The morning of Monday July 20, 2015 began like all others on every trip; I was waiting for my photographer and his wife to get ready for the day. I wasn’t keeping notes in a journal, but if I was a betting bobble head, I would say that I had to wait longer for Vicki than I did Tom. That’s actually what is known as a sure bet! On that morning, however, as I waited patiently alongside the television set, a news report sparked a thought; it was the 46th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon walk. One year earlier, I was in Washington and stood alongside Columbia (the Apollo 11 Command Module) at the Air and Space Museum.
We began our trip westward a little later than usual; it was about 8:15am as we headed towards Savanna, Illinois. There weren’t any Presidential sites in Savanna that we knew of, but there was an antique store that was on my photographer’s list of stops to make. Our arrival time into Savanna was right around 9:30am. We drove around the old Mississippi River town to see what else was there. Although we didn’t see much, we needed to kill a little time as the antique store didn’t open until 10:00am.
Savanna has been around since the 1850s and is situated along the eastern shore of the Mississippi River. Main Street, which dissects the rows of three-story brick buildings, is about a block or two from the river. Our tour of the town was finished in less than 15 minutes and we parked the Avenger nearly in front of the historic Pulford Opera House. Even though it was unlikely we would run into anything related to the Presidents inside the antique shop, I got to tag along in the camera case. The Pulford Opera House has been around since the 1890s and was rumored to be haunted; another reason for me to go inside. The main reason, however, that we wanted to visit the place was because it was also home to ‘Frank Fritz Finds’; an antique/junk store owned by one of the History Channel’s ‘American Pickers’.
At precisely 10:00am, we went inside to see what exciting goodies we could find. I had hoped that the chubby, bearded picker was there, but that wasn’t the case. We did see a lot of Frank’s stuff, however; junk that he had “picked” over the years and had on display in a large room in the Opera House. Compared to Mike Wolfe’s Antique Archaeology, my photographer thought Frank Fritz had cooler items at better prices; but being the cheap guy that he is, Tom didn’t buy anything. We passed row upon row of unorganized stuff; we even saw some oil cans with Frank’s signature on them. The price of each can was $20; but since Frank Fritz wasn’t Franklin Roosevelt, my cameraman just walked on by.
We stayed a little over an hour inside the three-story brick building. Before we left, however, my photographer and Vicki had something to eat near the bar. I was anxious to leave because I knew our next stop was a Presidential site in Galena, Illinois. In my eyes, that was more interesting than seeing a haunted building full of old junk.
At 11:45am when we headed out of Savanna, the sky that was once blue with scattered clouds had turned darker to the north and it seemed as though we would run into some rain. In my two years of travelling to Presidential sites, weather has never prevented us from doing anything – except our first stop at Spiegel Grove when I was nearly blown away by a tornado.
Just as we were about 10 miles from Galena, we were slowed down by a bicyclist who was doing his best to navigate the hilly countryside road. When we got closer to the cyclist, it was obvious that he was a serious rider whose bike was loaded down with gear. Interested in where he had come from, my photographer asked Vicki to pull the Avenger alongside him so he could ask the rider a couple of questions. In an effort to hear my photographer better, the cyclist took his iPod ear buds out of his ears. Within a few seconds, however, the guy’s bike hit a bump and the ear buds slipped from his hand and fell into the spokes of the front wheel; causing the cyclist to nearly fall. We stopped the car and made sure he was alright; but it was obvious that the rider was distraught by the fact that the iPod wires were wrapped tightly around the spokes and his buds were smashed. We were saddened and stunned by the event, but there was nothing we could do or say to make his situation better. Even though in my heart I knew that my photographer had distracted him, I felt bad because I wondered if the cyclist had peered into the back window and saw my head sticking out of the camera case. Could he have said to himself right before the incident: “Dang, that’s one handsome bobble head”? We learned from the short discussion that the biker had begun his journey in Idaho and was working his way to the east coast. Thankfully it was only the ear buds that were fatally injured and not him.
When it was obvious that the cyclist had avoided a catastrophe, we finished the last 10 miles of our ride into Galena and easily found the home of our 18th President Ulysses S. Grant. As we pulled into the parking lot across the street from the house, it began to rain. Even though the summer shower wasn’t a downpour, it did cause a delay in our photoshoot. My photographer didn’t want me to get wet as he wasn’t sure what effect water would have on my resin body.
I stayed securely hidden in my covered camera case as we walked up the steps to the Grant House. There was no one else there; which at first I thought was due to the rain. Moments later, however, we discovered that the home was not open for tours on Monday or Tuesday. Unlike other trips in the past, that news wasn’t a big deal because we had planned on returning to Galena on Wednesday for another photoshoot anyway. All we could do was hope that the weather would cooperate then.
