tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36520258889066658582024-02-07T19:29:09.843-08:00The Places I WasRamblings from a bicycle trip down and up the Great River Road from the Twin Cities to the Quad Cities and back in May of 2013. Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3652025888906665858.post-39471632034683477402015-03-24T16:17:00.001-07:002015-03-24T16:17:16.927-07:00The Great River Road - Bicycle Journy Part II<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Images from a bicycle trip up the Great River Road from the Quad Cities to the Twin Cities. May 2013. </span><br />
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<br />Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3652025888906665858.post-18135856782266341332015-03-24T16:13:00.001-07:002015-03-24T16:13:17.255-07:00The Great River Road - Bicycle Journey Part I<span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; line-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Images from the bike trip down the Great River Road from the Twin Cities to the Quad Cities in May of 2013. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #555555; line-height: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3652025888906665858.post-91118725562492530642013-05-29T20:53:00.000-07:002013-05-29T21:22:26.582-07:00Saturday May 25th – Lake City almost to Hastings<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoP1LYY8YRad5tMOR8hygJyQZn2E-8HHxhXeqCu2r0mSTGSOFXHN-D14dG2_GWz66fKIbLAdgrla7zqfWdiVcWffL61U8AU-_Je6gMbcTRnhs5cVNMrYlZMzG9ruWSkd3savRt3ioSwwKL/s1600/DSCN0177.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoP1LYY8YRad5tMOR8hygJyQZn2E-8HHxhXeqCu2r0mSTGSOFXHN-D14dG2_GWz66fKIbLAdgrla7zqfWdiVcWffL61U8AU-_Je6gMbcTRnhs5cVNMrYlZMzG9ruWSkd3savRt3ioSwwKL/s200/DSCN0177.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I woke up a bit late and disappointed that it was already 8
am, but the extra sleep felt good. I
performed my morning ritual of quick eating, packing, and then I was out the
door of the Sunset Motel. It was cloudy
and looked like rain and there was a strong wind out of the south, which would
mean a nice tail wind. This could be a
day of miles I thought as I passed the guy cleaning the pool. I talked briefly with the pool guy and the
two folks watching him about my trip and asked if the pool was heated. Found out it was, but he mentioned that he
had just fired up the heater that morning – probably in hopes of attracting
some Memorial Day weekend travelers. I
also said so long to the guy who lived in the apartment above the motel lobby
as he looked down on me from his second story deck. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiHsl7UfyTVsAexywIqmo1ROawnbCK2T3YvYbfF-P5E4p1JzNMLdExhmWudk1kXvikaeHFQ9oyD3LjkrnhDaPRg41Ag-HhdZ5TD31BHSvdIqmpeIBOGmVc2GvVsE26WbIiQSJqZ-TkfjkC/s1600/DSCN0184.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiHsl7UfyTVsAexywIqmo1ROawnbCK2T3YvYbfF-P5E4p1JzNMLdExhmWudk1kXvikaeHFQ9oyD3LjkrnhDaPRg41Ag-HhdZ5TD31BHSvdIqmpeIBOGmVc2GvVsE26WbIiQSJqZ-TkfjkC/s200/DSCN0184.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">Lake Pepin was choppy as I headed north along its shores,
and with the wind to my back I picked up speed easily and knew what it must
feel like to be sailing one of the sailboats tied up the docks I passed. The paddle boat the Pearl of the Lake, was not yet out giving excursion rides,
the early morning and gray skies must have put a damper on tourists desires to
get out on a morning boat ride around the lake.
A bill board on the way out of town reminded me, per 1 Thessalonians
5:18, “In Everything give Thanks…”, so I did – particularly for the tail
wind. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Further down the road as I neared
the boundary of Frontenac State Park, there was another sign stuck by the side
of the road exclaiming “Save the Bluffs.
Stop Silica Sand Mining”. Sand
mining was definitely perceived as a threat by many folks who lived along the
shores of the Mississippi River as it passed through Minnesota and Wisconsin
based on the number of signs I saw on my adventure. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">There was also a large pile of trees that been cut down and
stacked up along the road side as the road passed through the Park. I wasn’t sure why the trees had been cut
down, perhaps for logging purposes, or maybe to manage the area where it looked
like they were trying to create an oak savanna type setting. Then I wondered if the tree cutting would be
covered by another sign posted near the historical marker in the park that said
“WARNING. DEFACING – MOVING OR
DESTROYING STATE PROPERTY - $500 FINE”, and if it did, I wondered if the fine
would apply to each tree cut down, or only the one act of cutting down all the
trees. The total fine would be
significantly different depending on how the fines were tallied. But then I figured that defacement, moving,
or destroying is likely acceptable as long as some money can be made, or it’s
done in the name of development, or management.
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFiEax7ZAvBhj1uWeAtMvZgSAN3xNLVbfL4R8sgsOJ_AtORwQg4CHp3lHThdkcVSjrkwJXGfEUaxQUFRE0DoOPswvjQmH6czFrYU0XirqbLUDIXjQd8SqBBdmnnYv7jvkR52krQfnX8mMk/s1600/DSCN0199.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFiEax7ZAvBhj1uWeAtMvZgSAN3xNLVbfL4R8sgsOJ_AtORwQg4CHp3lHThdkcVSjrkwJXGfEUaxQUFRE0DoOPswvjQmH6czFrYU0XirqbLUDIXjQd8SqBBdmnnYv7jvkR52krQfnX8mMk/s200/DSCN0199.JPG" width="150" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">The historical marker pointed out that Fort Beauharnois was
located “on the shore of Lake Pepin just north of here a French expedition
commanded by LaPerriere and accompanied by two Jesuits in September 1727 built
a substantial log fort and the mission of St. Michael the Archangel. The Post was occupied periodically until
about 1756.” So it appeared that cutting
down trees and taking away other people’s property also was acceptable as long
as there was no recognized “state” in place, and it was done in the name of
God, or one of his favored Archangels. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Passing through the town of Frontenac I stopped to admire
the old town hall and small post office painted in matching cream color with
green trim. The post office was busy on
that Saturday morning. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Then as I
approached Red Wing, there were the collocated industrial facilities of the
Chemstone concrete Plant and the USG interiors ceiling tile plant. The USG water tower was painted sky blue and
the color matched the sky blue exhaust stack as well, which both stood in
contrast to the gray sky. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Across the
street from the industries was an old red barn constructed on a limestone foundation that
matched the rock outcropping on the bluffs above. While admiring the sites, a white pickup
truck with flashing yellow hazard lights stopped across from me, and I wondered
if I was going to get in trouble again for taking pictures of industrial
complexes from public property. But the
driver wearing his florescent yellow vest got out of the truck and appeared to
throw some grass seed in the ditch and then drove off. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And with the strong winds to push me along, I soon entered
Red Wing, where the population sign pointed out some things folks should be
aware of as they entered the City namely that Red Wing was (in blue letters) a
“Tax-Free Development! JOBZ <u>MINNESOTA”</u>, (in red letters) that a “SOLID
WASTE LICENCE REQUIRED”, and (in black letters) that “VEHICAL NOISE LAWS
ENFORCED”. I wasn’t quite sure what all
those reminders meant to me, but figure that perhaps the people that knew what
they meant would want to know about them if they came to town. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Passing by the “Red Wing Correctional
Facility”, which looked like a prison to me, but with fancy in-curving fences
instead of razor wire to keep the inmates confined, I wondered if those being
corrected behind the fence had failed to get a solid waste license or violated
the vehicle noise laws, or if that is where folks doing tax-free development
got jobz – Red Wing seemed like a tough City.
Then came the old NSP power plant, which was now Excell Energy, but the
large yellow “NSP” letters still stood out between the twin smoke stacks of the
plant. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Then there was Barn Bluff on the right side of the road,
where as I crossed an overhead bridge, I noticed a group of people had gathered
to take part in some type of tour of the bluff as indicated by the hiking
sticks and binoculars adorning the folks who had gathered. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And another ADM – Archer Daniels Midland –
processing plant. This one had a sign
located inside the property lines that indicated it was an oil seed processing
plant. The facility had a US flag
topping the grain storage silos that matched the flag further in the background
on top of Barn Bluff. Despite the signs
warning me that the facility was private property and that the area was under
video surveillance, no one stopped me while I took pictures of this ADM
site. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The Red Wing train depot was
located upstream of the ADM plant and I watched several people get on-board and
de-train from the passing passenger train.
As it was 11 am already, I figured I better get moving if I wanted to
make it home tonight, for even with the strong tail wind, I still had a long
ways to go. But I stopped below the old
grain bins located past the Depot and walked down to give some thanks to the
river for what had been an interesting trip, as this might be the last place I
could get easy access to it. The water
looked relatively clean here, and there was not debris floating on top of the
water, which was a first for the few times I had touched the river on the
trip. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Heading back up to the main road that runs away from the
river, I came across an interesting fellow on a bike pulling a trailer. I tried catching up to him and then when he
stopped, I stopped alongside of him to
find out more about his setup. He was
riding and old blue Schwinn 10 speed, with the ram handle bars turned
upright. He was pulling a homemade
trailer with the top covered with several pieces of cardboard bent over the
top. Mounted on the handlebars of the
bike was a stuffed version of “Fluffy” the thee headed beast from the Harry
Potter story, and in front of fluffy was a small wooden crucifix. On the back of the trailer was a cardboard
sign that said “TRAVELING J
WILL WORK GOD BLESS”. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcbYnqfBvXanR6DYTUwohphZ6YHTFItUCHuO0Y5PaJkmG2n495KEWlp1I-YTAE8c8obiVpS49_bkXNeF2U0JW_3DjLD6NzCAyim1Q6RXwcLYLzeDVMgWVKAOA8RUXInuJsZsMjXzR24_IE/s1600/DSCN0316.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcbYnqfBvXanR6DYTUwohphZ6YHTFItUCHuO0Y5PaJkmG2n495KEWlp1I-YTAE8c8obiVpS49_bkXNeF2U0JW_3DjLD6NzCAyim1Q6RXwcLYLzeDVMgWVKAOA8RUXInuJsZsMjXzR24_IE/s200/DSCN0316.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">I learned the man’s name was Tim and he had a brother named Tom, and he seemed to be a
homeless biker. He told me he was 51
years old, and had put over 3000 miles on his rig traveling around the country. He mentioned he had invested about $7 into
the construction of his bike trailer and I compared that to the over $300 I had
into panniers and racks I had on my bike, let alone the over $1000 for my
bike. He was wearing blue jeans, a red
and blue checkered flannel shirt, with a tee shirt underneath that had images
of ferries, wizards, and other imaginary creatures emblazoned over a tie-died
pattern. He had a camouflage patterned
hat on his head, and black tennis shoes on his feet. He wore large sunglasses over his eyes and
had a scruffy beard, and braided pony tail hanging from his head. He also had headphones in his ears, one of
which he removed while we talked. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">He was in the area collecting morel mushrooms. I told him about the mushrooms I saw back in
the La Crosse and he confirmed they were morels. He said he can get good money from the
mushrooms from stores that sell them to customers. He also had a daughter who lives north of the
twin cities along with 5 grandchildren who he visits when he is in the
area. He was on his way to see a friend
in Lake City that day. He spent the
night before in the park under one of the shelters as it was raining, and
mentioned that is typical of his camping spots.
He figures the worst that can happen is some cop can just tell him to
leave. He carries a tent with him, but
often just sleeps in the military style waterproof bag he has. He also has his pots and pans for cooking
tucked away somewhere on the trailer. His
income is supported by money folks give him when he is on the road. He said most folks will give him a dollar or
two, but on occasion someone will give him $50 or more. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I gave him a $5, which he said was not necessary, but I gave
it to him anyway, probably to relieve my guilt.
I also figured it was worth at least $5 to hear his story, in some ways
I envied his simple lifestyle and felt awkward with all my fancy and expensive
gear and clothing as I listened to him.
