Click Your Heels 3 Times and Say There's No Place Like Home
July 15-21
This is it. We just need to cut across Wisconsin to get to the Mississippi River and travel north to the Twin Cities and Halyn will be home. As you know, Halyn is not fond of the actual road time. The normal five hour drive we will break up and take back roads for two days. I have always taken State Route 12, through The Dells and I have been on portions of State Route 14, but this is the first time I will travel from the western suburbs of Chicago to Minnesota on 14. The rest of this trip for me is traveling the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico and then across the gulf coast to SoFlo. I want to share a bit of it with Halyn before we part ways.
A county park outside of Madison is perfect for our first night. It is only 2.5 hours from my families home where we have been staying and there's not much I can do to keep this kid awake when she is done for the day. We'll rise early and travel west before Madison commuter traffic starts. Taking the state routes are definitely the slow route home, but state highways travel through the very heart of every town on its route. I feel that heart beat in the pavement under these tires.
Years ago living in Wisconsin, I did not know the full geological history and was completely unaware of the term Driftless. The Driftless Area is located in southwestern Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa, and northwestern Illinois. The area has been deeply carved by river valleys after having escaped glaciation in the last glacial period. While this area was never touched by glaciers, it is well known for its beautifully sculpted topography.
There is an abundance of wildlife and wildflowers that thrive in this area with the forests, prairie remnants, wetlands, and grasslands. Amish were the first to adopt this area and still farm the land today alongside a multitude of organic farmers.
i am in such appreciation of the spectacular blue sky as background for the steep, forested ridges and deeply carved river valleys. it takes my breath away. There are many small communities we pass through that offer historic buildings and beautiful photos ops, but it is in Prairie du Chien where we stretch our legs and grab an ice cream before heading north on the Great River Road- We actually bounce back and forth on the east and west banks along the Mississippi.
With its towering bluffs and majestic river views the routes are favorites of both drivers and bald eagles. Portions of the river here are two and three miles wide, dissected by hundreds of islands the form the vast upper Mississippi River National Wildlife Refuge. The interpretive centers completely capture Halyn's interests and she absorbs the history and science like a sponge.
We set up camp at a Corp of Engineer park- Blackhawk Campground on the river and we are off to see the interpretive center and bounce across the river into Lansing, Iowa before settling in for the night. Iowa is an unexpected destination to add to all the places we have been.
The next morning our camp host tells us it is worth the stop at the next interpretive center just south of Genoa, Wisconsin. We take a self-guided tour of a national fish hatchery which has nearly 70 acres of rearing ponds and works to protect endangered species,
We are tempted to stay out another night, but Halyn is excited to see her family. Up river we go. She is now researching on google every historical marker we pass. Like the one at the intersections at Battle Hollow Road where the marker describes the 1832 Battle of Bad Axe that ended in a massacre for Chief Black Hawk's Sauk and Fox followers.
She learned the tragic history of Maiden Rock. The bluff gets its name from an American Indian legend of a young Dakota woman who was in love with a young man but was being forced to marry another. In order to avoid marrying a man she did not love, she threw herself off the bluff and fell to her death. It's a sad story for such a lovely spot.
We get a chance to hop back on U.S. Route 14 for the last time. It is Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Highway, that marks the family's path. It all started in Wisconsin. Laura Elizabeth Ingalls was born on Feb. 7, 1867, seven miles north of the village of Pepin. These are the "The Little House in the Big Woods" years. Visitors to Pepin now will find that modern farms have tamed the wilderness: The big woods are gone, as is the original little house. But a replica log cabin, dubbed The Little House Wayside, stands on the land once owned by Charles and Caroline Ingalls.
We make a stop in Pepin to visit the museum and from here it is an hour drive to Halyn's home.
I'm not sure what moments are my favorite. It has been a trip to be remembered and cherished for both our lives. Halyn has many more bucket list destinations....She says her next Meme trip is to Paris.
Homeward Bound,
Catherine and Halyn