We had a peaceful six-night stay at a favorite stop, Rocky Creek Corp of Engineer Park on Lake Somerville.
We stayed at Rocky Point Corp of Engineer Park on Lake Wright Patman Lake near Texarkana, for two weeks. This gave us ample time for a thorough spring cleaning, inside and out.
CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART
After leaving Texas, our first stop was Cave Springs, Arkansas, just south of Bentonville. We spent a day at Crystal Bridges, an American Art Museum in Bentonville.
On the grounds of the museum is the 1953 Frank Lloyd Wright home entitled Bachman-Wilson House. Originally built in New Jersey, this house was moved to the museum grounds in 1988. We toured the inside where pictures were not allowed.
Carousel rooster by Gustav Dentzel, 1897.
This museum showcased artwork from traditional to this modern 3D walk through art and light display.
THE CAPITOL OF IOWA
Our next stop was Prairie Flower Corp of Engineer Park just outside the city limits of Des Moines. We could tell we were getting further north. The campground had 50-amp hookups but no water, so we filled our freshwater tank on arrival. While we were waiting for the water tank to fill, the campground host stopped to talk and offered us a volunteer host job for the summer. This campground was very well developed and maintained with cement pads. In fact, Des Moines is a very nice place to visit.
View of Downtown Des Moines from the steps of the Capitol building.
The Iowa Capitol was built in 1884 at a cost of 3.7 million dollars.
Iowa's Capitol is the only capitol building in the country with five domes. The main feature is the central towering dome constructed of iron and brick and covered with tissue-paper thin sheets of pure 23-carat gold.
The Iowa State Capitol dome as viewed inside from rotunda.
Cross view of the balcony on the second floor.
Located on the third floor above the mural Westward are six mosaics in arched panels depicting Defense, Charity, Executive, Legislative, Judiciary, and Education. The mosaics were made in
Venice, Italy, from small pieces of colored glass,
The House of Representatives ceiling was rebuilt after a fire destroyed it in 1904 during the installation of electric lights to replace the gas fixtures.
The Senate Chamber has four brass chandeliers weighing approximately 500 pounds each and were originally gaslights.
The State Law Library occupies the entire west wing of the second floor and contains over 100,000 volumes.
A spiral staircase of iron grillwork at each end of the library leads to the tiers of law books and court decisions from each state as well as the federal government. Quite an impressive library.
DES MOINES OUTDOOR SCULPTURE GARDEN
The Sculpture Garden, on the south side of the downtown area also contains a nice sampling of native trees.
JOHN DEERE FACTORY TOUR
We took a tour of the John Deere Des Moines Works Plant. This plant manufactures sprayers, cotton pickers, cotton strippers, and grain and tillage tools. We were driven around the grounds, and even inside of the plant buildings on a tram. The plant was built in 1941 to produce bullets for WWII. In 1947 it was purchased from the US government by John Deere to produce and assemble farm equipment. It was an interesting tour.
We were not allowed to bring cameras or phones on the tour. This is one of the sprayers that was manufactured at the plant. This weed sprayer has 34 cameras, one at each spray head. As it advances down the crop rows, the camera spots the weeds and only sprays the invaders reducing the amount of spray required by 40%.