I felt guilty again and considered giving him more money, but justified
not doing so by telling myself he would probably go out and just buy pot with
it. He explained to me the
liberalization of the marijuana laws and that getting caught with small amounts
of it was no longer considered a serious crime in most states. So it sounded like pot use was one of his
pleasures in life. He also talked some
about how he avoided people he meets that are on meth, which he could spot from
a distance. He advised that they would
steel anything you had just to sell it to get more money to buy more drugs. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt3YOw1CWk_4PCvqvNQj-YT63N3BEnjlm7pyMhTA_WI8hQpZYQGUZwhrjmIzNq3-Lpzerj40N00Zg3aSLGsruQw27gxOznBN36wb4hBXDaGEaz61ls2ZAenaBIPZEPao4MJlrCxW3MwmQt/s1600/DSCN0321.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt3YOw1CWk_4PCvqvNQj-YT63N3BEnjlm7pyMhTA_WI8hQpZYQGUZwhrjmIzNq3-Lpzerj40N00Zg3aSLGsruQw27gxOznBN36wb4hBXDaGEaz61ls2ZAenaBIPZEPao4MJlrCxW3MwmQt/s200/DSCN0321.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">He talked some about his early life, when he used to use
pills. He said his grandmother worked at
a pharmacy, and she would take certain pills that had been discontinued and
that he would get them from her. He was
in the army for a while, but it didn’t work out for him so he got out. At one point in his life he was living with a
girlfriend who he caught cheating on him.
He walked out on her into the cold winter night and then got a ride from
a truck driver to California. It was
there that he was introduced to this guy who had set up some kind of coupon
clipping scheme where Tim was able to make good money. Later he worked for some time in a fabricating
shop where he made good money, had a house, bought a new car, and enjoyed his
work designing and fabricating equipment.
But when the owner of the shop’s wife died, the owner became difficult
to work for and Tim eventually left that job and life. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">We must have talked for over an hour, and when he mentioned
that he was a talker I believed him. I
told him that if I was to make it home, I had to get going, so I thanked him
for talking with me and he headed to cross the parking lot and road to head
back down river to Lake City, and I the opposite way. As he was leaving the Taco Bell parking lot,
a woman in a SUV had stopped to wait for him to go in front of her, and waived
at him annoyingly to go ahead. Tim
responded to her to “go ahead, I’m in no hurry” which seemed to be a good
attitude to have. And I headed back up
river and out of </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3w5temUHASwU3jtitsU4J0IAIjBVUsZti6QaSWtxTniz8QgaKIjz6N57caeG7HKB_UIGMWvTSYqfBfrHXuj9jc54vaf-GNZw_NycF6Nqeo1JvcMZhHW-TRcLki3cNdwcvVdoDbSVa_bov/s1600/DSCN0336.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3w5temUHASwU3jtitsU4J0IAIjBVUsZti6QaSWtxTniz8QgaKIjz6N57caeG7HKB_UIGMWvTSYqfBfrHXuj9jc54vaf-GNZw_NycF6Nqeo1JvcMZhHW-TRcLki3cNdwcvVdoDbSVa_bov/s200/DSCN0336.JPG" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Red Wing, through the Cannon River valley, past the sign to
the Treasure Island Casino, and back up the hill through the limestone cuts
that were blasted away to make way for the Great River Road I was traveling. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFQlF2BK0y-Vn_qvlTNFKA3Rzb1zyWzidRG_3Uk2jWinOvkeYnnIVWcq0JCQr6uSrgyRk0g2IC9wuq6pxG-bRZ_niPMm89FqcpKGrcNobyEO_dzDwKv8WRAjEHO2yaASZO2ADq7YlKaAWn/s1600/DSCN0342.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFQlF2BK0y-Vn_qvlTNFKA3Rzb1zyWzidRG_3Uk2jWinOvkeYnnIVWcq0JCQr6uSrgyRk0g2IC9wuq6pxG-bRZ_niPMm89FqcpKGrcNobyEO_dzDwKv8WRAjEHO2yaASZO2ADq7YlKaAWn/s200/DSCN0342.JPG" width="150" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">Once on top of the ridge again, I noticed a sign that
indicated the MN National Guard 44 Chemical Company had been cleaning up trash
along this stretch of the highway since 2001.
I had seen quite a few “adopt a highway” type signs of various types in
the States I had passed through with a lot of different groups lending a hand
to pick up the trash. I suppose it was a
good and honorable thing to pick up trash after people – just as it is a good
and honorable thing to be willing to step in and clean up the nuclear waste and
chemical weapons that might be used in a war.
But I often wondered that in the long term if picking up after people,
just makes it easier for people to just keep throwing trash out their car
windows – or in the case of war, that as long as we have troops trained to
decontaminate equipment and people it makes it more likely to dump chemical,
biological and nuclear weapons on other people to kill or maim them. For as long as someone comes along to clean
it up – what harm is done? It just goes
away. Perhaps if we allowed it to pile
up along the roadside, we might wake up and realize what slobs we really are,
and then we might change our ways and stop trashing the planet – and maybe we
would stop training troops for war as well if we had to face the full horror of
what our weapons did to people and the planet.
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaEiNCSvktS_LSqVliU620QLdzxtVJReCXtkrBIM_gqu7zm2csj8YJj74QQN8567WollqaJ1AxzXchfXUob1A1DtjJPmf-uzWQ-tky3PFGzcf4NqupiRWX3oJkaQCcjnsTgB7aYip_rDci/s1600/DSCN0349.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaEiNCSvktS_LSqVliU620QLdzxtVJReCXtkrBIM_gqu7zm2csj8YJj74QQN8567WollqaJ1AxzXchfXUob1A1DtjJPmf-uzWQ-tky3PFGzcf4NqupiRWX3oJkaQCcjnsTgB7aYip_rDci/s200/DSCN0349.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Then it was passed more small farmsteads with bent vanned windmills
no longer in use, and behind them the huge hundreds of acres of rolling fields
denuded of all life in preparation for the corn that had been planted to thrive
in the chemically enhanced sterile looking soil. The large corn storage bins in the background
likely sat empty, waiting for next fall’s harvest to refill the bins so the
farmer could wait until crop prices were at the highest before he would dump
the commodity on the market. </span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZZT85c_ctdO1_2HYg3dPF90HZaFTcqjIOzxgPvI9oB7kJIqqd2lyNw9HzMSR9z8wytQ1ecHNWMpPB9jI7hyphenhyphenlmGJwIhIJ0OAJzvRDy5Rg0M485tY-Iy7dURV3xHkhDFsfA5cmBSybaSZgA/s1600/DSCN0361.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZZT85c_ctdO1_2HYg3dPF90HZaFTcqjIOzxgPvI9oB7kJIqqd2lyNw9HzMSR9z8wytQ1ecHNWMpPB9jI7hyphenhyphenlmGJwIhIJ0OAJzvRDy5Rg0M485tY-Iy7dURV3xHkhDFsfA5cmBSybaSZgA/s200/DSCN0361.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Then past
another barn that looked vacant of any cattle, but had three tractors parked
out front, and then another white church with a crucifix topped steeple nearly
touching the gray clouds above. And a series of galvanized gray steel center
point pivot irrigation rigs parked amongst last year’s corn stubble, waiting to
water the circular patches of corn that would dot the land. Then a
cell phone tower parked next to a pile of crushed limestone from a quarry located
below the </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">horizon. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSDfQWKxyurIk6FRUmoOxyDLFNpchdVXhlCoF7Fqq5msOqLLlxDgqYHMeGUDr5zaEolX-ds-9DBSl2xitoYmxA5_n49AprV1hkkhaKahT8VzcEZSygtZjGgDC_fcTlus2ixhRR6EYYMD52/s1600/DSCN0377.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSDfQWKxyurIk6FRUmoOxyDLFNpchdVXhlCoF7Fqq5msOqLLlxDgqYHMeGUDr5zaEolX-ds-9DBSl2xitoYmxA5_n49AprV1hkkhaKahT8VzcEZSygtZjGgDC_fcTlus2ixhRR6EYYMD52/s200/DSCN0377.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">And one more cemetery parked next to the farm fields, where
our ancestors where planted for we hoped an eternity. I wondered why the need to preserve our
bodies for so long, and why the fear of decay and contact with the rest of the
world? We had no problem with leaving
the dead deer lie on the shoulder or ditch next to the road where after a year
the bodies decayed and were consumed by the scavengers who fed on them, and all
that was left where their dried and scattered bones. But when it came to our own bodies we feared
the natural process and tried to fight it off by injecting our perished bodies
with chemical preservative, and then packing our preserved selves in padded and
embroidered painted steel boxes, that would be placed inside a concrete vault,
where our pickled bodies would remain under the cold earth, for perhaps centuries. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Our fear of death, and desire for the
appearance of eternal life through chemistry and proper storage practices seemed
pretty fatalistic in the end – an ultimate form of denial of the reality of
what we are and who we are not – simple creatures of impermanent flesh and bones
just like the others we share the planet with, not the supreme infinite beings
we liked to think of ourselves as. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"></span></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span>Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3652025888906665858.post-72723571129396893112013-05-27T19:00:00.000-07:002013-05-27T19:36:09.153-07:00Friday May 24th – Lacrosse to Lake City<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: large;">With the disturbances in the campground the night before
cutting into my beauty sleep, I crawled out of the tent at the rather late hour
of 8 am. I quickly started packing up my gear, ate a quick breakfast, washed my
face with my handy wet wipes, and was ready to leave my old home town by around
9 am. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Before taking off, I took a few
pictures around my campsite of the view of the twin old and new bridge spans climbing
up and over the Main Channel of the River above my campsite, and almost stepped
on some wrinkly looking light colored mushrooms that grew along the shoreline
between me and the backwaters. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I thought
the mushrooms looked like the famous morels I had heard about and looked at the
trees to see if I could figure out if they were elms that the mushrooms were
apparently so fond of. Since there were
quite a few of the mushrooms, and I had heard how tasty they could be, I
thought about picking some, but as I had nothing to cook them with and wasn’t
sure about their identity, I decided to leave them grow to maturity in peace. I stopped at the campground restroom to fill
my bottles with the rusty/cloudy campground water and hoped it was safe to
drink and headed back across the waters to Minnesota. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Getting back to the Great River Road, I noticed that the
State of Minnesota had also designated the road as the “Disabled American
Veterans Highway”. I wondered how many
disabled veterans found that tactic an honor, or how many motorist even noticed
the small green designation sign as they sped by? All I knew for sure was that if I had been a
veteran and been disabled, and had to go through some of the hassles I have
heard about in trying to get proper care and treatment for the damages they
suffered due to war, I didn’t think I would feel honored by such a tribute, but
that is only me speaking after my minor inconvenience of waking up grumpy after
having my sleep interrupted – which is nowhere near the inconvenience suffered
by disabled veterans – so I tried to let that thought go. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And speaking of disabled creatures – I passed a large number
of turtles that had been hit by passing motorists speeding across the filled in
areas of the water way. Their crushed
shells were a reminder of how we seem to take it for granted that it is
acceptable to design our highways with little if any regard for the other
creatures that need to travel along the roadways – especially if it would mean
added design expenses. So we simply
waste the turtles so we don’t have to waste our time or money. And then that got me thinking about how our
society seems to thrive on the whole concept of waste. A green Waste Management semi-truck passed me
by, and I thought about how we have created whole industries who profit from
our wasteful practices, and then we create government agencies like the
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency I worked for when I was not taking leaves of
absence to go for extended bike rides who try to set up rules and regulations
to manage how we manage all the waste. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Waste seemed to be the common theme that was jumping out at
me on what I had been experiencing on my travels. We wasted ground water to wash our cars, we
wasted it to water our lawns and irrigate our crops that often times was used
produced the ethanol that in part fueled our cars, and then we wasted it to
move our human wastes from our bathrooms to somewhere else where we didn’t need
to see it, smell it, or think about it.
