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(Note: This blog entry represents a combination of writings and pictures already posted about our Cool Change II, Land Yacht Adventures 2021 through Cindy via Facebook and Rick via email. So for some of you, the following posts may be duplicative, but for others, this is the first time you are seeing them. We are repeating them here to centralize the record and share our experiences more broadly.)
RICK’S POST:
After leaving Chicago, our drive time to St Louis would be about six hours, so we broke up the drive with a stay at another forest preserve that our niece Erin recommended. This one is called Middle Fork River Forest Preserve in Penfield, Illinois. It is located several miles off of the highway amidst farmlands that stretch on as far as the eye can see. The roads are all narrow, virtually one-lane roads, with lots of 90 degree turns following the perimeters of the farm lands.
When we arrived at the park, it was nearly empty except for what we came to find out were mostly locals. There was a large 5th wheel with an older couple camped in the space next to us. Late in the afternoon, the man was walking by and he stopped to chat. He told us that he was a local soy bean and corn farmer who lived in the nearby Paxton area. He said that the only reason he was there was because his wife occasionally forced him to take her camping in their 5th wheel to get them off the farm. They had some other farmer friends that were camped there as well for a few days’ time off.
He told us a little about about what life was like as a farmer in Illinois. The land he farmed has been in his family for generations. He was probably in his mid 70’s and he said that he would like to retire someday but was not sure how it would go as far as the the next generation taking over and working the farm. He has a son who went to college and became an engineer, and was not a likely candidate to accept the reins. He had a grandson and grand daughter that held some promise. His young grandson at nine years old had already been driving tractors and combines with him, learning the ropes. He told us a story about a time he needed to move his combine and a tractor to one of his fields. He was driving the combine, and he asked his wife to drive a tractor, forgetting that it was a new machine she had never driven before. When he got to the new field, he was concerned that his wife had not arrived shortly behind. She eventually showed up with the grandson, who she had brought along to show her how to drive and shift the new machine!
It was an interesting conversation and nice to hear his perspective on life as a farmer in the midwest. When we were leaving though, I got a reminder of how close-mindedness and racism can creep in, likely as a result of a life of relative isolation and lack of diversity in the farmlands of southern Illinois. When we were making our exit the next morning, I thought I would stop and say goodbye. He was standing with one of his friends who was also camped there. When I told him we were leaving, he said that as it turned out, he would be leaving shortly as well. He said that he had heard on the news that a bank robbery had occurred the day before and that the culprits had dumped their getaway car in Paxton, John’s town, and then stolen a van. There had been a police chase and the van crashed into something and the robbers, or at least one of them, had been captured. John was going to head home to see if his house was still intact. Then he said. “We don’t get much activity like that in Paxton but… of course they was colored.”
Before we got back on the road to St. Louis, we took a short detour and visited what was left of Chanute AFB in Rantoul. The base was closed and converted to civilian use in 1993. Chanute was where I went to tech school when I was in the Air Force studying to be an aircraft mechanic. They had an old retired B52 in a hangar where we used to learn different maintenance routines.
I was reminded of the winter I spent there in school, where we had to march in formation each morning to the chow hall and then to our classrooms. It was so cold that we had to all wear face masks, and the moisture from breathing would freeze the mask to our faces, so much so that I would have to wait a few minutes when we got into a heated space before I could pry it off. It was miserably cold.
In the barracks we would put our 3/2 beer on the window ledge outside and it would be frosty cold in just a few minutes. I broke my ankle while I was there playing basketball and even though I was in a cast and on crutches, I still had to march along at the back of the formation to chow and school each morning.
There was not much recognizable to me when we drove through what was once a bustling training base. I did manage to find the barracks, which have since appeared to have been converted to some type of condos. The aircraft hangar from school is now an industrial warehouse.
After a long day’s drive, we arrived in St. Louis to visit Ted and Laurie, just in time for rush hour. As in most of the midwest, we encountered lots of road construction because, as my brother-in-law Ron in Minneapolis pointed out, they have a relatively short season to get all the roadwork done before winter sets in. Its not like California where construction projects can can continue year round.
