Vivian's RV Vignettes

You may not be shocked to hear that the most outstanding feature of rural northern Illinois is corn. Yes, it’s a stereotype, and yes, it’s true. It’s pretty different from the Appalachians, but believe it or not, I find it beautiful too in its own way. The land is such a vibrant green and the sky is so huge. As Madelaine noted in Indiana, you don’t really get to see sunrises and sunsets like that in the mountains– a fireball sinking right down to the distant horizon.

So I found beauty to appreciate around my Illinois campground. I also, as planned, made a trip on Tuesday to Dyersville, Iowa to see the Baseball Field of Dreams and the Hall of Dreams Museum.

To be honest, I think I would have been more excited about the whole thing if I passionately loved the movie Field of Dreams. I DO love baseball, but the movie itself didn’t quite resonate with me. I much prefer other baseball movies such as A League of Their Own and The Rookie… both of which have more actual baseball in them. The museum is pretty tiny — basically two rooms with separate admission, $5 each — with one room dedicated to the making of the movie and one dedicated to baseball history, mainly focused on racial/ ethnic minorities, women, and people with disabilities. I did find the history pretty interesting.

One of the displays was about Willie Mays… and it was on my way home that I heard that he had passed away that day. Kind of surreal.

I went out and had a look at the Field of Dreams where they filmed the movie, and smiled at the dad playing catch with his kids, which of course is what it’s all about. I had kind of hoped to see the field where the 2021 MLB Field of Dreams game was played, but I think maybe that’s been plowed under now and replanted with corn (?). There was a restaurant and gift shop (disguised as big red barns) on site, but nothing to really keep my attention.

However, on the drive over, I had developed a new goal for my Iowa adventure. Surrounded by farms, I had time to meditate on the topic of my doctoral dissertation that I’m currently writing, which is about organizational silos. The term, of course, is a metaphor drawn from agricultural silos that hold grain… and I was surrounded by those kinds of silos in all directions in corn country! The view inspired me to add a section to my introduction exploring the metaphor and drawing parallels between agricultural and organizational silos. At the same time, I decided I should have a good picture of silos as an illustration.

So I set out to look for the perfect silos to photograph. I wanted to have at least two in the picture (because part of my discussion was going to be about “parallel silos”), and I wanted a red barn in the picture because red barns are pretty. It didn’t take me too long to find what I was looking for. I surreptitiously snapped a couple of pictures from the end of the farmer’s driveway, but I realized I wanted a better angle, and that I’d better ask permission before I went wandering on someone else’s land taking pictures.

So I knocked on the door. The elderly lady who answered was quite bewildered by my request. Her first question was, “Are you from around here?” and she instinctively started to pull the door closed when I said I was from Texas. But I quickly added that I had been visiting the Field of Dreams, and that seemed to reassure her. She finally decided I was harmless and gave permission. And I got my metaphor-illustration.

I returned to my Illinois campground that night, but it turns out I wasn’t done with baseball-y things. The Astros were in town! In Chicago, that is, playing the White Sox. Much as I love baseball, I had not been to a game in person since the 2019 World Series, and I decided it was time to do something about that. Astros home tickets have gotten arm-leg-firstborn expensive, but the White Sox aren’t doing so well and their tickets are pretty cheap, so I treated myself to a great front-row seat right over the home run line in right field.

As you can tell from my hair, the Windy City was living up to its name, but that kept it from being too hot. Unfortunately, I didn’t check on the stadium’s rules about bags before I went, and ended up spending extra money to check my bag rather than take it all the way back to my car and risk missing the start of the game. But that decision paid off, because I was in my seat when Yordan Alvarez hit a home run almost over my head!

The game was great fun and the “good guys” won, although the home crowd might dispute that designation. 😉 When Altuve hit an RBI, a White Sox fan and an Astros fan seated in adjoining sections behind me got into a screaming match about whether he was a cheater. *eye roll* Probably a good thing they weren’t close enough to come to blows, and the Astros fan’s adult children persuaded their father to sit down.

At any rate, I was thrilled to watch them win!

Since I had already braved the traffic to get to downtown Chicago, I had to stop by the Art Institute and visit my favorite painting, “Song of the Lark” by Jules Breton.

I could write a lot about why I like it so much, but I think I’ll just let it speak for itself.

I wasn’t there long enough to see nearly everything in the huge museum, but I tried to sample art from around the world and throughout history rather than just sticking with the European Impressionists. I checked out some cool Japanese art, including this screen with morning glories on it.

I also liked the Miniature Room, which had dozens of dollhouse-sized recreations of rooms from several countries and historical periods.

And I was impressed with this very realistic ram statue from the early first century… a symbol of Jesus from the time of Jesus. (Of course the artist was probably a pagan who never heard of Jesus, but that’s beside the point.)

After the museum closed, I went down to sit on a bench by Lake Michigan and enjoy the view.

The city was wrapped in fog, but it’s the same mix of skyscrapers and parks and waterfront that I remember exploring in my college days. Lots of nostalgia.

Madelaine visited the Art Institute a couple of days later as part of her camp experience and sent me a pic of her own:

By that time, I was already headed north again toward my next destination in Minnesota. But that will have to wait for another entry!