Flying Adventures of Frank and Jolene – Part 2

May ’09 – We flew to Quad City Intl (Moline, IL). We had a nice flight along the Rock River as it twists and turns.

It was very impressive to see the Mississippi (don’t forget we’re from NY). We were given clearance to land on their 10,000-foot long runway, which I thought was very cool until we landed in the first 1,000 feet and had to taxi for what seemed like a half hour. We rented a car but I believe the FBO has a loaner car. Now you might be asking why anyone would fly to Moline – well John Deere attractions of course! We toured the John Deere Pavilion (free) that houses huge farm machines, one that’s about 3 stories tall.

You can try your hand at piloting one of these on a simulator and you can climb on or in most of them. Then we visited the JD store, which has anything and everything you can imagine with a John Deere logo on it, including JD microwave popcorn! We had a wonderful lunch at Johnny’s Italian Steakhouse (in the same complex). It features dark wood booths with background music of Dino and Frank. If you go during the week you can tour the JD factory.

We drove across the bridge at 15th St to Rock Island Arsenal. The info says that they check ID at the gate, but they didn’t. On the way to the actual arsenal, we stopped at Memorial Park to view the 30 pieces of artillery equipment; tanks, rocket launchers, etc.

The trees were in bloom so it was nice to be out and about! At the arsenal (free, but there’s a container for donations), are 2 huge walls of every type of gun you’ve ever imagined (or maybe not!). The museum also explained the history of the arsenal. Keep in mind that this is the second oldest continuously operating arsenal in the country. They’ve manufactured armament for every war from the Civil War to the current “adventures”. As we were leaving, I made Frank race down to the north side of the island so I could see the paddle wheeler go by since the only time I’ve seen one is at Disney World!

I believe you can tour the Davenport house on the island, but we continued to the west side of the island to the Lock and Dam. There is a small museum (free) and the park ranger is very informative – apparently we had just missed seeing the pelicans that had been there that morning!

We then visited the Quad City Botanical Center just west of St Augustine College. The photos I had seen made it look so cool – a beautiful glass building. The cost is $5 but we were literally thru in 10 minutes, so in my opinion, not worth it.

More adventures to follow!