The buses here are a little different, there are no bus stops. There are different hubs you can go to otherwise you stand on the corner of the street you know it is going to pass and just wave it down as it comes by. So headed over to where I knew it would be but somehow went too far and found myself on the wrong street. Being nice weather and wanting to look around anyways I just continued on my way on foot. From my sisters house to downtown Davenport it is about 1 1/2 miles so not too far. Along the way I saw an antique store that I stopped in. The guy had a lot of very interesting stuff to look at and the place was huge so many connecting rooms. I found some clear scrabble tiles, so you can see the points through the tile, that I thought my brother who collects scrabble games would like but then found out they were not official scrabble tiles just something one of his friends made so I passed. Further in I found some magazines with Michael Jordan on the cover. I knew my nephew would enjoy having one and one was reasonably priced so I purchased it for him.
I wondered through several other stores there in the downtown area looking at the interesting things they had. By then I was getting hungry and realized I didn't have a clue were to find a bus so I asked a woman on the street and she was very helpful pointing me toward the bus station hub. By the time I got there I realized I had missed my bus by 15 min and so I had another 45 min to wait. Instead of waiting at the bus stop I walked across the street to the visitors center. I like to collect magnets from the places I travel and still hadn't found a good one yet. Actually I hadn't found any that said Quad Cities or Davenport at all on my trip. So I walked over and this was the place. They had all kinds of things with the city names on it. I found a magnet and some stickers for when I scrapbook. I used to collect shot glasses from everywhere but since I don't drink alcohol anymore I decided to pass on getting one of those.
Back at the bus station I tried to start watching to learn about their bus system. Almost all of the busses go through the hub I was sitting at. This is also the place where the drivers seem to change busses. Almost every bus that came in the bus driver got off and a new one got on and then just rotated busses. The most interesting thing I found was when you pay your dollar to get on you can ask for a transfer. You can use your transfer all day but just not for the same bus. When you get on a second time you can have them mark which bus you are on and then you keep the pass. So you can ride all over all day as long as you use a different bus each time. I did have to pay the $2 because I was riding the same bus out and then back again but I thought that was a neat option.
When my bus arrived I rode it over to the East Village. By that point it was after 2pm and I hadn't eaten since 8am so I went right over to Lagomarcino's. When we were down there on Friday I had seen them advertise that they "had the best hot fudge in the universe" so I wanted to check them out. First I wanted lunch. Their menu listed about a dozen sandwhiches and I decided on the Reuben. The problem was it didn't list what was in the sandwiches and apparently I was too tired to think. I thought I was ordering a French Dip so when the Reuben came out I was surprised by what I ordered. I had made the mistake so I decided to eat it anyways. I have never had a Reuben, I have always been scared of the sauerkraut. It wasn't bad, actually I was so hungry at the time I would say it was really good. Though I still wouldn't call myself a fan of sauerkraut. While I ate I looked at all of the deserts they offered. These all had descriptions and many looked really good. I decided on a regular hot fudge sundae, I was there to try the hot fudge after all. They fill a tall sundae glass with vanilla ice cream with whip cream and a cherry on top and the hot fudge is in a small container on the side, like the kind they serve you syrup at Denny's in. I couldn't help but make a mess with this. I had eaten some of the ice cream to make room for the hot fudge but as I poured it on it melted the ice cream making hot fudge and ice cream pour over the sides. I would have thought they could come up with a better way to do this. And actually that explained why the table felt a little sticky when I sat down if people have no choice but to make a mess on the table. The ice cream and the hot fudge were delicious. I was sad when it was all gone but glad I had gone to try it.
Now that I had eaten I headed back out to look at the local shops. There was a cute store called Mint Green that had really cute clothes, though not my size. There was a toy store but it was closed, weird for 3 pm on a tuesday in my opinion. I stopped at the Soap Box and picked up some locally made lotion, a pumice stone for my feet, and a mini bar of oatmeal soap. A store called Almost Paris seemed a little to fancy for me and I left went to Blue Sky Gifts. There store was interesting. It had so many things to look at it was almost dizzying. Lots of knick knacks and toys for kids and odds and ends. The couple who runs the store is from AZ and I had a lovely conversation with them. I was almost hoping I would find something to buy so I could support their store but nothing really struck me so I left empty handed. That was the last store I saw to visit and my bus was coming soon so I walked to the corner to wait for it. I waived it down when I saw it and rode it back to my sisters neighborhood. Before I headed to her house I stopped at Walgreens to get a frame for the magazine I had purchased.
On the walk home it felt so hot and humid I wasn't sure if I was going to make it back. I had to walk about a half mile which is nothing compared to all the walking I had already done but it felt like it took forever. I was drenched in sweat by the time I got back to the house and only said hi to everyone before I jumped in the shower to cool and clean off. In that half mile walk home I was thinking how none of it was worth it and how stupid it was for me to go out. But today after a good nights sleep I know that I am glad I got out. I got to see things I couldn't with my 3 year old nephew running around and I met a lot of really nice people out in Davenport. Not that I have plans to go ride the bus again but it was an adventure I am glad I took.
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