Day 1: On the road again…
At the crack of 7:40am (only 40 minutes behind schedule), Mom and I started the first part of our journey. With my comfy clothes on, my shoes off and a handful of my snacks already eaten, I was ready to begin the first leg of our journey, which included an eight hour drive across Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. If you have ever had the unfortunate opportunity of driving across an entire state in one day, then you will understand how uneventful and monotonous these initial eight hours were (if you have never driven across a state in a day, try it and let me know how it goes). From what I can remember, we basically spent these first eight hours driving by cornfields, some wind turbines and some more cornfields. There’s really nothing else to report from this part of our journey, except that I attempted to kill some time by napping, snacking, and trying to figure out my new camera- which was a whole ordeal of its own.
Our first destination, which we reached sometime in the afternoon, was the little town of Le Claire, Iowa, which is nestled right on the Mississippi River. If you are familiar with the History Channel show, American Pickers, then you already know our first stop. If you have not heard of the show, then allow me to quickly explain.
This image is probably all too familiar if you are a fan of the show. Shown here is one of the cars picked by Mike and Frank and their first building in the back.
American Pickers is a tv show that follows two guys, Mike and Frank, as they drive across the country looking for anything from antique cars and bicycles to unique games from the 1960s. Long story short, after they pick these items, they bring some of them back to their store, which is located in Le Claire, so that people may buy them. Sadly, Mike and Frank weren’t there the day we stopped, but it was still quite cool and rather interesting to look around their shops and at all of the rare things they have found throughout the years.
After checking out both of the American Pickers’ buildings, we decided it was time to find some grub. While walking down the street, we noticed a couple of places, but we ended up picking one of the local bars. Good ol’ Sneaky Pete’s. Now please take a moment to picture what you think a bar that has a name of Sneaky Pete’s would be like and you probably are still selling this place short.
Described as a “honky-tonk-style riverfront steakhouse and bar,” this establishment ensures that their customers will not soon forget this place and the interior decoration truly seals that deal. Across Pete’s ceiling were exposed beams, but stapled, nailed and tacked across every single beam were ties. Apparently, when this bar first opened they wanted it to be a casual place, so if men came in wearing ties, the ties would be cut off and then hung from the beams. Over the years, it became a joke and people would purposefully wear ties, hoping that theirs may end up on one of the beams. After looking around, I noticed that not only were there ties up on the beams, but there were also some old dinner checks, ones that had been up there for decades. But perhaps the most amusing part of this local bar wasn’t what was hanging from the ceiling, it’s what was in the middle of the dining area. Sitting there, with the entire salad bar inside of it, was an old clawfoot tub. I sadly do not have a single picture of this place, but if you have a moment to spare, you should really Google some images of this place, because I’m afraid that my description does not do it justice.