YCGL - Sunday, July 9 - Sat, July 15, 2023 - Spirit Lake, Okoboji and Arnold's Park to home.

Sunday.  I left Fort Belmont around noon for the difficult and arduous trip to Spirit Lake, IA, all of maybe 25 miles.  Actually, I did drive fairly slowly and stopped at several beaches along the way, because I didn’t get to Marble Beach campground until 1:30.  And when I got there, the people in my site were still there, though obviously packing up.  I drove around the site and found a drivethrough site open where I could park.  On checking my reservation, check-out time was 3:00 and check-in time was 4:00.  So, I sat and listened to an opera and read for an hour and a half, until the people finally pulled out at 2:59.  (I gotta admit, my kind of people.)  I got set up and pulled out my bike and rode around the campground and over to the beach.  The beach was about 100 feet long and maybe 5 feet back.  Not impressive.  I was ready to do laundry, so found a nice 24 hour laundry in Spirit Lake.  Laundry is easy.  One load of permanent press and one load of everything else.  Truth be told, I use the same setting for both, so should just do one big load, but I don’t.  Stopped at the HyVee grocery on the way back and spent the rest of the evening after dinner working on the blog. 

Monday, I had gotten a text from Herm that he had a dentist appointment in Spirit Lake at 11:15 and we could meet for lunch an hour later.  The Chinese place he selected was across the street from the laundrymat.  I got there at 12:15 and it was closed on Mondays.  When he finally showed up at 12:45 (he Was at the dentist), we decided on Mexican.  We both ordered the same special, seafood enchiladas and talked for another hour.  The restaurant was right across the street from the HyVee.  (There seems to be a pattern here.)  I needed to fill a propane tank and found an Ace hardware about a mile away.  After I filled the tank and as I was driving back home, I passed the Indian Motorcycle factory.  When I got back, I found they only gave tours on Monday and Friday mornings before noon.  I could have gone and still met Herm for lunch…oh well.  (For being as anti-motorcycle as I am, it seems strange that I would want to see it, but they do have an incredible history in transportation.  And somewhere deep in the files, there is a picture of one of the Sykora's on a brand new Indian motorcycle, circa 1920.  And there was the movie "The World's Fastest Indian" with Anthony Hopkins not playing Hannibal Lecter.)

That night, I decided I would have one of the bison T-Bones I had purchased at Little Swan Lake Winery (whose excellent Port I am sipping right now) and (which was only about 10 miles away.)  I set up my smoker next to the trailer and smoked the steak for 30 minutes.  I then Soux Vide’d it for two+ hours at 130 F and then seared it on the smoker (450 F).  It started raining at 6:00, but I had the awning out (one of the few times I’ve had it out) so everything was dry.  The rain was interesting, it came basically straight down, vertically.  Odd, it doesn’t do that in Laramie.  As I walked out the door to look, I saw a rainbow under the canopy of the trees.  By the time I went back in and got my phone, it had already faded almost totally away.  If you look under the awning and between the struts, you can barely make out the bottom on the rainbow at the ground level and then follow it up along the edge of the awning.  You can see it better if you click on the picture and blow it up.  And what was just as wild was that you could see the whole arc, all within the tree’s canopy.  It was much brighter when I first came out. 

And here was dinner… Yummm.

I knew one of the classmates had moved to Okoboji a couple of years ago.  I was able to find her email from one of the reunion mailings, so I emailed her explaining I was in town and wanted to know what I should see.  She called back later that evening, she had been entertaining/taking care of grandkids all day and didn’t read her email until that evening.  She gave me a list of things to try and catch.  And we agreed to meet in the evening, after grandkids, and grab a dinner. 

Tuesday.  The first place that Deb said I had to see was the Okoboji Classic Cars Collection.  She said she takes people there that aren’t interested in cars, and I would understand when I got there.  I understood pretty quickly.  They have about 90 cars at any time, some permanent, some for sale.  But it’s the building that makes the collection.  Its not an open collection, you have to take a tour led by a docent.  I learned that my docent was Sylvia Shine, the wife of the owner, i.e., the boss.  She had some very personal things to say about some of the cars in the collection.  

It was the walls that are as impressive as the cars.  It was entirely painted by one person over two years and four months.  Once the walls were prepared, the painter drew a horizontal line at a height of about four feet and started painting.  All of the perspective lines were based on that one.  The first room was based on the 1960’s main street of a town of Spencer, IAA some 20 miles south where Toby Shine grew up.  All the buildings were of the buildings on main street.  In fact, the day before, the second docent (I went through twice) had seen that a building had been taken down that day, and he showed us the location of the building.  I’ll show a lot of photos, but only about 20% of what I took.  The second room was of Arnold’s Park and West Lake Okoboji.  We’ll go there next. 

