Final Tour & Home (for a day)!

Wednesday, August 7, 2013 -- Today I woke up at 7:20, got ready and checked out, and headed across the road to have breakfast at the Colony Inn.  Our hotel did not offer breakfast, but it did give us free coupons for breakfast at the Colony Restaurant.  So I had toast with strawberry jelly, bacon, scrambled eggs, and water.  It was nice to have that for free.  We headed on to our 9 AM Kinze tour after that, where grain wagons and planters are built.  We watched a video about the company (started in 1965) and took a 45-minute walking tour of the factory.  We saw lots of welding (done by humans and robots), hundreds of parts, and the finished products!  Kinze has been growing a lot in the past year and so we saw their new factory (much bigger) and their old factory.  After the tour, we walked through their museum (new in February 2013), where you can read signs and displays, watch videos, see the Tractor of the Month (from Kinze's owner/founder's private collection), and play!  Even though I'm not a little kid (neither is my brother), he and I played with the toy farming equipment on the little table.  It's fun to plant and harvest.  And I even designed my own grain cart (it's pink) and passed the planter mastery course (with my godmother Val).  After the museum, we looked in the product department/sales room, where the newest products are available to look at (and purchase, if you have the money).  After all that, they have a small shop selling the regular hats, shirts, toys, gloves, and other assorted items.  Then we proceeded outside to look at the "grain wagon tower" (starting with a full-sized grain wagon and ending with their biggest toy model, a 1:16 scale), "planter clock" (it really works and it really is made out of planters), and "autonomy project".  This final thing is crazy!  Basically, it saves farmers time, but I'm still not sold on it at all.  The farmer is in his combine, harvesting, and his hopper is full.  Typically, he would have to go to wherever he parked his grain cart (possibly at the other end of the field), empty it out, and then start over.  This all takes quite a bit of time.  Now, through high-end technology and GPS and other fancy stuff, the farmer continues harvesting.  His hopper is full?  No problem!  His tractor comes over with the grain wagon (mind you, no driver inside this tractor) and drives alongside so the combine can empty the hopper out.  All the while, the farmer can stay right in his seat and keep on harvesting.  When the combine is through emptying, the tractor drives itself out of the way, parks itself, shuts itself off, and waits until the farmer signals it to come back.  The tractor is able to sense is somebody or something is in the way and will go around it.  Still, my thoughts are skeptical.  Although it would be a great time-saver, I don't like the idea of a 40,000-pound tractor hauling a heavy grain wagon driving and controlling itself.  No one is in that cab and if something goes wrong, who can stop the tractor from causing an accident?  You're putting a lot of trust in technology that could fail.  My final verdict?  I wouldn't stop anyone from buying one (good luck and have fun) but I wouldn't personally get one.  Either way, we saw the combine and tractor/grain wagon practicing out in a field, and it is pretty funny to see this huge tractor going all over by itself.  It looked like the combine and tractor were dancing.

After a nice morning at Kinze, we headed home.  We stopped in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, for lunch (Quizno's...California Chicken Club sandwich, Sun Chips, raspberry lemonade) and gas.  A half-hour later, we were driving again and by 3 PM, we were at Denny and Val's farm.  We dropped Denny off, and a half-hour later, we were heading for our home.  By 4:45, I was back in my own lovely house.  I organized everything from two trips (Silver Bay and this), packed for the third time in two weeks (this afternoon I'm heading to southwest Missouri for my cousin's wedding...I get 20 hours at home this time!), showered, had pizza for supper, and hit the covers at 11 PM.

This was a nice, quick trip.  I enjoyed seeing the John Deere and Kinze factories and seeing amazing innovative equipment coming together.  All tours were free (reservations required) and excellent.  My favorite was the John Deere Tractor Works, but I did enjoy the others, too.  This was fun and a great little getaway.  However, don't ever come back from New York, and 14 hours later, head for Illinois!  It's crazy, hectic, busy, and a mad dash to the end.  But I'm very glad we were able to do this and it was great to be with my godparents and my brother, very special people in my life.

This blog concludes my nearly two weeks of travels.  I'm planning on staying home and having a quieter life for awhile (except for the wedding...that will be fun, though!).  I'll let you know when my next adventure comes up, but until then, have a great time and God's blessings!  Thanks for reading!

~Anna~

John Deere Factory Tours & Amana Colonies!