And then we produced stuff we didn’t really need, but thought we did
because of the brainwashing we received since birth that the accumulation of
stuff was the meaning of life, and that more stuff meant we would be safer in
the future. So we pursued more stuff
instead of looking for the happiness within ourselves, along with bigger stuff,
or stuff that made more noise or burned more fuel faster, or got us somewhere
away from where we were faster. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And then in the process of making all that stuff, we created
industrial waste, or hazardous waste, or waste we didn’t even know how to
classify or what the consequences of disposing it would be. And in the past these practices produced Superfund
sites, or groundwater cleanup sites, or landfills, or wastewater treatment
plants. But we thought we were safer,
despite the new threats that made us more afraid. And then the fertilizers we used to produce
our food and our fuel and our green bio-plastics ended up as waste when it ran
off the land and into the Mississippi River and ended up wasting the life in
the Gulf of Mexico creating “dead zones” where life no longer existed – at
least life as we used to know it in that place.
So then we tried to create refuges for life by skimming off some of the profits
from the whole waste lifestyle we lived and diverted it back to our feel good
refuges, our parks, our preservers, our public service agencies, and non-profit
organizations – so that we could keep wasting our resources on our wasted
life’s. And then we create armies and
munitions to defend this whole way of life, because as we had been told and
sold on the line that “freedom isn’t free”, it costs lives and of course
dollars as well. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0FUX-xGhuqgfmT0Y3AmnWuPia7YpIomHfZpEV0GyFeBtnYxWNEDlpbiCbOm6Wx4146Ed5KfplUOLbv7oyAo1IGU43j2oKebAOjs7GjLa_s7XETtkZ1AHbyeZdNaDZzE3fUIPN_QCAoqf2/s1600/DSCN0042.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a>
<span style="font-size: large;">So I decided to stop wasting my time and start peddling
faster as I passed another Kwik Trip, where I saw another green John Deer lawn
tractor being pulled behind a truck and fueled up with $3.999 per gallon ethanol
blended gas and hit the “Theodore Foss Memorial Highway”, which was also still
the “Great River Road”, as well as the
“Disabled American Veteran Highway”. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0FUX-xGhuqgfmT0Y3AmnWuPia7YpIomHfZpEV0GyFeBtnYxWNEDlpbiCbOm6Wx4146Ed5KfplUOLbv7oyAo1IGU43j2oKebAOjs7GjLa_s7XETtkZ1AHbyeZdNaDZzE3fUIPN_QCAoqf2/s1600/DSCN0042.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0FUX-xGhuqgfmT0Y3AmnWuPia7YpIomHfZpEV0GyFeBtnYxWNEDlpbiCbOm6Wx4146Ed5KfplUOLbv7oyAo1IGU43j2oKebAOjs7GjLa_s7XETtkZ1AHbyeZdNaDZzE3fUIPN_QCAoqf2/s200/DSCN0042.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Corporal Foss was a State Trooper who was killed on the highway while
making a traffic stop on August 31<sup>st</sup>, 2000 on Interstate 90, which I
found myself traveling down for a short while.
And while pulling in to the rest stop at the Lock and Dam, I noticed
more construction going on adjacent to the multi-memorialized road which
besides it I90 designation also contained US Highways 14 and 61. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I would thankfully soon exit the much traveled Interstate and
follow the Great River Road up Highway 61 North to Winona, but in the meantime
I had some more internal conversations about how many other lives had been
wasted or disabled by simply getting in car “accidents” along the memorial
highway, the passengers and drivers who went unrecognized for giving up their
lives in pursuit of achieving their own version of the American Dream. I had passed many a makeshift memorial to
those poor lost souls along my journey down and up the Great River Road – the fading
plastic flower wreathes hung on a right-of-way marker or strapped to a guard
rail, the painted wooden crosses with a name and date scribed on it pounded
into the ditch next to the road – but never a formal state sponsored plaque or
marker along the roadside. We seemed to
take for granted that ultimate cost of our freedom to drive our cars wherever
we wanted, whenever we wanted – or at least we in the business of governing
didn’t like to promote such memories – as it might tend to turn our dream into
a nightmare. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">As I exited the Theodore Ross Memorial Highway, I noticed
more large homes propped up on the upper levels of the bluffs – more memorials
to that ultimate American Dream of the big house on the hill overlooking the
river valley, a place to drive up and down to every day to get away from the
places we drove up and down to in order to support our lifestyles – that
carried away our negative thoughts with their awe-inspiring views. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And then I passed by one of the remnants of
the most popular fruits amongst the travelers of the Great River Road based on
the number of peels I passed (and one of my favorites on this trip as well) –
the Guatemalan grown and cloned banana peel.
In this particular case determining the home of the peel was possible
because of the permanent plastic label left on the peel before placing it on
the passing pavement where it was thought it would perish and not be noticed by
a passerby-er. Being organic in nature,
many drivers of the Great River Road found it more convenient to simply toss the
peel out their powered car window, than to leave them fester in the car until
they got to their destination to properly dispose of. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">What is interesting about the banana peel on
the paved shoulder of the road is that with heat and drying, the yellow soft
peel transforms into a hard almost huge black spider like object that perhaps
survives for many years in this desiccated form. The discarded peel reminded me of an incident
that happened to me while walking along a side-walk half a lifetime ago while
going to college back in Platteville where I was walking along and then slipped
on a fresh banana peel and nearly did the splits, in front of a busload of
onlookers. It was amazing to me what
memories a banana peel could bring back from the past. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Then I passed another pile of desiccated remnants – bones
this time, and deer bones in particular, which could be properly identified by
the black cloven hoof, still intact at the base of the tibia and fibula of the
fallen deer, but there was no skull – where did it go? I now understood where the term “bone dry”
came from. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Then I passed by another
reminder of bones – a mound – but unlike the mounds left behind by the previous
folks who inhabited the land a thousand years ago, this modern mound was
constructed to honor our waste – excrement in this case – which likely was due
to high groundwater making disposal of the waste in a conventional in ground
septic system ineffective, so the raised mound was installed. Some day in the distant future, archeologists
would likely excavate that mound thinking it was a burial site for some
important noble man or woman, only to
find excrement and perhaps a few other treasures that might have mistakenly
been flushed down the porcelain god of the past. The conclusion likely would be that these
former inhabitants foolishly worshiped their waste, which was the likely reason
they perished and no longer inhabited the land.
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<span style="font-size: large;">With all this stuff on my mind, and despite all the stuff on my bike, the relatively flat miles to Winona passed
in what seemed like no time and I found myself passing by the billboards that
line the highway outside of the Cities advertising where enticing stuff could
be purchased. And one billboard that
stuck out was from the Mainstream Firearms & Marine store which was home to
over “1000 Guns”, the “Go-Devil” boat, and pawn shop. For the more stuff you had, the more guns you
would need to protect yourself from those who had less. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-HbxU406qEmWuJmhnH12JryKk57XewxcNIj6idlGR4YYOGBuIKBlLLZfRHmrQJxhe6GgvnHryyPtyteK-SSWTYkf54KXbrARd7v23zJzgsyLEHBizxC2H5s3RXDQRoVvskx-NhrJ2QfTt/s1600/DSCN0112.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-HbxU406qEmWuJmhnH12JryKk57XewxcNIj6idlGR4YYOGBuIKBlLLZfRHmrQJxhe6GgvnHryyPtyteK-SSWTYkf54KXbrARd7v23zJzgsyLEHBizxC2H5s3RXDQRoVvskx-NhrJ2QfTt/s200/DSCN0112.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">And then something else stuck out, the rock
formation above Winona known as “Sugar Loaf” which was a remnant of quarrying activities
that took place on the bluff back in the late 1800’s where the limestone was
used to build sidewalks and buildings in the City of Winona below. </span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixu9ognTCeQYbiEJOUEKdEy_mAFuST8d1MnTXdeqveiJpzH3VYqyGmKmvnBh95oUNM41-2lMtoxZTWQnocU9bvIXgKAOZhwuxb9rTkpaOP6t9G1Egp5RftCGXBS2brwqUCF2TheEgoWsK_/s1600/DSCN0115.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixu9ognTCeQYbiEJOUEKdEy_mAFuST8d1MnTXdeqveiJpzH3VYqyGmKmvnBh95oUNM41-2lMtoxZTWQnocU9bvIXgKAOZhwuxb9rTkpaOP6t9G1Egp5RftCGXBS2brwqUCF2TheEgoWsK_/s200/DSCN0115.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Feeling a need for a sidewalk escape from the
highway to stuff and waste I had been stuck on for most of the morning, I
detoured on to the path the ran between the highway and adjacent Lake Winona
and reclaimed some sense of peace as I passed pedestrians out for a midday stroll
or jog along the path. At one point I
passed a young mother pointing out the fish swimming amongst the near shore
plants to her even younger daughter, which renewed my sense of hope, perhaps
foolishly. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I realized a need to get out of the mindset I was in,
plugged in the previously repaired IPod headphones to my ears, turned up the music and tried just
pedaling in order to achieve that meditative mindless state. I was hoping to make it to Lake City that
night, a place I knew to be about half way between La Crosse and home, which if
I could make it to would place me almost with in one more day of peddling to my
home and out of my mind which was starting to sound a bit crazy to me. It also might allow me to reach that elusive
goal of the 100 mile day in that last stretch to home, something else that
seemed like a worthwhile goal, if for no other reason than to be able to say
that at least for one day I had traveled 100 miles on a bike. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhueRHq4olcmE8ICMa8h3pz8EjJRDwEFPSpnukaLIqHfa8AS7xNM99wtdURyVUsmcl7mHOdCqsNQyY813k1ZvBMWPE7UvwcfJzJQK124fh-BcmVLsga32CgSV7HOTSHh0sQmDYTTMo78t_J/s1600/DSCN0132.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhueRHq4olcmE8ICMa8h3pz8EjJRDwEFPSpnukaLIqHfa8AS7xNM99wtdURyVUsmcl7mHOdCqsNQyY813k1ZvBMWPE7UvwcfJzJQK124fh-BcmVLsga32CgSV7HOTSHh0sQmDYTTMo78t_J/s200/DSCN0132.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Before I knew it I was in the small riverside town of
