We took a day trip to the Amanas with Bob’s granddaughter and her husband on a bright and sunny September day. Just over an hour’s drive on I-80 east of Des Moines, we turned off at Highway 151, exit 225, 5 miles south of the Amanas Loop. "Willkommen to the Amana Colonies" were the friendly words on a billboard at the intersection of 151 and the Amanas Trail. As did my brochure, the yellow route painted on the billboard map showed that we could turn either left or right to begin our loop. Since we wanted to end our day in Main Amana with a family-style meal at one of several restaurants there, we decided to begin from the opposite end. This route would bring us through five of the seven Amanas colonies.
The high quality of craftsmanship for which Amanas products are renowned was evident at both Schanz Furniture and Refinishing Shop, Krauss Furniture, and Clock Shop, next door to one another in South Amana. As we wandered through, admiring wooden handcrafted furniture for every room in the house; grandfather clocks; wall-hangings; and inventive, intricate toys, we realized we’d have to pick up our pace a bit when we still weren’t done after an hour. Krauss’s offers a self-guided tour of their workshop and finishing area. No assembly line here; every piece of furniture and clock is made by a skilled craftsperson from locally grown walnut, cherry, and oak. These are solid, elegantly styled, timeless pieces that are meant to be used daily and will last generations. Both stores sell online and ship anywhere.
Our first glimpses of Amanas humor were at Krauss’s: 10 small wooden contraptions on the sales counter. Example: A quarter pounder? A tiny gavel screwed to a clothespin, the head suspended above an indentation in a strip of wood containing a quarter. Squeeze the clothespin and the gavel pounds the quarter. OK, it’s a visual thing – cuter seen than described! In West Amana, we were to find a veritable treasure trove of belly laughs when we pulled over at the Broom and Basket Shop advertising "Home of Iowa’s Largest Walnut Rocker." It was big all right. Suddenly the four of us were acting like 5-year-olds, taking turns clambering up in the chair and taking pictures of each other. Look at those two tiny men, Jeff and Bob, on the right. 
Outdoors, a motley assortment of old farm equipment lay on display, with some ancient tractors partly imbedded in the dirt, with cryptic signs such as "You have to have a MM to keep the IH out of the mud." Bob’s granddaughter, Lee, found a buddy in the perpetual motion saw-guy, an old codger in a blue bandanna smoking a corncob pipe (see photo below). Up and down he went, not making much progress on the big old log in front of him.
Broomcorn and basket willows: Benjamin Franklin is credited with planting the first broomcorn seeds in the U.S. obtained in Hungary, originally from a sorghum-like African plant. Broomcorn is grown near the shop, but most of the U.S. broomcorn grows on in the Texas Panhandle, producing up to 25,000 tons yearly, enough for the more than 50 million broomcorn brooms sold every year in this country. The Broom and Basket Shop sells all kinds of brooms, including some special ones, such as the West Amana sideliner whisk broom, the old Amana Colony pot broom, and even witches’ brooms in several sizes and styles! Also of interest, the first Inspirationist immigrants brought a cultured variety of willow with them to America to make their baskets. The villages all had teams of basket-weavers to supply their basketry needs. Besides willow baskets, the shop also sells traditional splint oak and coiled straw baskets. Both of these old crafts are alive and well in the Amanas.
Get ready for winter at the Amana Woolen Mill, the only working woolen mill in Iowa. We visited the main salesroom in Amana, with an extensive collection of woolen items and so much more. Arrive before 4pm, as their looms run on the half hour until then. The work area is signed with simple explanations of such machinery as warping creels, reels, and computerized Sulzer looms, which can make a 6-foot blanket in 3 to 4 minutes!
You can watch a brief video about the history of the mill. Besides woolen blankets, clothing, and stuffed animals, there’s a large assortment of other attractive Amanas products, such as quilted cotton kitchen items, wall hangings, and calendars. Lee exclaimed, "I can hardly wait for it to get cold!" as she emerged from the shop with woolen blanket-robe, hat, and mittens for the upcoming harsh Iowa winter. If you don’t take Amanas loop, there’s another wool store outlet in Little Amana right on the I-80 at exit 225.
Amana and Maytag are well-known appliances synonymous with quality. I fondly remember the old Amana freezer handed down from my parents to me, finally sold when we began full-timing in our motor home. We drove by the Amana Refrigeration Products factory in Middle Amana. We didn’t stop, but heard you can visit a showroom exhibiting the history of appliances. Visit their website to view their line of products.
As usual, not enough time… Some shops we would have liked to visit but didn’t included Fern Hill Gifts and Quilts in South Amana; High Amana General Store in High Amana; and Schnitzelbank, Chocolate Haus, and Christmas Room in Main Amana. We’d also liked to have checked out one or more of the six wineries for some wine-tasting and Millstream Brewing Company, Iowa’s oldest microbrewery.