BETTENDORF, IOWA 8-18-2017

We are docked here in one of the quad cities, Bettendorf (my great grandma Margaret Kraus’s maiden name, by the way).  It got its name from the Bettendorf brothers, William and Joseph, who were given a piece of riverfront land with the understanding that they would move their iron wagon factory here from Davenport.  They agreed and this was a major contribution to the economy of the area.  ALCOA, with the world’s largest aluminum mill and just a short distance down the river in Riverdale, was also a contributor to the booming growth of Bettendorf.

The Mississippi River itself has, since the beginning of time, been a major factor in the country’s successful economy, from its headwaters in Itasca, MN down to New Orleans and the gulf.  If something needed to be moved far north or far south, the river was and still is the method of choice. 

Tow with barges filled with cargo

Tows push barges up and down the river’s path and through locks that keep the water level steady, barges heavy with grain, coal, salt and other products too numerous to list.   What is not being hauled by barges is transported by trucks and trains on roads and tracks along the riverbanks.  Indeed, this river is the breadbasket of the USA.

John Deere was born in Rutland, VT in 1804 to William and Sarah Yates Deere, immigrants from Great Britain.  William decided to go back to the old country but his fate is not known.  Lost at sea, maybe?  In any case, Sarah, a tailor, was left to raise the family on a meager income.  The Deeres were poor.  As a young boy, John became an apprentice to a blacksmith and became adept at the trade.  He established a small blacksmith shop in a wooden building and of course the wood combined with the furnace did what?  Yup, it burned down.  He borrowed more money and built another blacksmith shop in a wooden building and the fate of this building was what?  Yup, it burned down.  ^th on the Fortune 500 list. 

Nothing runs like a deer

John and his scrape-free plow

Now a debtor, John was afraid of prison (He owed $100.) and so left town and headed for Grand Detour, Illinois.  There he once again took up the blacksmith trade.  The farmers who moved west brought their farming implements with them but found that the wet, heavy soil in the Midwest stuck to the blade and made plowing almost impossible.  Every few feet, the farmer had to stop and scrape the blade.  John was fashioning plow parts of iron in his blacksmith shop and pondered this problem.  He spotted a broken saw blade made of steel in a factory and the proprietor gave it to him.  He fashioned it into a plow blade and bazinga!  The mud did not stick to it.  He made a farmer very happy!  He obtained another piece of this wonder product, steel, and made another plow.  He couldn’t get the steel product he needed with much efficiency in Grand Detour and so moved to Moline, Iowa where steel could be shipped from the gulf up the Mississippi River.  He paid his debt, he sold his plows and the John Deere dynasty was born.  In the year 1842, John produced 100 plows.  By 1849, he had enlarged his enterprise and produced 200 plows/month.  Now, there are more than 80 plants worldwide and in 2016 the company’s gross revenue was $26 billion.  The John Deere Company is 97th in the Fortune 500 list.

Cabin of the new harvester

Rob with new race tires

We had the good fortune to tour the John Deere Harvester Works today.  Not a museum, not a gift shop.  The factory!  The mechanics were hard at work, they smiled and waved at us, the factory was sparkling clean and the colors of the day are green and yellow.  The owner of each of the $600,000 harvesters belongs to the “Gold Key Club.”  He may come to the factory and watch as his harvester takes shape moving along the factory line.  In the end, he is the first human to turn the gold key and start up his machine.  Believe me, this is a religion to these proud Iowa folks.  The words on the wall read, “Helping farmers feed the world.”  NOTHING RUNS LIKE A DEERE!

Rob in the cabin of the big ass harvester

We'll order some of these tracks for Bee for the trip home!

Big ass $600,000 harvester!

We just passed through lock # 22 on our way to Alton to see the eclipse.  We cruise lazily along under the watchful eye of many a bald eagle, heron, duck, goose and white pelican.  So far, no alligators.  Yet.  The sky is blue, the trees are changing into their Fall dresses, the river is wide and smooth.  What an experience!

The calliope plays each time we leave a port

...or go through a lock

Raising the bridge

Raising the port stack

Rob on the top deck

Tie the ship to whatever works, I guess!

Us on the aft deck near the paddlewheel

Keeping an eye on things!