Escapees March/April 2016

SKP Stops

“The studio looks like the scene we’ve seen on TV, an older brick building with a rusted, antique Nash automobile sitting out front.”

Photo by Meghan Aileen.

tourists are constantly arriving to visit. This place is not RV-friendly, so it’s best to arrive by tow vehicle. We stayed at Interstate RV Park (exit 292 on I-80) in Davenport, leav- ing our ¿ fth-wheel at the park. Entering the front door, the of ¿ ce is a little corner area staffed by a friendly young lady. We were hoping for a sighting of Danielle Colby, the multi-tattooed wheel- ing-dealing receptionist, but we didn’t see her or Mike and Frank. On TV, Danielle runs the of ¿ ce, but she wasn’t there for our visit. We looked over the antiques and collectibles in their stores (a second building next door holds more goodies). We don’t have a lot of extra space in our RV, so we passed on most of the “stuff,” but we enjoyed our outing to the pickers’ shop.

Iowa Travel Stops Antique Archaeology— American Pickers 115 ½ Davenport Street, LeClaire, IA 52753 563-265-3939 • www.antiquearchaeology.com

Driving I-80, we happened upon two tourist destinations in Eastern Iowa. We entered Iowa from Illinois via the Quad Cities (Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa, and Rock Island, Moline and East Moline in Illinois). At exit #306, Nick saw signage for the town of LeClaire, Iowa. He said, “Hey, that’s where American Pickers is ¿ lmed!” American Pickers is a TV series on the History Chan- nel. It’s about Mike Wolfe and his buddy, Frank Fritz, who travel around the U.S. looking for antiques to resell or remarket. They are known as “pickers” because they search, forage and pick through people’s old homes, barns, junkyards and vintage possessions looking for treasures. Their home studio is Antique Archaeology in LeClaire, Iowa. The studio looks like the scene we’ve seen on TV, an older brick building with a rusted, antique Nash automo- bile sitting out front. The parking is limited and tight, and

Buffalo Bill Cody Museum 199 N. Front St., LeClaire, IA 52753 563-289-5580 • buffalobillmuseumleclaire.com

LeClaire is the birthplace of Buffalo Bill Cody, the old Wild West showman, and the Buffalo Bill Museum is locat- ed there, also.

Photo by Meghan Aileen.

86 . ESCAPEES | March/April 2016 | www.escapees.com