Salt & Pepper

Just ONE room full of Salt & Pepper Shakers

Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2018

We started today with a definite destination in mind. And a definite route in mind. And a definite time frame in mind. None of that worked out as expected.

We left our campsite around 10:30ish, heading east toward Indianola, Iowa, to the National Balloon Museum. We deliberately turned away from I-80, because we wanted to avoid it, even though we knew the trip (approximately two hours or so) would take longer that way. So we discovered ourselves traveling down a semi-paved road for well over 30 minutes just to avoid the interstate! Joe loves those roads, although I hate all the little stones that get thrown up by our tires. But it’s all part of the adventure.

S&Ps all shaped like fruits and veggies

GPS kept trying to reroute us back to the interstate, admonishing us that it would STILL take less time if we would just turn around and go back! But we persisted until GPS gave up, although we all recognized we were adding an hour to our drive.

At about 12:30, we were still an hour away and we stopped for some lunch in a larger-than-usual town. Joe also changed the windshield wiper-- we’d encountered some scattered rainstorms, and realized the one we had was falling apart suddenly (luckily we had a spare.) Then I began driving, and I told Joe to put in the exact street address of the museum. And that was when we found out-- it is closed Monday and Tuesday!

50 states with related item for each: "go-withs"

So all our back-roads were in vain-- we needed to reimagine what our day would be like. Luckily, I had exactly one Iowa tourist book from some previous trip, and Joe was able to find us an appealing quirky alternative-- the Traer Salt & Pepper Shaker Gallery. I am sure I’d seen this when planning a few months ago, but it had seemed not that compelling. Now, however, we wanted SOMETHING in the more-or-less general direction we were driving, so we chose this.

Fat lady and fridge "go-withs"

We immediately headed north-east, and it was almost two hours before we arrived in Traer just after 4pm, knowing the “museum” closed at 5pm. I was not expecting too much, but I thought it sounded like our brand of quirky.

Well, once again, our expectations were vastly exceeded! We were greeted by a lovely volunteer (whose name unfortunately I have totally forgotten), who gave us an excellent “tour” of the S&Ps. The entire collection--all 16,000+ items-- were collected by ONE woman, Ruth Rasmussen, who is now 94 years old and resides in a local nursing home (and who still adds to the collection from time to time, as a result of gifts she has received.) She started collecting in 1946, and any and every type/style/material/subject S&P was included.

It was immediately apparent that the volunteers who operate the S&P Gallery had exercised their own creativity in presenting the S&Ps. In the front office area are an elaborate birdcage filled with bird S&Ps, a big area called the “Traer Market” filled with “produce"-- all kinds of fruits and veggie S&Ps, and a Hoosier cabinet displaying food-themed S&Ps. The first room we went into from there included more than 300 pairs of dog S&Ps, shelves of Christmas themed S&Ps, and some highly collectible S&Ps made by specific pottery companies and china manufacturers. In general, animals “of a kind” would be found together-- hence you can see all the cats, for example, shelved together. There are several display cabinets of “go-withs"-- pairs of S&Ps which did not match but made a pair, such as a toothbrush and toothpaste tube, a tent and a folding cot, and a hot water bottle with a pair of feet.

Jonah in the Whale

There were farm animals (some displayed in a barn setting); zoo animals; more birds; as I said, almost any animal you can imagine. There were groups based on advertising, from Disney movies and cartoons; on occupations; on foods. There were shelves with cowboys, Indians, and covered wagons. There was a shelf covered with Black “Americana” S&Ps, and several collections from 50 states. There were shelves organized by material: all wood, or copper, or clear glass, or silver, or bakelite. There were shelves of feet, of hands, “double-sided” faces (smiling in one direction, frowning in the other). There was a shelf of S&Ps which were from Iowa, or referenced certain Iowa things (such as Hawkeye football.) And then there were shelves from all the other states referencing places and things such as the Liberty Bell or Statue of Liberty. And then of course the ones from foreign countries-- all gifts to Mrs. Rasmussen, who never traveled to any of those countries.

There were also more unusual types of S&Ps, such as “bobble heads”, where the S&Ps included a stand and they moved back and forth in the stand (waving, or kissing, or a cowboy shooting a gun!); there were hugging pairs; hanging pairs; kissing pairs, miniatures; and even a closet that included “naughty” S&Ps!

Political S&Ps. Clintons and Obamas heads' "bobble"

Our guide was wonderful at telling us about a number of different items, and pointing out some of the more unique ones (it would be easy to miss certain details amid the sheer mass of S&P pairs.) For example, there was a shelf of Presidents. Among them were two bobble-head pairs-- the Clintons and the Obamas (which was made to copy the Clintons). In both cases, the S&P shakers had the heads of the president and first lady, and were set to hang inside a base which looked like the White House. When used and replaced (or simply pushed with a finger), they bobbled back and forth-- with the President nodding “yes”, and the first lady shaking her head “no”. On a shelf with various miscellanous subjects was a pair with an explorer in a large cooking pot, and a cannibal leaning beside him against a tree reading a book entitled, “How to Serve Your  Fellow Man.” I also enjoyed the Jonah inside the Whale set, as well as several Betty Boops and Marilyn Monroes. Joe liked Lady and the Tramp best, from the cartoons--I liked Tweety Bird and Sylvester.

Cannibal and Missionary

We spent over an hour enjoying the collection--impressed with both the extent of it (who wouldn’t be!) and the creative ways it was displayed. They may seem silly or "trivial," but we found them charming and entertaining. We were the only ones there, and we kept our guide/hostess chatting until well after the 5pm closing time. At that point, it started to rain, and first Joe, and then I went back to the RV. (I almost had to swim back--the heavens opened and SHEETS of rain were blowing sideways for about 5 minutes, causing a mini-flood of the sidewalk, just as I tried to leave the building.)

We spent a little time waiting for the rain to stop, and then headed to a nearby county park which the S&P lady had recommended to us. It was about 30 minutes away from Traer, and the sky was dark and foreboding almost the entire way. We got to the park and to our surprise (especially after last night’s experience), it was EMPTY. At the VERY end of the camping loop, we found 5 trailers in sites, but not one tow vehicle there with them. We ended up in a different area, camped on the grass right next to the lake, with not a soul in sight other than a flock of Canadian geese, who we had to gently urge out of the way as we drove into the site.

It started to rain again as we hooked up (we wanted electricity again, because despite the rain it was muggy), and the ranger came by soon after and hand-collected my payment so I didn’t have to walk in the rain to the check in area. I asked, where is everyone? And he said that the trailers were probably from people who were staking out a spot before the holiday weekend, and that in the next day or two he expected the place would fill up again. But for tonight, we have it entirely to ourselves. The connectivity is spotty again, but we are very satisfied otherwise.