Hawkeye Point visit 7/7/05

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[Ed: Imported from Americas Roof ‘Summit Trip Reports’ forum]

[By: Mark James Mullins on August 1 2005 at 5:37 AM]

[Link: http://www.network54.com/Forum/198362/message/1122889069/Hawkeye+Point+visit+7-7-05]

This is a shortened summary of my trip with good friend C.D. and plastic action figure “Woody” from Toy Story of course (who attended Konvention and conquered IL with me in 2003, and to this point has attained all my HP’s with me. He will likely be retired to the future highpointer museum when he completes.)
The uncensored blog version of this and other HP, tri-pointing, boundary, and other adventures (due to language) will soon be available by request to my email, in which I’ll respond with a URL link. The site will include many pictures and likely some panoramas we’ve taken. I can be reached through cxdomains at yahoo dot com ..
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Hawkeye Point, IA (HP #4) “It’s all downhill from here!”
Waking up at 6:30AM in Sioux City, IA, we talked about both IA and ND HP’s and other travel, and seriously considered adding WI, MN, and MI since the trip was ahead of schedule. When I went downstairs to grab breakfast at 8:45, I quickly noticed a weather cut-in on the Omaha NBC affiliate of severe weather approaching the IA HP and told C.D. about it. We delayed departure a short while to allow the storm to pass. Sibley worked out excellent! The only thing I regret is not meeting Mrs. Sterler, the Hawkeye Point owner. Although C.D. and I didn’t know her number, we knocked at the door and didn’t get an answer. There were several cats playing around the porch, two of them were older kittens.

Because our visit would be a few minutes, we grabbed our cameras, tripod, GPS, and other goods to maximize the fun. On the way to the cattle trough, I noticed the clover blooms and it finally hit home how much shorter the growing season for clover is this far up in the midwest. It’s blooming in April in Arkansas, but almost becoming a meterology student, I quickly recalled how severe weather season is blooming when the clover does in Arkansas, and now it’s Iowa’s time as noticed just hours earlier, June and July their prime tornado months. After laying claim to my fourth HP, and first since Missouri in August, 2003 – I made a call on the cellphone to discover I was on an analog channel, one of the few instances to that point. After several more pictures on their farm, we signed the register and left some extra $$ for the souvenir keychains, mine of which I’m jealously guarding. We developed a quote shortly after the Hawkeye Point visit while still in the area. C.D. suggested “Hey, when you think of it, it’s all downhill from here!” and I agreed that “It’s all downhill from here!” should be noted on all future HP’s we do together whereever a registry exists.

Nearby, I had noticed active wind generators, the first large ones I’d ever seen in person. We left toward those generators to take pictures and noticed a small cemetary not far from the HP. Since Merrill Sterler had passed on the previous year, and I had not viewed his complete obituary, it was our curiousity to find out if he may be buried there. Although no grave or stone with his name was found, the cemetary revealed many other stories to us concerning local residents, some war heroes, and sadly – even some infant and youth deaths, so who says the dead never talk? We drove northward to the MN line where I entered it, taking pictures of it’s sign, then back to Sibley for lunch. Their Subway restaurant truly ruled the roost with superb food and service to boot! This continues the so-far-perfect record of Iowan hospitality toward me, the last instance being across the state at Dubuque when I stayed at least 2 days during IL 2003 Konvention.

Sibley has one of those rare road pressure sensors which switches one of the few traffic signals in the town. Iowans have plenty to be proud of, and this Arkie will help spread the word. I especially want to thank the Sterler family for being the ultimate HP’er hosts for so many years. Your generosity is well known within the HP’ing community, especially considering the registry entries. One of them truly stirred inspiration. It mentioned visiting the tallest man-made structure on the globe! I recalled the story of this North Dakota tower, but knew little else. A phone call to Becky in Little Rock with her internet access combined with our atlas gave us the answer and tools to get there.

From Sibley, it was into SD and ND into the late afternoon to grab pictures of the 2063′ KVLY-TV 11 tower between Fargo and Grand Forks. An interesting and unexpected change in our plans. Just remember, “It’s all downhill from here!”

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