By Rachel Warmke, rwarmke@qconline.com

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Photo: Paul Colletti Three years after President Obama took office Al Elsbree still keeps an Obama campaign sticker inside his wallet. On Sunday Mr. Elsbree and his wife, Cathie, traveled from Galena to Alpha where they had lunch before trying to get tickets for the President's upcoming visit.

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Photo: Paul Colletti American flags on homes and in the business district in Alpha will greet President Obama when he visitis the area on Wednesday.

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Photo: Paul Colletti Country Corner owner Bruce Curry is excited about President Obama's visit this coming Wednesday. Mr. Curry is sure the successful role his business plays in the local community helped determine the Presidnet's choice to appear there.

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Photo: Paul Colletti The County Corner Farm Market north of Alpha is busy preparing for President Obama's visit on Wednesday.

The call from the White House came last Wednesday.Out in the field picking watermelons, Bruce Curry, owner of Country Corner in Alpha, scarcely could believe it.

"If you shoot me an email, I'll check the email after I get done picking watermelons," he told the White House.

A batch of picked fruits later, Mr. Curry' s disbelief transpired into awe when he discovered it was true: President Barack Obama was coming for a visit.

The president is slated to host a town meeting Wednesday at Country Corner, located two miles north of Alpha on U.S.150, about 20 miles south of the Quad-Cities. The business will serve as the last stop on the president's bus tour through the Midwest. Earlier in the day he will visit Atkinson, off Interstate 80 about 20 miles east of the Quad-Cities.

"It's probably the usual reaction -- we didn't believe it was going to happen. We're like, 'Somebody's playing a joke on us,' " said Country Corner's zookeeper and education tour guide, Jacky Lindstrom.

Since then, Mr. Curry and a host of family members and friends have been working at all hours painting the company's buildings, mowing lawns and doing yardwork in preparation.

"It's unbelievable isn't it? Just a good ol' boy in Western Illinois (who) has a successful agri-tourism farm, and the president chose to come here," Mr. Curry said Sunday at Country Corner, calling the visit, "the chance of a lifetime."

Mr. Curry was given the responsibility by the White House of picking 300 community members to attend the invitation-only event. Mr. Curry said the guest list includes members of his family, local community leaders from around Henry County, Alpha, New Windsor and Woodhull, members of area farm bureaus as well as employees of Country Corner.

"I think everybody's really excited -- whether you're Republican or Democrat, it's still the President of the United States," said Mr. Curry's niece, Carisa Groth, who was at CountryCorner Sunday with her husband, Brandon, to help her family prepare for the big day.

Mr. Groth, who is planning on attending the town meeting, said he hoped to ask the president about his plan for helping business. "As far as lowering the national debt, obviously that's a big problem here," he said. Also vital, he said, is "keeping business-friendly policies -- giving businesses assurance that he's going to be an advocate for them in Washington and promote job growth and job creation." He added it also was important to keep taxes low and allow for businesses to hire and expand easily.

Mr. Curry said he, too, is concerned about job production and unemployment in small areas. "You know, I'm a little nervous about the new health care program and small business owners and, you know, the responsibilities that could be financially put on me to provide health care," he said of his growing company.

His business rose from humble beginnings, selling road-side pumpkins on his family farm at the age of 12 and collecting profits in a coffee can. At its current location since 1997, Country Corner -- which boasts locally grown fruits and vegetables, picnic grounds and hay rides -- employs 22 people, including six full-time employees. The business makes $425,000 annually, Mr. Curry said.

He added that with the summer's long bout of hot, dry weather, he is concerned about his crops. "I'm gonna ask the president when he's here what he can do to help me get a little rain," he said with a laugh.

And after overhearing the president is a fan of watermelon, the Country Corner owner said he has big plans to give the nation's chief executive a few of his own locally-grown ones.

Just down the highway Sunday at Alpha Lanes & Restaurant, Larry Lauallen, of Woodhull, said he wasn't looking forward to the president's arrival. "He's done nothing as far as policy or helping the people who are out of work, and now he's going to focus on jobs? It's a little bit too late -- he's been in office for over two and a half years," Mr. Lauallen said.

"Why is he going to run again for president when he hasn't done nothing that he said he was going to do?" Mr. Lauallen added that he believed the Republican Party has been blamed unfairly for many things.

At the next table over, Cathie and Al Elsbree were ecstatic about the president's upcoming visit. The couple, of Galena, Ill., was on their way to an education conference and stopped in Alpha for lunch with the hope of procuring tickets for Wednesday's town meeting.

Mrs. Elsbree praised the president for putting money into education, new energy sources and technologies, as well as granting equal work for women and health insurance for American citizens. She said she is frustrated with the appearance that the Republican Party's goal is to make President Obama "a one-term president."

"We think he's done everything possible, given the cards he was given," said Mrs. Elsbree as her husband displayed the Obama sticker he keeps stuck to his wallet.

"Hang in there," Mrs. Elsbree said she would tell the president If given the opportunity.

The president kicks off his bus tour today with a town hall event in Cannon Falls, Minn., followed by a second session in Decorah, Iowa. Information from the White House stated the tour also will include a Rural Economic Forum at Northeast Iowa Community College in Peosta, Iowa, on Tuesday.

On Wednesday the tour concludes with town meetings in Atkinson at 11:30 a.m. and Alpha at 3:30 p.m.

While the Alpha event is by invitation only, the general public is invited to the president's town hall in Atkinson.Tickets are required for the free event and will be available starting at 8 a.m. today at Wyffels Hybrids Inc., 740 E. Henry St., Atkinson. The tickets, limited to two per person, will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis.