Iowa – Valerie's Voice

Home Again

We have arrived safely home from our 4,690 miles road trip, through eleven states in southeastern US. We saw a lot of beauty in nature, and beauty in the many friends and family we were able to visit. We are grateful all went well, and we had a great time!

There have been unusual weather patterns all across the country. It was warm here in Minnesota during February, with little snow fall. And it was cooler than normal in the southeast, where we were.

In Iowa Monday night, February 26, it was 72* and we ate dinner outside on a restaurant patio.

But our welcome home present was a cold snap. As we drove closer to Northfield the next day, the temperature kept dropping. When we arrived home we unloaded our car in 25* temperatures. It also started snowing. Sigh. We woke up to 5*!

It is predicted to remain cold for one day and then the temperatures will start climbing back up again. What a roller coaster. I wonder what kind of weather March will bring?

St. Luke’s United Methodist Church

Recently on a road trip to Dubuque, my friend and I decided to begin our day in church. St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, built in 1896, is on the National Register of Historical Places for its architecture, its history in the region, and its Tiffany glass. We were interested in seeing the Tiffany glass.

Louis C. Tiffany (1848-1933) was a world renown artist. He created his own unique glass, which he used to make spectacular windows, lamps and more.

A classic Tiffany iris, as part of one window.

His windows are made of multi-layers of glass, with iridescence/opulence qualities and deep, rich colors.

“Tiffany believed that this new material (his new creation and technique) … enabled form to be defined by the glass itself rather than by painting onto the glass.” The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art

There is much to learn about this artist’s glass and his magnificent works. Click here for more information: Tiffany Glass.

To see this display of Tiffany windows in St. Luke’s was a treat. The church is open to the public for viewing the Tiffany windows during the week, and offers weekly church services on Sunday.

There was a short 11-minute video clip we watched as we sat surrounded by these beautiful glass windows.

The windows had been meticulously restored a few years ago at the cost of $40,000 per window.

This is one of the three Tiffany lamps in the church.

There were also three Tiffany glass chandeliers in the church. There were even Tiffany glass windows in the restrooms!

In the Midwest, there are only a few places that have Tiffany glass windows. We were grateful one of those places was Dubuque, Iowa.

My favorite window: *The Good Shepherd*.

As we left the sanctuary, we noticed a sign that read, “If you think our windows are beautiful…you should meet our people!”

What a pleasant way to start our day.

Torkel and Family

In 1902 my grandfather, Torkel Kallestad (b.1885), was 17 years old when he sailed for America aboard the ship Umbria. He was sponsored by a Norwegian farmer in Iowa, and he later moved to Minneapolis. Torkel became a carpenter by trade. He had three brothers: William, who also moved to America, Haktor, who died at age 12, and Johannes, who stayed behind in Norway. Johannes was the oldest, and was to inherit the family farm. They had one sister, Kristiana, who never married.

This picture was taken in 1902 when Haktor (my great-grandfather) and his children followed Torkel to Bergen to say good-bye when Torkel left for America. Torkel is front right.

Torkel was an immigrant that left his beautiful home in Norway for better work opportunities. He was was fortunate to be able to return to his home country to visit. His first trip back to Norway was in 1910 when he met his future wife, my grandmother Elizabeth. She followed him to America in 1912, and they married in 1913.

Elizabeth traveled back to Norway in 1925 with three of their four children (fourth one not born yet), and Torkel followed later for a short stay. Elizabeth went back to Norway in 1948 with her daughter Agnes, and again, for the last time, she and Torkel returned to Norway for a visit in 1958. She died in 1962. Torkel died in 1970.

One of their children was Herbert (b.1918), my father. During a health recuperation in the 60’s my father became interested in the family history and started doing research. In 1969 he and my mother took a trip to Norway to find out more information, and thus began a wonderful re-connection between our relatives in Norway and those of us here in Minnesota.

My father died in 1974, at the young age 55…little did he know what he started. We are all truly grateful for his initiation.

My father gathered the information and created this family tree. My Uncle Bob printed the posters in his print shop. Above is a poster for my grandfather’s side of the family.

This poster is for my grandmother’s side of the family.

