Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:36 pm Post subject: Indian Summer Days Of August
Driving across the bridge over the Mississippi River from Dubuque, we crossed the state line
into Illinois. We drove the 15 miles to visit the tourist-town of Galena to have dinner there.
Galena’s architectural version of the omnipresent water tower.
The tourist traffic-lined main street of Galena, Illinois. An empty parking space was hard-pressed to come by.
Clothing apparel to titillate and appeal to the wilder side of summer tourists’ tastes.
Any visible marketing gimmick may work – including an old watering can to draw them (tourists) in.
Arriving at the heart of Galena, Illinois to the music of a solo street sidewalk musician. (MPEG)
zGalena (7).MPG
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Main Street of Galena and solo street musician music
Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:48 pm Post subject: Indian Summer Days Of August
The last original Galena cobblestone street kept intact as a reminder to residents and tourists
alike of the good ole’ days of the likelihood in receiving a sprained ankle when negotiating the
cobblestone streets of the town.
Lots of unique stores offering almost everything from A to Z.
Quite an eye-pleasing old red building on the main drag of Galena.
Galena’s candy store on the main drag of town.
Wedge-shaped building on the main drag of Galena.
Harley-Davidson hog owners who did not go to the Sturgis Annual Bike Rally in South Dakota
but made it to Galena in Illinois instead.
Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 11:47 am Post subject: Indian Summer Days Of August
We drove one morning to visit the Amish country in Iowa near Iowa City. It was miles and
miles of rolling hills of corn and soybean as far as the eyes can see.
Corn and Soybean country of Iowa. Watermelons being hauled to market along a country highway
zIowaCity (03).MPG
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Soybean & Corn country of Iowa
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1.31 MB
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4583 Time(s)
Last edited by Chinook on Fri Aug 17, 2007 11:56 am; edited 1 time in total
Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 12:12 pm Post subject: Indian Summer Days Of August
The wonderful aroma of freshly-baked bread, cakes and pastries brought us to a screeching halt at
an Amish country bakery nestled between corn and soybean fields.
Who could miss the traditional buggy hitching post in front of every Amish store.
The bakery was in a immaculate barn-style house.
Behind the bakery was a large wire-wall corn-crib topped by a corrugated conical roof to ward off the
rain. 2 small grain silos stood close alongside the corn-crib.
Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 12:46 pm Post subject: Indian Summer Days Of August
Later we drifted into the country town of Kalona, Amish buggies shared the roads with the automobiles.
The main street of Kalona was quiet like most small country towns in the Midwest.
We headed over to the once-a-month everything-goes country auction held at the auction yards.
A long line of Amish buggies were parked underneath the shade of tall trees.
An auctioneer in a mobile shack mounted on the back of a pickup truck was busy auctioning everything
in sight laid neatly in piles on the grounds.
The sound of a rapid-fire auction chant of an auctioneer is really fun to watch.
Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 11:41 pm Post subject: Indian Summer Days Of August
We next headed over to the massive indoor auction facility where multiple auctions of different
categories were being held The parking lot here were packed to capacity with pickup trucks and horse trailers.
An Amish wagon (for sale) was on display just outside the main entrance into the facility.
Adjoining the auction facility was a large barn filled with horses each awaiting its turn to be led into the auction arena.
One section of the facility dealt with the auctioning of horses. It was packed and I made my way
up a grandstand to get a better view of the ongoing action.
Horses from foals to adult horses were available. One animal was being auctioned off at a time. (MPEG)
zIowaCity (15).MPG
Description:
Section of the horse auction crowd and an auction in progress
Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 12:11 am Post subject: Indian Summer Days Of August
One can inspect the horses in the barn prior to the auction and note down the auction tag numbers
of the horses that one is interested in.
A colorful character who stood out from among the auction crowd of horse buyers in the stands.
A foal was sold for $100 while 2 horses sold for $975 and $600 within a span of 5 minutes. (MPEG)
Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 12:26 am Post subject: Indian Summer Days Of August
In another section of the facility was a room where the accessories pertaining for owning a horse
were tagged for the ongoing auction in another arena. There were literally piles of saddles available
from the fancy grade to the plain ones.
The area where all the riding accessories were being auctioned off.
Prices are a fraction of what one would pay in a regular equestrian store.
Horse accessories auction (MPEG)
Joined: 12 May 2005 Posts: 217 Location: marine parade
Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 4:36 am Post subject:
wow u r really enjoying life manz!! great write up and pictures,the amish town and the auctioning chants look exactly like what i saw on the national geographic channel haha.. maybe they would want to add a speed auction chant in the olympics.. its really dizzying how they could speak at that speed.. and how to you make sense of it all??? it doesnt sounds like they r speaking english at all!!..
Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 6:45 am Post subject: Indian Summer Days Of August
Hi Poly,
You get attuned to the auctioner's chants after a while and then start to pick up on what he is
babbling about. Btw, Barraa arrived a week ago. He's driving up tonight after he gets out and we
are going fishing for Feather River Chinook salmon tomorrow by Marysville. He wants to
catch a few salmon like you did in your hot spot in the river. State Fair is on so we will go to that
too this weekend. Are you planning to come over for Feather River salmon fishing this year?
Regards,
Chinook
Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 12:09 pm Post subject: Indian Summer Days Of August
All the walking around in the auction yards built up a healthy appetite so we headed back to the
family’s SUV. Along the way, I happened to glance into a pickup truck and noticed this
home-designed-and-constructed cup-holder. The adage “one size fits all” did come to mind.
Our cousin-hosts drove us to their favorite Amish restaurant in Kalona for some real honest-to-goodness
Amish home-cooking. Turning the corner from the restaurant’s parking lot, we were greeted by
“Super Chicken” on guard near the restaurant’s entrance.
Checking the buffet-room, I decided to try that instead of ordering from the large menu available. I
was glad that I did as the Amish buffet turned out to be an EXCELLENT choice. So if you ever find
yourself in Kalona, Iowa – you now know where to go for some great Amish home-cooking.
Joined: 12 May 2005 Posts: 217 Location: marine parade
Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2007 1:38 pm Post subject:
well chances are i cant go over this fall but most probably will try to go over in feb/april for stripers or shad or anything that can be caught there haha!!!
Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2007 5:55 am Post subject: Indian Summer Days Of August
After lunch, we headed over to the local museum in Kalona. Along the way, we noticed this cute little
former-church (now an antique shop) on a quiet street.
Soon we arrived at the museum on another quiet street.
The first building on the grounds was the original railroad station of the town of Kalona
Just oustide the historical railroad building was 5 fairy rings on the lawn. Fairy rings are caused by decaying
circular organic matter in the soil which provides a increased nutrient boost to the grass growing above
Thus the resulting richer darker green grass than the surrounding grass.
There were lots of small farm tools including this unique animal-powered (dog, goat, etc.) treadmill that keeps the butter chur rotating.
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