29 Apr 2025 - Walk Down Memory Lane in Mount Pleasant

 

Today we visited several locations in my old home town of Mount Pleasant Iowa.  The pictures that follow probably won't mean much to most but as we drove around town a lot of memories came back to me.  I am thankful those memories are still there as it seem like as the years tick by a lot of the memories fade and that will only get worse I'm afraid.  

My first house - 204 E Warren St,:
I was born at the hospital in Mount Pleasant on 24 Aug 1955.  I don't remember much about that event LOL, but here is the house I came home to, then and now:  

Mid-1950's?

2025

Our grandparents house - 902 E. Henry St.:

Our grandparents lived on a farm that we will visit later this week until at some point they moved into town.  I remember vividly visiting them on a few Christmas's, and then I used to visit for a week or two in the summer.  I actually helped my grandfather dig the basement under this house.  They used to have a huge garden behind their garage, which is all grass now.  The lady that owns it now gave me a tour through the main parts of the house and it is not much different inside - much smaller than I remember.  

The Forest Home Cemetery and the Linch Plot:

My mom's maiden name was Linch.  Many of the Linch's are buried here in Mount Pleasant so we visited the cemetery.  We had no trouble finding the plot as the monument is huge:

Grandpa Jesse Clark and Grandma Mary Ann

My aunt Erma (mom's sister) and uncle Virgil Cooper

Old Threshers:

Across the street from the cemetery is the location where the Henry County Fair and the Midwest Old Settlers and Thresher's Reunion is held.  The reunion was created in 1950 and it's purpose was to keep the memory alive of steam-powered threshing machines and the hard-working farmers of Iowa and the entire Midwest.  Each year the event takes place and runs for five days, ending on the Labor Day weekend.  They feature steam engines and antique agricultural equipment, trains, tools, and history involving the Midwest.  This time of year the museum is open and it is amazing.  A few pictures:

That is just a fraction of the pictures I took in the museum, which is multiple buildings.  The doll museum was really amazing.

After we left the Old Thresher's we drove around town quite a bit.  Iowa Wesleyan College has closed and at least some of the buildings taken over by the Mount Pleasant school system. 

The beautiful chapel building

We plan to revisit the town square and walk around the shops.  Motorola used to have a radio factory here and it is closed.  The Blue Bird Bus company used to be here also and it is gone.  There used to be a Sheaffer Pen company here in town and it is gone too.  It's sad to see towns like this lose major industries, but I guess it is a sign of the times.  The population is about 9400.

That is about it for today.  As we drove back to the RV park we captured a few pictures of the amazing old houses here.  More of those to come:    

 

Tomorrow I think we are headed to Fort Madison Iowa to see a few sights there.

28 Apr 2025 - Arrived at Stop #10 Crossroads RV Park in Mount Pleasant IA + Stats

 

We departed the Covered Bridge RV Park in Fenton MO this morning at 0933 hrs and headed around St Louis and north on Highway 61 to Iowa and my home town of Mount Pleasant!  After driving 213 miles with just one stop we arrived at Crossroads RV Park at 1328 hrs.  

We picked up our packet at the office door since they do not open until later in the afternoon, and made our way to site #4,  They have 36 sites here with 24 of them 90 ft pull throughs.  The other 12 are a bit shorter but would still have been long enough.  The sites and roads are gravel but the grass is manicured and the utilities strong.  Spacing is a little close but it will be fine.   

They have a nice little playground area with a cool old 1950 John Deere Model A tractor there for the kids to sit on. The John Deere Model A was built from 1934-1952 at the Waterloo, Iowa factory.  The "A" was John Deere's first true row-crop tractor, replacing the GP and also the first Deere tractor to come from the factory with rubber tires.  So now you know!

, 

As I write this there are very few sites open.  Many appear to be occupied by short stay "snowbirds" headed back north. Lots of license plates from northern states.

A short time ago Doreen was out walking Liberty and got in a conversation with a couple sitting by their Class A.  Turns out they are good friends with Jack and Karen Switzer who winter in Donna TX not far from where my sister lives.  Jack Switzer worked in Vehicle Maintenance at the Des Moines Air Guard base and I served with him for many years.  From here this couple are headed to the Des Moines area where they will meet up with Jack and Karen.  Small world!

This is our last stop during Phase 1 of our summer travels.  Our next stop after this is home for granddaughter Hailee's high school graduation.  Then we head out on Phase 2.  So we had some time to kill here and so we are here for six nights.  

Mount Pleasant  is my birthplace and where I lived until I was three or four years old, and where we returned to many times to visit our grandparents while I was growing up.  My grandfather Clark Linch worked at the mental health institute and my grandmother Mary Ann cooked for a fraternity at Iowa Wesleyan College.  This is also where my mom and dad first met.  My mom worked in the Henry County Assessor's Office.  My dad started his Iowa Highway Patrol career with his first assignment at Fort Madison, then to Mount Pleasant, Denison, DeWitt (K-Freshman for me) and finally Cedar Falls (Sophomore-Senior high school for me) where I met Doreen.  

So Doreen and I plan to take our time and walk the steps I took here many years ago.  Most of the stores and shops I remember are gone, but there is still a lot to see.  My grandparents on my mom's side are buried here along with and aunt and uncle and some other relatives.  Our Linch family farm is still here.  The house we lived in when I was born until we moved to Denison IA is still here.  Then there is the Old Threshers and other places.  We plan to go east and visit New London where my aunt, uncle and cousins lived.  We will go further east to Middletown and see if the Army Ammunition Plant has a museum to visit.  We plan to see Burlington again, on down to Fort Madison where my parents started our family and my sister was born, and then to Keokuk possibly.  My mom graduated high school at Oakland Mills nearby.  So, again, lots to see and lots of time to see it!

Stats:  This is campground #10 of 43 

# States Traveled Through So Far This Trip, in order: 6 (IA, MO, KS, OK, MO, IA)  

# States left to visit on this trip: 21 (IL, IN, MI, WI, IA, MN, SD, ND, MT, ID, OR, ID,NV, UT, CO, NM, TX, OK, KS, MO, IA )

Baseball Parks Visited So Far This Trip:  0 ( )

Lighthouses visited:  0 ( )

Lighthouses climbed:  0 ( )

Point to point travel miles:  1778 miles 

  - Avg point to point travel miles between campgrounds:  162 miles

Vicinity miles:  857 miles 

  - Avg vicinity miles:  86 miles

Total miles driven:  2635 miles 

Total point to point driving time:  34 hrs 25 minutes

Total diesel fuel purchased: 252.068 gals 

Total diesel fuel cost:  $799.18 

Average diesel fuel cost/gal:  $3.196

Max diesel fuel cost:  $3.499 (Ankeny IA) 

Min diesel fuel cost:  $2.879 (Yukon OK) 

Avg MPG:  10.32 miles/gal

Cost/mi of operation:  $0.37

# Nights at end of this stay:  44 (Includes Griff's start)

Total lodging cost:  $1862.26  (includes Griff's start)

Average cost/night:  $42.32

27 Apr 2025 - Last Day at Fenton MO - Family Day via Technology

 

This is our last day at the Covered Bridge RV Park in Fenton MO.  It was rainy and cool out pretty much all day and we did not venture out much, except to fuel the truck and dump/flush the tanks in preparation for our departure in the morning.  

One of the downsides of traveling is being away from family and their events, but technology helps us stay in touch.  Today our granddaughter Lindsey in Michigan was playing in a volleyball tournament and our daughter Jennifer was keeping us updated on how they were doing.  

Lindz is top row on our left.  She is quite the server!

Our daughter Michelle, son-in-law Keith and grandson Jon were camping for the first weekend at a nearby campground south of Milwaukee. In town they were also having a high school fundraiser for Jon's  bowling team. 

Michelle braving the Wisconsin spring weather at Yogi Bear campground!

Michelle's oldest and our oldest grandson Joe is at Baton Rouge LA competing in a national adult bowling tournament. 

 Back at home, our son Dan is with his son's Calvin (12) and Daniel (14) who both played baseball yesterday and today.  Through the magic of the Game Changer app we are able to "tune in" to their games.  We did not get any video feed from Daniels games nor do we have any pictures from him this weekend. Here is a file photo of Dan and Daniel:  

We were able to "tune in" to Calvin's games this weekend including video but it was hit and miss here today.  What a memorable day for him as he hit his first over-the-fence homerun and then turned around and hit ANOTHER one!!  Here is video of his first "dinger" over the center field fence!  Hopefully it will load:

Calvin and his two homerun balls from today!

So even though we did not go anywhere to speak of, we had a great day with the family, remotely!

Tomorrow morning we bug out of here and head north to Mount Pleasant Iowa, my birthplace.  We will be spending six nights there before returning home to Ankeny for a week.  We actually won't be staying at home but camping at Prairie Flower campground on Saylorville Lake.  In a couple weeks we will see our oldest granddaughter Hailee graduate from high school, and then we hit the road again to return home in September.  

Next report from Mount Pleasant Iowa!

26 Apr 2025 - Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery and Museums - Telephone, POW-MIA, Ordinance and Civil War

 

We had a big day at the Jefferson Barracks Military Post (hereafter "JB"), which is the home of the Jefferson Barrack National Cemetery and a list of museums to include Telephone, POW-MIA, Ordinance and Civil War.  There is also a huge VA center here and both Army and Air National Guards.   They have done a great job of preserving the very old structures.  

We stared the day at the telephone museum and were surprised to find it difficult to locate a parking spot for the big ol' brown truck!  Today there was apparently a local Pontiac GTO Club visiting JB and we arrived right after they did!  It was great to see some neat old cars from our era!

