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July 21-27, 2019
Bringing Halyn home and arriving in Minnesota means time with all the grandkids... all six before turning south and down the Mighty, Mighty Mississippi. We manage to squeeze in a good amount of activity and I get precious time with my son and daughter. Even though Erin and Chaz are in Minnesota, they live 3-4 hours away from each other and with work schedules, my son works weekends, it's difficult to rendezvous. We made this work!
all six kids- Trey, Halyn, Levi, Reed, Elidy, Myla
When I pull away, it still feels like I am leaving home. After 36 years, I suspect Minnesota will always feel like home.
On the road again and I never tire of driving the Great River Road. I am heading to Iowa to see what the western bank has in store for me. Highway 61 continues south along the Mississippi, with breathtaking views of sandstone cliffs. Lake City, on the shores of Lake Pepin (a widening of the Mississippi), was the birthplace of water skiing in 1922. Who knew?
A detour takes me for a short stint through rolling farmland up a bluff-top route, the Hiawatha Apple Blossom Drive that travels high above the Mississippi River, offering dazzling views of the river valley below.. I enjoy watching the ever changing landscape with stops for photo ops. i am heading to Effigy Mounds National Monument to explore and get in a much needed hike.
Lake Pepin
Effigy Mounds National Monument is located on the Mississippi River Trail Bikeway. The park is located just 3 miles north on the trail from Marquette, Iowa, and 10 miles south of Harpers Ferry, Iowa. The mounds preserved here are considered sacred by many Americans, especially the Monument's 20 culturally associated American Indian tribes. A visit offers opportunities to contemplate the meanings of the mounds and the people who built them. The 200 plus American Indian mounds are located in one of the most picturesque sections of the Upper Mississippi River Valley. The trails take me away from the river bank and high up on a bluff. Good for these legs and oh what a view!
A lot of folks don't think Iowa is as beautiful as this!
I turn away from the river for just a bit, because there is a road, yeah just a road, named Rollercoaster Road. I have to se see it.
From here, I am heading to my overnight spot at a Boondockers Welcome host- Hazelroad Hideaway in Elkport, Iowa. it's on a permaculture farm, a regenerative agriculture design. Kris and her family graciously put me up for two nights. I just need some time to shake the road weariness off, organize photos and journal. Chris is amazing with all she accomplishes all while dealing with some significant health challenges. She is even restoring a class A motorhome all by herself. We spend an afternoon discussing travel dreams and sharing a glass of wine. She introduces me to the horses, goats, chickens and rabbits. There's dogs and cats, but Lily and Molly consider coming along with me for the ride. Molly is an Irish Wolfhound, she'd need a van all for herself.
Rollercoaster Road just outside of Harper's Ferry, Iowa
I get an early start. I am going to Maquoketa Caves. Along the way I pass a beautiful monastery. The New Melleray Abbey was founded in 1849 by a group of six monks from Mount Melleray Abbey in Ireland. In the monastery is a community of Roman Catholic monks., who belong to the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, commonly known as Trappists.
It starts out as a misty morning and the promise of cool will make for good hiking at the caves. I am surprised as I find myself going through Dyersville, Iowa and passing the Field of Dreams movie set. It's early and much too early in the morning to tour this spot.
I arrive at Maquoketa Caves and there is only one other family there. Two dads and their two kids who have been on the road for 5 months in a Subaru camping in a tent! We turn different directions, so we both experience solitary self-guided tours of the maze of caves. The discovery of the caves in the 1830s revealed that Native Americans were present for possibly thousands of years. Incredible milk white stalactites once hung from the ceilings and stalagmites rose from the floor. Unfortunately souvenir hunters have robbed the caves of this rare beauty, but some formations still remain.
I am going to get back out on the river and find a spot to make some breakfast before continuing on. The views are ever changing as I pass through the small Iowa towns that mark my drive–Dubuque, Bellview, Pleasant Creek, Green Island and at Sabula, an island in the middle of the river, I will cross to the other side and stay at a Corps of Engineer camp in Savanna, Illinois. I'll catch up with you again then.
“One who knows the Mississippi will promptly aver—not aloud, but to himself—that ten thousand River Commissions, with the mines of the world at their back, cannot tame that lawless stream, cannot curb it or confine it, cannot say to it, Go here, or Go there, and make it obey; cannot save a shore which it has sentenced; cannot bar its path with an obstruction which it will not tear down, dance over, and laugh at.” ― Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi
Onward,
Catherine