The jewels, the blues, the friends, the horse, the barn and home.

The Jewels, Keokuk Iowa - Geodes, jewels from the earth...

A couple of days of driving and here we are in Keokuk, Iowa to look for geodes. It just so happens to be the 25th Annual Blues Festival, go figure. We found a municipal campsite on the Mississippi River, just 2 blocks from where the festival is held. How is that for timing and positioning?

We ended up here because Doug mentioned geode hunting months ago when we were planning our trip. My vision included a scraggly-bearded prospector, laced leather boots to mid calf, blue denim bib overalls, leather gloves worthy of a linesman on a train, pick axes, hand carts, shovels, miners lights mounted on steel helmets, protective goggles… and a partridge in a pear tree. Doug's sundry comments over the ensuing weeks, led me to add three days of rations, crampons a three thousand pound nylon line, pitons, a heavy parka, a bucket to carry our treasures…..and a partridge in a pear tree. 

The morning of our departure found us loading our jeep, Doug only brought shoes…hmmmmm... I brought my carefully researched directions obtained from the locals "in the know." We were following what we were told when Doug suddenly veered off the road onto a gravel side road and stopped in a cloud of dust. To the side was a dry riverbed that the main road crossed via a small bridge. We walked to the bridge to get a bird's eye view and Doug points down and says "there's one right there." My comment was, "are you freakin' kidding me?" The scraggly-bearded prospector walked away in disgust and the rations were stolen by the partridge from the pear tree. 

We crossed the short bridge and found a little opening in the brush to get to the riverbed. The geodes were literally everywhere, once your eye became practiced at discerning their appearance, just waiting for us to pluck them from their muddy bed. We scored. We scored big time.

The next day we actually followed the directions and found a dry river bed that was full of rocks and much harder to find the geodes. This one had been thoroughly picked through, although we lucked out with a couple of good ones (which remains to be seen as you have to crack them open to see the innards).

The Blues - The Keokuk "Rollin' on the River" Blues Festival

Ahhhh…..Friday. The first night of the Blues Festival.

What luck - once again, serendipity was with us. Earlier in the year we had hoped to get all the way to Portland, OR to see friends and enjoy the Portland Blues Festival on July 4th. Alas, timing did not obey our desires. But now we were rewarded.

We envisioned multiple beer vendors competing for new customers, food courts brimming with delights from the area (fried corn, boiled corn, candied corn, husked corn, corn chowder, corn soup, corn fritters, kettle corn - you get the picture), multiple stages with artists embracing all the facets of blues from zydeco to main stream harmonica and electric guitar.

The festival was scheduled to start at 5:00 on Friday night. We were excited. We walked Bandit the 876 feet from our RV to the main tent. The only tent. The single tent. The tent where they served food and had the warm up performer (singular). To get a measure of the festival, the soiree was serviced by a total of six Port-o-lets (one was for the performers and was reserved backstage). As the evening progressed and the beer flowed, please realize that the Port-o-lets never developed any waiting lines.

People were fashionably late and everyone had a pretty good time. We refrained from joining the mosh-pit and remained, with Bandit, on the sidelines where we could see the performers (in profile) and still hear all the music. 

The most amazing part was the number of lace-winged nymphs (the bug, not the cute little girls in costume) that flocked to the stage lights. We're pretty sure the performers all got their fill on the inhale.

We did enjoy Keokuk. The people, as all we have met were friendly and easy to share smiles and good stories. Good people, once again.

We got back on the frost-heaved, eroded, cement road the next day and Ka-thump, Ka-thumped our way into Illinois rattling the cupboards, the beds, the tires and our bones for hundreds of miles.

The Friends - Onward to South Bend to visit friends and then a few days to home.

The Horse, The Barn and Home.

As they often say - when the horse smells the barn, there is no stopping it - we headed home, did some relatively long days and couldn't wait to see home, despite the fun, the sights, the good times and laughs.

We hope you enjoyed our trip, we certainly did.