July 19th - Hampton, IL to Johnston, IA

​After exercising the dogs, we took a 20-minute drive over the Mississippi to a yoga studio in Bettendorf, IA. It had been a couple of weeks since our last yoga practice and our stiff muscles were screaming for relief from long hours on the road. The class was challenging and invigorating. 

Our audio book at present is "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee". After reading and reflecting about American pioneers (including our own ancestors) that settled the frontier in Virginia and Kentucky, we wanted to hear the other side of the story. It is a sad story of unsatiable greed, racism and broken treaties. There is no more apt word than "genocide" to describe America's overall treatment of the native peoples.

The book contains transcripts of impassioned letters by some American leaders who were shocked to witness these events and raised their voices to try and stop the cruelty. But the tidal wave of immigration, westward expansion and the discovery of gold combined to create an overwhelming political force that crushed any attempts to provide reasonable accommodations for the natives - even by well-meaning leaders like Ulysses S. Grant, who was the only president to appoint a native man to lead Indian Affairs. The book features many articulate and moving speeches by chiefs who desperately wanted to establish a fair peace, but who were betrayed and discredited again and again.

The book is another reminder of how easily we tend to de-humanize those whose interests run counter to our own. It is discouraging to see how self-righteous we can be. I think that is only with God's help that we will be able to overcome this dark side of our nature.

After driving across the low rolling hills of Iowa and navigating the thick traffic in Des Moines, we arrived at a Corps of Engineers campground situated along the spillway of a dam on the Des Monies River west of town. Our neighbors were a delightful local couple (Eric and Kate) who camp at this place every other week throughout the summer. Eric had been fishing at this spot for more than 40 years. They gave us directions to a small lake we walked to and took the dogs swimming.