We thought it would be a great day trip on a sunny summer Sunday. We traveled deep into the country, past fields and fields of corn. The huge wind turbines windmills scattered on the ridges. By the way, these things are huge, one rotor can be 40'. There are many wind mills here. We drove towards Walnut Grove, yep the home of Laura Ingells. They have a "festival" there. (Laura ended up in South Dakota. )
We drove into Currie, a small town of many 500 people. Downtown had a bar and some other building that were all closed, due to it being Sunday. At the edge of town, we found THE END OF THE LINE. It is primarily a railroad spot, with so much more. We took the tour, and since no one else was there, we had a VIP tour, just Mike and me and the tour guide.
The history of the place was interesting. In the golden days of steam engine railroad, there were many lines to all these small towns. Corn, Beef, Grain, ice, and people were shipped to Chicago and points east and south. Curry was at the end of the line, which meant the engine had to be turned around so it could do the return trip. This was accomplished by a wooden turntable, which with man power, would turn the engine 180 degrees. It still works, we got a ride.
There is also a railroad museum of the Northwest Illinois Line. There is a restore steam engine, which was found in a junk yard. There is also a little area about HOBO's, with a hooch and signs on the wall, neat.
Besides the train museum is a restore train depot with manikins dressed in period clothes. The people who live in this town donated all sorts of stuff. There is a mill, a General Store, stocked with goodies of the days, a church, which is still used, a train masters house, decked out in all the period antiques, and the Sunrise 1 room Schoolhouse.
The story about the schoolhouse is neat. There was a teacher who taught in this schoolhouse for 60 years. When she retired, a bigger school was built and the building was vacant for years. The End of the line Museum bought the building and refurbished it. The former teacher, who was now in a nursing home, found out about it and gave the museum all her school books, atlases, maps, and the piano that she had. I swear, when I walked in, I could feel this teacher, still standing at her desk, with the reading primer open. The room was exactly how she left it!!
The End of the Line was a great little museum . Worth the trip.
On the way back to the campground, we stopped atWoodstock, MN. We are trying to go to every Woodstock in the Nation. This Woodstock was about 200 poeple, and the main business is a Rehab facilitiy. How Ironic to being sent to rehab in a town called Woodstock-especially considering we are celebrationg the 40th anniversary. However, in a flash of the eye, we drove through the town. After seeing only farms and corn up the way, I turned the car around and there was a table with a FREE sign on it. FREE will always make me stop. There was tomatoes, homegrown garden tomatoes. My mouth was watering..I miss my garden. As Mike was picking them up, the farmer was bringing more stuff. He said it was all fresh, he just picked it, didn't want it to go bad, he said help yourself. Yes sir Mr Farmer, you are the best.
We got tomatoes, cucumers, potatoes, and they were good.. So the moral of the story is..,good people live in every town name Woodstock.
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