Day 3, Chicago to Michigan...

Thursday, April 3rd, we enjoyed our drive across Iowa. In Galena, we learned that Ulysses S. Grant once lived there. We crossed the Mississippi River again. This was the third time I remembered crossing it. The first two were getting into and then out of St. Louis. Somewhere else we crossed it and I could not remember where that was. I am guessing it was to get into Iowa. Then we hit the toll roads and the traffic that is Chicago. We are not a fan of traffic like that at all.  

We found the parking garage Hayden told us about and secured our parking spot for the afternoon. Then we went in search of Hayden's apartment. The address indicated it should be close. The parking attendant could see us trying to figure it out and he came out to help us. He assured us it was across the street. We found the building and a key pad to buzz an apartment. However, I didn't have Hayden's apartment number. I tried to call Hayden to tell him we had arrived. The call went to voice mail and there was no room in his mailbox. After a could of attempts at this, I then tried to send him a text message to come and retrieve us. It was a very cold day for us. Claude went back to the car for his sweatshirt and I sent Andie a text asking for Hayden's actual apartment number so we could ring his room. She gave us a three digit number but all these numbers were four digits and not of them started or ended with the three numbers Andie gave us. Finally she was able to get in touch with Hayden and he assured her he would be right down. Claude got back, Hayden came down, and we were all ready for our afternoon together. 

Hayden took us up the back way to his apartment. We looked through the bag of treasures he had secured from his Poland trip last November. Then we set out to find Mr. Beef for a bite to eat. We went to the platform for the L that is near Hayden's apartment. Hayden had our stop picked out to get to Mr. Beef. Between the time we got on the L and the time we got to the Chicago Street platform, Mr. Beef had closed. Time for a second option. Hayden set to work with his cellphone to find us another option. He found an Italian place named Giordano's that specializes in deep dish pizza. Yum. We only had to walk a half mile to get there!! We did and were quite happy to be seated to rest our weary bones. The meal was delicious. I got the Italian sandwich and Claude got a personal deep dish pizza and we shared with each other so we could have a taste of their menu. It was a very good meal. There were leftovers which Hayden would take home.

Time to find the Bean. I assured Hayden that Grampa and I didn't want to walk that far again. He pulled out his cellphone and found a bus that would take us across the street. This is where I became a fan of the public transportation for this part of Chicago. When we first rode the L that day, we purchased an all day pass for Claude and me at $5 each. We would use that same pass to ride the L, the bus, and the underground rail that day. Very nice. 

We got across the street to Millennium Park where the Bean is located. 

The first feature we saw was the Jay Pritzker Pavilion. It is a beautiful venue for concerts and things of that nature. 

Then we walked to the Bean. It is really named Cloud Gate but, because of its shape, people call it The Bean. Hayden took a selfie of us. I would leave the boys and walk all the way around and under it. My reflection is in the pictures on The Bean's shiny surface. I loved walking under and looking up in the center. It is a really amazing piece of architecture. 

Hayden also wanted us to see Crown Fountain. The fountains were not going but there were two walls that looked to be made of bricks facing each other. We stood for just a minute and then pictures of faces appeared in each brick wall. Turned out they were not really bricks. They were screens made to look like bricks until the projector inside displayed these pictures. This was very cool. Happy Hayden took us there. 

When we visited Chicago a year ago, Hayden took us to the Loop Campus of De Paul University. He has classes there but he also sponsors a gaming club. The university was making a gaming room for these types of things. It was under construction when we first visited. It was not complete and we went to see the finished product. It was full of young people enjoying this part of there downtown campus.

Time for dessert. Hayden found a donut shop named "Firecakes" that specializes in craft donuts. Hayden would have two sprinkled donuts with strawberry ice cream between them. Claude got two and shared parts of both of his with the resident bird population. The little tiny brown birds are hard to see as they ate mostly from the planter and they matched the soil in the planter. One of the pigeons had a lame leg and was very grateful for this meal. To get to Firecakes we rode the underground rail. 

