Sunday, August 20

Our day began with a tour of Taliesin where we learned about Frank Lloyd Wright and his designs and the school there. We were led through the house and studio and around the property. The students continued to work uninterrupted as we watched for a moment as they worked on their designs. After the tour, we enjoyed lunch at Riverview Terrace Cafe before heading over to The House on the Rock just a few miles down the road.

The House on the Rock was built by Alex Jordan, Jr. As a child he loved spending time at the 450' Deer Shelter Rock. He was able to purchase the land and built a house there. Not just build a house on the rock, but incorporate the rock into the house. Similar to building a treehouse. It was at times eerie and other times amazing. A Japanese garden sits at the entrance an interesting room is known as the Infinity Room where it seems to continue on and on. There are areas for his many collections. The house was not his home, but his studio. He lived about an hour away and drove back and forth.

Rain was in the forecast for a couple of days and we were getting back to the campground in mid-afternoon. There was still plenty of time to go into Dubuque so I could get photos of some of the churches I had seen as we passed by yesterday. While there we found the Fenelon Elevator aka the Fourth Street Elevator. That was on our list of things to do.

 Mr. J.K. Graves was a banker who lived at the top of the bluffs of Dubuque. The bank was only  two and a half blocks from his home but it was downtown. It took him half an hour to drive his horse and buggy to the bank due to the steep incline. Back in 1882 in Dubuque at noon everything closed down for an hour and a half while everyone went home for dinner. Mr. Graves liked to take half an hour for his meal then wanted to have a half an hour nap before going back to work, but that wasn't possible. The time it took him to travel back and forth to the bank was just much.

He had seen incline railways in Europe and knew that would be the perfect solution for him. He petitioned the city and was granted permission to build his elevator. It wasn't long before his neighbors began showing up asking to ride the elevator.

Mr. Graves used the elevator daily then there was a fire that destroyed the elevator. Mr. Graves remembered how his neighbors wanted to ride the elevator and when he re-built it he opened it to the public, charging five cents a ride. Today the fare is $1.50 one way.

We drove up to the bluff overlooking the city to the top of the elevator. We rode the elevator down to Fourth Street where we found the Sweet Memories Candy Shop. Yes, we had an ice cream and bought some  divine divinity and almond toffee before the return trip to the top.  While we were at the Sweet Memories shop the proprietor told us about other things we should see while in Dubuque and about Galena, Illinois where we could tour the home of Ulysses S. Grant. That was a great unplanned stop.

At the riverfront, we could hear a caliope playing and discovered it was coming from the Mississippi Riverboat, Twilight, coming up the river  to dock. There was a trolley  nearby and we took a tour of Dubuque that evening. That was another unplanned event.  It was a jam-packed day and we returned to the campground at bedtime, exhausted. We would have another early  morning tomorrow  in order to drive to the John Deere factory tour in Waterloo.