During my last stay in Ames, Iowa, right after the butteflies, we went to the University Museum, which featured works by Andy Magee called Post Pop Redux. The materials he uses for his art always reflect the content, which I find a very interesting concept.
Constructed of Dole pineapple cans, this wall filling work is meant to ask whether we can trust the descriptions given on food containers. Certainly one of my favorites.
The world with Washington, D.C. at its center.
Getting closer, you see that it is made up of small plastic soldiers, all pointing to D.C., either as the root of the conflict or to beg for help, reflecting the influence of the US during the last century all over the world.
Former President George W. Bush, made up of bottle caps. The interpretation is left to the reader.
Current President Barack Obama in the work titled "Change", made up of pennies. This work was featured by the Times in it's Person of the Year story. Also very interesting work. There are always two sides of a coin...
This one consists of one dollar bills. Pretty much self-explanatory and very strong.
The artist encouraged visitors to take pictures and share them. I hereby did that and I'm grateful for these permissions, not very common.
Iowa State University is home to one of the biggest public gardens in Iowa: Reiman Gardens. It is home to a great butterfly habitat that houses up to 800 living butterflies. The caterpillars are imported every two weeks from all over the world and hatched locally. The butterflies themselves have a lifespan of about two weeks before they die and get frozen to prevent new eggs from slipping out.
A few selected shots below...
Besides flowers, they also like rotten Bananas. I wonder why...
This fellow already passed away. A good chance to take some time for a macro shot with a manual lens...
Spring is here, the mountains are calling! I grabbed my camera and went down to the border between Tennessee and North Carolina to hike to Charlies Bunion. It is a 8.1 (13km) mile hike along the Appalachian trail.
Yes, you see right! It is only 1972 miles to Maine. I decided to not go all the way but stop at Charlies Bunion, though. However, I met someone at the Bunion is hiking the whole trail. According to this guy it takes about 6 months. Maybe if I have too much time one day...
The only flowers I have seen on that hike. In general, the wildlife does not seem to be awake, yet. I must admit that it was still quite cold up there and I have even seen some patches of snow still lying around.
The trail is not alpine but it is not on the easy side either. Especially the rocks and trees can be a little problematic since they are mostly wet:
After two hours I finally reached the Bunion. What should I say, the view was worth it!
Some college kids trying to get some good shots...
I had to get a good one, too. You might notice that I didn't feel very comfortable standing in the wind with nothing but abyss around me.
Looking back from the outstanding rock.
Clingmans Dome
It was time to go back. When I reached the car, I realized that the highest mountain in the Smoky Mountains Clingmans Dome is just nearby and not hard to climb. So why not stop by...
After a short but quite steep walk (0.5 miles) I reached the view tower...
... which easily accessible, perfect for families and elderly people.
The view really was outstanding, no matter in which direction you looked, it was beautiful.
An interesting shot with the fisheye...
And the last glimpse on the way back. Down there you see the parking lot, it is really not far.
After the slightly coldspring break in Iowa two weeks ago, we decided to try our luck and go to New Orleans, Louisiana over the Easter weekend. It was a great choice, temperatures around 20-25°C, sun, and a great city made up for a good weekend.
We started in Knoxville on Thursday around 6, a little but still ok. Since we booked our hotel in NOLA for Friday and Saturday night, we knew we have to stay somewhere before we hit the city. Our first target was Birmingham, which we quickly dismissed after we realized that we can go much further than that in one day. We ended up in a (non-recommendable) motel in Picayun, Mississippi, a small town somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
In the morning we stopped at a gas station and I spotted this sign, I could not withstand taking a picture of it.
It took us about an hour to finally reach NOLA around 11. After we checked into our hotel in Downtown New Orleans, we went for a walk to explore the city. This was probably the first time I realized, that this city is so prominent for Jazz music. Call me ignorant, but I never had this connection in mind.
We walked down St Charles Ave. and came across this place to take this picture: Here you see three important things of New Orleans! The old trams, the Ogdens Museum of Art, and the National World War II Museum. Of those three, we only took a ride in the tram, since we didn't have time for more (the weather was too nice to spend time inside).
Along the streets there a many of these Southern style houses, reminded me of Savannah and Charleston.
Leftovers from Mardi Gras...
Christ Church on St. Charles...
We came across La Fayette cemetery, a very peaceful and old cemetery. Note that the first name is Preuss and that it states in German that she was born in the province of Posen, now belonging to Poland.
Even if the beetle in the background doesn't look like that, it was still registered and had an up-to-date license plate.
Spotted in a shop, very cute!
Apparently, there is a street called Jena, again one of the towns near where I grew up :)
Another pretty old church!
Our final goal for the day was the Audubon Park, a huge park in the outskirts of the city. I think it was the first time I spotted a turtle in the wild!
A luck shot of this beautiful butterfly.
We ended up taking the tram back to the hotel. After a longer break we went out to explore the night-life, but more on that later ;)
At the third day we took a journey to the east to go to the Amana colonies, a settlement by "radical Germans", calling themselves the "Community of True Inspiration" and living similar to the Amish in that they lived in a communal live. Today, it feels more like a tourist attraction than a strict way of living. Still, it's interesting to see.
Amana – A German Settlement
The first shop we entered, mainly a winery selling great fruit wines...
... and food with a German touch :)
For me, one of the highlights: The restaurant Ronneburg, named after a city close to where I grew up!
Not that you cannot find such trucks in many places in Iowa/the US, but this one just fitted great into the setting.
Iowa City
Next we went on to Iowa City, the former capital of the Iowa territory (1839 — 1857) and not a state yet. This is the capitol, a nice old building with an exhibition about the civil war and the city's history. For some reason, I do not have any more pictures of the downtown area, there really wasn't much to see...
For some reason we went to the University hospital (University of Iowa, not Iowa State University in Ames ;))...
Some words about the driving to and from Iowa: the way to Iowa was smooth, I made the 860 miles in roughly 14h with a few stops, including a larger one in St Louis (pictures on that later, hopefully). Out of curiosity, I looked how far that roughly would be in Europe and it turns out to be ride from Dresden to Marseille, France. Kinda scary...
A timelapse of parts of the drive, it should be roughly 5 hours starting somewhere between Knoxville and Nashville to a couple of miles before St Louis. I hope it gives an idea of how it looks like to go down the Interstate for hours and how flat the country gets once you go up north. Oh, and as you can see I could not make it without a couple of short stops.
I left Iowa on Sunday afternoon expecting a smooth 12h ride but also knowing that there might be some snow, I've read the forecast for some snowflakes in Knoxville. And I was even happy about it since I almost haven't had any snow this winter, somehow I managed to get around it in Knoxville, Germany, and Iowa. Oh, people should be careful with their wishes...
What I encountered was no fun anymore. A severe snowstorm hit Illinois, through which I went on my way back. A thick layer of ice built up on the Interstate, cars in the ditch about every mile, average speed of about 35 mph, and no end in sight. After I had to wait for more than 30 minutes for a truck blocking both lanes in my direction to be cleared around midnight I decided to take a hotel and stay overnight, hoping for better conditions the next morning. It was still snowing but the streets were much better. Still not easy to drive, but at least not dark and stormy. This is how it looked like:
Compared to Germany, this is not much. For Illinois, it was enough to bring down all traffic and cause severe disturbance. For me it was enough snow for this winter!
After a 24 hour journey I finally arrived in Knoxville. And yes, there were a couple of snowflakes coming down...
