Days 23 to 25 - July 21-23 - Spooner (WI) to Prairie du Chien (WI) and McGregor (IA)
True journeys have lives of their own, like rivers; always moving, thunderously or gently, on a natural, inevitable course; influenced by unseen forces, carrying debris to be deposited elsewhere, smoothing rough edges along the way. If we let them they will shape and transport us in ways we'd never experience from the shore.
Sometimes I"m a slower learner, but it is coming to me that I do not have to be "on the road" "making miles" to be on this particular journey. Every once in a while I recognize the need for time off the road. To hang out in a back eddy taking time to explore vs ride through the places this river takes me. So when the chance arises to spend more time with my riding mate from Yellowstone days, it is the perfect opportunity to be stationary.
Craig and I spent the beginning part of my trip together riding and exploring Grand Teton, Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks and up into Alberta. We mused that this week long "second date" might be hard to top. We shared easy laughter, great conversations, smooth transitions between road and camping, open and frank discussions about destinations and routes and a special comfort and playfulness that is not so easily found. When it became possible to cross paths again we were both keen for a 'third date'.
The consensus is to choose a spot and stay put for a few days to spend more time hanging out together vs on our respective bikes. My time being more open, we chose a rendezvous point on his route home and with a name that amuses me...Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. Who doesn't want to visit "Prairie Dog" en Francés ??
A moderately long highway day is made more interesting by the promise of heavy rain. I even hide out in a McD's for a couple hours trying to avoid the worst of it. Truth is I don't really mind riding in the rain. As long as it's not overly cold then I'm good to go. Gortex, fleece layer, ski gloves and "waterproof socks" (aka bread bags gleaned from Karl's recycling) donned, I head down the highway.
By the time I arrive in PdC, a muggy sun is making a sauna of all my soggy layers! Happily shedding gear, I greet my off-the-road mate and we start the search for a 'home base' campground. I'd seen an amusing billboard for Spook Cave Campground located across the Mississippi in Iowa and so we head a little more west. The campground is immaculate and scenic with its star attraction being a boat tour in caves that go a mile or so into the mountain. (which we heard was great, but unfortunately didn't manage to catch)
Yes, the Mississippi River !! I have the pleasure of her company once again. Only now she is a wide, powerful wildlife and transportation corridor, not the meandering brook I met in northern Minnesota.
We enjoy touristing in McGregor, IA and Prairie du Chien, WI including a proper 'dinner and movie' date, wandering around the historic town of McGregor and a Mississippi river boat tour with a fantastic guide, Captain Robert Vavra, who has made his living on the river most of his life.
Bob is a passionate, wealth of knowledge and we learn all kinds of interesting facts about life in and on the river (including but definitely not limited to)...
-> normally the bird watching is exceptional but because of a recent mayfly hatch there are very few birds around the afternoon of our tour. The suspicion is that they are sleeping of the feast, much like us after thanksgiving turkey dinner.
-> there was a high-end supper club and resort in the 50s (?) on one of the islands which operating into the 70s. The hydro tower can be seen in the first photo. There are still private cottages on the islands that dot the river.
-> there was a prolific and lucrative button industry on the Mississippi in the late 1800s making Iowa the "button capital of the world" for a time. The picture below shows where button "blanks" were punched out of mussel shells and then fashioned into world class 'mother of pearl' buttons. The river also spawned a cultured pearl industry as well as manufactured 'pearl' buttons made from square 'blanks' tumbled into round 'pearl' buttons. http://www.iptv.org/iowapathways/mypath.cfm?ounid=ob_000031
He also quoted staggering stats on the commercial shipping traffic and commodities on the river as well as her impact on building codes causing houses to be built on stilts well above the highest flood mark.
An impressive lady indeed!
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