Minneiska where I stopped for a moment to rest in the shade of the larger than
life roadside mostly blue and green mural depicting the river valley below that
had been painted on the large retaining wall besides the side road overlooking
the river valley below. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRGe6SMcf0ocacubTiGtRHQuAQ-J_D0pd_IZovU0u-G36c7EZB-bLSwmw5FHGVpHHSncnauQjqJR1cFn8hRMb_vO2nZj0MOapdn6R_oPQyqeCFmEXw5pjQ4lG0YIJqSEOYDkrm46ysc1et/s1600/DSCN0140.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRGe6SMcf0ocacubTiGtRHQuAQ-J_D0pd_IZovU0u-G36c7EZB-bLSwmw5FHGVpHHSncnauQjqJR1cFn8hRMb_vO2nZj0MOapdn6R_oPQyqeCFmEXw5pjQ4lG0YIJqSEOYDkrm46ysc1et/s200/DSCN0140.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">And what seemed
but a short time later, I was in another small town of Kellogg passing its
sky-blue colored water tower topped by the old “red, white, and blue, all
backed by a blue sky, where shortly later I passed another large green lawn
nestled below the bluffs being mowed by another green John Deer lawn tractor with a sign out front that
declared the place was “Nearly A Ranch” – of lawn that was. </span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifGmMkI_s0MgbcZ6Hi5FQdplewhorfWAhFhEnM88nMlLQW0JzP6V_HaLuDOZgEzm6u_VXC2RXTGg7yYzfp1zT5glSJzGQrYFe5DL3BFjUE7oRpySsc0c8HsQE7CtrYgDLHetxgSYjMI1M7/s1600/DSCN0147.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifGmMkI_s0MgbcZ6Hi5FQdplewhorfWAhFhEnM88nMlLQW0JzP6V_HaLuDOZgEzm6u_VXC2RXTGg7yYzfp1zT5glSJzGQrYFe5DL3BFjUE7oRpySsc0c8HsQE7CtrYgDLHetxgSYjMI1M7/s200/DSCN0147.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Then there was the huge sand pile that had
been deposited alongside the highway by the main channel dredgers – likely to
be processed by some purveyor of sand for profiting from some unknown usage of
the extra-large bulk quantity of silica material. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Which then lead me to the Lake Pepin plaque placed by the
Geological Society of Minnesota that declared:
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Lake
Pepin occupies the Mississippi Valley above this point for a distance of 22
miles. The lake is formed by the delta
of the Chippewa River which enters the Mississippi directly east of this site.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The
Chippewa, a relatively small river, has a much steeper gradient than that of
the Mississippi. It was therefore able
to transport more sand and coarser gravel than the master stream could
remove. In consequence the Mississippi
was dammed back in the gorge to form Lake Pepin.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The
surface of the lake is 664 feet above sea level and 450 feet below the top of
the bluffs which line its shores.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The
sand and limestone walls of the gorge are composed of material deposited in
Cambrian and Ordovician seas when the continent was submerged some 400 million
years ago. </i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>The
bottom of the gorge is 150 feet below the lake surface having been filled to
its present elevation as the carrying power of the river decreased.</i></span> </div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIPzDTRVFo7Glx8Up2aaLIvB5zPLCpX62R1PVBVXfAVJxA3sOmsqLr1p0aN3XBTcIKskzoK89pqvn9URVOdBJqZV8rs3UN7RT2xGlC_LYCeaBto4rDsBiXGJCl3YeAtI7W5xz54M8akvzv/s1600/DSCN0151.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIPzDTRVFo7Glx8Up2aaLIvB5zPLCpX62R1PVBVXfAVJxA3sOmsqLr1p0aN3XBTcIKskzoK89pqvn9URVOdBJqZV8rs3UN7RT2xGlC_LYCeaBto4rDsBiXGJCl3YeAtI7W5xz54M8akvzv/s200/DSCN0151.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the state of mind I had been in on that particular day, I
wondered when an addendum to the plaque would be added that would describe how
the Lake was eventually filled in by the sediment that was carried downstream
to the lake by some other feeder rivers – namely the Minnesota – that drained the
agricultural lands that dominated the State Minnesota’s interior lands, eventually
filling in the once large lake – and putting an end to the dominance of
agriculture on the then soil depleted former prairie lands. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibsqnJog2LR6z4RKCnjMNHs9bL60ktCaddhrJQ74oHpW0nhfyJ6pAMysVYu1D7Kpfciu00v_4-3ft1TNZX60fruvqYFrV-ecNv-HN3CBxcd6dsHkR0kZQA52B8rVM64sZBv8kaL855gkBX/s1600/DSCN0161.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibsqnJog2LR6z4RKCnjMNHs9bL60ktCaddhrJQ74oHpW0nhfyJ6pAMysVYu1D7Kpfciu00v_4-3ft1TNZX60fruvqYFrV-ecNv-HN3CBxcd6dsHkR0kZQA52B8rVM64sZBv8kaL855gkBX/s200/DSCN0161.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 115%;">Passing on from that depressing thought I peddled
up and down the bluff side hills along the lake, passing a couple – he with a
bike loaded down with gear, and she with a gear free bike – heading the opposite way who I wished a good
trip to as they passed by the rock that slid down into the road shoulder from
the eroding bluff next to the road. Then
there was one more dead bird, and Lake City was in view. </span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSYWsW3uj1yQqiniB4mPGPSbw3dO2ctMkilxKhyEj_9v0Y8kiOSSzuRUtxZeR4z_qPZHaj0juAeKdEh1AUr3ARPCuBqnMmfZD2IMDbceeCqIZ-r6cjfNodbuC7mnWoJKr_JdaSzfXrSbn_/s1600/DSCN0171.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSYWsW3uj1yQqiniB4mPGPSbw3dO2ctMkilxKhyEj_9v0Y8kiOSSzuRUtxZeR4z_qPZHaj0juAeKdEh1AUr3ARPCuBqnMmfZD2IMDbceeCqIZ-r6cjfNodbuC7mnWoJKr_JdaSzfXrSbn_/s200/DSCN0171.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 115%;">I went by a marina filled with
sailboats safely secured, stopped at the first inn of the town only to learn
the cheapest stay was a whopping $150 a night, and was referred to the lower
cost motels a few blocks up the lake.
There I settled for the Sunset Motel, for a more reasonably priced $68
per night. I carried my bike up the
three steps to my room, unpacked my stuff, showered; walked over to the
adjacent Burger King for a Veggie Burger, large fry, and a smoothie; and
polished them off in my room where I soon called it a night. I had made it 73 miles, despite my negative
outlook, and it felt good to be home for the night, and perhaps one day more of
peddling from my home of old. </span></span>Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3652025888906665858.post-38214657368349501602013-05-26T19:01:00.000-07:002013-05-26T19:38:44.585-07:00Thursday May 23rd McGregor to La Crescent <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisO2t6GZTy08ryxj1CgotbNnuOMVLf_crlsbAnlalc4-8rbdBDeUF10wqoUE3s66q-iJ00If5vX3hxq30cWIvVTu2XGY-H-hzwHxbniLOQvbOD3kAg9bnQpHyDcr5wdtA4h4BCfUSWvDoJ/s1600/DSCN1887.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisO2t6GZTy08ryxj1CgotbNnuOMVLf_crlsbAnlalc4-8rbdBDeUF10wqoUE3s66q-iJ00If5vX3hxq30cWIvVTu2XGY-H-hzwHxbniLOQvbOD3kAg9bnQpHyDcr5wdtA4h4BCfUSWvDoJ/s200/DSCN1887.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Woke up, got out of bed, and didn’t drag a comb across my
head, because that is one of the few things I did not bring with – as with a
short haircut one is not needed. But I
did as usual eat a typical breakfast and catch up on some writing. Then I cleaned up the bike chain and derailleurs,
packed my bags, and checked out. </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTiGEgxmKQ93Lc_oCq6HoPRE0D-YapVSIqxrbhLHbvmXfoQHE8Q9VAE_R9_KuR-c5C9Dnw45Y-3dRT0F6L_PJTrNQPavWZzi0Qu757G8lFM1mrQiqQCUCZd2wQzJG7MTWcaeUGTnPSIDRX/s1600/DSCN1905.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTiGEgxmKQ93Lc_oCq6HoPRE0D-YapVSIqxrbhLHbvmXfoQHE8Q9VAE_R9_KuR-c5C9Dnw45Y-3dRT0F6L_PJTrNQPavWZzi0Qu757G8lFM1mrQiqQCUCZd2wQzJG7MTWcaeUGTnPSIDRX/s200/DSCN1905.JPG" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2n8G4YJmTMgAonblDmCvhdlqazA00wGoiT0SHaRqk2VGfSVsnvmU243eVpFgP52PNFsd-GaL7ypCdl5y9uAtRjnrs3uC7VwDve8JFfo0GwTVhUYt5vklp6jmPGBXdK_iiFMH3bDgSiLfG/s1600/DSCN1907.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2n8G4YJmTMgAonblDmCvhdlqazA00wGoiT0SHaRqk2VGfSVsnvmU243eVpFgP52PNFsd-GaL7ypCdl5y9uAtRjnrs3uC7VwDve8JFfo0GwTVhUYt5vklp6jmPGBXdK_iiFMH3bDgSiLfG/s200/DSCN1907.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"> I learned
from the gentlemen cleaning up the restaurant for the 10 am breakfast shift
that the owner of the Hotel and Restaurant’s name was Luis. Then I walked to the bank across the street
to find out if they had an ATM to restock my coffers. Walking into the bank was like walking back
into an old movie – the teller lady was standing behind an enclosure – and when
I commented on it she said “yes, this is a real old fashioned bank” and she
referred me to the Kwik Star (Kwik Trip in Iowa) gas station down the road for
the new-fangled ATM. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8idQxvMFwCYE965DDhzxqK9OThOebIHwhbiJbS7BiFGEO8tqZz_697Id-0Lual5kwMo4dLHKKNTV7FBxwnP6ciOiZfRJfPLqOBRo3y8QtGz-vMdfhHj2hBkkYHAaBqUwm9XLTHxSA7lNx/s1600/DSCN1912.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8idQxvMFwCYE965DDhzxqK9OThOebIHwhbiJbS7BiFGEO8tqZz_697Id-0Lual5kwMo4dLHKKNTV7FBxwnP6ciOiZfRJfPLqOBRo3y8QtGz-vMdfhHj2hBkkYHAaBqUwm9XLTHxSA7lNx/s200/DSCN1912.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoVHZ1ljZdfiPRVLa4sXYRc_NbTg4kWeM4RKirmOJrPAXS2Wv_MhKqt1sYaeAehiHiEwTe-Q3WN21b2HZG0zGrP2HEhsjIXEeLfQc0BntGB8uDsY1MLPvH5bauT7FvtGKhvZtHscEGWDrt/s1600/DSCN1913.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoVHZ1ljZdfiPRVLa4sXYRc_NbTg4kWeM4RKirmOJrPAXS2Wv_MhKqt1sYaeAehiHiEwTe-Q3WN21b2HZG0zGrP2HEhsjIXEeLfQc0BntGB8uDsY1MLPvH5bauT7FvtGKhvZtHscEGWDrt/s200/DSCN1913.JPG" width="150" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">Off to the Kwik Star I went, for some cash, a banana, some
OJ, and chocolate covered rice crispy bar to feed my latest addiction
craving. While eating my brunch, I
watched the Kwik Trip tanker unload probably 6 thousand gallons or so of $3.99
gasoline. And then I headed out of
McGregor, passed the old grain elevator that had been replaced with the new and
larger concrete ones up river, and entered its twin City Marquette – home of
another river boat casino and headed back up the river squeezed between Highway
76 and the Canadian Pacific Railroad tracks. </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1f9jkvC4KJFMzY2opCgpQGpX7sGQnultIJYWEGLWRzUyoKSTHlwJM0HkUKsiuhic96eqIrTBVbB1B8rucNrZ-B3J6S5Gz4ofBOtZj2Gzt_21-EMOPcrUY_vHgtdRe0zH6irpL13I0z9w8/s1600/DSCN1930.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1f9jkvC4KJFMzY2opCgpQGpX7sGQnultIJYWEGLWRzUyoKSTHlwJM0HkUKsiuhic96eqIrTBVbB1B8rucNrZ-B3J6S5Gz4ofBOtZj2Gzt_21-EMOPcrUY_vHgtdRe0zH6irpL13I0z9w8/s200/DSCN1930.JPG" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The first stop was the Effigy Mounds National Monument for a
quick rest stop and a tour of the museum.
