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| colorful murals on old grain elevators off I-80 in Omaha, Nebraska |
We have completed these trips: from Seattle to the Arctic Circle and back to Seattle-July to September 2009, from Seattle through Mexico to Florida-September 2009 to March 2010, and from Florida back to Seattle-April 2010 to February 2011. On this last trip, we bought our current RV/dinghy, M’A ‘turn. Then we visited the Philippines and HK for 3 months and now we are on the 2nd month of our 4th trip, from Seattle back to Florida (June 2011 to March 2012)...about 50,000 miles among Star, Vino, & M'A'turn!
A tourist is defined as a person who is traveling for pleasure. We have certainly fitted that description! Just look at our last 3 posts which cover the Great Plains. Driving through the I-80 leaving Omaha and going to Council Bluffs, Iowa, we spotted these huge old grain elevators painted with murals! Then, while our RV’s heating/air-conditioning system was being repaired at Camping World, were told there is a unique rotary jail that served as the county jail from 1882-1969! Yes, that’s right…rotary!
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| the model of the rotary jail |
The jail has 3 floors and looks like…a large bird cage, actually! It is cranked by hand to let any cell open to a fixed door on each floor which has 10 cells. Designed for 2, sometimes 5 were made to fit each one! The ground floor of the shell had tables for free time. Efficiency, not only in space but in guards (needed only 2), and security were the reasons for the design. It was discontinued when it suffered a slight tilt and people realized that it could be a fire/death trap.
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| Carol with an inmate |
From this place of inhumane conditions, we next found the Grotto of Redemption. The problem was it is about 70 miles from I-35, our route to Minnesota! That meant about a 3 hour diversion and about $65 in gas. But the little ad on the Iowa travel mag said it is considered to be the Eighth Wonder of the World, much like what Filipinos say of the Ifugao Rice Terraces in the Philippines! So we unhooked our ‘turn, left our M’A at a church parking lot in Clear Lake, Iowa and proceeded to West Bend.
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| frontal view of the Grotto |
Indeed, the Grotto is a very special place. It is a complex of 9 grottos (Garden of Eden, 3 grottos of the Stations of the Cross, Stable of Bethlehem, Jesus' home in Nazareth, the Trinity, Ten Commandments, and Gethsemane), made from 43 different kinds of gems. The most delicate stones are in the Grotto inside the Christmas Chapel. They were made entirely by the hands of 3 men. Father Dobberstein, who studied geology in Germany before migrating to America and entering the priesthood, offered to build this shrine to the Blessed Virgin for her intercession when he was with pneumonia.
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| back view of the Grotto |
He became a pastor in West Bend in 1898 and started collecting rocks and gems from all over the US with the help of his right hand, Matthew Szerensce. Work on the Grotto officially started in 1912 and upon his death in 1954, about 80 % of the plan was done. 8 years before his death, Rev. L.H. Greving started to assist him in the parish. Together with Matthew, he continued his work after the death of Father Dobberstein until his own passing in 2002.
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| Grotto of Incarnation at the Christmas Chapel |
Now the Grotto is estimated to be worth over $2M in materials, priceless in labor! That was, I thought, a true, though little, pilgrimage! A pilgrim is a person who travels, especially over some distance, to a sacred place as an act of devotion. There was a smile of my face…we are probably becoming more than tourists! And that song I have come to love so much, America the Beautiful, took on greater significance. ‘O beautiful for spacious skies…..O beautiful, for pilgrim feet!
The better known first stanza is for America’s natural beauty which we have certainly visited as tourists. But the second is for America’s human beauty which we are also discovering as pilgrims! After all, Bill and his forefathers were pilgrims and I may have just become one! When we visit Wisconsin, we plan to make another little pilgrimage to Holy Hill, suggested to us by our friend, Didi Manarang, Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau of Customs in the Philippines. And we will embark on more!
I lived in Iowa for several years. I had not heard of the Grotto. Thank you. Maybe I will get a chance to visit one day soon.
ReplyDeleteWe just came from Burr Oak, Festino, and Harper's Ferry, Iowa today to see Laura Ingall's childhood home, the World's Smallest Church, and the Effigy Mounds National Monument! I write about those in the next post. So in how many states have you lived? Did your family have to travel a lot?
ReplyDeleteI lived in the midwest for several years and did not know of any of the things you have written about. How do you find these things?? Thanks for sharing. The grotto and the jail are both really interesting and the artwork on the grain elevators is great. Thanks for letting me be an armchair tourist!
ReplyDeleteThe internet mostly but there are also clues in brochures and maps we pick up at the campground and the visitor centers. Lastly, from people we get to befriend near our campsites and from having eyes wide open as we drive through places! It is an art, not a science.
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