Now here’s a tidbit of information that I have discovered in the Minnesota prairie;
Lots of American farmers are growing corn, fencerow-to-fencerow, to supply ethanol plants. The ethanol plants have built up in the large farm areas, economically, to be close to the corn production. The finished ethanol product is then shipped by rail tank-car to where it is blended with petroleum gasoline.
The average per acre production of corn will yield approximately 330-424 gallons of ethanol per acre. A 15% blend of ethanol in one gallon of gasoline will reduce greenhouse-gas emission by 10-20%. This year, about 90% of the US gasoline sold, contained 10% ethanol. The EPA has now approved 15% ethanol in vehicles later than 2001 models. Also, I am seeing gasoline blends with 85% ethanol at the pumps, advertised to be burned in flex-fuel vehicles. Don’t put this in your Ford truck!
Biotechnology is working to increase the ethanol yield from corn and other crops like sugar cane, sorghum, grasses, and even wood chips could become candidates for ethanol production. Currently, only the corn grain or kernel is used in the ethanol production process which involves fermentation, distillation, and dehydration. It is possible to use the entire corn plant in ethanol production and that may be a future development.
As expected, negative effects have arisen as challenges to ethanol manufacturers. For example, advances are being made to reduce the fuel-system corrosion effects of ethanol fuel. Also, the manufacturing process of ethanol produces hazardous gases called volatile organic compounds (VOCs) along with other air, water, and ground pollution compounds, as an undesirable by-product.
Ethanol is the same ethyl alcohol that we have in beer, wine and hard liquor but with a laundry-list of potentially dangerous additives. The EPA and other government agencies monitor this product but they rely primarily on data principally from the manufacturers and that has already become an issue. Hopefully, the issues will be resolved in a responsible manner to avoid any SURPRISE future environmental and/or health disasters.
In the meantime, just “fill er up”!
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
While exploring the Granite Falls area, we met a lady who taught school in the one-room schoolhouse, which is now a part of the Granite Falls museum complex. Her farmer husband passed away at age 90 and she moved to town, turning the farm over to someone else. As she answered our questions, it was like going back in time, to a much different period of SW Minnesota life. We had a good visit and she was a real inspiration to us.
After a relaxing, five-day, Labor Day visit at the Prairie’s Edge Casino and Granite Falls area, we continued our travels toward St. Louis. The Casino was truly on the prairie edge, as the glacial Minnesota River Valley is a wooded green-belt oasis, cut to the bedrock, right through the wide-open prairie. The glacial floods forming the Minnesota River Valley, some 14-thousand years ago, exposed some of the oldest rock in the world.
As we drove down the river, in the cool, clear morning air, we saw large flocks of White Pelicans spiraling on the morning thermals, along the river valley. We also passed large agricultural crops with thousands of acres in corn, soybeans, and sugar beets.
Redwood Falls, MN is an 1864 town that was taken form the Dakota Sioux after the Dakota War of 1862. The US treaty of 1851 moved the Sioux to a concentrated tract along the Minnesota River, in exchange for payments and provisions by the US government, that was botched. The starving Sioux went on the “warpath” and in the end 38 Sioux were hanged. You can still see memorial “spirit catchers” placed by the current Sioux community. Ironically, the Upper Sioux community now resides along the river, on a portion of the original tract. It’s common to see the senior Sioux people in WalMart and shopping around town but ot seems that the young Sioux leave the community.
We have met and talked with numerous Minnesota RV’ers who go south for the winter. Many are out on shakedown cruises getting ready to head south in October/November. They return in March/April. South Texas and Arizona are their popular destinations for the winter. I think the south Texas (Rio Grande Valley) would be a fun winter location, as it is on a latitude with Miami. Looks like we have winter quarters set for Las Vegas at the Clark County Shooting Complex.
Jeffers Petroglyphs are located in southwest Minnesota on a flat quartzite outcropping laid bare and smoothed out by glaciers 14 thousand years ago. The ancient images were pecked into the flat, quartz slab by the native inhabitants some 7-9 thousand years ago.
