September 30, 2016 Moline, IL

Hello everyone.
Yesterday was a day of rest and reflection after spending several hours on the road.  Before we left South Bend, Grammie wanted to go to a yarn shop so away we went.  As he often sometimes does, Tom sits out in the car and catches up with sports on the ipad.  After a couple of minutes, he notices a man sitting in the next car over who is probably taking a breather too.  Tom grabs the short list of yarn shops to visit that Grammie has written down and goes over to the other car.  The guy rolls down his window and Tom says if you give me 5 bucks, I won't show this list to your wife.  He thought that was funny and before we left, having shared travel experiences while traveling and visiting yarn/quilt shops, it was already past noon and time to head to Moline.      

Today we went into town and visited the John Deere Pavilion.  It is sort of a mini showcase of the newest in John Deere tractors and also of the Deere family and the business.  The John Deere Corporate headquarters are also in Moline.

Even though Grammie is popular  on this blog, as you can see, she isn't the biggest wheel in town.

A wood harvester that has 6 legs and crawls rather than rides along the ground.  This allows the operator to work on side hills and move the rig higher or lower too.

Grammie sitting in the temperature controlled cab of a tractor with a hay roller behind.  $$$$$$

Grammie is sitting in the cab of a John Deere 670 Combine.

The newest tractor to come along is the Autonomous Tractor that is capable of operating by itself night and day.  It uses GPS technology to travel where ever it needs to.  It has the capability of moving around an obstacle in it's path, will call you on the phone if it is getting low on fuel and even will drive back to the pump and return after fueled up.  If it is spraying an orchard and is running low on fuel or spray, it will stop spraying, return to the farm for more chemicals, then return to the same spot and continue.

In the building next door there was a gift shop.  This panograph pic shows a nice assortment of farm vehicles (toys).

Moline is a city that is undergoing rejuvenation with old brick buildings being repaired and repurposed. 

We found a Microbrewery that has polish sausage with onions and sauerkraut.

The Deere family were very generous and over the years have donated land around the area to the city.  The TPC Deere Run’s golf course is built on the site of a former Arabian horse farm.
John Deere Corp donates land

 Before we did a tour of the John Deere Symposium, Tom wanted to tour the land donated by the John Deere property. Tom thought that is was a nice piece of property.

Flags at half staff honoring  "The King"

After Tom finished the round of golf, a turkey wanted to know how he did.

Thanks for keeping an eye out for Grammie.

September 28, 2016 Notre Dame

Good evening everyone.  Today we arrived at the campus of Notre Dame University in South Bend Indiana.  The University was originally founded by Fr Edward Sorin in France.  Obviously the phrase "Fighting Irish" didn't originate with him.

The school occupies around 1200 acres, has an undergrad enrollment of around 8000 which has remained relatively stable from the 1960's until today.  The graduate school has about 4000 enrolled.

When we arrived at the welcome center, got a map and headed out the door, we caught a clue that it might be a big campus.

The main (Admin Building) can be seen from many locations on campus and can be identified by it's gold dome.

The inside of the dome has paintings of  religious characters.

We thought we would sneak into the Huddle food court to catch an ice cream bar.  No one even noticed the old people in the crowd.  There is plenty of diversity, however the first female student at Notre Dame wasn't allowed until 1972. 

The $200,000 granite mosaic mural was a gift of Mr. and Mrs. Howard V. Phalin of Winnetka, Illinois.  It is titled Word of Life and is located on the southern main entrance to the Hesburgh Library.  Because it can be seen from the northern goalpost area of the football stadium the phrase Touchdown Jesus can often be heard when making reference to either the mural, or the scoring of a touchdown.

The team entrance to the stadium.

Grammie was seen today with a statue of the famous Knute Rockne.

Inside the Purcell Athletic Center lobby

 The basketball court.  There are 5 floors that are used during the year and completely cleaned each year.  Two of them are owned and used by the NCAA during playoff season.

 The multiuse Field House.  Today there was volleyball being played on the right side inside the blue curtain.  Instead of a Phys Ed requirement, dorms are encouraged to participate in intramural sports, necessitating the need for multiuse facilities.

 Looking close at the team entrance to the stadium, one might notice the shape of a football.  The stadium is ONLY used for ND football games, and not for practice.

 ND members of the Heisman Award club.  In 1956, Paul Hornung won with a 2-9 record???

 Words from George to Coach Rockne.

 The original Gipper

 Heading down to the field, it is a tradition that the player slaps the sign.

 Player entrance to the field.

 A view of the north end

 A lot of the wooden seats originate back to 1929.

 

Thanks for keeping an eye out for Grammie.

September 27, 2016 Lansing, MI

Today we headed to Lansing for one of our wildly adventurous trips to a state capitol.

The capitol is one of the better ones we have seen.  Since Michigan is a large state with congressmen coming from miles away, for many years they didn't even have an office in the building until they took some of the larger rooms and split them up into office space.  Over time they changed course and returned the building back to it's original plan.  Today all but 15 legislators are in a new building.

We were accompanied by a class of 24,  4th graders who as soon as they got into the Rotundra laid down on the floor and started shooting pics of the dome.

In the chambers of legislature the ceiling have panels with each of the state seals.

Looking down at where the kids were laying, the shape of the panels makes the floor appear as if it is lower in the middle.  The panels are made of glass.

A view of the senate chambers.

One of the lights was decorated with figures of the White-tailed deer, the state animal.

Later we drove over to the Fenner Nature Center where a full time staff of 3 people  operating on a private source budget offer programs including nature programs.  We went for a short walk around the park.  For more info, visit the Fenner Center link  Fenner Center

Thanks for keeping track of where Grammie has been today.

September 26, 2016 Ford day 2

Good evening everyone.

Today we were back at the Ford Rouge Factory where the Ford Trucks are being built.  The schedule for the day was to build 1200 trucks that have been already pre-ordered by customers. The trucks are built by 2 lines that put out a completed truck every minute.  The production line is a well supplied system that has each worker complete the task for that station in about 1 minute.  Each truck goes through about 240 stations. The vehicle is raised or lowered so that each worker is in a comfortable position. Unfortunately no photography allowed inside the plant.

Once outside of the production plant, there were several classic cars in the showroom.

 A 1949 Ford

1956 T-Bird

1965 Mustang

 

 A letter from Clyde Barrow of Bonnie and Clyde fame complementing the Ford cars for their V-8 power.

The Greenfield Village created by John Ford relocated many historic buildings to this location.  They include the houses of many important people to the growth of the country such as Edison.  As an example, Ford had the laboratory located in New Jersey moved to the Michigan site.  Edison said that it wouldn't be the same as New Jersey so Ford paid for many truckloads of New Jersey soil brought to Dearborn so that it would still rest on NJ soil.

 The Pottery shop

 Tom turning a candle holder on a lathe.

 It wasn't a big candle holder but a job well done.

 There were many old vehicles on the property giving people rides.

 In Edison's lab where the first public viewing of a successful light bulb (re-enactment in the moved building) Edison sat in a chair.  After, Ford had a worker come to the location and nail down the chair.  Since that time only one person has sat in the chair...Heller Keller.

When the old floor was replaced, the floor under the chair was cut out and the new floor built around it.

 At the end of the day, something wasn't going hungry.

We would highly recommend the Rouge Truck Tour it was absolutely wonderful.

Thanks for keeping an eye out for Grammie.