   

Picture from https://youtu.be/YvKnguLOnno

    

An MGA at the drive-in.  There are 187 cars painted

on the back wall.  Not everyone in the cars 

is watching the movie!

An MG-TD.  One of Pete's friends owned a TD with British right hand drive.  Bob used to keep a second steering wheel in the car so that as he was driving down the road, a passenger could hold the the other steering wheel like they were driving.  They'd pull up along side a car on the Katy freeway and Pete would hold the wheel  at the 10 and 2 position.  Then suddenly, Pete would pull the wheel back and up with a startled look on his face while Bob would steer the real wheel with his hands at the bottom.  It could mildly surprise the driver next to them.  

A Cord, the first front wheel drive car produced in the US.  It was a beauty.  They have a notebook in front with documentation of the restoration they did.  This was the combination of two cars that were both in rough shape to begin with.  

The background is of West Lake Okoboji at sunset and runs the entire length of the building.  

Opposite from the Lake Okoboji background is of Arnold's Park.  I'll discuss that next, but here you see the Roof Garden Dance Hall and the entrance to the Fun House.  Next to it is the Nutty Bar stand.  

The oldest car is this 1902 Nash Rambler Runabout.  Just thinking about it, I would say this may have been the model for the grandmother car in the Pixar movie "Cars".  (One of my favorite films.)

Here is the Dress Shop on Main Street.  Looking at it from the front, it looks like it goes back into the wall 20 or 30 feet.  The carpeting on the floor adds to the depth.  The right hand picture is the "behind the curtain" view showing it is just dimensional painting on a flat wall.  

Here is a video of the collection.  By the way, many of the cars they show here are gone and there are others to replace them.

The town of Arnolds Park and the amusement park of Arnolds Park is located south of the town of Okoboji where the East and West Okoboji Lakes meet.  The original amusement park developed on the beach of West Lake Okoboji and a small community grew up around it.  As you enter, you drive under an archway greeting you. 

 

If you could continue down the street, the amusement park is on the left side and a large number of stores and museums are on the right. 

One of the things that Arnolds Park was known for was the Roof Garden Ballroom.  In the middle of the country, it was one of the places that bands and singers would stop at between Chicago and places west, like Elitches in Denver.  Bands like the Dorsey Brothers, Glenn Miller, Louis Armstrong used to play there.  By the Sixties, big bands were losing popularity and smaller groups like rock and rollers like the Buddy Holly and the Crickets, the Beach Boys, the Stones, Tommy James and the Shondells, Ike and Tina Turner, etc. played there during the time that Sally and the classmates could go down there.  They have a small RnR museum with pictures, posters and contracts of bands that had been there. 

The Icon of the park is the Legend, a 1930 roller coaster designed by John A Miller.  It is the oldest roller coaster west of the Mississippi and is one of 10 remaining Miller classic roller coasters.   

As you go over the top at 63 feet, you pass under a sign that says "The Point of No Return" and then you cascade down hitting 50 mph as you make the first turn.  People are still screaming when they finish the first loop of the figure 8 track.  

   

It's also known for its Ferris Wheel and its carousel.  

   

It has the standard side show rides like the Tilt-A-Whirl, the Roll-O-Plane and the Mad Mouse and the kiddie trains and such.  And the Bumper Cars and a Log Flume.  And race cars..

It would be a great place to spend with kids, or teens, or.....  And no, I didn't ride on them.  I love the roller coaster, but a neck whip while on an teen church day at Eliches kind of cured me of that.  But I do miss it.

Deb had insisted that I have a Nutty Bar, an Arnolds Park specialty.  It's a Blue Bunny Ice Cream bar dipped in chocolate and rolled in either peanuts or Heath bar pieces.  I opted for the Heath bar. It tasted pretty good after the warm afternoon.  Deb also recommended a trip around the West Okoboji Lake on the Ocean II.  I have to admit, it was a nice way to end the afternoon.  The original was a steamer that  went around the lake and stopped at various locations for people to get back and forth.  It got scrapped at one point, and the new one is an exact replica of the old one, but with diesel engines instead.  