Today I woke up at 6:45, got ready, had breakfast (a cinnamon roll, bacon, a mini-waffle, blueberry yogurt, hot chocolate), and headed to the John Deere Tractor Works.  This is the factory where John Deere tractors are assembled.  It was so cool to see it go from hundreds of parts to the finished, beautiful product.  The 8 AM tour started with a video and then proceeded through the factory for an hour-and-a-half.  I enjoyed the paint department (like yesterday!), especially since there were robot painters.  Those things are hilarious as they spray green and yellow (classic John Deere colors) all over the tractor.  And although we didn't see this in person, we did see it on the video...the tractors go through a series of difficult tests to make sure they can withstand harsh climates and conditions.  For example, they have a "cold test", where they are run in a forty-below-zero (-40!) room.  They also go through the bounce test (several times...testing the suspension and other things) and the brake test (a 32-degree hill where the brakes and emergency brake are checked and double-checked).  It all goes toward creating a safe tractor that can be used and enjoyed for many years to follow.  After the tour, we saw (and climbed in) some tractors from the 1910's to 1990's, toy tractor models made by a welder at that factory, photos, and the store (more great stuff).  Next, we drove around for awhile and admired the lovely corn and bean fields.  SO beautiful!!

We had lunch at Olive Garden -- salad, soup, breadsticks, and strawberry lemonade.  Also checked out Farm & Fleet (a huge store selling everything farm-related) to kill some time before our 1 PM tour at the John Deere Engine Works.  By the way, both of these tours took place in Waterloo, Iowa.  Anyway, we got to the John Deere Engine Works, watched a video, took an hour-and-a-half tour all over the factory (fascinating even for people who don't know much about engines), watched a few videos during the tour (they explained very technical things in an easy-to-understand way), checked out some engines and history/progression of John Deere engines, and went in the small store.

Next, we headed for the Amana Colonies.  We looked all over the general store; it is huge and has an entire room dedicated to Christmas!  We also drove around and looked at all the Amana Colonies...they are so pretty with old churches, buildings, and stores.  We had supper in Amana at the Ox Yoke Restaurant.  We had the family-style meal, so we all chose our own entree and then shared large sides.  I had the two-piece fried chicken plate and we shared sides of coleslaw, potatoes, corn, sauerkraut, cottage cheese, and homemade bread with homemade strawberry jelly.  We wanted some dessert after that, so we had pie.  I had the coconut cream pie, which was delicious with creamy filling.  It was so superb!  We left satisfied and happy but not overfull.

We are now at a Heritage Inn & Suites, ready to get ready for bed and grab some sleep.  Tomorrow we have one tour in the morning, then we plan to head home!  Hopefully I'll be able to blog either tomorrow evening or Thursday morning to round out this fascinating John Deere factories trip!

If you are wondering about pictures, I apologize.  We are not allowed to take any photos inside any of the factories so I cannot illustrate what it's like.  Hopefully my simple explanations will help out a little bit.  Have a wonderful day!

~Anna~

Day #8 -- Home...then to Iowa!

Saturday, August 3, 2013 -- Today I woke up at 8:15, got ready, had breakfast (cereal, blueberries, milk), packed my suitcase, helped clean things up, said good-bye to the people leaving, went for a great canoe ride with Val and her mom, had lunch (turkey-feta-cheese sandwich, cucumber salad, chips, salad, strawberries, cherries, milk), packed everything in the car, and headed for Albany.  We were at the airport by 3:15, waited for a LONG time in the bag check line (nobody was being efficient), breezed through security (no lines, no problems), and arrived at the gate.  The plan was to go to Chicago, then to St. Louis, but we found out that the flight from Chicago to St. Louis was delayed by three hours...it would have put us in at 11 PM at night!  Thankfully, Southwest Airlines is very helpful and got us changed to a different flight (for free) and got our bags before they got on the plane to Chicago.  After we got things taken care of, we went to get some pizza and watermelon lemonade before getting to the gate for the flight to Baltimore at 6 PM.  The flight was right around an hour.  Next, we walked around the Baltimore airport a little bit and got some shakes before boarding for St. Louis.  We landed around 10 PM, got our bags quickly, took Val to her home, got to my home, showered, and got in bed at midnight.  This concluded the Silver Bay, New York, trip.  It was incredible, beautiful, and so much fun.  I experienced so much in God's gorgeous creation, and, as always, came away with a greater and refreshed appreciation for God and his power.  Lovely trip, and I hope to return someday.

Sunday, August 4, 2013 -- Today I woke up at 7:30, had cereal and milk for breakfast, went to church and Bible study at 8:30, went out to lunch at Big Chief (my brother, Matthew, turned 19 on August 3; my mom and I shared a salad and pizza), came home to pack quickly, and headed for Iowa with Val and Matthew.  We stopped to pick up Val's husband, Denny, at his farm.  With our party of four, we headed for Moline, Illinois.  We stopped to have burritos/tacos at Taco Bell, drove on, got to our Radisson at 9:30, showered, and were in bed by 10:30.

