The Titanic in Davenport, Iowa

Sunday, 7/10/11 - Chuck comes over to our door about 8 am and says Ann is cooking waffles, do we want to have breakfast with them? Boy, he didn't have to ask us twice, we got dressed immediately and headed over to the "big house." There we were served hot waffles, fresh sliced peaches, orange juice and all the fixings....deeelicious. After breakfast, I decided I desperately needed some exercise so head off down the road to the next town, Big Rock which is 2 miles round trip. I usually do 3 miles but this is 1 mile down and 1 mile UP HILL coming back....so two miles was plenty. Now it was latter than I usually walk, 9 am and hot and humid already, boy was I sweating and tired when I returned. Tomorrow I will definitely start earlier and on an empty stomach.

Chuck and Ann invited me to attend church with them this morning so we left for Wheatland about 10:45 am. A cute little country church with a fairly large congregation of every age....from babies to elderly. The minister had just returned with the youth group from a trip to Estes Park, Colorado. He had a slide show and told about the trip and next Sunday the kids will be giving their stories on it. It was an enjoyable message and we were out at 12 noon.

We had to rush home, eat a fast lunch and head for Davenport, Iowa as Ann had bought tickets for the touring Titanic exhibit at the Putnam Museum. Today was the last day and Will and I had not seen it before in any of our travels. When you enter the exhibit you are given a name of an actual person who travelled on the Titanic, what class they were on in the ship and a little background of that person. I had a 25 year old married lady traveling FIRST CLASS with her husband, 2 children and 4 servants........the other three had third class passage (and Wills was Chinese.) Well I was sure I was going to make it after all - first class women and children were first in the life rafts. We had a time to enter the exhibit, 1 pm and it takes approx. 1 1/2 to go through. We saw exhibits of the staterooms of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd class passengers. Many artifacts that have been brought up from the ocean floor. They said there are 6 Titanic exhibits touring and depending on the amount of space they have determines how much they could show. Unfortunately, this area was not that large but it really was something to see. When we arrived at the end of the exhibit we learned about "our passenger" and what happened to them. Shockingly, my lady, her husband and 1 child died, while 1 child survived. Will & Ann survived and Chuck didn't make it either. We then toured other exhibits in the museum that had lots of history and wonderful stories of early Iowa.

When we arrived on Saturday, I told Ann & Chuck that I hadn't had Chinese food since I left Fresno and needed a Chinese food fix, they assured me they had the perfect place in Davenport to take us to. So after the museum, we took a tour of downtown Davenport, went up and walked across a "skywalk" that overlooks the Mississippi River, which is a spectacular view of the river, bridges and the city. Ann drove us by some old, houses where the very rich people lived along time ago and I'm sure the current crop paid plenty for them. Then we headed off to dinner on the North side of Davenport to the Dynasty Restaurant. It was a Chinese buffet and larger than any place I have ever seen. The "walk thru" before eating was an ordeal in itself. But we all managed to find what we wanted and I can assure you my Chinese fix was satisfied. It was another wonderful day with our friends in Iowa and I look forward to the rest of our time here with them. Much love to all family and friends.