On the Mississippi

Before I came to the US, the only river I knew of in the US was the Mississippi.  I remember it from Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer's adventures.  Since the Mississippi is a very long river and flows through a good number of American states (about 10), it wasn't that difficult to come across it.  It also happens to form part of the boundary between the state of Illinois and Iowa.  

On the Mississippi

So on my first trip out of Illinois, I crossed over this river.  I didn't meet Tom Sawyer here, but I came across Buffallo Bill.  He was an american soldier who became famous by organizing shows with a cowboy theme.  I visited his museum on the river, which also houses a steam boat, the kind you see in those period American films.  I've also been to Buffallo's Bill's homestead, where I saw a buffalo for the first time.  The atmosphere here is very bucolic. 

Buffalo Bill's homestead

I've enjoyed my stay at the Quad-cities.  These are four cities, as the name implies, two on each side of the Mississippi river.  Davenport and Bettendorf are in Iowa, whilst Rock Island and Moline are in Illinois.  Compared to Chicago there's not much here, although there's an Art Museum designed by David Chipperfield and a number of Casino's.  

The Figgie Art Museum

One of the nicest structures I've seen in Davenport is a newly constructed pedestrian bridge which just takes people to a casino.  Apparently the city earns so much from the Casino business that it built this bridge out of public funds.

I've also been to John Deere's headquarters.  According to wikipedia this is the leading manufacturer of agricultural machinery in the world.  Some of the machines here are monstrous.  If my father came to the US, this place should feature on top of the list of sights to see, as agricultural machinery is one of his passions.  Anyway here's a photo for you to get an idea of the scale.  Some of the machines would do some of the work we used to do in a day in our field in 15 minutes.