Have Lord - Will Travel: Forest City, IA

Following my NOMADS project at the Pine Creek Camp in Indiana, I headed over to Forest City, Iowa, for the 2011 NOMADS Annual Meeting. It was an easy drive, fairly level roads, and more cornfields than what I saw in Indiana. This Annual Meeting was much different from the 2010 Meeting in Marion, North Carolina. (You have to read my earlier posts about that adventure.)

On Friday, September 16, 2001, I arrived in relaxed fashion, except perhaps for a bit of anxiety about having only electrical hook-ups. I had not used my trailer where I had no water supply, outside of my freshwater tank. So, as I drove into Forest City, I followed the directions given me beforehand and stopped by a local public campground to fill up on fresh water. I found the NOMADS meeting place with no problem and headed across the campground to a spot near the bathhouse. The place appeared as a mowed pasture littered with electrical boxes. It was easy finding a level spot and I was good to go.

I checked out the bathhouse and found it very clean and accommodating. It had about five or so cinder block shower stalls with hot water. What more could you ask for? I figured I would save on my fresh water tank and use the bathhouse for showers.

I had previously agreed to help with parking. On Saturday morning, I headed to the entrance to the campground. There, I found some NOMADS who seemed to be volunteering for parking also. I ended up spending most of the day, except for my lunch break, greeting incoming NOMADS in all kinds and sizes of rigs. Most were friendly folks but once in a great while I came across someone who was either tired of driving or just too occupied with their own world to be friendly. It was a noble and worthwhile job although I found the overall effort to be a bit disorganized. No worries. The job got done.

On that weekend before the meeting got underway, there was an antique tractor show on a plot of land next to the campground. I walked through the demonstrations of steam-powered tractors and displays of old tractors, some operable and some not. I looked for a Farmall B-model tractor similar to the one my grandfather once had (and I drove to rake hay back in my high school days). I found a couple that resembled the B-model but not exactly. The plowing demonstrations using steam-powered tractors were fascinating. The largest plow I saw pulled under steam was a 16-bottom plow. I also saw a young guy operating his own scaled-down steam-powered tractor. He really looked the part, complete with smudged cheeks and suet-covered overalls.

The meeting started on Tuesday so the previous Monday was available for tours and such. I signed up for a ‘farm tour’. Early on Monday -- early for me, that is – I boarded a big tour bus and headed out with the group of old-timers who probably once were farmers themselves. For some reason, I do not think of myself as an old-timer but perhaps many younger folk would call me that. In any event, we headed out of town toward what the tour guy called a ‘wind farm’. I thought that term was a bit funny – more stupid than humorous – and soon learned that what I would see is a bunch of high-tech windmills. The morning was very foggy. The bus traveled along straight paves roads, turning now and then, until we arrived at what looked like a refurbished barn. The barn was by itself near the road. The only thing around it was one of the old windmills from years ago. It was still very foggy and when I looked around, the old windmill was the only thing to see. So, this is a wind farm, I thought.

The group headed up to the second floor of the barn, which more resembled an office building, and listened to one of the engineers tell us about the high-tech windmills that he assured us were out there. It was an interesting talk, even without the windmills to see.

Next, we headed to a place that makes ethanol. It looked like an industrial plant in the middle of cornfields, which it was. As with the wind farm, a couple of engineers explained the process of removing carbohydrates from corn and making what amounts to moonshine – 200 proof, at that – and mixing it with cheap gasoline. The other product from corn is protein, which is returned to local corn-growing farms as feed for animals. I learned that sixty percent of the corn in the local area was grown for ethanol. I did not know if that was a lot or not, but it sounded good.

Then, we headed to a ‘show-room’ farm for lunch. Some insurance guy from town owned the place but he and no one else lived there. A local caterer fed us a meal of a BBQ sandwich, chips, and a little salad. I would have figured they would offer something good to drink like water but all they had was some instant sweetened drink. The food was adequate though. The interesting part was they fed us in what appeared to be a glorified tool shed.

The final farm on the tour was a winery. I did not expect to see a winery in Iowa but I reckon they are everywhere. I figured the winery would bring in juice from California but I was surprised to learn that they grew some grapes of their own. The winery offered several types of wine named after local people and places. It was unique and all and perhaps a little interesting. Not being a wine kind-of-sewer (connoisseur), I looked around and headed back to the bus.

The best part of the NOMADS meeting for me was the silent and live auctions. As last year, several tables were lined with all kinds of nice things, some more interesting than others. I bid on a few things and ended up getting a couple that frankly I do not know why I bid on them in the first place. Still, I like auctions.

As the meeting ended, I headed south to Oklahoma. My next NOMADS project was at the Boy’s Ranch in Gore, Oklahoma.