July 10, 2018

Minneapolis MN to Dyersville IO

Having had a lovely visit in the Twin Cities, it was time to drive over to the Mississippi River and head south to Iowa.

The first stop was at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, MN.  This place is dedicated to educating people about eagles and other raptors.  During the winter, this section of the Mississippi is home to hundreds of eagles.  We got to see some of the resident birds who were injured and could not be released to the wild.  It was a very modern, lovely museum.  

We got to hear a wonderful presentation and then meet a young eagle who was just beginning his educational career.

As we headed south on the Mississippi River, we made a stop at a surprising gem of a museum. The Minnesota Marine Arts Museum located in Wynonna Minnesota. This museum, started in 2006, had requirements of art in its collections needed to have some form of water or water source as part of the painting. We had an expected to see classic battleships and beach art. What we had not expected was a number of paintings done by some of the most famous artists on the planet, especially from the impressionist era. They have paintings from Cezanne, Picasso, van Gogh, Manet, Monet, Picasso, Mary Cassatt, and Whistler. Several of the galleries had doors that were basically bank vault doors. As we explore the collection, we could see that there were many millions of dollars worth of art in that room. Wow!!

They also had a special exhibit showing amazing art that had recently been donated to the Eagle Center, where we had just visited. There was a man who is entire art collection focused on the Eagles. There were some really beautiful and sometimes very kitschy pieces of artwork featuring Eagles. Notable ones in that collection were a couple originals in the autobahn collection of birds. Amazing to see these up close!

The most surprising painting in this museum was one of the two original paintings of "Washington Crossing The Delaware," which had only recently been acquired. Dick spotted this across the gallery and we both gasped when we saw it. Right here in Winona, Minnesota.  Friends in the Twin Cities had recommended we visit here. We were so glad that we did.

But we had to leave to drive on because we needed to get to Effigy Mounds. We continued along the Mississippi River, enjoying the broad flowing river and boats, including an empty set of barges going upstream to be filled with grain.

We entered Iowa and appreciated the signs designating the route as "scenic byways."  

We began to see signs that declared we were in the Driftless area.  Driftless? What in the world could that be referring to?  Patti guessed it had something to do with the glaciers which did not cover this corner of southeast Minnesota and northeast Iowa.  As we rounded a bend, suddenly we saw a brand new visitor’s center for "The Driftless Area. In unanimity, we turned into the parking lot.  We needed to have some questions answered.  Before getting into the building, we HAD to take photos of Patti sitting on a statue of a giant snapping turtle.  Of course.  Inside, a terrific volunteer was glad to confirm Patti’s theory, and further explain that “drift” was another name for the leftover junk that you had once a glacier had melted.  This is similar to what you have at the very end of a long winter with piles of black, yucky dirt sitting around.  Aha! The Center was quite lovely.  Dick especially enjoyed a small model of the Delta Queen Riverboat.  He and his grandfather had gone on a weekly-long trip on that ship the summer of 1968.  Such wonderful memories.

Effigy Mounds National Monument is an area in the bluffs where there are some sacred Indian mounds done in the shape of animals  At one point, there were over 10,000 of these in NE Iowa, but now are about 1000 of them. We had a nice (but buggy) 2 mile hike which took us above the River with great views.

We could also see some of the mounds in the shape of bears.  It is interesting that these were obviously made to be really viewed from high above.  Imagine that you can see bears or other animal shapes here. This was a nice place to stop and enjoy these lovely Midwest forests.  So green!

We then drove into Dyersville Iowa.  Why there, you might ask?  Tomorrow we will go visit the farm where "Field of Dreams" filmed.  It was the movie about plowing under a cornfield to build a baseball diamond in response to voices heard in the cornfield.

So dinner, working on photos and then sweet dreams.