The present Sioux people consider this to be a sacred place where “Grandmother earth speaks of the past, present and future“. I guess you have to read the book on that one!
Spirit Lake, in northwest Iowa, is part of a group of ancient glacial lakes that are deep, clear, and blue. Called the “Great Lakes of Iowa“, the area has become a popular resort area. Lots of campgrounds and recreational opportunities. We camped on the Lakeshore at a nice RV park at Spirit Lake. The area is highly developed as a resort locale serving Iowa and the surrounding states. The owner loaned us his grease-gun so that I could lube my truck front-end. Nice folks!
We camped next at Audubon, Iowa in the middle of Iowa farm country. We shared the campground with two Iowa farm families who were just relaxing before the corn and bean harvest begins. After harvest, they’ll take their RV trailers and spend the winter in the Rio Grande Valley, in south Texas.
Audubon is named for John James Audubon who frequented the Mississippi River drainage searching for birds. We did see some birds. Audubon town has a thirty-foot tall Herford steer as a monument to their cattle and beef industry. Additionally, the region produces pork.
The cattle are fed on feedlots and the pigs are grown in long, metal barns. Driving on US 71, we played “name that barnyard smell“, as we passed the numerous farms! The cramped feeder operations appear and smell unhealthy but that’s the way they do it. They just pump in the feed, minerals and antibiotics. Feeding farm animals and ethanol production has increased the Iowa corn crop to a record, 14.6 million acres, according to Iowa State University statistics.
On Thursday, the weather was hot, windy, and humid. We were missing the cool Minnesota days but that’s not slowing our plans to meet Kim and Glen for a visit in St. Louis. Today, it has cooled down for our first morning in St. Joseph, on the Missouri River, where “the Pony Express began and Jesse James ended”.
We have visited beginning and the end of the old Pony Express route, St. Joseph in the east and Sacramento in the west. I guess you could call the riders “the first postal workers”!
We spent the day exploring old town St. Joseph and shopping the new town. Lots of impressive architecture, historical sites, and splendid sights are abundant in the old town, along the Missouri River. It was cloudy and cool making a good day!
Saturday, September 6, 2014
Today we traveled east on US36 from St. Joseph to Hannibal, Missouri. Crossing the north of the state, we encountered lots of corn and bean crops and saw the farmers beginning to combine the harvest. Fall was in the air today and listening to the Missouri football game made it even more fall-like. Also, we saw lots of fall wildflowers like; Sunflowers, Blackeyed Susan’s, Blazing Star, Bee Balm, and lots of colorful grasses. We stopped at Chillicothe for lunch and WalMart shopping and talked to some Rvers heading to northwest Wyoming. It made me reflect on the terrific fall scenes in the Rockies, with the Aspens and Cottonwoods in full fall color, an awesome spectacle!
Today, we attended mass at Holy Family Catholic Church and spent remainder of the day exploring Hannibal. Lovers Leap is a high limestone precipice overlooking the Mississippi River and Hannibal, from the downstream side of town. It was a quite, tranquil, observation place, with a light, cool, north breeze and you could imagine what Samuel Clemens’s Hannibal was like. You could write your own story here, and I met one young lady, a student at Hannibal LaGrange University, who was doing just that. Maybe she will be the next Mark Twain!
Along the river, we toured the park and public docks, a nice facility for river watchers and recreational boaters. The nostalgic Mark Twain riverboat was waiting to cruise the river, providing commentary on the history and sights.
We walked on Main Street and perused the tourist shops and stops, ending with a climb up to the Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse for a north side view of town and the river.
Along Main Street, we encountered Tom and Becky, in full dress, in front of the Mark Twain boyhood home. Their parents were close by and we learned how two seventh-graders (boy and girl) are chosen each school year to play the role, as eight-graders. A serious annual competition and quite an honor for the winning couple, to play the famous literary couple.