The Norwegian and American flags flying at my cousin’s home in Norway, to welcome us.

My second cousin in Norway, Sigrun, has done, and continues to do, extensive research on the family genealogy. My Uncle Bob also helped Sigrun with research. He died in December 2021.

Sigrun, my second cousin, has done extensive research over the years.

Gary and I are in Sigrun’s dining room looking at ancestry findings.

Three second cousins (our three fathers were first cousins) together, discussing our family tree.

It’s difficult to explain how special our time was with our Norwegian relatives. It was very precious, fun and exciting!

Getting Lost and Finding Waldo

We started our annual bike trip by getting lost. While finding the house we rented through AirB&B, we had transposed the numbers into the GPS…whoops. Eventually, we found the house.

Once settled in, we ate lunch and then took off for a bike ride. It was a beautiful day. We rode on the South Riverside Trail. It went along the Cedar River into Cedar Falls where there happened to be an ice cream shop. Perfect. We enjoyed some tasty ice cream and met a local man who had also biked to the shop for ice cream. We visited together while we ate.

We said good-bye without getting his name, and started back the way we came…but somehow missed a turn and we lost our way back to the rented house. With some backtracking we finally found a different trail back.

The next morning it was rainy so we went to the John Deere Tractor Museum and then went into a couple shops on main street in Cedar Falls, where the guys ran into the same man again. They stopped and chatted. Once again, we did not get his name, so as a group we decided to call him Waldo.

That afternoon the weather cleared; it was sunny and nice outside. We hopped on our bikes and rode out in a different direction, towards Waterloo. According to the map, there was a designated trail around the town…but we didn’t find it. It started out well marked, but soon we couldn’t find the trail. We ended up using our GPS system to get back to the house. It took about 1 1/2 hours to go four miles.

The Cedar River, our house on the right, seen through the trees.

Once back to the house, we decided to ride the same trail as the day before. We followed it and found ourselves back at the ice cream shop. Hooray!

And…there was Waldo! It was quite comical. We visited and ate our ice cream with him (but still didn’t get his name). He retired from John Deere Engineering.

Fortunately, we paid attention to our turns this time, so finding our way back to the house was no problem. We did not get lost.

Sitting on the deck, watching the river flow.

The house we rented was lovely… lots of windows and a large deck overlooking the Cedar River. It was nice sitting there, watching the river flow, after being lost three times…and finding Waldo three times.

Twenty-six geese, all in a row, swimming up river, against the current.

John Deere Tractor Museum

We were staying near Waterloo Iowa for a few days this week, on a bike trip with friends.We’ve never been to Waterloo. While we enjoyed Cedar Falls (a neighboring town) better, Waterloo boasted a John Deere Tractor Museum.

Because it was raining, we decided to visit this tractor museum, since we couldn’t ride our bicycles. The museum was well done. It was sizeable. And it was free!

John Deere Waterloo Boy Model “N” Tractor, 1920 in the lobby of the museum.

I find these early steel wheels very interesting.

My husband grew up on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania. His family never owned a John Deere tractor. They had Farmall and International Harvesters. There seems to be a lot of rivalry, and friendly banter, between tractor owners…but Gary found this museum – focusing on these green tractors – very interesting. As did we all.

Gary reminiscing using a slide rule and drafting board work stations in the “good old days” when he did engineering work.

As per usual, interesting stories were told on story boards throughout the museum.

Tractors have come a long way…from the walking plow to the modern, gigantic tractors that have several steps to get up into the cab…

I don’t remember the model of this huge tractor.

…and, that cab has air conditioning, cushioned seats, wrap-around windows and a state-of-the-art computer system. I know we’ve all seen these big machines in the fields. At night they look like space aliens out there.

The steps up into the cab of this tractor.

John Deere also manufactures the riding lawn mowers that are popular, and they used to make bicycles. In fact, a guy in our group used to own a John Deere bicycle…he was lamenting the fact that he got rid of it.

The museum was informative, and we all enjoyed it. It is definitely worth a visit…we would go to visit it again, given the chance.

When we were through the museum, the rain had stopped, the sun came out, and we were able to get back to biking.