Time to head back to campus. We would take the underground rail to get back to De Paul in Lincoln Park. It was packed as it was now going home time. We got to the apartment and there was a protest of something going on up the block from the apartment. There was a police presence. We dropped Hayden off so he could put his left overs away. Then he came out and joined us outside the parking garage and we found the Buick. 

Our next thing to accomplish was a visit to Target with Hayden. Time to replenish his food stash at his apartment and make sure he has plenty of toiletries. We were surprised to find Buffalo Trace shampoo for men on the shelf!! I want to record how careful Hayden was with his shopping. I was greatly impressed with him. He was careful not to purchase that which he did not really need yet. He didn't purchase chips or cold cereal as they are not nutritious enough. I tried to get him to buy some fresh strawberries. He looked at them and said they were too expensive. I told him they were the organic ones and would always be more expensive but if we looked at the other end of the counter there were strawberries that were not organic and they were much more affordable. He was happy to get them. It was a good shopping trip and our grandson was not ready to go a little longer in his apartment. 

We dropped Hayden off in front of his apartment and we headed to the Versey Hotel for the night. It took us a while to get into the parking garage a couple of blocks away but we finally found the entrance. This is one of our big frustrations with Chicago. No parking. This was the most expensive hotel for our trip. No little frig like all the less expensive hotels. We have to walk two blocks to get to and from the closest parking. It is not a warm and friendly hotel feel. It is Chicago. 

We had a great visit with Hayden and were very happy he had time to spend with us. He is a great host.

Friday, April 4th, we would leave the Versey Hotel in Chicago and make our way to Muskegon, Michigan. This time Google Maps had us drive along Lake Michigan to get to I-90. It was a lovely drive. 

Then it was back up on the Interstate. Through a time zone change back to Eastern Time Zone. Then to Port City Automotive for hugs with Nissa. Todd had the day off.

Once we checked in with our daughter, we stopped at Family Dollar and picked up plastic Easter eggs, bags of candy, and little bags to be used as Easter baskets. This would be for Saturday's activity with the great grandmonsters. 

We next stopped at the Roper home for a brief visit. The great grands at this home were very happy to see us. We started making friends with Kennedi. She was very little the last time we saw her and she really doesn't remember us. The other three did remember us. 

I made a couple of bibs for Rosie. She is Lexie's daughter. Lexie is Katelyn really good friend.

We left the Roper's and went to Lee's Fried Chicken to pick up dinner for Nissa, Todd, Claude and me. This seems to be a tradition now. It is a good tradition. 

We drove to Holton and unloaded the things we would need for the next several days. We would stay with the Tyler's through Monday night. 

Day 1 & 2, Let's Go Trippin'...St. Louis then the Field of Dreams...

And we were off on another adventure...

It had been a year since we made a trip to see family up north. Our last trip was when Raelyn was baptized the beginning of April 2024. I was having right shoulder reverse replacement surgery in one month. I couldn't pick up the kids and was concerned for bumping my arm. I had surgery in May and spent a month not moving my right arm and keeping it in a big sling. We ventured on a couple of day trips to see if I could increase stamina and what my arm could do. This culminated with our 3-week road trip to finish Route 66. We did this at my pace and with what I could do with my arm. Winter came and we are not prone to drive to Michigan in the winter. We have been caught in a blizzard or snowstorm and really do not enjoy that at all. So, here we were at the beginning of April and days free enough to travel. We plotted a trip to Michigan Thursday, April 3rd through Wednesday, April 9th. Then we watched the History Channel Ken Burns documentary about baseball. Next we happened to catch the end of the movie "Field of Dreams". Then the light bulb in my head went off. I looked at the calendar and realized we could add a few days to the front of our trip and go to see that bucket list item, the "Field of Dreams" movie site. Claude agreed we should do this. I made the hotel arrangements and we now would leave on Tuesday, April 1st and return Wednesday, April 9th. The forecast for Georgetown was for torrential rains and major flooding Wednesday, April 2nd through Sunday April, 6th. We would miss all the bad weather again...well, a lot of it. 