Monday, August 5, 2013 -- Today I woke up at 8 AM, got ready, had breakfast (sausage, a blueberry bagel, strawberry yogurt, milk), and headed for the tour at John Deere Harvester Works at 10 AM.  We watched a short video about the company (John Deere) and then enjoyed a one-and-a-half-hour tour of the factory where combines are made (very interesting...I loved the paint department).  We were pulled in little trailers by a John Deere tractor, which I thought was very fitting.  We then headed to have lunch at Lagomarcino's, a great place serving salads, sandwiches, ice cream sundaes, and candy.  I had the ham salad/potato salad/tomato plate, then topped it off with the Classic Hot Fudge Sundae (vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, whipped cream, cherries).  Next, we headed to the John Deere Pavilion (displays, videos, machines to climb in, brochures) and then to the next-door John Deere Store (I found a pink John Deere fisher's hat).  Finally, we went to the John Deere Headquarters, situated on several acres including a pond, rolling grassy hills, and forests...lovely.  There, we could see and climb in more equipment, see a large display of artifacts, and find lots of brochures on all of their equipment (Matthew has a 6-inch stack to take home...oh joy!).  After a great day of touring John Deere spots, we had supper at The Family Restaurant (Greek, Italian, American...I had spinach pie, a salad, peaches, cottage cheese, and a roll).  We headed on to Waterloo, Iowa; arrived at 9:30, checked in to a Holiday Express, and are now ready to get in bed.  More to come on Tuesday and Wednesday as we enjoy John Deere factory tours!!

~Anna~

Day #7 -- Relaxing!

Today I woke up at 7 AM, had a piece of raisin bread, and headed down to the lake.  Two motor boats took the swimmers (seven total), kayaks, and all others across to Diver's Rock (Val and I paddled over there yesterday).  Some of the swimmers jumped off Diver's Rock (about a 10 foot jump) before starting the one-mile swim.  My job was to paddle alongside the swimmers and be ready to get over to any of them if they got tired or in trouble.  Thankfully, no one did.  After a little while of swimming in the big group, about five headed on faster and there were two slower ones.  Val and I stayed with each of them, while the motor boats stayed with the bigger group.  All the swimmers said it was very nice to have the two kayaks; they felt more protected and secure.  It took around an hour for everyone to get across, and it was a lovely time of day...the sun was glittering on the water, it was pretty cool, not much activity was happening on the lake, and the weather was perfect.  I'm glad I did that.  After the swim and everyone was dried off, we had some breakfast (oatmeal and orange juice) and then relaxed and talked.  Lunch was assorted sandwiches (trying to use up everything we have), chips, and milk...funny story alert.  Val was not paying attention and I had set my sandwich (maybe three or four bites left) down for a minute.  Val didn't look down and she picked up my sandwich and ate it all up.  I looked at her and finally she figured it, so then we both started laughing really hard.  The hilarious thing is that her sandwich was a completely different kind but she didn't taste the difference!

After lunch, we went for a nice long swim and relaxed on the raft.  We also relaxed on the hammock, checked in to our flight for tomorrow afternoon (can't believe I'm already leaving), got some shopping for supper done, and made supper (a yummy dip with avocados, sour cream, beans, cheese, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, chips, etc.; tomato tart made my yours truly...many good comments; leftovers...turkey, beef brisket, salad, cucumber salad; dessert...brownies, ice cream, blueberries).  We enjoyed two slideshows of photos taken by Val's dad, and now I am ready to go to bed.  Tomorrow I will be cleaning/packing up/flying home.  Is it already over??!  I can't believe it, and I'm glad to have had this opportunity to be with my very favorite friend in a beautiful, cool place.

~Anna~

Day #6 -- Kayaking!

Today I slept in until about 8:45, took my time getting ready (I have a very sore knee after hiking yesterday), had breakfast (cinnamon rolls, blueberries, milk), and headed out in a kayak.  Val's cousins, Val, and I made up the group.  We went to Silver Bay, then Val's cousins went back.  Val and I went on down the lake to O'Dell Island and checked it out.  We also emptied the water out of our kayaks...they get some in them after being out for awhile.  We also paddled over to Diver's Rock and enjoyed the lovely views there.  Then some stronger winds came and we decided we better head back.  So we got in our kayaks and paddled all the way back across the lake to our nice bay.  We probably kayaked four or five miles...in pretty big waves and the wind was against us.  It was fun, though!!  I love kayaking!

We got back, had some lunch (Sloppy Joes, baked beans, and pomegranate-blueberry juice), headed up to Silver Bay to get ice cream (I had Moose Tracks and Brownie Batter topped with hot fudge sauce), looked in the lodge at Silver Bay (large and beautiful), and headed back.  It was raining too hard to do anything outside, so everyone just kind of rested and laid low.  I did some work on my computer.  Before we knew it, it was time to have supper (an egg-and-ham casserole, potato cubes, cucumber salad, juice).  Then we headed down to the cottage (down the hill from where we're staying) for dessert (I had a brownie and blueberries...there was also cake and ice cream) and some old home videos/photos (from 1926 to current).  We also saw some lovely photos taken by Val's dad.  It was nice to socialize with everyone.

Tomorrow, eight people are swimming across the lake, and I am on "lifeguard duty".  I have to paddle alongside someone in a kayak, being right there in case they need to rest, etc.  I'm due down at the lake at 7:30, so I'll say good night.  Sorry there's no photos...have a great day!

~Anna~