More Photos from Dubuque

Dubuque is Iowa’s oldest city. It was founded in 1833, 13 years before Iowa became a state. The French-Canadian fur trader names Julien Dubuque was instrumental in settling the area, thus its name.

The city has designed a lovely river walk in Port Dubuque, along the Mississippi River. On my recent trip there, my friend and I walked along it several times.

The River Walk along the Mississippi River.

We also sat on benches and watched a lot of river traffic…barges, tugboats, speedboats, etc. I always enjoy watching the “boats go by.”

This recreational boat looks so small next to a long barge and tugboat, on the Mississippi River.

The Shot Tower is located one end of the river walk. It is a national landmark, being one of only a few remaining historic shot towers in the United States.

A visual of how the shot tower made lead shots.

I recently learned what a shot tower is, and found it interesting. According to the plaque, “The Shot Tower was constructed in 1854 to manufacture lead shot ammunition. Molten lead was poured from the top of the tower and passed through a series of sieves to form the shot into its proper size. The shot then landed in a tank of cold water at the bottom of the tower.” Thus, making the ammunition.

There are 30 murals around town, resulting from an event called “Taking it to the Streets”. We noticed several of the murals. I assume there would be a map at the chamber of commerce so one could locate all of them and learn about them. We did not look into this, but there was one mural directly across from our hotel. It was titled Solidarity. It was painted by 75 volunteers, painting side-by-side in one- hour shifts, on this paint-by-number style public art piece; 105’ long X 25” tall.

We walked by the Town Clock. This Town Clock was originally erected in 1873 on top of a building on Main Street, then the clock was moved to the Town Clock Plaza in 1971, where it is today. The clock supposedly maintains accurate time within half second. It stands 110’ tall.

The Grand Opera House, still offering live performances (pre and post Covid of course.)

We also walked by the Grand Opera House which was built in 1890. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Closer look at the Grand Opera House stone design.

A super moon was scheduled to rise on our last night in Dubuque, so we purposely went to find a bench on the river walk to sit and watch the full moon rise over the Mississippi River. It did not disappoint!

The full, super moon rising over the river.

We had a wonderful time in this historic river town…There is so much more this city has to offer. We’ll be back.

Dubuque Arboretum & Botanical Garden

It may not be very big – 52 acres – but it’s overflowing with beauty…the Dubuque Arboretum & Botanical Garden.

My friend and I met in Dubuque, Iowa for our annual get together. Dubuque is a lovely river town. It has a scenic river walk along the Mississippi River, a wonderful botanical garden and thrift stores.

Dubuque met our criteria for a meeting place: water, gardens and thrift & antique stores.

The day we went to the botanical garden was dreamy. An ideal temperature, bright blue skies with no clouds in sight.

One of the garden sculptures: Germination.

Dubuque is five hours farther south than Northfield, and there were many plants blooming in Iowa that were not blooming in Minnesota yet. There were peonies and lupines and iris’ in their full array.

In the botanical garden there was an herb garden, a shade garden, an English garden, a Japanese garden, a prairie garden, a rose garden (not in bloom yet), annuals, perennials, peonies, iris’ and lupines, a children’s area, sculptures, trees, lots of benches and green, green, grass.

So much packed into those 52 acres.

The arb is convenient and close to town. And has free admission.

They also boast the arboretum & garden is run entirely by volunteers. It’s a young arboretum…established in 1980.

We spent our morning meandering, and sitting on the benches, and smelling the flowers, enjoying ourselves in this beautiful setting, marveling at God’s creation.

The Tin Man in an annual garden, with more displays in other annual beds featuring characters from The Wizard of Oz.

And we were grateful.

Out with the old, in with the…old

My picnic basket fell apart. I had it for many years, and used it a lot. It was a durable, wicker basket; deep, with a strong handle and flaps over each topside opening. Eventually the top flaps broke off but it was still a sturdy, useable basket. During the pandemic this past year I kept the basket stocked, and in the car, ready for any opportunity we might have for eating a meal outdoors. It was stocked with hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes, flatware, drinking cups, paper plates, napkins, and a tablecloth.

My beloved picnic basket – it served us well for many years.

