Family Road Trip 2019 - Day 4 (part 2)

After Antique Archaeology we headed to Waterloo, Iowa which was a little over 2 hours from the Quad Cities. 

Our first stop in Waterloo was the John Deere Tractor & Engine Museum. 

The museum is free to the public so we really weren't sure what to expect, but it was very nice and we  all enjoyed it. 

Cason trying out the plow, which was interactive and showed you if you were off line. He figured out it was harder then it looked. 

Learning about horsepower. 

Eli was baling hay and told me he was to busy to take a picture. so this was the best I could get. 

Bradley testing out this bad boy. He can only dream, as I am sure it cost more than our house. 

John Deere 

We of course checked out the gift store. A major plus was everything was very reasonable. Bradley and Cason got hats, Eli a shirt, and Emory key chains. Eli also fell in love with these sun visors. My new van doesn't have them built in like my old one did and he hasn't let me forget that. 

We had to set it up before we left! 

The people at the gift store told us that the John Deere Cab Tractor Facility wasn't to far away and although they were closed (it was Sunday) they had a few big tractors out front. So we decided to drive over and check it out. 

These three bad boys sit out front and they are huge! 

After driving around the Cab Tractor facility we headed back to the Quad Cities and on the way back we passed the Quaker Oats plant. 

Once back in Davenport we grabbed dinner and then headed over to Moline, IL to check out the John Deere Headquarters. 

John  Deere Headquarters

The building and grounds are huge. Since it was Sunday and pretty much empty we were able to drive around the grounds. 

This is one of the sides of the building. 

Next we drove over to the John Deere golf course which was near by. This is where they play the John Deere Classic. 

This was as close as we could get to the club house.  

Family Road Trip 2019 - Day 4 (part 1)

On day four our plan was to visit Le Claire, Iowa which was just down the road from Davenport, but before heading there we decided to go and see what Menards was all about. We missed the turn to Menards and found the John Deere big machine plant, so of course we had to go check it out.  

Eli loved all the big dump trucks. 

There were several rows of front end loaders and skid steers too. 

After checking out the plant we headed over to Menards. It was like a Wal-Mart, Lowes, and Tractor Supply all rolled into one. It was a very neat store. 

Eli found a "leaf blower" on sale for $9.99 and went nuts for it. So his first souvenir of the trip was a blower from Menards, he couldn't have been happier! 

After Menards we headed to Le Claire and Antique Archaeology. 

Emory was so excited to go, she has watched the show for years. 

Rock cliff at Antique Archaeology 

One of the trucks was there. We watched as an employee unloaded it before the store opened. 

Mike displays a lot of his collection in the new store (red brick building). 

Le Claire sits right on the Mississippi River. You can see the river from Antique Archaeology and we drove down this road which is along side the river. One side of the road are houses that sit right across the road from the river and the other way (pictured) goes to boat docks. 

A view of the river from the road. Across the water is Illinois. I loved Antique Archaeology and seeing all the antiques. Le Claire, is a small quaint town. I wish we would have had time to explore a few more stores but we had to get to Waterloo, Iowa.