Day 40: The culture, the heart, and the art.
Praire Du Chien
I woke up this morning rested and ready to go. I planned to spend the morning photographing the town and some of the people. I took off to get breakfast first. I stopped into Simply. Simply is an upscale looking cafe/coffee house. I ordered a big breakfast sandwich as I planned to get a lot of miles checked off today. As I ate, I chatted up a lovely woman about her shop and the local lifestyle. She was going by her shop and then taking off. I asked to join her to photograph her shop and learn a little more about the local economy. After I left, I went for a walk to find Kelly’s Fish and Cheese shop. I hopped over some tracks just before a train was arriving. I captured a few images and then was off again. I made it to the fish and cheese shop. I picked up some cheese curds and headed back towards downtown.
I decided to stop into The Local Oven. I met the owner, Greg, and his son, Joe. I introduced myself and let them know what I was doing this summer. I offered them some fun adventure stories between their customers. They made me a sandwich and an apple fritter before I was going to head out for the day. I was going to leave around 11:00am. 2:30pm came around pretty quickly after talking with Greg for the afternoon. I learned about how he bought the store I was in and some history about his life. It was incredible to sit and hear another persons perspective. Conversations like I had today are one of the big reasons why I love to travel. It puts the personal touch on adventure. While there, I photographed a few images of their store and when they were working. I managed to capture a few women who drove up from Davenport to get their lunch there. I chatted with them and I am going to be reaching out to them when I get down there. I went back to talking with Greg and he suggested I stick around for the gallery across the street that was having an showing that night. I thought, why not and agreed. I went back to the couple who hosted me in their back yard to let them know I would be staying another night.
I made it to the gallery for their exhibit gala. I ended up meeting Iyan and Thon. There were two guys canoeing down the river. They left the day before I did. They were 19 and 23 year old adventurers. I talked with them about their trip and experiences. It was good to see others doing the same type of adventure that I am. Thon was doing a video documentary like I am doing with photos. He is well traveled and experienced at life at a young age. In the course of being introduced to incoming people from town, we met Patricia. She took an interest in our travels. Initially, she offered to pick me up and to take me out to her place for the evening. She offered me a king size bed, shower, and to make me blueberry pancakes for breakfast. She was genuine and kind about her offer. She said she had an extra room and wondered if she should extend the offer for a place to crash to Thon. I thought that would be nice. Iyan had taken off to do his own thing, so it was going to be just Thon and I. We both went out to do our own thing for a bit before Patricia returned to pick us up. 9:00pm came around pretty quick. She picked us up and we were off to another adventure. We arrived and met her husband and 16 year old daughter. They fed us cheese, sausage, and crackers. That is a classic staple of adventures. We stayed up swapping stories and sharing our adventures with them. Thon, their daughter and I ended up talking till around 4:30am. It was nice to be around another creative adventurer and a set of ears eager to learn from our stories.