37-The River has a Tummy Ache!

   The Mississippi is mighty!  It is also mighty muddy!

     It wasn't always so.  Early French explorers write about the pristine nature of the river.  Now floating off New Orleans is 'dead zone' the size of New Jersey.  

     How did that happen?  Hypoxia, or lack of oxygen in the water.  Plants need oxygen to grow.  In the dead zone there is none.  When fish swim into the dead zone, they do not leave.  

     At this point, all the people using the River run for the bunkers.  It is  someone else's problem.  Some want to blame nitrates.  There are tens of thousands of farms using nitrate fertilizer in the Mississippi water basin.  "Not us", say the farmer, "Look at the chemical and oil companies off shore".  "Not us", say the chemical and oil companies, "Look to growing population of people using the river". 

     Lots and lots of problems using the river.  The problems this generation doesn't solve, the next generation will! 

36-Jean and I boarding in Dubuque

35-The Mighty Mississip!

     Today we tried to get on the boat in St. Paul.  Slight problem...no boat!  The paddle wheeler could only paddle as far as Dubuque, IA.  It seems a barge ran aground somewhere between Dubuque and St. Paul, so the first leg of our voyage was 269 miles overland.  
     Here is where the problem gets interesting.  How does a barge run aground a month after a 50-year flood?  It's all Wisconsin's fault!  A growing industry is 'fracking', and Wisconsin has great sand, essential to all good 'frackers'.  When the sand is mined, there is some runoff.  Where does the runoff go?  You guessed it, the Mississippi.  
     Why couldn't it flow downstream with the rest of the silt?  I suppose some does; just not enough!  A lot of it stays behind to cause headaches for shipping.
      Fracking is a very powerful tool in America's energy quiver.  Some would say too powerful.  Others would say just the right power.  With all power comes responsibility.  If responsible solutions are not timely, fracking is going to be tossed in the dustbin, probably between the Edsel and the eight track cartridge.

   

34-Fort Snelling

     France sold all the land drained by the Mississippi River in 1803.  At the time, nobody knew how much land that was.  The next year President Jefferson sent Lewis & Clark to the Pacific Ocean to tell him.  They also reported on plants, animals and the people they found.  
     The French acknowledged the American claim. They were the only ones!  The Canadians did not trust the Americans.  The Americans did not trust the British.  The Dakota and Ojibwe Indians had no trust for anybody (including each other)!  When there is no trust, a military fort is the best option.  Fort Snelling began construction in 1820 with the Round Tower.  Built high above the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers, the mission was two fold; keep the peace and permit the trade in beaver pelts, fashionable on European hats.  Success was...partial!
     As the frontier moved west, European fashion changed from New World beaver to Chinese silk.  Fort Snelling had other missions until after World War II.  Frontier protection morphs into historical preservation.
          

33-The Flour Mill

     Flour was king of Minneapolis.  From the 1880's until World War II, St. Anthony Falls on the Mississippi River, provided water to power half a dozen flour mills.  Glaciers were kind to Minnesota, the Dakotas and parts of Canada.  They left behind fertile soil.  The soil grew wheat and Minneapolis milled it.

   After World War II, new mills began in Duluth, at the far western end of Lake Superior.  These mills catered to the desires of the 1950's.  50 pound bags of flour were replaced by smaller, pre-packaged mixes.  The old mills at St. Anthony's falls could not keep up.
     In 1965, General Mills closed the mill in Minneapolis.  It became home for the homeless.  In 1991 a devastating fire gutted the plant.  Out of the rubble grew a museum dedicated to the mill; the people who worked there and the people it fed.

31-Chicago Art

   Chicago has beautiful, vibrant art in the parks.  There is something called the 'Bean' which is so outrageous it defies description.  A good friend of mine said, "Everybody is smiling and laughing when they look at it".  I looked around.  He was so right.
     Another piece was a 21st Century, high tech fire hydrant.  Laughter and squeals of delight were the order of the day!  