The telephone museum is housed in one of the beautifully restored and preserved 1896 buildings here on JB. 

The volunteers who run the museum were former Bell System employees and the contents of the museum have been donated by people from across the Nation over the years.  There are literally hundreds of different types of novelty and regular telephones, a central office step-by-step telephone switch that works, tools, signs, cell phones, corded switchboards, pole climbing equipment, pay phones, a telephone booth, military phones and telephone memorabilia of all sorts.  

Since we arrived right after the GTO club, we were able to tag onto the back end of their guided tour conducted by a former Bell employee which was very informative!  A few pictures:

Telephone tools and test equipment - I've used most of these!

Phones

Phones

Phones

and more phones!!

Corded switchboard

Picture Phones - very expensive, ahead of their time and unsuccessful.  

Doreen with a "brick" cell phone - one of the first for some people,

and where it all started, Mr, Alexander Graham Bell.

That was awesome.  I am a dial tone guy!  It is a good day when you can find a nice telephone museum!  I found one in Maine, one in Texas and others scattered throughout the United States.  Arguably better than a Wizard of Oz Museum ha ha.  But honestly, phones were a game changer, and I can remember having a wooden crank wall phone at my grandmother's house in Van Horne Iowa.  I can remember having three-digit dial in DeWitt Iowa in the early 60's. I think our number was 700.  Then I recall the coming of "touch tone" and they converted to seven-digit dial 659-5730 with our area code of 319.  Back then, the center digit of every area code was either a 0 or a 1.  Now you know, but not any more.  And no, it was not called a "hash tag", it was a "pound sign" or "number sign"!  But in the telephone school I attended they called it something else, starting with a "O".  Anyone guess?

The next building to the west was the  POW-MIA museum.  The GTO group bypassed it so we stopped and basically had the place to ourselves.   Outside they have a mock guard tower.  

The mission of the POW-MIA Museum is "to reverently honor all who served our country from any branch of the United States military who were captured by enemies of the United States or who are missing in action from any year and from any conflict'".  The museum is beautifully and respectfully done with pictures, accounts and artifacts of many who were prisoners of war or are still missing in action.  They are doing their best here to honor, educate and remember.  "As long as they are remembered, they will live forever..."

Two telegrams - PFC Melford G. Masters was captured by the Germans, and later was released.

Excerpt from PFC Masters diary when he was delivered to the POW camp

The story of another POW, Lt Mike Chistian and an interesting story about his flag.

The museum was full of names and stories.  You could literally spend hours and hours reading about all these great Americans.  

We continued through several rooms of displays and information.  These old buildings do not have elevators so they cannot display all of the artifacts they have on just one floor. 

Incredible photos from and camera that was snuck in and out of the camp where the POW's were forced to march 18 days, 281 miles to Braunau Austria.

After finishing our tour of the POW-MIA museum we made our way to the Ordinance Museum since the GTO group stopped at the Civil War Museum.  

The Ordinance Museum is "a technical museum showing the evolution of United States ammunition from around 1900 to the present day".  Here we saw powder canisters, grenades, shells, bombs, missiles, torpedoes and any other type of ordinance you can think of.  Of course it is all inert, meaning the ammunition or explosives that have been rendered completely harmless.  A few pictures:

An Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG)

Fuses of all types and sizes

Torpedoes and bombs.

The inside of a steam-powered torpedo including the gyro system.

Torpedo has two propellers that operate in opposite directions 

which helps to keep the torpedo traveling straight

Imagine being on the receiving end of any of these.  That top one is full of ball bearings

Wide selection of munitions

Rockets of all types

M2 Browning Machine Gun Trainer

Just down the road from here is our last stop for today, the Civil War Museum.    

The museum has hundreds of original artifacts on display all relating to Missouri's involvement in the American Civil War.  We started out watching a short movie on the history the Jefferson Barracks Historic Site and of the building.  The story of the building is amazing in itself.  It has served various purposes from a PX to a hospital. It has a gymnasium room and a running track inside and it once had a bowling alley also.

This room was the gymnasium and you can see the second floor running track that encircles the room.

Interesting weapons on display including this "pepperbox"

We then headed downstairs for more displays.  

I took many, many more pictures, but we will bring this to a close.  All of the museums we've seen here were outstanding.  It is so nice to see them preserve these buildings and display the important history of our great Nation.  On the way home we passed through the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, and it was overwhelming.  As of 2021, there were approximately 237,000 interments at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. The cemetery covers 331 acres.  Row after row of grave markers, not unlike Arlington.  Everyone of these warriors raised their hand and swore to support and defend, and many gave the ultimate sacrifice,  Respect.  

Tomorrow will be our last day here.  At least one of our grandsons has a baseball game tomorrow but other than that we have not mapped out a plan yet other than getting fuel, dumping tanks and preparing to depart Monday morning.  

It was a good day!