As we dodged the scattered raindrops while walking around the house, I did manage to pose for one photo with the entire house and a second one as I stood next to the front door. But that was it as once again it began to rain hard, forcing us back to the car. It was after 1:00pm and my companions decided to grab some lunch; that respite also gave us time to wait out the rain storm. We headed into the main downtown section of Galena and found a sports bar. From our seat near a window, I stuck my head out of the camera case and I could see some of the other beautiful old buildings that the historic town had to offer.
Then out of nowhere, a young man appeared just outside of our window. He was the bicyclist that we saw headed towards Galena; the one that nearly crashed and burned when the iPod ear buds got tangled in his bike’s front wheel. He looked wet as he read the menu that was affixed to the entrance of the building. It was obvious that he didn’t see us sitting there watching him, which at first I thought might be a good thing. Then I heard my photographer say to Vicki: “If he comes in here, I’m going to buy him lunch since I was the cause of him destroying his ear buds.” I laughed to myself because I knew how cheap that guy was; but it didn’t matter anyway. As fast as he appeared; he was gone – and we never saw him again.
When lunch was over, so was the rain storm. The sun was out; the sky had turned blue; and we drove back to the Grant House. Since the storm had dissipated, we figured it would be the perfect time to capture exterior photos of the house. The building was closed for the day and no one else would be there to get in our way and I knew how much my photographer hates others in his photos.
The two-story brick home was built around 1860 and was given to Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant in 1865 by the residents of Galena as thanks for his war service. After his election as our 18th President in 1865, Grant returned to the home only occasionally. His final visit to Galena came in 1880.
Overall, we spent about 30 minutes walking the grounds and photographing me at different locations on the property. When we walked into the garden, we saw a statue of Julia Grant, the President’s wife. The statue didn’t seem life-like in its appearance and didn’t do Mrs. Grant any justice – even though she was not a very attractive woman in the first place. After seeing the statue, it made clear sense to me as to why Ulysses spent more time with his horse than he did with his wife.
Once our photoshoot was finished at the Grant House, we headed back into downtown Galena and spent some time wandering amongst the gorgeous old brick buildings. Galena, which was first known for its lead mining, was one of the more picturesque towns that I had ever visited. Another factor that made Galena special for my photographer and me was the town portrayed Chisholm, Minnesota in the 1989 classic baseball film Field of Dreams. As I was carried throughout downtown Galena, we saw several of the locations where Ray Kinsella (Kevin Costner) interacted with ‘Moonlight’ Graham (Burt Lancaster) during the movie. Seeing those movie sites was exciting for me, as well. I have watched the film numerous times from my shelf near the living room television set back in Michigan and it’s one of my favorite films.
While we were done with Presidential sites for the day, we were not finished seeing film locations from the movie Field of Dreams. We got in the Avenger and headed for Dubuque, Iowa, which was only 16 miles to the west and located along the Mississippi River. Once in Dubuque, which is the oldest city in Iowa, we searched out the handful of movie locations from the Field of Dreams.
One area of downtown Dubuque was used to portray the Jewish section of Boston where Terence Mann’s (James Earl Jones) apartment was located. In the movie, when Ray searched for Mann’s apartment building, he was told by a young gas station attendant: “Two blocks down. Right hand side. First store that don’t have a chicken in the window is his.” The three-story building looked worn and although the door to Mann’s apartment was locked, it was cool to see my photographer as he stood alongside that famous entryway.
From Terence Mann’s apartment film site, we drove about eight blocks south to a large, two-story brick building that housed Hendricks Feed and Seed Company. It was in that building, during the movie Field of Dreams, where Ray Kinsella bought his corn seed and admitted to the locals that he had heard voices in his field. I was situated in the camera case when my photographer went inside the store. We walked around the store for a few minutes, but the interior appeared to have been renovated since that movie scene was filmed there in 1989.
Our last stop in the area was located a few miles south of town; it was an old single-floor motor lodge called the Air Line Motel. In the movie, Ray and Terence spent the night at the motel as they headed for Chisholm, Minnesota. It was also in that motel room where Terence saw a newspaper article that stated his father had reported him missing. I stayed in the car as my photographer wandered in the motel’s parking lot looking for the perfect angle.
It was going on 4:00pm and it was time to head for our final destination of the day – Dyersville, Iowa. Our plan was to stay in Dyersville for a few days while my photographer conducted a high school senior picture photoshoot for his friend Tracy Habel and her twin daughters. For fans of the movie Field of Dreams, Dyersville is also home to the actual baseball field used in the movie; which I couldn’t wait to see. When we arrived at the Comfort Inn at 4:30pm, I was set on the desk next to the television. Throughout that first night, as I stood silently on that desk, I thought I could hear voices: “If you build it, TJ will come.”