What was scheduled as a 45 minute ride ended up being just over an hour and I was supposed to meet Deb at 6:00.  Texts and phone calls back and forth changed it to around 6:45, which gave me just enough time to walk over to one of the historical sites in the area.  In 1857, before the Fort Belmont was established, a Sioux raid took place 1000 feet south of where Arnolds Park is now,  which led to the massacre of 36 people and the kidnapping of several others, including a 13 year old girl named Abbie Gardner.  She was held by the tribe for almost four months until traded for goods by two natives and returned to Minneapolis.  She purchased the cabin and the land around it in 1891 and maintained it as a tourist attraction until she died in 1921.  The cabin was restored (using much of the original wood) in 1974 and the site is maintained by the Historical Society of Iowa.  It looks as if it will be undergoing more restoration based on the aluminum framework around it.

A monument was erected at the site in 1895 and is surrounded by plaques indicating people who were killed, members of the rescue party, and others.  

Across the road is a small cemetery where Abbie Gardner's relatives and herself are buried.  

After that, I was able to meet up with Deb and, after trying two restaurants that were closed, we ended up eating at Burger and Company, a block away from the laundry and the Chinese restaurant from the days before.  It was pretty ironic.  

Deb Lewis was a classmate of Sally's from childhood and has been active in all the reunions we've attended.  We talked about our spouses, having known Milt from many reunions, about our families, trips to Norway and next reunions.  I did grab a quick picture as we left, but the spot light in the background took the focus, so its a little fuzzy.  

It was quite a day!

Wednesday was the start to home, with one important stop on the way.  I talked about the National Music Museum in Vermillion, SD last year.  I'm going to copy what I wrote last year, because it is just as relevant now as then.

I planned the end of my trip to go to the National Music Instrument Museum.  It was formerly known as the Shrine to Music.  The museum was founded in 1977 by Arne B. Larson.  A band director in Brookings, SD, he was a huge musical instrument collector, who had 2,500 instruments to his name, paid for by himself over 50 years of collecting.  He chose to give his collection to the University of South Dakota.  

His son, Andre Larson, earned a degree in musicology and became a collector as well.   He founded the museum and collected over 10,000 instruments on his own.  In 1984, a couple purchased a collection of string instruments, including three instruments by Andrea Amati, a violin, a viola and a cello.  A fourth Amati violin was later purchased to make one of the worlds unique quartets, by Amati.  The cello is thought to be the oldest bass instrument of the violin family in the world.  Amati's student, Stradivarius is here also, with a violin and several guitars.  

But when I got there, it was closed for construction/remodeling.  By golly, this year, I was going to make it.  And I did!  I drove hard, got there at 3:00 and found that the musuem closed at 4:00, so I just made it.  And the whole museum is 95% closed and the first floor won't be open until August 30th.  Instead, they have a room with examples from some of their collections in an exhibit called "As Good As Gold."

Luckily, one of my favorite instruments was in the display, the Rawlins Stradivarius Guitar.  I walked into the gallery and walked straight into it.  I took three pictures and my phone/camera died.  So that mad dash was only partially successful.  But I did have time to go through the exhibit with about 45 instruments.  And I won't say I was looking carefully, but I saw on the quill box of the harpsicord a spiral of string that was left there after it had been restrung for the exhibit.  I'm sure I wasn't the first to see it, but the people there got pretty excited when I showed them.  One day, I'll have the time to spend and see this wonderful jewel of a museum.  

With that, I had three more nights at Harvest Hosts on the way home.  As another coincidence, I happened to look at the Chirp email and down the list was "the Willa Cather" Nebraska collection, starting with O Pioneer, The Song of the Lark and My Antonia.   So I listened to Nebraska as I drove through it.  My last night was at Lake McConaughy and Kingsly Dam.  I have fond memories of the site.  After I had gotten my open water scuba certificate, we took a camping trip there so I could dive in the reservoir.  The diving was awful, couldn't see a thing, and I was being super careful since I was diving alone, so I really didn't enjoy it that much.  However, Kingsley Dam was something else again.  

It was the last dam constructed by the centerline hydraulic fill method.  The dam is 163 feet tall, 3.5 miles long and is the second largest hydraulic fill dam in the world.  I could pull in a couple of pages from my Design of Small Earth Dams course, but you'll have to beg me to find those notes that are buried in my office #1 at home.  

However, where I was parked overlooked the bay that I did my scuba diving in, so I thought that would make a good conclusion for this trip.  The trip summary follows.  

The view through my slide-out window.  Good stuff.