Ted had told us he thought we would be able to get into their neighborhood and to their house with the rig. When he knew we were close by, he drove the route we would be taking to make sure there would be no problems. The roads were narrow enough that if there were cars parked on both sides of the street at any point, we may not be able to get past them.
Once we got to their driveway, we discovered that it was a private road that went from the neighborhood we had just traversed, to their home. The home is situated on a nine acre parcel of land. Their house was once the home of the developer of the residential area we drove through to get there. They have a beautiful home surrounded by trees and lots of greenery.
Their driveway was wide enough that we could park in a flat spot at the top of a hill and there was still ample room for a vehicle to get by.
We stayed in a guest bedroom of their home. Ted & Laurie’s son Nicholas gave us a tour of the house and he was especially keen to show us the bottom floor, which was modeled after a hockey-themed sports bar.
Ted told me that his grandfather was a master chess player and that he collected chess sets. When he passed, he left each of his children one of his very special chess sets. Ted and Laurie have a life-sized chess board outside by the pool as well, and the room we stayed in had an antique chessboard table as part of its decor. Between the kitchen and family room they have constructed a beautiful wine storage library that holds 350 bottles and is enclosed in glass, with a rolling library ladder.
Ted runs a third generation family business that specializes in the trading of physical dairy commodities: https://www.jacoby.com. The love he has for his work is obvious from the way he talks about it. I have a lot of respect for Ted. The pandemic brought some serious challenges to his business but the company innovated and found ways to remain profitable. The few personnel that could not adapt to the challenging conditions left the company.
Ted and Laurie have two sons pursuing their college degrees, and both of them are heading down the same path as the family business. TJ, the oldest son, was at the time, working a summer internship with a company in Minneapolis specializing in dairy product formulations, and Nicholas was working a summer internship with a trucking logistics company near home in St. Louis.
Ted had recently bought a new smoker/grill and had made a trial run at a recipe before we arrived. Then he made us an unforgettable dinner of Tacos al Carbon. It turned out just great. We spent the evening on their deck having some wonderful wines overlooking the view of the pool and the forest beyond.
The next day, Ted and Laurie took us on a drive into the city of St. Louis, where we visited the famous St. Louis Gateway Arch built on the banks of the Mississippi River. The arch, at 190 meters, is the world’s tallest manmade arch and monument. It symbolizes that St. Louis was considered the “Gateway to the West” for the pioneers moving that direction during the 19th century. Interestingly, the city has not allowed construction of any building to be higher than the arch so as not to take away from it’s splendor.
We had a picnic lunch in the city park, which covers an area of 1300 acres and features museums, music theaters, a science center, golf course and an ice skating rink. It also has miles of nature trails, and several ponds, lakes and streams. It was inaugurated in 1876, which is how it was able to encompass such a sizable area in the heart of the city.
We had a great time visiting with Ted, Laurie and Nicholas. On the morning we left, they all came outside to say goodbye and wish us well. Backing out of their driveway to the neighborhood road below, we had to go the opposite direction we intended because of how cars were parked in the adjoining street. So we drove to the end of the cul de sac and turned around there. We were fortunate in that we were able to make it the rest of the way out of the neighborhood with no clearance issues.
We had such a great time visiting with family in the midwest. It was miraculous that we were able to coordinate with so many people’s busy schedules to allow us to connect with everyone in such a meaningful way.
Our Midwest travels completed, we would now head south to Memphis, Tennessee. It is a place I had never been to but have always been fascinated with as it is a place where so many talented musicians were discovered. It is to country music what Liverpool was once to rock.
Another motivation for this southern detour was that we would be having a visit with Cindy’s cousin Jill and her husband Don. Other than their connection on facebook, Cindy & Jill have not had much contact in post childhood days.
That Jill and Don ended up living in Tennessee is an interesting story in itself. They relocated to Tennessee from Illinois late in Don’s career. We will get more into that story in the next update.