We walked out to the end of the old Mark Twain bridge approach, now a small city park, for another overlook of the Mississippi River. The old bridge was demolished when the new Mark Train bridge was opened.
Yes, Hannibal is everything Mark Twain and they depend heavily on tourism to keep it going. Like many small towns, the local industry has dwindled and left lots of empty, derelict buildings and an eroded tax base.
Heading on down toward St. Louis, we decided to travel the west bank and then cross over to Illinois at the next bridge. Meandering down the Mississippi River, along the steep, curvy, Missouri “Great River Road” (MO79) we enjoyed some scenic overlooks from the limestone bluffs. The Missouri bank has high bluffs, while the Illinois side is a flat prairie. We saw fall influences in the tree colors along the river. We also observed several small plots of a short shrub, deep maroon foliage, in rows, like plant in rows.
Blueberry?????
At Louisiana, Missouri, we crossed the river to the Illinois bank and continued south on the flat agricultural prairie, (IL96) to Pere Marquette State Park. The corn harvest has begun here and the combines, grain carts, trucks, and elevators are frenzied. We met two retired farmers relaxing at the State Park and I asked; “you guys don’t seem too concerned about the corn harvest”? They amusingly replied “no, we turned the farm over to someone else” The small family farms of the past are now large agribusinesses with immense plantations. They own large tracts and they also rent aas much land as they can manage. Many of the old farmers are getting rent and lease checks on the land they own and previously farmed. I talked one farmer that sold out for 5-thousand per acre.
Pere Marquette State Park, a 1930’s CCC Project, is situated close to the confluence of the Illinois River with the Mississippi River, about thirty miles upstream from St. Louis. We studied French explorers Marquette and Joliet in American History but had never seen any monuments to their 1673 expedition. As they traveled from the Great Lakes down the inland rivers, Father Marquette was very impressed with the area around the Illinois and Mississippi River confluence. We visited his memorial cross, located near the confluence. The one-piece, stone cross was hewn from a slab of native limestone and overlooks the 1763 confluence. The confluence has since shifted a mile south, where Grafton is now situated. This area is also the prime wintering grounds for the american Bald Eagle.
We met a retired river pilot at the fish house in Grafton and he related his interesting experiences from his life on the rivers. While there, we observed two recreational cruisers heading downriver. Flying the American Great Loop Cruisers Association burgee, they are on the inland river leg of the “Great Loop”, right on schedule to make south Florida by December. We were envious but glad we’re not out there now. The lead boat was probably in the neighborhood of a three-quarter million price tag. They can afford to cruise the “Great Loop” with a leisurely style, in great comfort.
Camp River Dubois, the point of departure for the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery into the Louisiana Purchase, an uncharted wilderness, was the Lewis and Clark (1803-1804) winter camp. When Camp River Dubois was the edge of the United States, the expedition set out to explore the lands west of the Mississippi. Situated at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, they planned, trained and made final preparations for the long journey to the Pacific Ocean. The docent was an authority on the expedition and an excellent interpreter. We have now visited the three winter camps, the beginning middle, and the end, at the Mississippi, Mandan Village, and the Pacific, including most of their in-between historic sites. Now it’s easy to understand and appreciate the momentous journey and comprehend their great contribution to America.
We visited the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Louis District, Visitor Center at Lock and Dam number 15.They have educational models of the Mississippi River system, lock and dam tours, and an excellent museum on river commerce and life. Here you will gain an appreciation for the services of the Corps in maintaining the river channel, pool levels, and navigation aids. They have a superb staff to answer questions and assist visitors. America has a great story and a river is on every page of it.
Having observed vast corn crops along the river, we learned that; not all the corn is transported on the river, but an estimated 19 million tons of corn will come down the Mississippi River this year.
We have immensely enjoyed our stay at Pere Marquette, the oldest State Park in Illinois, this week. Exploring the park and the surrounding area between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers has been enlightening, tranquil, and entertaining. It truly is a unique area and we can now see why Father Marquette was so overwhelmed by the area.
We liked it too!