Monday, March 31st, was our final day to gather and prepare for our trip. We really had most things already ready to load the car. We did the final items like stopping the mail, etc. Bailey was going to Campbellsville University to shadow classes for a day to get a feel for college there. Tuesday she was to shadow classes at University of Kentucky for the day. Andie was driving her to these things. They came Monday night and spend the night at our home to save on some of the driving. Andie would spend the day Tuesday at our home. It was nice to have them visit and have our little home be a place of retreat. 

I got a great quote from Laura Carter to start our trip with, "Life's greatest discoveries are made by continually seeing Home with fresh eyes."

Tuesday, April 1st, we started a new month. Andie and Bailey were off to University of Kentucky at 8:15am. Claude and I loaded my car and we set off for St. Louis, Missouri at about 9:10am. 

Red bud trees beginning to bloom. That makes the spring drives so nice. 

We hit a traffic jam at 9:45am at the Snyder in Louisville. It was a wreck was and only one car was left as we finally got past the fire truck and police car. The passenger rear axle was broken and the wheel was twisted. Yike!! Must have been some awful wreck. We would pass two rolling traffic jams on I-64 in Kentucky. 

We always have a hard time noting when the time zone changes from Eastern to Central. The question for us this time was what color sign we should be looking for. Some are brown that is historical or places of interest. Some are blue that denote motorist services like fuel, food, lodging, etc. Some signs are green and they tell direction and mileage information. Claude say the time zone change sign first. It was green! It was 11:47 Eastern and then 10:47 Central. We now had an extra hour to play with. 

I saw a truck named Zero Max. This made no sense to me. It was an oxymoron. 

We made it to St. Louis. Yeah!!

The purpose in going hundreds of miles out of the way was to enjoy a meal at Zia's on the Hill. It was just as delicious as we knew it would be. Well worth going out of the way for.

Trying to leave St Louis was another zoo. We are so far removed from that kind of traffic. They had one interstate closed so traffic for it was feeding into our traffic. There was a wreck we noted on the way to Zia's that caused a back up on that side of the interstate. We now had to wade through the remainder of that back up. It is simply on of those situations where you might as well say you will be calm and ride out the storm.

Our destination for Tuesday was the Ramada in Springfield, IL. We checked into the hotel and went to get gas at Circle K and snacks for the evening before going to our room. They gave us a room on 1st floor. Yeah!!

Tuesday, April 2nd, we awoke to fin our Ramada statement under the door in the morning! This was the practice several years ago. It was so nice they finally did this again. 

There were strong thunderstorm during the night. When we left there was not rain but the sky was cloudy. I knew from checking weather along our route that we would have to go through rain somewhere this day. When we entered Iowa, we found the driving, horrid rainstorm. Claude slowed down. I kept thinking of the tortoise and the hare story and mentally saying, "Slow and steady wins the race". The rain was so bad, Claude was even looking for a place to pull off and wait out the bad part of the storm. He really never does that. It was very dark. As the storm came in, I kept watching that line of clouds looking for those curly cues that signal the beginning of a funnel cloud. Iowa was in the path of some tornados. 

We eventually made it through and stopped for a pit stop for gas & Hardee's. While we were in the line, I purchased Andrea Bocelli tickets for December 6th at Rupp Arena. We now officially had our first Christmas date scheduled. 

As we drove across Iowa, everything looks washed out or faded. I'm not sure if it was because we left very green Kentucky or the threat of rain or what, but it was really faded looking to both me and Claude. 

As we drove, Claude turned on some music. It was very ironic that we were looking for Sundown Road and Gordon Lightfoot was singing Sundown!

Our destination was to see the Field of Dreams movie site in Dyersville, Iowa. This has been a bucket list item for us for some time. With us watching the baseball documentary and seeing the end of Field of Dreams, that was time to see the actual site. It was early for this type of visit. Corn would not be up until the fall but the feel of this field was still there. 

