The Agricultural Core

In my latest adventure, I traveled to a region known as The Agricultural Core. This region extends from Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri all the way over to New York and Ontario in Canada. This region is known for its agriculture. This includes crops, livestock, and even forestry. This is the most productive region in both Canada and the United States for agriculture which you can tell by the name of this region. In my first stop on this trip, I stopped by John Deere Pavilion in Moline, Illinois.

John Deere Pavillion is where John Deere the major manufacturer for farming equipment has its main headquarters. The Pavillion is the main visitor center where visitors can learn more about John Deere and the history of the company. They also have a museum full of different tractors throughout the history of John Deere which was very cool to see. They also did a very good job of teaching you about the man you created the company and that was John Deere. You are able to learn about how he created the first plow and how his company got started in 1837.

When I got to John Deere Pavilion I saw a lot of people who were from the city life and I could tell that they were interested in learning more about farming and tractors. I also saw some people who I thought were farmers and were really interested in the tractors and going on about all the facts they knew about each different tractor. I was really interested because I thought that I knew a lot about John Deere but I truly didn't and this was a learning experience for me. This connects to the region very well in that it is an agriculture company that calls this region home. You can't go far anywhere in this region without seeing a John Deere tractor or something related to John Deere.

John Deere Pavilion

Inside John Deere Pavilion 

In the second stop on this trip through The Agricultural Core, I went to Jackson Minnesota. There I toured the manufacturing plant of where they make AGCO Tractors. It was an interesting place to check out because I had never seen how a tractor had been made before. The people who work there are hard workers and definitely show pride in what they do and that is putting tractors together. They also had a nice visitor center that goes over the history of AGCO Tractors.

On the tour, there were a lot of people who were interested in the tour seeing how the tractors were put together. It was like many other factory tours I had been on before. There were a lot of people interested and a lot of things were cool to them so that was fine to me. This connects to the region well because of the part of manufacturing tractors and using them heavily in this region. I will definitely not forget this trip to the region. I was definitely interested in learning more about agriculture.

Workers working on the tractors.


The AGCO Visitor Center in Jackson MN.

The Great Plains

In my recent traveling adventure, I went to the region known as the Great Plains. This region extends from Alberta in Canada all the way down to Texas along the Mexican Border. This region is known for its grasslands that cattle graze, mountains, some forests, and the wide openness of this region. On this trip, I got to check out some really interesting things that can be related to this region. My first stop was in South Dakota to check out Mount Rushmore. This attraction attracts people from all around the country.

In my first stop, I went to Mount Rushmore which is a rock carving of four of Americas greatest presidents. Each of these men helped America in some great way. These men on the carving are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Rosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. It was constructed in the 1940's by Gutzon Borglum and his son Lincoln. The type of rock that they were carved out into was a rock called granite. It took over 15 years to complete as it was a long drawn out process to carve the rocks. It also was put on hold because of the Great Depression in the 1930's. The project ended up getting completed in 1941. Gutzon had died before it was able to be completed so his son Lincoln finished it. There had also been talks about creating a museum up in the carvings and putting the U.S. Constitution and other documents there but that never happened.

When we got there we saw a lot of people excited and taking pictures from the observatory. You could also rent binoculars from the park service. I saw a lot of American Flags hung everywhere and people American themed clothing. People were very happy to show pride in their country and celebrating history by checking out this historic site dedicated to the presidents. This site is very important to the region as it attracts people to it and helps keeps it on the map.

This is Mount Rushmore from the Observatory Deck.

This is the hole where the museum would have been built on top of the Mountain. 

In the second part of my trip in this region, I stopped by Yellowstone National Park to see a geyser known as Old Faithful. It is a cone geyser that was found during an expedition to the area in 1870. It was also the first geyser to receive a name that is located in the park. It is the most popular geyser in the park and you never know when it is going to go off. If you are there when it does go off it is pretty cool to see. The trick is you never know when it might go off, though.