The college age students from AmeriCorps, whose tents I saw at the Pikes
Peak Campground and later that night saw them eating at the Mexican Restaurant
below the Alexandria house where I stayed, were climbing on and gathering round
the entrance sign to the Monument for photos from the Monument staff. While walking in the gentleman behind the
counter at the entrance asked if he could help me, and wondered if I was a
worker because I had my florescent yellow bike vest on. I told him that I was not a worker, and
suggested he not mistake me for one again and explained the bike vest, and my escape
from work via bike. He gave me a run
down on all the place had to offer and asked what I would like to do. I asked if it was ok if I used the restroom
and took a quick walk through the museum – and he said that would be ok. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">While walking through the museum, I found the
following quotes worth noting.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i>Ayuxwa(Iowa)
… was such beautiful country. I loved my
villages, my cornfields, the home of my people, and that’s why I fought so hard
for it. It is yours now. Please keep it as we did … I have looked upon
the Mississippi since I was a child. I love the great river.” </i>Black Hawk – Sauk/Fox</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>“Every
man should have his own Holy Place where he keeps lonely vigil, harkens for the
Voices, and offers prayer and praise.” </i>Chief
Wabasha (Le Feuille) – Dakota</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>“This
is the route of my forefathers. The
lands that we have always claimed from old times … We have the history. It is what bears our name.” </i>No Heart of Fear – Ioway</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>“We
occupy the same piece of earth as those who went before us. Time is what separates us – that and vastly
different worlds.” </i>From a sign in
the museum. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">On my way out, he told me to “enjoy your bike ride”, and I
replied “enjoy your day working”, to which he replied “we always do, but I’m actually
a volunteer”, to which I replied “volunteering can be work”. And then a woman who had brought her young
daughter into the museum asked where I was going and I told her and then asked
her where she was from. She said
Oklahoma City to visit her mother how lived in town, and she was just visiting
friends up the road. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghEz8lsa0dYzE757VTH3KWGyyedfZhCVH0a4y1mqU1RcgDyUkynyyX3btnz8XUX1PaQMEzW3OmLv62IRbEZRFYfS0cyD_rqnSI0Wg6w8XmLdyVEJLJ7Ob5hCBYWyVLKhHKHhIUCvVZOiKY/s1600/DSCN1955.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghEz8lsa0dYzE757VTH3KWGyyedfZhCVH0a4y1mqU1RcgDyUkynyyX3btnz8XUX1PaQMEzW3OmLv62IRbEZRFYfS0cyD_rqnSI0Wg6w8XmLdyVEJLJ7Ob5hCBYWyVLKhHKHhIUCvVZOiKY/s200/DSCN1955.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">And then it was back to the bike and up the first of several
large climbs to the ridge top I would make on that day. The climbs up the hills were actually quite
awe inspiring along the section of the road.
There was little if any visible development – except for the road – so
the trees and grass and plants which were coming into full leaf were powerfully
green. And bird songs filled the air,
which at the slow pace I went up hill I was able to listen to in completion. At the top of the hills would be the typical
nicer homes build along the ridge top to take advantage of the grand views of
the countryside from the high places with names that reflected the great views
– in this case “Fairview Heights”, which didn’t give the view a fair
description. From the ridge top, you
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaUXB2HaNr6r0aEq_Zx8rm_QAWRItem4UOv2QhTI8gkXKRmWpUe5RrOMMTSdZPC_VH5kN8dnRYqr61HD5Hw8AVeL6AAvztDuQAIaCgkyPc2sYR6RRIw1UZn2SlaghCwApxyHe0TXNC6Ce4/s1600/DSCN1966.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaUXB2HaNr6r0aEq_Zx8rm_QAWRItem4UOv2QhTI8gkXKRmWpUe5RrOMMTSdZPC_VH5kN8dnRYqr61HD5Hw8AVeL6AAvztDuQAIaCgkyPc2sYR6RRIw1UZn2SlaghCwApxyHe0TXNC6Ce4/s200/DSCN1966.JPG" width="150" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">could look down in the valley pasture where the grass was thick and green and a
few black cows could been seen eating grass in the meadow, while their calves
frolicked around with each other. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And then it was down the hills and into the next valley, passed
the limestone, and then sandstone formations, that represented a descent in
time that likely encompassed millions of years, in a few minutes. On those descents I would wonder what this
placed looked like the hundreds of millions of years ago that the sedimentary
rock formations were laid down, under an ocean of water. And then I would need to pay attention to
the road, or my distractions could result in me hitting one of these old rocks
that had fallen from the face and came to rest on the pavement, which is where
I would end up if I didn’t focus. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And after this descent I ended up back adjacent to the
Mississippi River – where the trailers, campers, and other shacks on stilts
began to flank the shore line. Iowa
doesn’t seem to believe much in shoreline zoning and allows folks to keep the
trailers and other trash in the flood plain.
Through the years the rigs would be raised again and then again as the
height of the floods increased.
Unfortunately much of the other stuff that is kept at ground level isn’t
necessarily removed before the floods come, and ends up washing away with the
rising water. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl7F7ljffDzj9m5J0KfuivySGP9ZTtBhn1uQPk5yYIN-MHwkJB8FThSKKUNn3o8M12Ttoid2DpHSl2Zoo1jK_Tu3T_YvN3juUOOlbHqfb6MRE4hW22TJqOfufkigxh67wB_uFMUIVyzyhU/s1600/DSCN1978.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl7F7ljffDzj9m5J0KfuivySGP9ZTtBhn1uQPk5yYIN-MHwkJB8FThSKKUNn3o8M12Ttoid2DpHSl2Zoo1jK_Tu3T_YvN3juUOOlbHqfb6MRE4hW22TJqOfufkigxh67wB_uFMUIVyzyhU/s200/DSCN1978.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Then it was time for a
lunch break and rest at a boat landing and park. I walked down and touched the river while
resting – something I hadn’t done for several days, but something I tried to do
when I remembered and the river was accessible.
During those times I tried to be thankful for what the river had given
to me on this trip and in the past to me, and I hoped that we would not keep
trashing it the way we seemed to be doing often. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Getting back on the road, I began to notice spots along the
ditch next to the bluff where the trees and brush had been cleared and large
burns had occurred to get rid of the unwanted growth. As I continued down the road, I came to spots
where charred remains were still smoking, and then I came upon some large logs
that had been reduced to simmering coals.
The heat from the fire felt good as it was a cool day, I wore my long
sleeve shirt and rain coat most of the day to keep warm. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMvoMidbeKSQVhH_VaOBxX5kbMiQULnnbjmFtd-Ngt1KKa7DXuDfKa1APgxvriuePlNw4b1mWXXGEY015y6eIutG_rDZboT89pj8KqRKsT5QIndXTJgYNWzVHnwPBu8zNz-PCGfq0ZpJ_Z/s1600/DSCN1980.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMvoMidbeKSQVhH_VaOBxX5kbMiQULnnbjmFtd-Ngt1KKa7DXuDfKa1APgxvriuePlNw4b1mWXXGEY015y6eIutG_rDZboT89pj8KqRKsT5QIndXTJgYNWzVHnwPBu8zNz-PCGfq0ZpJ_Z/s200/DSCN1980.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Eventually I caught up with the crew doing
the work. The road was blocked off by
trees that had been cut down. I talked
briefly while I waited with the young flag man who was stopping traffic until
the trees could be pushed with an end loader into the pile in the ditch that
would be the next batch of trees to be burned.
He said they were going to be building a bike trail in the ditch, the
ditch would be filled, and then a trail paved from Waukon Junction to Harpers
Ferry. I asked him who was doing the
work and he said the County, and that they had been doing the clearing for
about a month now. I said if they had
gotten the work done sooner, I could have tried it out. After the road was cleared, I passed by the
chain saw operators and they yelled out at me that I should have come through
in a couple of month and then I could have went down the bike trail. I yelled back that if they would have worked
faster, I could have used the trail on that day. They replied that I should pay more taxes then. I didn’t have the heart (or courage) to tell
them I was from Minnesota. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Passing through Harpers Junction, I watched someone mowing a
large patch of lawn next to the road that didn’t seem to serve much of a
purpose, except to look nice for folks coming in to town. He was riding a John Deer mower. I passed by “Bullshit Avenue”, per the sign
in front of another trailer park for vacationers, and some large farm fields in
the old river flood plain. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVjULpReuHoKyg2tA6qj_uRIezPWv0USae42pscah-H_6_gLQrTo4kiCePg69jLiCnMTlnIEmOpO94444YehsWy2k0cbMylQDL5SqevntxyMvBX-vPjUU1JI_r3jwcfoE_yAFGLSTlquhd/s1600/DSCN1997.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVjULpReuHoKyg2tA6qj_uRIezPWv0USae42pscah-H_6_gLQrTo4kiCePg69jLiCnMTlnIEmOpO94444YehsWy2k0cbMylQDL5SqevntxyMvBX-vPjUU1JI_r3jwcfoE_yAFGLSTlquhd/s200/DSCN1997.JPG" width="200" /></a></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf389th4EXBF8NYru7v5k-8tVeG_cj-kI26VyYIMtVbAWWZXvWcP7kU4GJ_WjxhrBydVao1numbyPkREHDh-MRmQj7OXPpvwUZIxv7EK7L9hBB6_3zUBFbj45ZwqKrLTLZMl-JohFZ0Jba/s1600/DSCN2004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgf389th4EXBF8NYru7v5k-8tVeG_cj-kI26VyYIMtVbAWWZXvWcP7kU4GJ_WjxhrBydVao1numbyPkREHDh-MRmQj7OXPpvwUZIxv7EK7L9hBB6_3zUBFbj45ZwqKrLTLZMl-JohFZ0Jba/s200/DSCN2004.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Then I
stopped at a fish market that was advertising smoked, pickled, fresh, and even
live fish for sale. A snack or supper of
smoked fish sounded pretty tempting so I went into the shop where I could hear
a power shop being used to cut up some of the dead fish for processing, and a
lady walked out to show me my choices for smoked fish which were buffalo, carp,
or cat fish. I picked the cat which went
for $3 something a pound, and my piece came to the bargain price of $1.25. I packed the treat away in my food bag, and
peddled on. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPyZ7jiT73CX8aZnnRzElOTEZpo1_ElH3eoDSAzbuXTRj9D-DmACHD6K1d90vwDB-JgZPIOB6Fdu3XbSfG0APnt0AA88ijg_3nRKmJHpM_ATYyizY-Rjlx1urvU7JQukPnQTs5stuiLI9g/s1600/DSCN2018.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPyZ7jiT73CX8aZnnRzElOTEZpo1_ElH3eoDSAzbuXTRj9D-DmACHD6K1d90vwDB-JgZPIOB6Fdu3XbSfG0APnt0AA88ijg_3nRKmJHpM_ATYyizY-Rjlx1urvU7JQukPnQTs5stuiLI9g/s200/DSCN2018.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">Heading along the road I passed another interesting old
abandoned farmstead, and then headed up the hill and noticed a series of animal
tracks – perhaps coyotes – that had walked along the old concrete road, before
the concrete had set. The tracks become
fossilized and would likely be around a million years from now when some future
folks would ponder what kind of animal had made them and how the strange flat
rock laid down in ribbons up and down the hills and valleys were formed and by
whom. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2EaZGsECFGKve9Yi3-55t3nbSRuhvqZNbkRfgI6HyARtN8yP2LTBm2R3k1I9lqbV7ED8vVO9s8cfFfs7C40nlgD9r-dLysrJToD01JqstWymL_FfvQSaPXSNeNkRyUBbDZB0XtDzw3G_X/s1600/DSCN2023.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2EaZGsECFGKve9Yi3-55t3nbSRuhvqZNbkRfgI6HyARtN8yP2LTBm2R3k1I9lqbV7ED8vVO9s8cfFfs7C40nlgD9r-dLysrJToD01JqstWymL_FfvQSaPXSNeNkRyUBbDZB0XtDzw3G_X/s200/DSCN2023.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Up another hill, and passed an
interesting church with a domed steeple adorned with the typical cross on the
top, and graveyard in the back. And then
on through more awe-inspiring valleys, filled with green filled trees – and
