I know I really needed to update this and let all of you out there know what I’ve been up to. Sorry for the delay and laziness on my part. Yes, I’m still in my hometown in eastern Iowa. It seems like ages ago that I left out on the first day of this road trip. That was the day I saw a vested pair of a man and a goat out along the freeway just outside of Boise, ID; a totally unexpected strange thing to see during my first day of a road trip. I’ve been amazed at the sights that I have seen since that day in late August.
But now, I’m in a bit of a pause mode trying to build up
some money in my savings so that I can head out on my adventure again. I’m not sure how long that will take. I am hoping to get to Washington DC to see
the cherry blossoms this Spring. Lately, I’ve been working doing some temporary
data entry. I’ve applied for several
waitress jobs too. I haven’t worked in a
restaurant in several years that I think they are wondering why I’m
applying. I guess in hindsight I should
have gotten a part time one in Utah before I left. I applied at one restaurant and they saw my
degree in Hotel/Restaurant Management and wanted me to apply for a management
position. I half-heartedly filled out
the application but I’m not really interested.
So anyway the job searching and working is an ongoing process.
Fire Station Tour
I have been doing a bit of sightseeing and different things
here locally in eastern Iowa. So I’ve
been continuing in a way with the trip. One
day I went on a school filed trip with my nephew to see a local fire
station in Marion, Iowa. A Fireman and certified MT named
Peter gave us a tour of the station. We
started out in the classroom where he discussed what they did. The number one calls that they made other
than fire are medical calls. They do
regular trainings at the fire station to keep updated in the latest medical
techniques. They also do a fair amount of training on other locations; like
practicing fighting fires. Most
recently, they got to burn down a local abandoned house that the owner had
donated to them for training. We were
told that if at any time during our tour that if a call came in that we were to
report to the classroom for our safety and to keep clear of the fireman that
needed to get out on a call.
We were also told safety tips and what to do if we are ever
in a case if our home had a fire like; keep low, check the temperatures of the
doors, and if caught on fire to drop and roll.
Next, Peter took us out to where the fire trucks were and showed us how
he put on his gear. He talked while he
put the gear on; explaining the equipment and other aspects of
firefighting. He told us that he would look
and sound quite a bit different when he got his gear on and to not be afraid of
him. Once he got all of the firefighting
gear on he crawled around on the floor grabbing some of our feet. Quite often he said that firefighters would
be down near the ground and that was where we should be too in case of a
fire. I expected him to sound more like
Darth Vader but his voice was not quite that scary. But it was somewhat muffled. Peter said that all of the gear weighed close
to 65 lbs. He also told us how they needed to get into their gear in less than
2 minutes time.
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| Photo- Fireman Peter in full gear as Captain Kirk watched. |
Next, we took a tour around the fire trucks with Fireman Captain
Kirk. Yes, Captain Kirk! He explained how some trucks carried water on
them and the different uses that each truck had. One vehicle that they used the most was the
medical truck because it was the most fuel efficient and was easier to get
around in. The larger trucks were for
fires. One of the smaller large trucks
had a holding area where water could be pumped from a local lake or pond and
then immediately used to fight a fire. Generally
this truck was used in more remote farmland areas with a water source
nearby. There was another fire truck that
had a large water gun on the back that was used to fight fires out in a
field.
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| Photo- Captain Kirk showing a future fireman how to hook up the hose to the truck. |
Next some of the kids in the class got to play firemen as
they connected a hose onto a truck and three of them pretended to work the hose
over to a fire in a nearby room. It was
too cute watching them trying to work as a team on a hose that was almost
larger than the three of them. Next,
Captain Kirk took us through the living quarters of the fire station. There were 6 rooms in all, three on each
side. I was surprised at how plain they
were. Each had a wall of closets on one
side, a window, a twin bed and a night stand; that was all. At the end of the hall was a fairly large
plain kitchen with a round table in the middle and on the other side was a room
with a large TV with chairs and sofas.
Hoover
Presidential Library
Another day I went to the Hoover Presidential Library which
is located in West Branch, Iowa. It’s
funny that I had grown up so close to a Presidential Library but I had never
visited it before. Most people negatively
tie President Hoover with the Great Depression, and I must admit that I
generally did not have a good outlook on him either but I decided to go in with
an open mind. I was surprised.
Hoover was born in a small house in West Branch, Iowa and
worked up his way to become one of the highest paid engineers in the
world. By his mid-30’s he was tired of
earning money and opted for a life full of philanthropy. There was a map of the world at the entrance
to the main part of the library on the floor and it showed a star by every
country that he had touched. There were
quite a few stars. His wife worked hand
in hand with him on his charities and eventually because of the public profile
he ended up going into politics.
One of his first roles in politics was the position of
Secretary of Commerce on the Presidential staff of President Harding. During this time, Hoover was instrumental in
standardization of almost everything from house building to road signs to
weights and measurements; all of this in an effort to make government and
business to work together in his belief of an efficiency movement. He believed
that the government and the economy were riddled with waste and inefficiencies. Wow, I wonder what he would say about
government today? The big joke during
Hoover’s time at this job was that you better be careful what you did because
Hoover may find a way to standardize and make it more efficient. He was touted
as being a little too enthusiastic about his job. But quite a bit of what he did back then
affects us every day now.
From the standardization, he ended up being catapulted into
being nominated for the presidency. He
won in the election of 1928. I watched a
film and heard the recording of the live radio broadcast of his inaugural
speech. He was one of the first
Presidents to be heard live during this speech.
I was rather amazed at his plain speaking and not overstating but he
outlined what was considered idealistic at the time.
When the stock market crash happened and the Great
Depression started, no one was prepared for such an event. There was a lot of debate at the time to let
the free capitalistic market work its way back without assistance from the
government and to not regulate or make laws.
Hoover started to lay in a lot of the ground work towards building the WPA
projects. But he was voted out of office
before they took full bloom. It was even
more interesting that after WW2, he was asked by FDR to help organize recovery
efforts to feed the thousands of hungry Europeans affected by the war. He continued to work and help people the rest
of his life. It all surprised me that he
did all this during his life.
