Bert, Herb, and the Hawkeyes

Nessie went into the hospital for a checkup this morning at 9, so we were left homeless for the day.  HWH provided us with a comfortable spot to park last night that had 50 amp power, but nothing else, so we would be ready to go today.  In talking with the service department, it was determined that the source of the noises that concerned us was coming from a metal pipe that was resonating with the hydraulic pump oscillations, and from one of the jacks that was "groaning" whenever it moved.  So they set about fixing the problems. Wonderful people here, from Ashley in the office, to the guys in service, it's a great company.  They are all about "customer service", which seems to be a lost art these days.

After Nessie was taken away by her nurses, Donna and I went in search of something interesting to do. We ended up in the town of West Branch, Iowa, the home of the 31st president of the United States, Herbert Hoover.  The National Historic Site and Library has been conservatively refurbished to reflect the times that President Hoover lived there.  Born in 1874, and orphaned at an early age, he grew up with family in Oregon, where he had the resources to further his education.  He attended Stanford University where he met and married Lou Henry, and immediately took her to China where he was working as a "Doctor of Mines".  They survived the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, and soon after formed his own international company, based in London.

As his success unfolded, Herbert Hoover remembered his Quaker roots and gave millions of dollars to humanitarian efforts.  He formed rescue efforts both during and after World War One and earned the respect and admiration of people and governments both in Europe and at home.  He was called to serve as Secretary of Commerce, and was elected president in 1928 by a wide margin.  His popularity evaporated as economic disaster soon followed, and his Quaker ideals of individualism conflicted with the demand for federal aid.  Long story short, he lost re-election to FDR in 1932, even though Hoover had introduced banking and agricultural reforms that paved the way for the New Deal.

A period of discontent followed, but Herbert Hoover soon became an elder statesman, offering advice to later presidents as they requested.  Donna and I were astounded to hear several interviews that he gave to television reporters in the '60s, that list pitfalls that should be carefully avoided, politically speaking.  Strange how we seem doomed to repeat our mistakes....

Enough lecturing....

Here's the house Herbert Hoover was born in.  3 rooms including the kitchen, with a water pump and privy in the back.

His father, Jesse, owned the blacksmith shop across the street:

Many of the original houses that President Hoover lived near are still there:

The actual Library has a number of interesting exhibits, including one reflecting on the role Iowans played in the Civil War.  One of these includes a derringer pistol exactly like the one used to kill President Lincoln.

Another is one of only 3 known original copies of the Emancipation Proclamation, with a fading signature of Abraham Lincoln.  Pretty cool!

As we left the Library, we walked to the gravesite of President Hoover and his wife, Lou.  Peacefully at rest in the Iowa countryside he loved.

Done with our history lesson for the day, we dashed into Iowa City to have a look at the campus of the University of Iowa.  It's a huge campus, and as usual, we got lost.  But as luck would have it, we passed by the stadium where the Hawkeyes play football (Missouri this Saturday!). This stadium rivals that of any NFL team, except for the Dallas Cowboys perhaps, and is absolutely huge!  The press boxes and private boxes tower hundreds of feet over the field.  We stopped in a no parking zone to try to get a pic, but didn't have much luck.

You'll have to let your imagination be your guide.

We stopped for a quick cup of coffee at a campus Starbuck's and got back on the road to Moscow to rescue Nessie.  She was completely healed, and in talking with the service tech, I learned that the skeleton motorhome that I saw in their shop last night is not a test bed, but is a prototype of a motorhome shell that HWH hopes to market in about 2 years.  They will supply the shell to aftermarket builders, much as Prevost does now.

We'll be kicked out of here tomorrow, so it's on the road again. 210 miles to Chicago!

And Herb?  No, not another name for President Hoover; that's Bert.  Herb is the owner (no, really) of Herb and Lou's pizza parlor (get the pun....Herb and Lou Hoover?), but the restaurants' specialty on Thursdays is Tacos.  Go figure.  But they were good tacos.....