50+ Lifestyles

In and Out of the Quad-Cities

Contributed by Gail McPike and Toni Hall

Winter in the Rear View Mirror

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, Dogs and Cats and 50+ Lifestyles editors of all ages… Spring has arrived. Merrily, allow us to proclaim, winter is dead. Just like Dorothy’s Wicked Witch and her nefarious flying monkeys, we are still on the watch for a nasty turn. But, for all intents and purposes, winter is in the rear view and summer is peaking up on the horizon.
As we sit in our perch high atop the 50+ Lifestyle tower writing this piece, we struggled with the direction. Should we go negative and revisit the bad tidings of our horrendous February or take the high road with thoughts of Spring and Summer? Don’t you just hate choices? But, the sun is out, birds are chirping off in the distance. Our amazingly playful black squirrels are happily locating fresh stashes of acorns somehow misplaced under giant piles of snow. What can we say, with a name like 50+, let’s push into the plus side of the seasons.

The warm weather allows us to move into the pedestrian side of life. Taking a brief walk around old haunts left mostly dormant over the refrigerated months of Winter, we are rediscovering some pretty cool stuff. And, like the explorers of old, we have stumbled onto some mighty cool new things.
The downtowns of our QCA continue to get cooler by the minute. Moline has become a hotbed of restaurants and nightspots. Taking a short walk with the John Deere Pavilion as our hub takes one though a plethora of sights and sounds. Current Trophy Husband Frank is especially drawn to the picture of Edgar Allan Poe and his famous raven at Dead Poet’s Espresso. We, on the other hand, hate hearing him quote the raven and would like to say, “never more” to his unrelenting quotes of the first stanza of that famous work. “Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary. Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore…” We kind of wish he would forget it. But that’s another story.

Speaking of pondering, we wonder if there is a more picturesque back door in the QCA (than the one at Dead Poets). We forgot how quaint some of the buildings are in the area.

Moving over to the edge of downtown Rock Island, we discover Rozz Tox. Part coffee shop, art studio, wine bar and music venue, this place is the epicenter for the new bohemian hipsters of the QCA. We went there for Bastille Day last year and revisited recently to check out the art of Johnnie Cluney. Johnnie is the artist, illustrator at Davenport’s Daytrotter, which is an internationally known music website. We took a walk around the neighborhood and discovered a couple of artist studios, a new restaurant and stumbled onto a little spot called the Polish Pub. Incidentally, one of the workers at the Polish Pub told us the owner is Irish; go figure.

Working our way over the Government Bridge, we find ourselves on the eastern edge of Davenport’s downtown. If you haven’t crossed over the bridge lately, you might have missed the remodel of that unsightly old gas station on Davenport’s Second Street. Parking very near the exit from the bridge, one can take in the incredible transformation of East Second Street. Great River Brewery is nationally renowned for their craft beers, old time root beers and interesting feel. The warmish spring day we walked by had their outdoor area teeming with folks of all ages and a wide assortment of kids, dogs and others.

Next door to the Brewery is the budding home of Artisan Grain Distillery. Yes, Virginia, Davenport now has its own distillery. Al Jarosz, the master distiller, gives tours and free samples of their newest product. The tour includes all the steps in distilling and a ton of historical facts on the area. For instance, the distillery building (built in 1900) was the first Buick dealership west of the Mississippi. And, the dealership was part of Davenport’s first urban renewal program; replacing seedy Bucktown saloons with modern horseless carriage technology.

While in the neighborhood, we stopped into Trash Can Annie’s Vintage Clothing. Think about it. This place specializes in antiques you can wear. One of our young friends with a high power job in the QCA wears fine men’s suits from the 1960s exclusively purchased here. We love the vibe, adore Laura the owner and hope to someday find that perfect flapper outfit for a fun party.

Can you tell the sunshine and blue skies are getting us jazzed up? We could go on and on but the big clock on the wall says it time to go. Those May flowers have got be here soon.