When I went there I saw a lot of people excited to see if Old Faithful would go off. I spent about two hours at the location and I was luckily able to see it go off. People started cheering in excitement because the thing that they had come to see happened. I was excited too because I thought that it probably wouldn't have gone off while I was there. This geyser helps bring a lot of people to the region and is truly one of the things that help put this beautiful park on the map. I think that this park is truly my favorite.

                                                              Old Faithful

Yellowstone National Park


Overall I enjoyed this region. I didn't see to many people but I saw a lot of the landscape of America. Which is something that I really enjoyed seeing. I will return to this region soon I think.

My Visit to The Bypassed East

This week I got to travel to the region known as The Bypassed East. This region extends from the upper part of New York all they way over to Newfoundland in Canada. This region is known for its vast wilderness, lots of trees, and not too many people. Most of the people in this region live around the metropolitan areas and there are not even as many of those in this region. The main sources of jobs also come from the land such as jobs in fishing and logging.

In this region, one of the coolest places that I was excited to tour was Oak Island off the Coast of Nova Scotia. It is not really much of a big island but what makes this Island so popular is that it is known for its over 220 searches for treasure in the shaft known as the money pit. The shaft was discovered in 1796 by three friends when they started digging in the ground and found circular wooden logs at intervals of 10 feet. At 90 feet down the hit a booby trap which set off the flood tunnels that had been built on the island to protect the treasure. It is still undetermined who put the treasure there but it is definitely one of the most interesting treasure hunts in the world. I got to go on a private tour with one of the current treasure hunters on the Island Rick Lagina. He showed me where they believe the money pit to be and some artifacts that they had found that could help relate to the puzzle of who put the treasure there. I was very interested and I got the feeling that this is something I would not want to do because Rick seemed very stressed out. He was over millions of dollars in debt and hadn't found much yet. He was so patient which is something I'm not good at. As for now the Island's secrets remain hidden but they will be revealed someday.

This is an ariel view of Oak Island.

This is a picture of the money pit area. 

Oak Island is significant to this region because it gets it out there in the world that it takes it's home in the region of the Bypassed East. Even FDR came to the island to look for treasure. It attracts people from the world to wonder if they could be a treasure hunter but it is harder than it looks. Oak Island will continue to capture the minds of everyone until one day the treasure is found. 

After a few days of travel, I went to Prince Edward Island where I got to see some of their farms. It was very interesting to see as they were a lot similar to the farms in the United States. The farms seemed very warm and it was like it was a very good place to take a picture. On the countryside, we saw a lot of cattle grazing the land. It was so nice and relaxing to watch as I traveled by car through the countryside. I could see the farmers out in their fields tending to their crops working very hard throughout the day. I felt like I was the laziest person there by just watching them but I was just a plain old tourist. I was very excited so see this because I was really able to get some good pictures. Throughout the day I made a few stops at the farms and talked with the farmers. I was mainly looking to take pictures of old barns but they offered more than that. They were very nice and were willing to let me take a look at their place. They even offered me dinner so I stayed to eat with them. 

This is one of the farms I saw on the island. 

These are few farmers that I met that shared their strawberries with me. They tasted good!

What makes this so significant to the region is that shows there a lot of agriculture in this region. Probably more than we would have thought before. These families have a history of these farms and I think that they will continue to farm for many years to come. It was great to see what they had to offer to the Bypassed East. I think the region will not be forgotten about much longer. I was very happy with this trip and it was personally a great experience. 

Canada's National Core

In my most recent journey, I traveled to a region in Canada known as Canada's National Core. This region stretches from the southern part of Ontario to the southern part of Quebec. This region is very interesting in the fact that there are two different languages that are spoken here. These languages are French and English. In Quebec the reason that the people still speak French there is because it is a way for the people to keep their culture alive. Quebec was once a part of France and then lost all contact with France when it was no longer present in the new world. On this trip, I checked out a couple of cool places and the first stop was in Montreal Quebec.

