day56 Snively Access

DAY FIFTY-SIX Bennet IA to Snively Access CG on lake
Oct 4 Thursday D 77km M 44.5 A 15.4 PT 5h RT9h total 4425.9km

Wind from the south again! Although the road didn’t go straight all the time
Temp Really warm 30C in afternoon Went Swimming Oct 4 and the water wasn’t cold
Road Condition No shoulder other than gravel all day on cement roads
Food: Breakfast usual
Lunch in Muscatine at 1430 at Taco Bell and we actually liked it! Seven layer veggie burrittos
Supper Tomato/Avocado/cheese salad and bread with a lot of mosquitos!
Overall: One of the most fun days. We waited for the tent to dry which took until 0930, then road back into Bennett and phoned Aunt Thalia for an address in Keokuk off one of Grandma’s postcards The address is 521 Morgan St. We checked it out on the map and it is right down town so the house may be gone now but we plan to go check it out tomorrow if and when we ever get there. We will be looking for a graveyard also as Grandma’s brother Fredrich died in Keokuk as did her sister Helen. Both of here parents are buried in Keokuk too so we hope to find that info. Should be an interesting day as we think we are at least 117km away… might try for a hotel downtown.
One of the things that made today so interesting was
a. the terrain is so much like southern central Alberta it is amazing and if they were harvesting wheat you couldn’t tell it apart
b. I stopped to take a picture of a person harvesting corn and she offered to take me on a round of the field so I went…. She thought one circuit would be 30minutes, but closer to an hour later Ken was still standing at the side of the road. … interesting things I learned
· Karen The combine Queen, who is about my age with 4 children and 5 grandchildren, related that this corn is for domestic use for things like corn syrup, etc.
· 1sq mile of field which is 640 acres Right now $3.25 a bushel for corn or ~$1000 for one bin as pictured
· cost of farming is getting very high…. Combine ~$100thousand and the head for corn ~$60thousand and same for a head for soya beans
· she updated my thinking about the wood burners or corn burners… they burn the kernels not the plant and you cann’t burn either or so when corn is too costly you cann’t burn wood
· they alternate beans and corn each year in different fields
· land is ~$6000/acre here which is very good land
· it was really neat sitting in air conditioned comfort watching the corn be mutilated and see it go up into the back of the combine and then she dumped it into a wagon pulled by a tractor. A lot to watch that the tractor isn’t going too fast or slow so the kernels are onto the ground! Their dog who is 11 years old runs along side and makes sure she is in the right rows…. The corn is planted in rows specifically the right width for the combine to fit down… maybe the pictures show it as it is really hard to explain
· Anyways she said it would take weeks to finish this one field and they have 5 just as big! They are hopping the weather will remain warm now for the rest of October as so are we!
We are sitting in the tent hiding from the mosquitos… and trying to kill the ones that are in the tent! The fish are jumping and making such big splashes Ken went to check they weren’t something else ie alligators or something!
This is truly a lovely spot with no other campers on a Thursday night. We are right at the shore of this lake which isn’t often any longer in Canada. Most campsites are away from the water and the picnic sites are on the shore. Well Mom often said be careful what you wish for and we were really wishing the warm weather would return and with it came mossies!
I must mention what a neat city Muscatine is. The down town is very old buildings and seems to have lots of businesses going. The grocery store had duel language signs everywhere…. Spanish and English! Lots of Mexican type foods in the grocery also… Ken spoke to a fellow outside the grocery that said he isn’t taking his 3 weeks holidays as they will pay him out instead and it’s $1000. in his pocket…. Wages cann’t be much making plastic buckets. He agreed that there are a lot of Mexicans here.
Ken is finding the daylight hours way to short for his liking. We got into camp about 6:30pm and the sun is down by 7pm with about ½ hour of twilight. Diner in the dark once again. The new addition of a night light in the tent is marvelous! I am very excited to go to Keokuk tomorrow!