it's amazing to see how much work has been done and how "tidy" it looked. Ironically, when Ned and I hopped on our bikes to ride the river walk trail, great portions of it were under water! They've been experiencing heavy rains and the river once again was claiming parts of the land. We had to keep re-routing around barricades that blocked off either the path or entire streets due to the flooding. Oh why couldn't some of that water be in California!

I had no expectations of Cedar Rapids, other than seeing some rapids, maybe! My impression was that the infrastructure is new, the local Center for the Arts was advertising major acts (Bill Cosby, Lyle Lovett, Jackson Browne) and Les Miserables was showing at the Theatre, but there was no one around! Ned and I kept asking ourselves if it was a holiday and we missed something. It felt very much like walking around Sacramento on a Sunday. There were whole parking lots empty of cars, and most of the metered parking spaces downtown were vacant.

Ned did get a kick out of seeing the Quaker Oats plant. It's the largest cereal mill in the U.S. When Ned worked for Ghirardelli, Quaker Oats was the parent company. We thought it would be fun to take a tour of the plant, but unfortunately Quaker doesn't allow public tours.

Tonight we are camped at Lake MacBride State Park in Salon, Iowa. It's a large, nicely wooded State Park thick with oak trees and mosquitos. In all fairness to Iowa, the mosquitos have nothing on their Canadian brethern. Those suckers are HUGE and vicious.