You can visit the baseball field at no charge. There is a place as you enter the parking area where you may make a donation. All of those funds are used to maintain the field. The farmhouse may be toured but there is a fee for that tour and time slots you need to book your tour. Fortunately, there was only one other couple there so our tour of the home was small. Very nice. 

First, pictures of the field. They have a post with a little platform on top. You can set your cellphone there and set the timer to take a selfie of the field with the house in the background. That was very cool. 

The ball field was built in four 24-hour shifts. They placed sod where grass should be. Then they walked all over it and moved camaras around on it. The grass died. A technician came and spray painted the sod green with a vegetable based paint so as not to ruin the ground. That is why you see a green ball field in the movie. 

The house originally looked like this. It was a typical farmhouse for the day and time it was built. Each room in the home was individual. No open floor plan back in that day. Originally, the movie people passed on this home. When they had to make a decision, they came back and made and agreement with the owner. He would move into a trailer on the back of his property for 15 weeks. He was a bachelor. During that time, the home would be renovated to suit the movie and the movie would be filmed. Then the owner would get his new and improved home back. He lived in the house after the movie was shot for 23 more years.

This is the home as it looked for the movie after renovations. The red barn is an addition and serves as the souvenir shop. 

The interior of the home was renovated to be more 'open concept' to allow for the movement of actors and cameras, etc. Our tour started in the kitchen. This is where the first scene was shot for the movie. We were told the movie people took most of the items they used for decorating this home. They did leave the period stove the purchased and the yellow cake tin that is on the top shelf on the right of the kitchen where it still sits. The locals had pictures of the set of each room during the movie. They simply did the best they could to replicate with a mixture of period pieces and movie items. All of the movie was shot on location. There was no sound stage replica for shooting any of the inside the home scenes. 

From the kitchen you could now see into through the breakfast room into the living room. Each room had a framed picture of how that room looked during the movie. This was used to stage each room for touring. 

Our tour went from the kitchen to the dining room which was to the left of the breakfast room. The large row of windows was added to the dining room. 

In the China cabinet in the dining room were three baseballs. They were signed by James Earl Jones, Kevin Costner and Ray Liotta.

Then we moved into the living room which extends all across the front of the house now. Originally it would have been two separate rooms. Then bookcase on the right was was original to the movie. A big bay window was added so that you could see the baseball field from the front room. 

On a table by the front door were these pictures. The movie was originally titled "Shoeless Joe". Those who weren't familiar with baseball history didn't know who Shoeless Joe was and the title was lost on them. So, the title "Field of Dreams" was chosen. It is by far a better pick for this movie. 

The exterior of the house had a porch added with a swing. 

The bachelor who owned the home eventually married a lady from Colorado. He sold the home for a nice sum when he retired. He had a home built a few miles away in the Iowa corn fields and that is where he and his wife moved to retire. 

The farm was sold to Denise Stillman. Her desire was to have a field for young people to play ball. 

When she passed, her family realized this was their mother's dream and not their dream. The farm was again sold with the understanding it would remain simply a baseball field, open to the public. Today, that is exactly what it does. Visitors come from Japan and Australia to see the Field of Dreams. 

Here are a few other facts about the movies that we found interesting:

• The PTA scene was shot in a local school. 
• The Boston scene was shot in downtown Dubuque. 
• The worst drought in history happened the year of filming. They couldn't get the corn to grow tall enough. They brough in fake stalks of corn. But they received permission to dam the creek for watering the corn. The helped the corn to grow so high, Kevin Costner had to stand on platform for his scenes working in field when he had his vision of what to build in that cornfield. "If your build it, they will come."
• Jimmy Stewart almost played Doc Graham. Burt Lancaster would actually play that role. 
• At the end of the movie, cars coming to field. An ad was placed in the paper requesting cars for this scene. 1500 cars were in the scene. Only first five card actually moved. The others blinked their lights to give the effect they were moving. These cars came from all over and it took policemen four hours to get them all headed back home on these little country roads. 

We had a hotel in Dubuque and enjoyed dinner at Los Azteca.