During the first day of the Great River Road tour, we traversed Iowa down I-35, over to Waterloo, and then diagonally through Cedar Rapids to Davenport.  At that point we crossed the great river into Moline, IL and then proceeded to Peoria, IL where we spent the first night.

Enjoy the photographs (click the thumbnails for larger view)..

Molly at the World's largest skillet, Brandon, IA	Herbert Hoover's Presidential Library, West Branch, IA	Bart, Molly & Grandma Norvina at the statue of Isis, located in the Herbert Hoover gardens
The Putman Museum, Davenport, IA	Bart, Molly & Grandma Norvina in downtown Davenport, IA	Bart and Molly playing in Galesburg, IL

While not being a huge rock and roll history buff, I've heard Don McClean's song American Pie, knew of its significance, and even knew the dreadful plane crash had happened somewhere in Iowa.  The first leg of my Great River Road tour brought us south on I-35 near Clear Lake, Iowa, which is precisely where Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper played their finale venue at the Surf Ballroom before flying out on that fateful night.  You can read more about the tragedy at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Music_Died or http://www.fiftiesweb.com/crash.htm.

There are a pair of virtual geocaches in the Clear Lake area so as everyone knows, if there's a geocache, I'll stop anywhere.  Holly Shrine (GC6780) is located at the actual crash site and The Day The Music Died (GC8519) is located at the Surf Ballroom in downtown Clear Lake.

Enjoy the photographs..

The trail head to ground zero is located at 315th St and Gull Ave N 43° 13.222 W 093° 22.470	Molly & her Grandma Norvina walking the field to the site	The shrine is located literally in the middle of private property N 43° 13.222 W 093° 22.885
Bart, Molly & Grandma Norvina at the crash site	The Surf Ballroom located in Clear Lake, IA	The original box office at the Surf Ballroom

I have relatives that live in Bellevue, NE who host an annual picnic and corn feed during the air show at nearby Offutt Air Force Base.  We don't get down this direction much but apparently they've been putting on the corn feed for an impressive 20 or more years.  Some of us decided that this year we'd visit the relatives and attend their corn feed as we came up with many reasons to justify the trip.

Besides the fact that we only see these people every 15 years or so, my visiting sister Jane would be heading back down to Texas that same weekend and decided it wouldn't be too much of a burden to take a short detour and swing through Omaha on her way home.  Secondly, and probably foremost depending on who you ask, my mother and I are avid geocachers and we decided to use this as an opportunity to cover a few of the geocaching challenges we're working on such as the county, DeLorme, and state challenges.

This photograph was taken on Wednesday, July 18th, 2008, 5:17AM EST.  We were on a week long vacation enjoying the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  Looking to get the perfect sunrise, I awoke early every morning trying to capture the natural beauty and colors that go along with an eastern sunrise.

This photograph was taken on Sunday, July 13th, 2008.  We were on a week long vacation enjoying the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  This was Laura's first ever visit to the ocean.

This photograph was taken on Tuesday, July 15th, 2008.  I was in pursuit of my 2000th geocache find in False Cape State Park, located along the Atlantic coast in Virginia.  Getting to the geocache involved a four and a half mile hike on the sand dunes in the hot sun.  An adventure that sounds a lot easier than it actually was.

This photograph was taken on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007.  While visiting my sister Jane and family down in central Texas, we made a road cruise to the Topsey Exotic Animal Ranch located in Topsey, TX.

Today we made the trek out to Taconite Island.  I was able to convince my wife Nene, our two oldest children Molly and Anna, and good friend Ryan, that they would enjoy the adventure.  Friends Tom and Sheila agreed to stay back to watch Laura and Matthew.  In spite of Nene wearing her Birkenstock sandals when she should have been wearing laced up sneakers, we experienced no issues and everyone had a great old time.

This small island on Lake Superior is located just south of Silver Bay, out in front of the Silver Bay Marina.  You can actually get to the island on foot but a few obstacles stand in the way.  You first need to clamor across the one third mile long breaker built of automobile sized boulders.  Once you arrive at the island, you must ascend up a 12' high cliff to actually step foot on the island.  I made the daring climb to the top with no issues.  But since I worried about the family, the rest of them climbed up the rope ladder I had brought along.  We were able to enjoy the views and even found the geocache that resides on the other end of the island.

Enjoy the photographs (click thumbnails for larger view)..

2007 - Taconite Island, Silver Bay, MN Getting the little ones atop Taconite Island.	2007 - Taconite Island, Silver Bay, MN Bart setting up the rope ladder.	2007 - Taconite Island, Silver Bay, MN Nene ascends to the top.
2007 - Taconite Island, Silver Bay, MN A view from Taconite Island.	2007 - Taconite Island, Silver Bay, MN Checking out the geocache.	2007 - Taconite Island, Silver Bay, MN A beautiful gang of adventurers.

This photograph was taken on Saturday, July 14th, 2007.  I've travelled the world while in the service but nothing compares to the passion I have for Minnesota's north shore.

This photograph was taken on Tuesday, June 13th, 2006.  While on a family vacation to New York City, we had the privilege to stop by the World Trade Center site to pay our respects to those lost on that fateful day back in 2001.