then the black and white Holsteins on the ridge top looking down at me as I
climbed below them. It seemed like
whenever I stopped near the top of one of these climbs to rest and put my coat
back on for the cooling descent, a lawn mower could be heard somewhere in a
yard above as well. Mowing grass seemed to be the most frequent outside
activity of the people I had passed on this trip – besides of course driving
cars. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Then I descended once more into the Mississippi River Valley
and approached Lansing, with the coal fired power plant south of town a sign I
had reached it. I was beginning to enter
the other side of the river from what I was familiar with so I began to get a
good sense of how much farther I needed to go to get to the various towns and I
started to set my sights on making it to Brownsville, or perhaps even to La Crescent
across the river from my old hometown of La Crosse. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWFco295lleiWQZVQNZYfGMKbPrx6_yj-NvY2nwZ67M3M4eF5xvp-ISbW7XlwiOjopLj-oGcif9Z2tceCXS70vd9GKfXYWhyphenhyphen7M5J9vK8xQVFFU_qnDtwNI3A_p3smb0u5lx54FgM6d4tBO/s1600/DSCN2042.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWFco295lleiWQZVQNZYfGMKbPrx6_yj-NvY2nwZ67M3M4eF5xvp-ISbW7XlwiOjopLj-oGcif9Z2tceCXS70vd9GKfXYWhyphenhyphen7M5J9vK8xQVFFU_qnDtwNI3A_p3smb0u5lx54FgM6d4tBO/s200/DSCN2042.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOLl6ZUiCqUq-bnwEgi4H5U489R2K8kU8J0_BTXCBvryrSqucoj7sTQ0MMrRhxbxZd3fLPWkV_I1Kg9oYmGg2tpuu7inL4yvUvei14klYw16ps5SdhTQso-TVZUUmJdkYWK-Ep5i_rp1Uw/s1600/DSCN2055.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOLl6ZUiCqUq-bnwEgi4H5U489R2K8kU8J0_BTXCBvryrSqucoj7sTQ0MMrRhxbxZd3fLPWkV_I1Kg9oYmGg2tpuu7inL4yvUvei14klYw16ps5SdhTQso-TVZUUmJdkYWK-Ep5i_rp1Uw/s200/DSCN2055.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">Lansing was also not too far from the
Minnesota border, so if I could pick up the pace I would soon be back in my
home state, and for incentive I began racing a tug pushing a work barge upriver. Then I passed the Corp of Engineers working
station on the river, with a couple of artesian wells spilling water into a
side bay to the river. I pulled into
Lansing around 3 or 4 where I stopped at the town park for a quick rest stop
and water break – watched the local school baseball team jog around the field
before practice – with one large youngster breaking out in a walk as he trailed
the rest of the pack. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Then back on the bike, past the local VFW building in the
old rail depot with a hand painted red blue and black text on a white
background sign noting the “Cost of Freedom” tabulated for all the formal wars
that American Soldiers have fought and died in listing number of participating
US Soldiers in each war, Deaths of US Soldiers, and then the Years the war was
fought. Next to the sign was an old
postal mail drop box also hand painted red white and blue with a picture of the
Flag, stuck between the words “Worn Flag Drop Box”. Based on the number of flags I have seen
flying on the trip, I wondered how many actually worn flags ended up in the
drop box, and then what was done with the worn flags – was there a cemetery
somewhere where worn flags are buried – since I </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgosaMDcGHKxj4I4oxs-4afez35BQxAdWkvDFCN6N2rG82gfUPpzWnpttEcKur_lZp8l9945suDGdTqP9I0rHUefqZ31y6k3Cj0TN_OJ6Kw6K6P9M7vGqWMHWLiJ74VHo9oUeVgl1-w8uzx/s1600/DSCN2057.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgosaMDcGHKxj4I4oxs-4afez35BQxAdWkvDFCN6N2rG82gfUPpzWnpttEcKur_lZp8l9945suDGdTqP9I0rHUefqZ31y6k3Cj0TN_OJ6Kw6K6P9M7vGqWMHWLiJ74VHo9oUeVgl1-w8uzx/s200/DSCN2057.JPG" width="150" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">don’t think it would be
appropriate to cremate them, or intern them in a landfill, and recycling would
probably be out as well. I had actually
taken to paying special attention on the trip to the flag when I saw one as a
warning flag that something of interested was nearby. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinA3w6gImIGgTPVH2jydaGhNQuA6KE-Y_bw5wr6jvPYMGa-y2SXhyg8Wtj0Pr0zB605ZMpPisE8pfBOqk8h1Kdv_OxVT6ER3waUodfgBysYbLXLAJIhyCm8IsTLFLgfpv-rtWwHU38QAgE/s1600/DSCN2060.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinA3w6gImIGgTPVH2jydaGhNQuA6KE-Y_bw5wr6jvPYMGa-y2SXhyg8Wtj0Pr0zB605ZMpPisE8pfBOqk8h1Kdv_OxVT6ER3waUodfgBysYbLXLAJIhyCm8IsTLFLgfpv-rtWwHU38QAgE/s200/DSCN2060.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">Then it was under the old blue painted unique to Lansing
steel truss bridge over the main channel of the river and into the countryside
through the river valley. Then I heard
and passed another man out mowing his large lawn on his large John Deer riding
lawn tracker, with matching John Dear Tractor mail box located beside the road
in front of his lawn. Then across the
Upper Iowa River and through the large flood plain farm fields where farmers
had abandoned the practice of raising cows and instead the cash crop of corn
and in the process they also </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF3PMb-qEXW2A1d5vHUjMr2ehvRQ5slAbPhVPBM19tGkwiXnjl6R2UlQccnBlZ_fnBm3VuX13EFh_WBYqGVHIeCi6zYiiil0wkPVdMboERKuJu1NeCravnJQepzJ3c88eRwgyZC4kbBFDA/s1600/DSCN2073.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF3PMb-qEXW2A1d5vHUjMr2ehvRQ5slAbPhVPBM19tGkwiXnjl6R2UlQccnBlZ_fnBm3VuX13EFh_WBYqGVHIeCi6zYiiil0wkPVdMboERKuJu1NeCravnJQepzJ3c88eRwgyZC4kbBFDA/s200/DSCN2073.JPG" title="" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">abandoned their old blue Harvester Slurry Store
manure storage tanks still half full of old dried manure to the trees that now
grew within them. And then it was to the
border City of New Albin, and past the lumber mill located outside of town that
turned the trees that grew on the bluff overlooking the river valley into
boards. And then back to the home state
of Minnesota. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I stopped for a moment to look over the marshland that
spread out next to the border crossing and watched a green heron hunting next
to the water. The flat road, bluffs
lining the river valley, lack of traffic, and blue skies made this a pleasant
valley to pass through. So far, this was
probably one of the prettiest sections of the trip, or perhaps I was in a good
state of mind. There was little if any
development along this section, due to the steep bluffs and floodplains; so much
of the area was structure free – except for the dike for the Genoa Lock and
Dam. Passing next to the dike, I
recalled portaging over the dike at an overflow below the road on another
paddling trip I had done with some friends a number of years back to get into
the backwater channels that flowed through the area below the dike. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">As it approached 6:30 pm, I stopped at an overlook across from
the City of Stoddard that was highlighting the construction of some islands
that were being built to provide habitat refuge for fish and wildlife. With the damming and channelizing of the
river for navigation purposes, it now became necessary to build places were
wildlife could still survive in the now mostly man-made river system. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">There was a quote from Rachel Carson printed
on a sign at the overlook that said:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“<i>Wild creatures, like men, must have a place to live. As civilization creates cities, builds
highways, and drains marshes, it takes away, little by little, the land that is
suitable for wildlife. And as their
space for living dwindles, the wildlife populations themselves decline. Refuges resist this trend by saving some
areas for encroachment, and by preserving in them, or restoring where
necessary, the conditions that wild things need in order to live.”</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">While eating the smoked catfish I had purchased downstream
earlier in the day, I felt grateful for the little bit of habitat that still
existed along the Great River Road, but I worried that as the planet continued
to fill with people, and we continued to consume more and more resources, that
the few refuges we built, would not be enough to sustain the natural world or
ourselves if we kept up the pace of our “civilization” process. And unfortunately in our insane quest to
consume more and more resources to produce more and more stuff to create larger
and larger profits, we too would in the end suffer the consequences of our mad
way of life – as if we weren’t already. The
moment of quiet and reflection and feeding restored me for the miles I had left
if I was to make it to La Crescent before dark. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCsHanrCFhZABztS4seFGZWAFIgkI_BN-cTZvbSRqiYGoPKGPWXlqbGpsd59_fpKrXhlvEszTBt17Rq0k8uyv0kep74W2nYt5kRI3dsvpMWnrNFI427ZJj7rVfhR4ZnIwd9kXgRC1xfegO/s1600/DSCN2149.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCsHanrCFhZABztS4seFGZWAFIgkI_BN-cTZvbSRqiYGoPKGPWXlqbGpsd59_fpKrXhlvEszTBt17Rq0k8uyv0kep74W2nYt5kRI3dsvpMWnrNFI427ZJj7rVfhR4ZnIwd9kXgRC1xfegO/s200/DSCN2149.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">So I headed down the road once again, passing through the
town of Brownsville and the campground I thought about staying at if I ran out
of energy, and then on through the beautiful Root River valley. The river was still up some in the farm
fields built in the river’s flood plains, and was moving at a good pace when it
passed under the bridge I crossed. The
lowering sun was beginning to paint alternating patterns of shadows and soft
rounded green tree covered bluffs. The
steep rock cliff faces too were highlighted by the setting sun, as were the old
steel beam railroad bridge that carried many a train car over the root in the
multitude of decades it had been in service. And the swallows swooped across the water in search of some insects to feed on.
And then I noticed the full moon rising in the eastern sky, over the
distant Mississippi River Valley.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLEvSjtcET_KP37ABq1H8WocUx8DtbNbHgt3X9qa266JgWZ725bivMTmoyD_SWYd3UgprdbDRybnW1tp8_h02qjPcrgg4jTJ93diTSBcldIN21YCIfafsJ5UNn7u94D8wip9yasZy3f8IY/s1600/DSCN2160.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLEvSjtcET_KP37ABq1H8WocUx8DtbNbHgt3X9qa266JgWZ725bivMTmoyD_SWYd3UgprdbDRybnW1tp8_h02qjPcrgg4jTJ93diTSBcldIN21YCIfafsJ5UNn7u94D8wip9yasZy3f8IY/s200/DSCN2160.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Moving closer to La Crescent, the road passed a group of
about 20 Alpaca’s, confined in a small vegetation free pen. The creatures had all been laying down when I
passed, but when I stopped to watch them for a moment, they all stood up to
watch me. All their fur had been sheared
off – I presume to make some yarn for their own to sell and pay for their
keep. The animals had a sad look in
their eyes – one that seemed to be pleading with me to do something to free
them so they could roam the land unconfined, not forced to spend their days
watching cars speed by, staring at the grass outside the fence, living an
existence of having feed being brought to them and served in a trough, so they
could grow more hair to be sheared off when it reached harvest time. But then again, maybe these were just
soulless creatures put on this earth to serve our human wants and needs, like
the rest of the critters who stood and stared at me as I passed them on the
Great River Road. How we treated them
mattered little in our world where making another dollar was what really
mattered. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And then as the land rose above the river valley onto dryer
ground, large farms began to occur again.
The earth had been cleared for hundreds of acres, as it had for the
hundreds of miles of fields I had passed on this trip, denuded of all forms of
life that would compete with the one, two, or on the most diverse farms three
crops that were desirable. Corn however
seemed to be king, as the cut up stalks from last year’s crop revealed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">As the sun descended behind the bluffs, I entered La
Crescent, looking for a hotel or motel.
