All I Owe I-O-Way

We had to laugh at our first stop in Iowa. I made Randy take a photo by a buggy in front of the Amish Country Store at Lamoni, Iowa.  I told him I could have gotten a similar photo and only driven about 40 miles east from our home to Yoder, Kansas. 

But, it was still a good place to stretch our legs and wander through a country-style store before getting back in the car and heading on to Des Moines. 

Iowa was our first stop as we journeyed toward Chicago to attend the wedding of our brother-in-law Andrew's oldest daughter, Julia. My other siblings flew, but we took the more scenic route. Best laid plans often get derailed. The trip to Des Moines was uneventful (thankfully), but Randy was supposed to golf the next morning before we moved onto our next overnight stop. But it was raining, so we pivoted. A Facebook friend had recently posted photos from the Amana Colonies in Iowa. I saw that was fairly close to the route we had planned to take anyway. So we went to the Amana Colonies for the day instead.

After seeing the Amish buggy at our first Iowa stop, I assumed the Amana Colonies would be similar to the Old Order Amish that reside in Yoder, just 45 minutes from our house. I was wrong. Yes, there were quaint shops featuring handmade items and the place was full of history. But the Amana Colonies were settled by the Community of True Inspiration. I had never heard of this religion. It is a group of Christians descending from settlers of German, Swiss, and Austrian descent who originally settled in New York state. When that area got too congested for their liking, they migrated west to Amana, Iowa, where they settled in seven small towns in East Central Iowa along the Iowa River.

They lived a communal life for nearly 80 years. The Amana residents achieved this independence and lifestyle by adhering to the specialized crafting and farming occupations that they had brought with them from Europe. Craftsmen passed their skills and techniques on from one generation to the next. They used hand, horse, wind, and water power, and made their own furniture, clothes and other goods. The community voted to form a for-profit organization during the Great Depression - the Amana Society - which included the Amana Corp. (Yes, the Amana Corporation that made home appliances.)

Today, the Seven Villages of Amana are a tourist attraction known for their restaurants and craft shops. The colony was listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1965. There are still about 300 people who attend the True Inspirationists church services. The Society still owns the farm ground and some of the church members are tenant farmers on the Inspirationist-owned land. Unlike the Amish, they embrace new technologies, including GPS in farm implements and modern conveniences in everyday life. However, like the Amish, during their church services, men still sit on one side of the church, and women sit on the other.

The Amana Colonies don't shy away from beer or other spirits. We ate lunch at the Ox Yoke Inn, and Randy sampled a flight of beer. Good German that he is, he also had the Jager (pork) Schnitzel with spätzle, homemade mashed potatoes and gravy, a yeast roll and homemade strawberry jam. (I didn't get a photo of that.) I had the Reuben sandwich. I guess it was a local favorite, too, since the Amana Colonies sauerkraut was one of their commodities.

We toured the Communal Kitchen and Cooper Shop, which the Amana residents left much as it was back when it was used three times a day.

 

The General Store is also set up much like an old country store at the turn of the century.

The landscaping around these buildings was gorgeously manicured.

The shops and restaurants were housed in the old - but beautifully maintained - buildings.

Though not on the "official" tour list, we also walked through a cemetery. One of the guides had told us that Amana citizens aren't buried in family plots. Instead, they are buried by date of death. 

Just a small portion of an old wooden fence remained.

The pine trees in the cemeteries were beautiful.

We went to each of the seven Amana villages just to see them before we drove onto Davenport, Iowa, for the night. The next morning, we went to LeClaire, Iowa. Our first stop was Antique Archaeology, home of American Pickers.

We like watching the TV show on the History Channel. We didn't see any of the television stars, but we still enjoyed the stop.

We remembered this giant papier mache head from one of the episodes.

After we spent a little money at the store, we asked where we could get down to the Mississippi River. Randy has always been fascinated by rivers - even if we live nowhere near one. When we drive over big bridges, I'm always afraid he's going to turn the steering wheel the same direction as his gaze as he peers over the railings in an effort to see any barge or boat traffic on the big waterways.

So he was thrilled he got to see this barge being pushed down the river. 

 We also toured the Buffalo Bill Museum right along the waterfront. 

William Buffalo Bill Cody was born in LeClaire.

Besides information about Buffalo Bill, the museum included the steamer, the Lone Star.

The Lone Star is a National Historic Landmark. It operated from 1890 to 1967 and is one of the longest running wooden steamboats in the U.S. It is the last remaining example of steamboats built in the Western Rivers style of construction. This consists of a shallow wooden hull supported by a hogging truss system. This style was necessary for the shallow waters of the Mississippi River system.

After another look at the river and lunch at Big Dave & Holly's, we took off toward Chicago. More from our trip to come.

By the way, the title of the blog is a song from the musical, State Fair, about all Iowa has to offer. We missed the state fair by a week or so this time, but it may be in our travel plans in the future. We know some experienced guides (our friends - and Eric's parents, Alan and Christy).