The first stop that I checked out was a part of the city in Montreal that was the oldest part of the city. It is known as Old Montreal. There were a bunch of really old buildings, cobblestone streets, and even a horse and buggy. While walking around this part of the city we heard a lot of people speaking french and doing typical business that they would do in the city. I got to ride in a carriage pulled by a horse which was a really cool part to get the feeling of what it would have been like to live here in the past in the old city with horses for transportation. While in the carriage we saw old buildings that had a lot of lights and were made of stone. You could tell that they were old because they had that old feeling to them. The streets were made of cobblestone also which was very cool because you don't see that too much anymore. All you could hear were people speaking French. I definitely felt out of place because I only knew how to speak English. Luckily the people were very nice, though.

In this picture, you can see the horse and buggy ride that I got to take through this part of town. 

There are a few of the buildings I saw towards the end of the day. 

This part of Montreal was a very interesting part to see. They way that it fits in with this region is because it shows the French heritage that is still present in this region today. Quebec has not always been on good terms with Canada but it still remains part of the country. Besides their language, the people of Montreal do their best to keep their heritage alive today. Now people like us are able to see what it would have been like to be here back then. 

After a few days, we traveled to Ottawa, Ontario to see Parliament Hill which is legislation for Canada is held. We got to tour  Parliament Hill and see all the cool things inside it. There were a lot of statues and paintings just like you would see in the capitol of the United States. We saw a lot of members from the different parties in parliament and none of them really had time to talk to the tourists. They were more concerned about being on their way to their next event then noticing us. This made me upset! When we talked to the tour guide the told us about the process of how laws are passed. It was a lot different than in the United States but in a lot of ways, it was similar. 

This is a picture of Parliament Hall in Ottawa. 

   

This is a picture of Parliament Hall inside. 

Parliament Hall is a very important part to this region. It gives Canada's National Core worldwide attention as it is home to Canada's capital. It was also interesting to see their lawmakers they seem a lot like politicians in America. Always snotty and not nice at all. I will definitely never forget this trip. My favorite part was listening to people speak French and seeing all the old cool buildings throughout this region. 

My Visit to The North American Manufacturing Core

On one of my most recent travels I traveled to the region between Canada and the United States known as the North American Manufacturing Core. This region stretches from Milwaukee, Wisconsin all the way to the East Coast. This region has to most manufacturing out of any other region in the United States and Canada.

On this trip I toured the Ford Rogue Plant in Deerborn, Michigan. I got to see how the Ford Rogue is made and it truly a very long but fast process. It was cool to see how they make the F-150 Truck. There are a lot of parts that go into making the truck. More than I would ever think. All the workers were working hard on putting together the certain parts of the truck. It was cool to see how hard to workers were working to get things done. We were told that they had a certain quota to meet for the day in trucks assembled so they couldn't be slow and there was no chance for error. The tour was about 2 hours but it was very interesting to see the final product at the end. After that we went across town too tour the museum which talked about the history of Ford. It was really interesting to see how one man turned his name into a vehicle empire.

This is a Ford truck being looked over for the final details. 

This is the Ford Rogue Plant. 

It was very cool to see this because I had always wondered what it would take to build a truck. I drive a Chevy but it was cool to see how Ford has manufactured trucks in the region known as the North American Manufacturing Core. This is just one of many factories that calls this region home. Their are certainly many other factories produce cars, but other produce goods such as steel, air conditioners, and appliances.

The after a few days we went to the United States Mint in Philadelphia to see how they make the coins that are currency. This tour was truly the tour of a lifetime as we got to see how coins are currently minted and we also learned how they go through the process of making the coins. First, is blanking so cutting out the coins of the metal to form the circular shape. Second, is to anneal the coin to make it soft. Third, is upsetting to make the edges rigged on the coin. Fourth is striking which is putting the coin through the press. The coins are then inspected and if they don't meet the requirements then they are destroyed. They then count and bag the money and get ready to send it to send it to the Federal Reserve and then the local banks.

This is a picture of the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia. 

This connects to this region with the manufacturing of money. It was truly an incredible experience to tour this cool place. I now know what it takes to make actual money and how tedious the process is. The workers there are very focused on their jobs and don't want to mess up because the standards are very high.

On this trip it was interesting to learn how somethings are made here in America. From trucks to money they both are very important to the United States and Canada. Manufacturing will definitely remain strong in the United States and Canada as their is a great need for it and always will be.