Crazy Ideas: How People Play

Made from Matchsticks--the U.S. Capitol

Monday, Aug. 6, 2018

Well. Last night was one wild night. After I finished my blog and went to bed, the rain started up again. We had thunderstorms and torrential rains ALL night. The emergency weather radio did not go off again, but that didn't matter-- the rain itself kept waking me up. It would pound on the roof for 10-15 minutes, then ease up to almost nothing. Then start pounding again. At 3:30 I was awake, wondering if it would ever stop.

I was also concerned about Cassie. She had utterly refused to go outside with me just before I came to bed (which is our usual routine, and I knew she hadn't "gone" for quite a long time.) She spent the night curled up between the bed and the wall of the camper, which is where she goes to feel safer when there is thunder. I thought I heard her whimper at one point, which she does when she needs to go out, although she was not moving at all from her "safe spot." Finally I heard a lull in the rain, and got up and called her to come with me. She actually did, and we went outside. I chose my moment well--it was not really raining at the moment, although the air felt wet. The ground was completely saturated, with the parking lot surface soaked and small rivers in every crack. Luckily, we were right by an "island" of grass and mulch, and Cassie hopped onto it. As soon as she was finished, we both rushed back to the RV, and about 5 minutes later, yet another deluge commenced.

So it went all night. But the great news is-- my makeshift ceiling leak barrier worked great! We didn't get dripped on, and everything was still dry in the morning!

We got a sort of slow start after all that rain, which didn't matter too much. I wanted to stop at an "attraction" (I hesitate to call it a museum) on our way today, but it didn't open until 1 p.m. and was 2 hours drive away. So we took our time, dealing with sheets everywhere, and the damp bedspread, etc. We also went back into the Walmart yet again, to pick up some roof sealant (and I returned the extra sheet I'd bought last night, which thank goodness I didn't need.) Then we finally hit the road.

The scenery all day today was pretty much the same everywhere-- huge huge HUGE farms of corn and soybeans. It is a beautiful countryside, and unless you've driven through it for hours on end, it's hard to fathom how much grain is really produced in this country-- this is just one state, but driving through Nebraska, or Kansas, or the Dakotas (all of which are "stacked up" in the center of the country) are similarly part of the "bread basket". We are supplying the world with grain; it is quite astonishing how much there really is.

Our stop was in Gladbrook, Iowa, at something called Matchstick Marvels. Gladbrook itself was a tiny town with nothing much going on in it as far as we could tell, but it does have this one claim to fame-- a guy from Gladbrook named Pat Acton has a hobby-- building things out of matchsticks. (I joked to Joey that considering the size of these small towns, how isolated they are from each other, and how there is NOTHING much but farming all around, what did the people do in the winter? Building things with matchsticks must be the only thing TO do. But it's funny, Acton works as a school counselor, not a farmer.)

So we stopped at Matchstick Marvels to see these matchstick "sculptures," for lack of a better word. They are truly amazing. He has sold several dozen to Ripley's Believe It Or Not, and they are displayed all over the world that way. But now he's just building his own museum in Gladbrook. We saw models of ships, buildings (the Iowa Governor's mansion, Notre Dame cathedral, and the U.S. Capitol), animals, and miscellaneous things like Pinocchio and a rocket ship (all of these items were specific; that is, it was a particular ship, a specific rocket, etc.-- but I forget what they were.) I was disappointed that two models I really hoped to see-- Hogwarts Castle from the Harry Potter books, and Minis Tirith, from Lord of the Rings, were displayed elsewhere. But what we did see was awesome.

We spent about 45 minutes or so there, then kept heading west. We had nothing else scheduled for the day besides driving, but suddenly we saw a sign on the highway-- World's Biggest Popcorn Ball. Now, HOW could we EVER pass that by? I was driving, so Joey directed me about a mile off the highway to Sac City, IA, where indeed, we found the Popcorn Ball in its own little building. There were a lot of photos showing all the volunteers putting the popcorn ball together. They got the popcorn from the Noble Popcorn company just a few blocks away. So utterly silly, and such a perfect example of Americana.

And that is why I called this blog, Crazy Ideas: How People Play. The matchstick models and the creation by a group of volunteers of the World's Biggest Popcorn Ball are such a contrast with the amazing natural beauty of the Mississippi River-- people are creative and just love to do things that are so.... well, "unnatural." That's one of my favorite things about people--the playfulness. I appreciate the passion that goes into those matchstick models so much, and I would most certainly have enjoyed helping create that popcorn ball. It all sounds like fun. (I stopped myself from buying a bag of matchsticks to make my own model!)

After the popcorn ball side trip, we really had to book it through the rest of Iowa. We got to South Dakota at about 7:30, after passing the KOA where we stayed in 2007 when Mo broke down and we had to wait for 2 days for the repairs to be completed. Now we are in a county park in Vermillion, South Dakota, just over the border from Nebraska. It is a very pretty campground, only about half full, less than $20, and for such a low price, we get electricity, a very nice bathhouse, and all the mosquitoes we can swat! Tomorrow morning's plan: The National Music Museum here in Vermillion.