This particular stop along the way was one that I had been looking forward to for some time. After reading about the True Inspirationists and their communal living I was interested in seeing how they had made it work for so long. I will start you off with the evening we arrived as it could be the funniest part of the trip. I had been racing the sun the whole way there and although I was determined to arrive before sun down, I sadly did not. And once it went down it headed there fast. By the time that I got to the gate of the RV park and campground it was so dark it was hard to see too far infront of me. The campsite map was taped to the front of the office door with my campsite circled. I followed the map into the campgrounds and headed toward our site. Now I feel that it is important to paint the entire picture for you. We have been driving in Amana for a bit and the closest home was several miles back. As we are driving into this site in the dark there are very few trailers or RVs around. Most of them are pretty close together near the front. As we are driving in further and further there is almost no one around. We then past two metal buildings and head back to a completely secluded area which happens to be near the road. It was a bit creepy to say the least.
However, we set up the tent and got the sleeping bags in there. I get out my phone to call my husband to let him know where I was. After all if we disappear in the night the police would need to have some place to start looking. I am pulling out the cooler and duffel bags. I can't find my phone. I start searching with a flash light and now have emptied almost all of the contents of the truck onto the grass. NO PHONE! I remembered seeing some pay phones back by the metal buildings. So we leave everything and head back to the buildings. I put in $1.50 because it was long distance and no sound is heard. The last place to look is the office as I know that I had it then. So we load back into the truck and headed back to the office. Pulling up I see the glimmer of metal against the gravel and breath the biggest sigh of relief.
Then I called Joe and let him know where the police should start their investigations in the morning.
Next morning we headed into Main Amana to start our journey. We watched a short video on the history of the Amana colonies. Here is a link to the history if anyone is interested.
http://www.amanacolonies.com/history.htm
It is hard to truly express the Amana colonies into writing. Many parts of the colonies are like stepping back into time a hundred years or more. The general store had the general ledger showing how they ran accounts. The colonist got credit at the store to use each year. They also got weekly food supplies. Although, most of their meals were eaten communally. While visiting the communal kitchen we learned that this was mostly for the adults. The children would be fed at home as the meals were not social occasions. The adults were given 15 minutes to eat and then go to work.
The other thing that I found was remarkable was that their children were in school year round, six days a week. Before school age the children would go to kinderschool. Which was basically a daycare. The daily schedule for a mother would be to feed her children and then drop them off, head to eat, and then work until about noon. From noon to two she would take her children home and feed them. They would rest until it was time to go back to work for the rest of the day.
The Amana colonies were filled with faith, devotion, and a lot of hard work. We still have ruminates of their beginnings in our homes today in the form of Amana appliances, some furniture, and some toys. Their culture is amazing story and well worth visit.
Once we had visited the Tractor Museum we headed west to Mt. Rushmore. Which mainly consisted of a lot of driving and road weary travelers.
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