We found oddities

I barely remember last night or even where we stayed.  But it finally came to me – Maquoketa, Iowa.  We'd taken a walk here, as we usually walk in the evenings, and saw a few interesting things.

Either late getting the tree undecorated, or early.  I consider this somewhat of an oddity.

This is located outside of a sports medicine office.

During our walks we see some beautiful old homes with the fancy gingerbread woodwork.

It seems as though we’ve been in Iowa for a very long time.  But we’ve also seen some unique things.

Even the late evening clouds were different.

But it was time to move on.

We got up Tuesday, July 14, 2015, and headed to some caves we’d heard about, Maquoketa Caves.  The caves are not as well-known as Carlsbad, but are worth a stop.  You can wander around on your own, through 14 different ones with varying level of accessibility.  Some you need a light and proper spelunking gear, that we did not have.  Some you can reach only by crawling.  But there were trails and caves we could walk through although we had to duck, and I’m short. 

 

It’s beautiful, and the way we got through the caves was on flat paver-style concrete stones, wooden boardwalks, and paths with stones and damp clay underfoot.

Walking underground, with no one else around.  It was kind of spooky.

We were also warned about a disease the bats here carry, where they get white noses caused by a fungus.  These caves and the bats are the biggest transmitters so we had to wipe our feet when coming out by crossing some mats to remove the spoors.  We were also advised to not wear the same clothes into another cave prior to washing them so that we did not transmit the disease via our clothing.
 

There was a little river running along inside the cave.  The walkway is to the left.

The bats were out of the caves, sleeping during the day in the trees.  We didn’t see any, but did wander about in the humid area for a bit.  The humidity makes the vegetation lush and green, and we had a fun time exploring.  The majority of this park was built in the 1930s.  We didn’t see any of the stalactites although some remain.  Sadly, many have been stolen by souvenir hunters and as these formations only grow about an inch every 100 years, it will be a long time before the caves recover from the vandalizing.

Outside of the caves, we wandered along marveling at how green everything was.  The stones were slippery due to the humidity and wetness of the area.

From Maquoketa we headed toward Anamosa.  It was on our route for the day, and we’d been told it was the location of the National Motorcycle Museum that houses about 400 motorcycles.

The museum was another that spans a hundred years or more of motorcycle history.  This one also has bicycles, hill climb bikes, scooters, a few cars and other interesting items, like a restored 1920s gas station, and some odd style of artwork that I kind of liked.

This is a 1947 Model 85 Salsbury Aero Motor Glide, designed by E. Foster Salsbury.  It's 6 horsepower, with a top speed of 50 mph.  Less than a thousand of the Model 85s were made between 1947 and 1950.  But it is believed by some that the step-through mounting design and small wheels set the standard for scooters of the future.
 

William "Wild Bill" Gelbke was an electrical and mechanical engineer who worked for McDonnell Douglas and Hughes Aircraft.  But it is said he longed for excitement and opened a bike shop.  He designed and built motorcycles, including the "Roadog," one of his biggest endeavors.  He logged 20,000 miles on the Roadog in the first year.

A decked-out FL, Willie's Latin Thing.  There are more horns and lights on this than I can coun

 

And Easy Rider, of course.

This was quite the ice cream cart.  A Cadillac of a cart.

 

 

A Sears bike with a motor was quite stunning.  The whitewalls were amazingly clean.

Wells Fargo & Co. Express.

 

 There was a nice hill climb display.

This was one of the paintings that was quite different by my standard, but something that I liked.

 And who knew that J&P Cycles was just up the street?  We happened by it and stopped in.  I found the type of mug holder I was looking for for the 2013 Ultra at home since the Harley one I had broke and I launched a part of it, complete with new fancy drinking mug, at my friend, Rockin’ Rita, on her trike.  She had no damage.  I ended up with the loss and a couple of paint dings on my tank that I was very unhappy having. 

 

Heading out of Anamosa, there was another beautiful building … the Anamosa State Penitentiary, a maximum security prison for men.  We had to stop to take photos.  It’s another one that was built in the late-1800s, with the stone work and grounds making you look in awe.  I’m sure the prisoners don’t feel quite the same way. 

A beautiful building ... for those of us looking in.

 One of the officers was coming out so I asked questions and he was quite open.  The prison was built to hold about 800 prisoners of the worst variety.  It is another that has housed about double the number it was meant to, and about 400 of these are lifers.  Air conditioning has been retrofitted in some parts but not all.  We were glad we were only admiring the outside, although we walked in looking for a brochure or something.  The officer said we could, but we also were allowed out again.  Yay!!!
 

There were stone lions at the front door.  I wonder if the men going in had any idea what they were in for once they were inside.  Maybe, since I'm sure many were repeaters.

 In 2010 there were about 360 staff members.  Information I’ve found says the inmates working in the Iowa Prison Industries produce metal stamping, custom woodwork, printing, metal furniture, signs and cleaning products.  They also have access to vocational training in welding, auto repair, horticultural and janitorial services, earning a high school diploma or GED, substance abuse treatment programs, religious services, physical and creative activities such as pottery and leather working and the performing arts.  Wow.  Sounds like going to camp.  I’d still rather have my freedom and not be behind stone walls looking out. 

 

From the prison we went to find what has been billed in two different ways … World’s Largest Frying Pan and Iowa’s Largest Frying Pan, in Brandon, Iowa.  It, too, was worth the stop.  It’s one of America’s Roadside Attractions and doesn’t cost a dime to see.  Plus, it’s fun to seek them out.

 

This frying pan was built in 2004 by men from the community who invested a bit over 40 hours of time.  It’s constructed of scrap steel donated by local farmers and was originally built as a promotion for a semi-annual fund-raiser for the “cowboy breakfast.”  They chose to build a frying pan because the cowboy breakfast is cooked over open flames using mostly cast iron frying pans.  Now, I get it.  That makes it even cooler
 

We rode through lots of pasture land and ended up in Waverly, still in Iowa.  Will we never find our way out?

We found this on our evening walk in Waverly.