Day 6 on our way from Chicago toward Rapid City, South Dakota

            Sunday worship service in Monona, Wisconsin

When we started out this morning, I went online and tried to find a church service we could go to that fit in our travel schedule and route.  It was a bit of a challenge because the towns close by had later service times and the ones further away all seemed to have earlier service times.  We settled on "Cavalry Bible Fellowship" in Monona, Wisconsin,  just off our route and when we got the camper situated in the little parking lot, and walked in the building, the intro music had just started!  We had to laugh about the timing. Then we realized it was God's timing!  It was a wonderful worship service and the sermon was about the function of the Holy Spirit in the church.

While speaking to the pastor after the service, we learned about a Christian couples RV work ministry that really caught our imaginations.  It's called "Sowers" -- RV with a Purpose.  It's mostly retired people who travel to places around the country and provide help to Christian organizations with new construction or building and property renovation and maintenance.  They serve on projects and ministries such as orphanages, schools, missionary retreat centers, homes for abused children, and recovery homes for adults. We are already considering looking into participating in a 3 week project next September!
                                    Grandpa Bluff in Lacrosse, Wisconsin
We postponed lunch to visit this point of interest.  The bluff looks over Lacrosse, Wisconsin and the Mississippi River into Minnesota. The historical significance is  that some pioneer missionaries climbed to this bluff in 1850 and celebrated "the first complete service of Christian divine worship conducted in La Crosse".

                                           Overlooking Lacrosse, WI and Mississippi River

                                   Some pretty fall flowers at Grandpa's Bluff
                                         

                                                    Henry Ford Academy

Something I wanted to learn about when we were at the Henry Ford Museum.  Vernon and I were at an outdoor frozen custard stand on Main Street in the Greenfield Village part of the Henry Ford Museum complex.  We were in line with some high school students who had t-shirts on referencing the Henry Ford Academy.  We asked one of the students where the Academy is located and she told us that it's on the Henry Ford Museum campus and that in the local Detroit county (Wayne County) where she lives there is a lottery to see who may go to this school.  Most of the students at the custard stand were African American.  I wanted to know more.

The Henry Ford Academy website describes it:
"It's a college prep high school (grades 9 - 12) located inside the Henry For Museum and Green field Village and surrounded by the campus of Ford Motor Company.  Students come from districts within Wayne County, as well as private, parochial, and home schools.  This model partnership focuses some of the best thinking from the business, non-profit, and public education worlds toward the common goal of building a school that prepares students for life in the 21st century."

They have launched three other schools based on the Henry Ford Academy model in Detroit, Chicago and San Antonio.  I read that at the Dearborn (Henry Ford Museum campus) 88% of the students go on to college.
                                                                   
"Henry Ford Learning Institute is an innovative nonprofit organization dedicated to the belief that education reform cannot take place within an educational system that isolates students and teachers from the community and separates teaching and learning from the real world.  We envision a future where public education becomes a truly public endeavor, engaging a community to create vibrant educational models, leverage underutilized local resources, and  remove boundaries between learning  and the real world.  To this end, HFLI creates innovative small schools that bring national and local community resources into the educational process and help to create thriving communities where education in everyone's responsibility"




                                                           Pictures of machines 
                                      
This part of the blog is for my grandson, Owen who loves all kinds of big machines.  Owen, we took some of these pictures while we were driving in our truck and some of them we took at a museum.  See if you know what these machines are!

                                                                     Red dump truck

                                                         Double dump truck, back hoe, and a roller

                             Track hoe (a back hoe on tracks instead of wheels), and a dump truck

                                                                            A crane

                                                                      Another crane

                                                                    Ford race car

                                                         a track hoe

                                                         This very big locomotive is taller than your house!
                                          Can you find Grandpa Vernon in this picture?  See how little he looks
                                         next to this big train!  It could pull many, many train cars - a MILE of train                                             cars!

                                   That's Grandpa Vernon next to this train.
                                                   
Good night Owen,  sweet dreams!