I took it along on a recent trip to Iowa to meet up with a friend for a few days. As I put it in the car I felt the handle (which had already been fixed once with wire) was loosening up. But I still put it in the car. Then while there, I took it out of the car and the handle broke completely. The picnic basket was no longer functional.

But the timing was good. My friend and I like to frequent thrift stores so it was the perfect time to look for a new-to-me picnic basket, and we were successful in finding one.

When I got it home I cleaned it off and set it in the sun to disinfect, and now it’s ready to “carry on” the task of holding our picnic goods for many more years, I hope.

Dubuque: A very long barge traveling down the Mississippi River.

Still A Favorite

Cannon Valley Trail is a favorite bike trail that we ride several times a season.

The CVT is a sanctuary for me. A canopy of trees welcomes me and I feel I’m entering a special space. The trail is mostly shaded, and a lot of it follows the Cannon River, which adds to the ambiance of the trail.

When out of tree cover, the Cannon Valley Trail passes fields of wild flowers. I like that it was an old railroad line and therefore fairly flat, and it’s paved. And… it is close to home. After traveling to other trails to ride in new territory, it is always good to come home to this sanctuary trail.

Recently we discovered another trail that we really enjoyed. It’s the Trout Run Trail in Decorah, Iowa. Although it’s not very convenient location-wise, it is very scenic and now another favorite.

The route is only eleven miles but seems longer because there are many hills on half of the trail. It makes a loop around Decorah and travels through a farmer’s field, rolling hills, and city parks. The vistas at the top of the hills are breathtaking…beautiful landscapes, small farms and fields, winding roads, and green forests.

At the top of the first hill we climbed on the Trout Run Trail.

Through corn fields, on both sides of the trail.

This loop also passes Decorah’s Fish Hatchery where the well-known eagle cam is but we couldn’t spot the eagle’s nest. The rainbow trout in the tanks were fun to watch…several tanks filled with hundreds of trout in one tank, all swimming and splashing about. We didn’t see an eagle at the hatchery, although they are often seen hanging out there we’re told.

However, on our ride through a city park, along the Root River, we spotted an eagle in a field eating, what looked to be, a rabbit, and a vulture was close by waiting for leftovers I guess.

We watched this eagle eating his prey…In this photo the eagle took flight for a short distance.

At the end of our ride on a very hot and humid day, we drove into town and bought ourselves some ice cream from the Whippy Dip, a popular local ice cream place in Decorah.

Ice cream and bike rides go together. It’s a fun treat to look forward to at the end of a ride.

Happy Trails

Our biking get away this year took us to Iowa and the High Trestle Trail.

We were pleasantly surprised by this well-kept, smooth and wide bike trail lined with native plants and trees that led us to, and over, the High Trestle Bridge. The high and funky bridge across the Des Moines River was a sight to see, especially at night. The bridge is a half-mile long and 130 ft. above the Des Moines River.

Thistle along the trail…such a pretty pink.

We rode our bikes on the trail to the bridge in the afternoon. After dinner we walked the trail to see the bridge lit up with a beautiful shade of bright blue. There were other folks out there on this beautiful summer solstice evening, both biking and walking. It is a biking/pedestrian bridge, in place where an old railroad bridge used stand. The original trestle train bridge was built in 1912 and reconstructed in 1971. It became a pedestrian bridge in 2003.

The trail the next day was a nice surprise too. We drove to Big Creek State Park and started pedaling on the smooth, but hilly trail along Big Creek, then along Saylorville Lake. Up and down we went and in some places it was like a roller coaster…pedal up and then coast down a hill and half way up the next hill, then pedal a bit more to the top and then coast down again…whee…

Saylorville Dam in background – a mile long.

Again we were surprised when we saw how big the dam was. We rode the mile across the length of the dam and back again, for the fun of it.

On our last day our ride took us through what we expected from the beginning when we headed to Iowa, and that was the beautiful, but flat cornfields of Iowa.

Two farmers in Iowa, sitting outside on a hot day.

We discovered there are hundreds of miles of bike trials in this area so we’ll go back. The B&B we stayed at was delightful…a log house with many wonderful features, and at night…a view of the beautiful, blue bridge.