Nearing the end of town, I stopped at another Kwik Trip to ask if there
were any in town, or if I would need to cross back over the river to La Crosse
to find a place to stay. And crossing it
would be as apparently there were no rooms for weary travelers on this side of
the river, so I headed across and decided to stop at the Pettibone Park RV Park
and Campground to find out about a campsite for the night. I had become quite accustomed to the life of leisure
provide by staying under a roof with my own private bathroom, no bugs (I hoped)
to harass me, and a queen or even king sized mattress in lieu of my inflatable
24” by 6’ long sleeping pad that typically road behind me in a stuff sack
strapped to my pannier. But crossing one
of the twin span blue bridges over the main channel back to the East bank was
not something I wanted to do. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The young lady at the bar of the campground
who registered me for the night did not seem to interested in conversing to me
beyond the business at hand and seemed offended when I asked if I would have to
pay to use the shower when she replied I might need a few quarters to get the
water running as I stood waiting in the bar to complete the computerized
registration process. I listened briefly
to two women in their 50’s, conversing at the bar about the pains in their
necks and how they were not ready yet to go through the surgery being
recommended to them to eliminate the pain.
So I am not sure if their solution was to sit at bars and drink away the
pain, until they felt they were old enough to undergo the more permanent neck
fusing surgery, but it seemed that way to me.
</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">So I headed off into the darkening campground to try and
find my $23 campsite 633 amongst the hundreds of mostly empty sites that lined
the un-flooded sections of the campground.
It appeared that the prime sites located on the river channel and near
the showers were reserved for the regulars who kept their RV and Campers at the
site year round – except when they had to be removed during flood stages. I found the sites designated for “walk-ins”
and “tents” next to the highway embankment leading up to the blue bridge. I passed one site that had multiple tents set
up, but no campers around, and one other site with a young couple and old truck
camper, but could not find site 633. I
made a couple of more passes up and the vagrant camper sites and finally
decided to take the unoccupied site 630 with no other campers nearby – as I
hoped to not be disturbed – and hoped I would not cause a dilemma by not going
to my computer designated site. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I quick set up my tent, unpacked my gear, and headed to the
shower at around 10 p.m.. I finally
figured out how to turn the shower on, and was grateful that the shower would
not add to my already pricey bill for the nights camping. Then I headed back to the tent hoping to
crash for the night as I was really tired after traveling a rather long 67
miles over about 11 hours. I was almost
asleep, somehow tuning out the sound of the cars climbing the bridge abutment
behind me, when I heard several male voices at the pack of tents I saw
earlier. The group seemed to be taking
turns telling stories and then the group would if on cue laugh in the way only
young male voices can at appropriate times during the story. At one point one rather loud voice could be
heard reading from a book. I was trying
to figure out what the story was about, and why this particular group of young
men would find this particular what seemed to me a boring section of the book
of interest or worthy of laughter, but from the distance, and in my growing
frustrated state, I must have been missing something. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">It was finally about 1 am, when I heard the
story telling come to a close and heard smaller groups walk by my campsite
talking loudly on their way to the bathroom, which I hoped would be the last I
heard from them for the night and it was, as the full moon reached the height
of it trip around the planet I finally feel a sleep with the moon light
streaming into to my screen door. </span></div>
Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3652025888906665858.post-40341516275544512742013-05-23T06:25:00.001-07:002013-05-26T21:44:18.219-07:00Wednesday May 22nd - Guttenberg to McGregor<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXot04oFlDSXfZULGZg3w5jVb2ZHg_yKIttnz05OGJvOEUdk50ZK-SB7fXvR_VPht2T_2-6wWX_yHJfXaHzAQ7bDe8qwThTxzaj6mujyHCQnC55ochWDJCB9GTTT-jGDEXLrwGEE76RAyi/s1600/DSCN1753.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXot04oFlDSXfZULGZg3w5jVb2ZHg_yKIttnz05OGJvOEUdk50ZK-SB7fXvR_VPht2T_2-6wWX_yHJfXaHzAQ7bDe8qwThTxzaj6mujyHCQnC55ochWDJCB9GTTT-jGDEXLrwGEE76RAyi/s200/DSCN1753.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Slept relatively late – 7:30 or so – as I stayed up to late
the night before. Was too tired to
finish writing about the days event the night before, so finished up in the
morning. Must be rambling too much, as I
didn’t finish until almost 10:30, just in time to quick pack and check out by
11. As I was taking some pictures of the
Landing where I stayed, Gary and his dog stopped by to talk. </span></span><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihGdk9R-cRJXHOPQALBgAeLyYnvbNsFI32lbMeLNnN7mlduF0n-OhE0vlCYIKFDkFYgMGiC4x9qARNNFFYEPxhe3OPB7rQ1ye9_oS3ccDAGK8rxTVyseXwAFjAjy4GEDDtaSDuNQc4O7J2/s1600/DSCN1763.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihGdk9R-cRJXHOPQALBgAeLyYnvbNsFI32lbMeLNnN7mlduF0n-OhE0vlCYIKFDkFYgMGiC4x9qARNNFFYEPxhe3OPB7rQ1ye9_oS3ccDAGK8rxTVyseXwAFjAjy4GEDDtaSDuNQc4O7J2/s200/DSCN1763.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Gary is an immigrant to the community of
Guttenburg, from the Milwaukee area. He
and his ex-fiancé stayed at the Landing themselves a few years back and fell in
love with the area – when he retired, they bought a house, then they broke up,
and he stayed. He told me about foolish
people he has scene do stupid things on the river with their speed boats. One example was of people running through the
gates on the lock and dam, with they are wide open to high river stage to avoid
having to lock through. The other was of
people hitting wing dams with their boats.
After hearing that story, I had to come clean with my story about how I
learned about wing-dams. </span></span>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"> I told him how I had
built a wooden row boat and after finishing it, I talked my wife into trying
out island camping with me for our anniversary.
Not knowing too much about a wing dams at the time, I was motoring along
the shore of the river looking for a camping site on the islands south of Genoa
near the Bad Axe River. All of a sudden
I hit the rock structure with my plastic prop, and sheared it off the
motor. My wife jumped out of the boat
walking along the wing dam in hopes of finding the broken prop. Needless to say she never found it, but we
rowed to an island, camped for the night, and then rowed back to the boat
landing the next day. And also needless
to say, my wife has never camped on an island with me since. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I also talked some with him about my trip experiences and he
gave me the name of a book called THE RIVER WE HAVE WROUGHT and told me it was
about the history of development, and uses and abuses of the Mississippi River
from the Twin Cities to St. Louis. I
told him I would add it to my books to read list. He then told me that if I ever made it back
to town to stop by and see him. His is
the only house of the 400 block. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Heading out of Guttenburg, I stopped at the visitor’s center
to see if they had any good maps of this part of the State. I was just using the Iowa State Highway map
which didn’t have much detail. I found a
few and started collecting them, and then wondered what I would do with my Northeastern
Illinois Map collection. I also started
thinking about how limited maps are in communicating information about what
experiencing a place is really like. A
flat two dimensional collection of some lines, colors, and a few words is
pretty meaningless when it comes to experiencing the multisensory,
multidimensional, multitude of experiences that places contain. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL0yfn49nXP6FFIizKbJARRL0kh24cPPRf2Opn6RNr4gA2_2T8YVmC6hZabfeZHctEbzJNjCIbnwgAef2pm2HphhzjDRIxD7WSXadteodeFG3em5AAR4pQ4di9SCW9q2-jizDTJ_fwbJB6/s1600/DSCN1762.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL0yfn49nXP6FFIizKbJARRL0kh24cPPRf2Opn6RNr4gA2_2T8YVmC6hZabfeZHctEbzJNjCIbnwgAef2pm2HphhzjDRIxD7WSXadteodeFG3em5AAR4pQ4di9SCW9q2-jizDTJ_fwbJB6/s200/DSCN1762.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">And then I passed the town's schools that were built alongside
the river with a nice view of the lock and dam.
It was nice to see for a change prime river front property devoted to
children, rather than profit. As I
passed the playground, recess must have just started and loads of grade school
kids began pouring outside, running and jumping, throwing balls, yelling and
laughing – that was kids in their natural environment or at least outside. As I stopped in the park next to the
playground, I continued to notice the activities and that there was a chain
link fence surrounding the playgroun – although fortunately there was no barb
wire strung across the top of it. The
ground in the pavement was covered in pavement, and instead of trees to climb,
there were multicolored metal structures for the kids to climb, and
manufactured swings for them to play on.
I liked to hope that the excitement the kids demonstrated was doing to
being outside, not fenced in on a paved area with unnatural equipment to burn
off some energy on. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> I worried that the
way we kept our children confined, was not too much different from how we
confine our livestock – and that by treating them that way, we break them from
the connection they have to the natural world – so we can put them back in the
class room and get them to be able to sit in a desk and focus for hours at</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1oPjmgL0Wqc1jGzlHDkZIqOTBBF9nNIa8jPq5ZCfxDNRvDYJXw14En9vudXkVpZzQtdq7dTiuT4er_ZeCxjrlDTvftzJgYmaJxdV0y4Gl1bOUgjP47pNF18Y4ReQf4u2awUVVN7-qKhu3/s1600/DSCN1761.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1oPjmgL0Wqc1jGzlHDkZIqOTBBF9nNIa8jPq5ZCfxDNRvDYJXw14En9vudXkVpZzQtdq7dTiuT4er_ZeCxjrlDTvftzJgYmaJxdV0y4Gl1bOUgjP47pNF18Y4ReQf4u2awUVVN7-qKhu3/s200/DSCN1761.JPG" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"> a
time – when instead they should be spending their days playing and exploring
nature. While in the park, I also used
the City’s park restroom facility and it was the nicest City park restroom I
have had the pleasure to use – it was very clean, modernly equipped, and smelt
like someone had been burning nice smelling incense in. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwqrva-htyK3tCIqkp-qIqHLI1EpIOjDaDXvaU3wxocclnWv2X2rXSlkfmDMqoWZudgSz5zOVt2rTIzKbnh6UUHvyUsDVGZI7qT_5lzSnuk0c-9-91OLU0xvCjOojadB7kAW12RKnkZ1jE/s1600/DSCN1767.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwqrva-htyK3tCIqkp-qIqHLI1EpIOjDaDXvaU3wxocclnWv2X2rXSlkfmDMqoWZudgSz5zOVt2rTIzKbnh6UUHvyUsDVGZI7qT_5lzSnuk0c-9-91OLU0xvCjOojadB7kAW12RKnkZ1jE/s200/DSCN1767.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">It was probably around noon, and time for me to move on when
I encountered a group of preschool age kids out for a walk along the path on
top of the dike that ran north of the school.
I pulled my bike over to let them pass and as I waited, a boy looked at
my bike and then asked me why I had all that stuff on my bike? I replied without thinking about it that I
couldn’t leave home without my stuff, but later thought more about his
question, and wondered why did I have so much stuff? I suppose it made me feel safe to have all my
stuff. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I had the following clothes: 6 pairs of shirts, 2 biking
shorts, 2 regular shorts, 5 pairs of socks, 4 pair of underwear, a pair of
gloves, a stocking cap, a pair of sweat pants, a sweat shirt, one long sleeve
shirt, rain coat and paints, helmet, two sets of biking gloves, a reflective
vest, biking shoes, and an extra pair of shoes. I had my eyeglasses, a pair of
sunglasses, a pair of clear lenses glasses, an extra pair of contacts, a bottle
of contact cleaning solution, Breathrite Strips to keep me from snoring, deodorant,
shampoo, conditioner, a small bar of soap, hair gel, shaving cream and a razor,
tooth brush and toothpaste, suntan lotion, fingernail and toenail clippers,
Chapstick, a container of wetwipes, one large towel, one washcloth, and two
sets of dental floss dispensers. I had
my one person tent, a sleeping bag, a sleeping pad, and a stuff able
pillow. For food I had about 3 each of oranges and
apples, salted nuts, dried fruit, about 10 granola bars, a bag of mixed
vegetables, a couple small bags of sunflower seeds, and probably a few other
items. I had a small first aid kit
containing an ankle wraps, assorted band aids, a few asprin, some Tums, a small
scissors, a small sewing kit. For books
I brought along George Orwell’s 1984 and Alfred North Whiteheads ADVENTURES OF
IDEAS (which has not been opened so far) along with a guide book to biking the
Great River Road, along with a small and large note book, two pens, and a
pencil. I had state highway maps for WI,
IL, IA, and MN. I had picked up several
other maps along the way. I had two head
lights for the bike, two tail lights, a reflective triangle to hang from the
back, a headlight for my head, a camera, an Ipod, cellphone, and a 15” laptop. For bike tools I had a set of Allen wrenches,
a multipurpose tool, a small pair of clippers, a set of tire changing levers, a
chain cleaning brush, chain lubricant, degreaser, all-purpose lubricant, and a
small bag of rags for cleaning. I had to
spare inner tubes and a foldable bike tire.