32-The 'Bean'

     It is pure, no edges, corners or straight lines; and highly reflective!  The image has wonderful distortions, exciting the laughter and smiles of a carnival funhouse.  It reflects faces, torsos, even lifelong friendships.  The backdrop is awesome, the entire Chicago skyline.  The 'city with big shoulders' twists and turns at our very whim!

     We smile because we know these images are false.  Then, for a moment, we pause and consider what the truth is, for ourselves and the city behind us.

30-Mr. Harrison's Dumbbells

  The White House changed parties five times from 1880-1896.  The Robber Barons ran the country. They did not want interference from those pesky people in Washington.  
   Smack-dab in the middle of this period is the Republican presidency of Benjamin Harrison.   Farming and manufacturing were the main engines of our economy.  Supporting one was rejecting the other ("No Rodney, we can't just all get along").  Harrison supported manufacturing, and the high protective tariff that guarded it.  Moving to the end of the story, he overplayed his hand and did not get reelected.  
     When he returned home to Indianapolis, to his ten servants and 10,000 sq. ft. house, he found his dumbbells waiting patiently in the corner of his bedroom.

     

29-Ice cube or Iceberg?

       What is the difference between an ice cube and an iceberg?  The ice cube floats on the surface, appears lifeless and evaporates quickly.  The iceberg lives mainly beneath the surface, appears awesome and, as our friends on the Titanic discovered, can change the course of history.  When are ideas like ice cubes and when are they like icebergs?
     The folks at Subaru are changing the course of history.  As we learned on our tour, all workers are given a simple idea: "zero landfill".  When making cars, there is a process using pencil sharp copper heads.  Changing heads takes time and money.  Not at Subaru!  Someone suggested copper pencil sharpeners.  All the copper shavings got swept up and tossed in the trash.  Not at Subaru!!  Someone suggested they sell all the floor dust, sift out the copper shavings and send it to Spain.  The loading dock was awash with a sea of cardboard and styrofoam.  Not at Subaru!!!  Someone suggested sending reusable containers to all their vendors.  
     Zero landfill is the tip of the iceberg.  Under the surface is an engaged workforce looking for ways to make their product better.  They are paid for their time, but their initiative makes the car great!

28-Plastic Lincoln

     The plastic Lincoln never makes mistakes, never has a cross word and never, never passes gas.  He is the original Marble Man.   The museum in Springfield portrays the quintessential plastic Lincoln.  All his words are good, righteous and true.  All his detractors speak from the dark side.  If the plastic Lincoln is successful, we might also be covered in plastic.  We might enter a two-dimensional world where all decisions are easy and obvious. 

     The 'historic' Lincoln beats the 'plastic' Lincoln hands down.  He is found a mile south, on 8th Street, in the only home he ever owned. The historic Lincoln is incomplete, totally human and very shrewd.  You can imagine him rising in the morning and shaving in his little wall mirror, set to his 6'4" frame.  You can see him on the floor of his family room wrestling with his sons.  You can eavesdrop on the strategy talks in his front room.

     I choose history over Hollywood, wall mirrors over marble giants and outhouses over massive memorials!

                Mr. Lincoln's Outhouse

     

 

     

               

27-New Salem

  Lincoln arrived in New Salem in 1831.  The town began two years before when a saw and grist mill opened on the Sangamon River.  Lincoln was a store keeper, a postmaster, a rail splitter and a state legislator.  New Salem was certain it would be the county seat.  A county election decided otherwise.  In the last half of the 1830's, most of New Salem moved to Petersburg.  Lincoln left in 1837.  

     Lincoln and a partner ran a dry goods store from this cabin.

26-Herbert Hoover Birthplace

          They were so different!  One was patrician, the other common; one had a political background, the other engineering; one was beaming and confident, the other just completed four disastrous years as President! 
     

        

     Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover were inside the open car, driving down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Inauguration.  The New Yorker magazine was going to put a cartoon on the it's cover showing the contrast.  At the last minute the cartoon was dropped because it was too scandalous! It was the most famous cartoon that never graced the cover of the New Yorker!

     Roosevelt was part of the Hudson Valley Roosevelt's, prominent in New York society for four centuries.  Hoover was the first President born west of the Mississippi River.  Roosevelt's father had a weak heart.  The son learned discretion in the presence of the father.  Hoover's father was a 'replacement' blacksmith.  The Civil War transformed the American farm.  Many tools could be manufactured and shipped for less than the cost of making it locally.  Hoover's father saw the changing market.  He sold his blacksmith shop and opened a tool supply store.  But Hoover was only six when his father died.

     Roosevelt was baptized in fire in New York politics and the crippling effects of polio.  Hoover was baptized defending foreign nationals in China's Boxer Rebellion and feeding refugees in Belgium.  Roosevelt learned patience and timing.  Hoover learned logistics and volunteerism.  Neither had the tools necessary to solve the problem!  

     

     

25-Mid-State Fair

Welcome to the California Mid-State Fair

         Where excess is honored,

 

...foibles are forgiven,

                                      ...and wallets are lightened!

 

24-Getting Ready

     Five years ago T-shirts were $20, $15 on sale.  Three years ago  San Luis Obispo had no T-shirts available.  Two years ago I found out why.  Walmart in Arroyo Grande was selling them for $5.  I went to buy more T-shirts today.  
                                              
                                   $3.58!

       I thought about calling a buddy in the 'Anti-Human Trafficking' movement to see if slave labor was involved...  Instead, I got ten shirts!

   

23-Bye-bye Green!

     We are gearing up for our Mid-West Mystery Tour; last minute instructions for our son, last minute 'blogging' advice from our son.  With all the hubbub, I knew a decision had to be made about the yard.  

     I love my yard!  My glass-topped table on the patio has the umbrella that keeps warmth in, brightness out.  The green is spectacular!  Built-up, rearranged, nursed and coddled, I take wonderful pleasure in a world of lush, moist surroundings.
     Now I am entering a season where pleasure is denied!  The water crises is creeping into San Luis Obisipo.  Slowly it comes, like moving molten lava; slow and devastating!  It first crept in over Facebook.  I have a highly respected relative, a PhD scientist.  She blogged that brown is the new green.  She is proudly converting her front lawn to desert wasteland.  
     We just said goodbye to two house guests from the Valley.  They said they were doing laundry for a neighbor whose well water ran dry.  Now I know the Coast and the Valley feed from different water tables.  But how about a little SOLIDARITY!  
     To top it off, Lady Gaga had a front page article telling us not to shower! (or at least not alone!!)
     Man is resourceful, but only God makes rain.  If you believe that, you must believe only God withholds rain.  He did it in the past, and He is doing it now!  I have been following a 65 year old paradigm that says 'more green, more fun!'  Now I am turning off my lawn sprinklers.  At the tender age of 65, I begin the search for a new paradigm, wondering  which comes first; a new paradigm or the latter rain?

22-Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright was the most important American architect of the 20th Century. His winter headquarters in Phoenix is Taliesin West, His architecture gave structure to the concept of 'compress and release'. If you go to a pro ball game, you are compressed in the tunnel before being released with a view of a manicured, green lawn. He was the first to use indirect lighting. He 'unstacked' the boxes of European class-conscious living. The democratic American spirit required a more open, free-flowing domesticate floor plan.
Late in his career he was required to give testimony in court. When asked his name and profession he replied, "I am Frank Lloyd Wright. I am the greatest architect in America". That night his wife scolded him, "Why do you say those things?" "Dear," he replied, "I couldn't help it. They put me under oath".

21-Rough Riders Statue, Prescott AZ

Rough Rider statue outside Prescott, AZ, courthouse.  Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders fought in Cuba, that "splendid little war".  The territorial gains were fleeting.  The real gains, for good and evil, involved increasing American prestige among existing world powers.  The Rough Riders were a combination of polo playing Harvard grads and western cowboys, led by a person who understood the character of both!