And I had my wallet, plus a collapsible kitchen sink. And I am sure there was some other stuff I
forgot to mention. And when I think
about it, probably half of this stuff – well maybe a quarter of it – never got
used so far. So why did I bring so much
stuff? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I headed out of town with all my stuff, passed the towns
veteran memorial, a fairly large covered marina for the large boats to harbor
and it’s two above ground fuel tanks to hold the fuel to keep the boats
running, the pump station to pump the local creek over the flood dike, the
large homes perched on top of the bluff overlooking the town, and then traveled
along the road next to the railroad tracks that headed North. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNSqLFV_LiQf9-3NMILjLMCfeq0q3JpNGSGiZSc7LoBl2fI3dpPfFnDL89fAojKB0RLxYFA5lj0Efbvh9QiBo-p9itC84-dclJsq6pHDoqpV9317NtxOtdrIllAucoRs2-KFXJaBbHi1zs/s1600/DSCN1782.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNSqLFV_LiQf9-3NMILjLMCfeq0q3JpNGSGiZSc7LoBl2fI3dpPfFnDL89fAojKB0RLxYFA5lj0Efbvh9QiBo-p9itC84-dclJsq6pHDoqpV9317NtxOtdrIllAucoRs2-KFXJaBbHi1zs/s200/DSCN1782.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Along the railroad tracks I noticed all the
large trees that had been encroaching on the tracks had been whacked off with
some type of equipment. They were large diameter
trees, and the remaining stumps were broken off anywhere from four to eight
feet off the ground, with the top of the tree simply pushed off to the side of
the tracks and left to rot. It got me thinking again about how we treat nature,
it’s fine as long as it keeps its distance from our stuff, from what is
important to us, but as soon as it gets in our way or encroaches on us, or
makes us feel uncomfortable – we invent some new technological device to whack
it back, to kill it, to remind it who is in charge. We don’t seem like it too much when it whacks
back and reminds us who is in charge – for example when things like really big
tornadoes wipe out towns – then we really don’t like it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And then the River Road verged to the left and up a huge
hill to the top of the 500’ or so tall bluff and the railroad verged to the
right to follow the lower river valley floor.
And then I was climbing that hill and working up a profuse sweat. I had to stop and take off my one long-sleeved
shirt, and then put it back on again when I got to the top of the hill to keep
from getting cold. It was a cloudy
cooler day again. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The road ran along the ridge tops again, to the land of
large farms. The terrain was quite steep
and erosion must be a problem on some of the fields. Corn seemed to be the predominant crop to
plant, and I stopped for a lunch break near one corn field and stepped out to
admire the corn seedlings that were an inch or two high and planted in neat row
after row. The clay soil stuck to my
shoes and I had to stomp my shoes on the concrete paving to </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgamdALzNSq6RtSPlndKnKw7kjMw3B1B9RRr_WofsHQ2R7SSuFAyOBOBgy9zkRZ6eB-CuknMjmsJ-AxziqdARs8cgemIAGVy482dlRDxQInuCjtwzDvqnXheHt9l1N6FDVVSA5BVe5jRA4h/s1600/DSCN1798.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgamdALzNSq6RtSPlndKnKw7kjMw3B1B9RRr_WofsHQ2R7SSuFAyOBOBgy9zkRZ6eB-CuknMjmsJ-AxziqdARs8cgemIAGVy482dlRDxQInuCjtwzDvqnXheHt9l1N6FDVVSA5BVe5jRA4h/s200/DSCN1798.JPG" width="150" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">unclog the cleats
on my shoes so they would not plug up my peddles and prevent my shoes from
clipping into my clip-less peddles. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3d4Tz5NHMJDwB_inkZh4NV6sEyk4u1xCPHDJvGt_km4nKXL-pYo1vV3n4yjTRXkJdCUwwVc7PJnrC80UEfhsAqYn3poy_nrJB4dSU16WRiCqbRgD-qcxgciAd_d8yPJ_JiKw7MLLb9UYH/s1600/DSCN1806.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3d4Tz5NHMJDwB_inkZh4NV6sEyk4u1xCPHDJvGt_km4nKXL-pYo1vV3n4yjTRXkJdCUwwVc7PJnrC80UEfhsAqYn3poy_nrJB4dSU16WRiCqbRgD-qcxgciAd_d8yPJ_JiKw7MLLb9UYH/s200/DSCN1806.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">So I
re-clipped myself to the bike and proceeded to pass the Pleasant Ridge one room school house on
which the sign out front indicated taught the children of the ridge from 1893
to 1954. I wondered who kept the
building up all these years and if it was just kept up for display
purposes. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Then there was the Willie Quarry – a purveyor of limestone,
a horse farm – with a donkey and a ewe and her lamb perched behind her lying on
a black plastic tarp, followed by the Pattison Sand Company – and the semis
that haul the sand from the mine to probably back down to the river where it is
loaded on to rail-cars or barges for shipping someplace else. And with the increased truck traffic the
concrete road that had been in good shape now began to show the wear and tear
that comes along with truck traffic. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuIzDAeCBn_yE0uW-FLoDk8nuKqZiPvYBch4srbFrNUvckEH1P6Al7OkcrKdE6VVEehJR1uymM7Oe70ovKpXBjPfq6e6yGRQ6pm5oFya83Y0gbmWuXZkL1KoRTLIeaV-MTS7F-yto7Y9Rv/s1600/DSCN1825.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuIzDAeCBn_yE0uW-FLoDk8nuKqZiPvYBch4srbFrNUvckEH1P6Al7OkcrKdE6VVEehJR1uymM7Oe70ovKpXBjPfq6e6yGRQ6pm5oFya83Y0gbmWuXZkL1KoRTLIeaV-MTS7F-yto7Y9Rv/s200/DSCN1825.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Passing by a white house, I noticed two American flags draped vertically hanging down
from the entry porch – the red, white and blue stuck out like two sore thumbs
on the white house. White smoke could be
seen rising from the bin located in the field next to the house, and the smell
of burning garbage filled the air.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Then on my way down the hill to Paradise Valley I noticed
some small earthen dams with orange drain tiles placed in front of them located
throughout a steep farm field. The
purpose of the dams must have been to try and slow the water down and capture
the soil that ran off with it. And then
rising up from the floor of the Valley was a large limestone face that had been
carved away in the quarrying process through the years. And perched high on top of what appeared to
be a new section of freshly cleaned off limestone where the vegetation and
overburden had been removed in preparation for expanding the quarry was another
American flag blowing in the breeze. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRG59D6iRpPgr91HQEl22ROn88_gyGOHMTHxntPLKy2SqH0Ia6jLUA6CDzvNqrt_0WnAkB6n_qIafdu8SPEbpXthuyLI0pTFnLmwElH3PGOzf_jTOIBaoM1un49tZBgIhOdYcVvl4OuqYE/s1600/DSCN1850.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRG59D6iRpPgr91HQEl22ROn88_gyGOHMTHxntPLKy2SqH0Ia6jLUA6CDzvNqrt_0WnAkB6n_qIafdu8SPEbpXthuyLI0pTFnLmwElH3PGOzf_jTOIBaoM1un49tZBgIhOdYcVvl4OuqYE/s200/DSCN1850.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">I
crossed the bridge over the stream that runs next to the quarry and through the
valley, and noticed how gray/green it was – kind of like a broth that had gone
bad. And then I began climbing the hill
up and out of Paradise Valley, and I began thinking about heaven and hell. As I was about half way up the hill, I
figured that this hill must be hell, or at least purgatory – and I wondered
what I had done to deserve such punishment. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And then I reached the top of the hill and paused to rest and wipe the
sweat from my brow wondering if I had reached the promised land – but the old
rusty farm equipment and Jeep truck abandoned in below the farmstead next to
the highway told me I had further to go. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Panic also set in when I pulled my Ipod from my pocket and noticed the
near the headphone plugins, the vinyl sheath protecting the speaker wire was
worn – as all headphones I have ever owned – and I have owned a lot do. I wondered why our high tech industries could
not come up with a connector that didn’t fail – but then I realized that that
might put a serious crimp in the sales of headphones. My panic receded when I recalled the roll of
black electrical tape (one of the things I forgot to mention in my list of
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0g-_jvlkshLMGWaq4yCwFZ7J-L1HYO3kTaj5iNP-hzhCQPz40VrUFNwjZ9mH08o7Uw-D0N5Oj7eaWZJebv5hahvmk-k65TNBqUq8lYqDiEmqv8VI2hGWOBLr2kSuYP6115zL97cUvidka/s1600/DSCN1864.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0g-_jvlkshLMGWaq4yCwFZ7J-L1HYO3kTaj5iNP-hzhCQPz40VrUFNwjZ9mH08o7Uw-D0N5Oj7eaWZJebv5hahvmk-k65TNBqUq8lYqDiEmqv8VI2hGWOBLr2kSuYP6115zL97cUvidka/s200/DSCN1864.JPG" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">stuff I brought with me earlier), so I proceeded to pull it out and reinforce
the connector. A white cow and her calf
watched me as I paused and made my repairs and then proceeded to pass them
by. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">On the left side of the road appeared a small white church with a cemetery
behind it. The small church did not look like it was used any more, probably
because the steeple size was small and location of the church was such that it could not be scene for many
miles away. And then up the road a
little ways on the right was another much larger steeple free church that was
still in use. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi-CQwmqGvIwD_JFMrusg00SCME88pURHeOXWLea5EvIG7KzQL4lR0ZzvZDbvgtzEBK1VoSQmgu6MyOKDVrLisnibFroBg0lDiJbtb4uVAg2XKrbNLGUjCqb4sOXiUQXH2df-u0Cr8J6l7/s1600/DSCN1873.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi-CQwmqGvIwD_JFMrusg00SCME88pURHeOXWLea5EvIG7KzQL4lR0ZzvZDbvgtzEBK1VoSQmgu6MyOKDVrLisnibFroBg0lDiJbtb4uVAg2XKrbNLGUjCqb4sOXiUQXH2df-u0Cr8J6l7/s200/DSCN1873.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">The sky got darker,
and I began to worry about storms and rain, and decided to pull off in Pikes
Peak State Park to figure out if I should plan on staying there for the night –
even though it was only 3 pm. I toured
the campground and noticed a group of four or five matching tents with a sign
in front of them that Americorp volunteers were working at the campground. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I rode out to the end of the park with an overlook over the
river valley and talked with a park ranger and park store host to find out if
they knew what the weather was supposed to be – rain showers were expected and
I learned they had a weather radio playing in the campground restroom. I wasn’t sure if I should stay, or if I
should go. I felt guilty for stopping
early and not getting many miles in, I felt guilty for having all my camping
gear with me and having spent the last 4 nights in motels and hotels and
spending all the extra money – perhaps all the churches I had passed were
instilling my conscious with guilt. But
then again, I was starting to enjoy spending time in doors at night. It saved me time setting up and taking down
my stuff at night, and it allowed me to experience some interesting inns. I was torn on what to do. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The camp store had a blue tee shirt hanging outside the
store that caught my eye – it was $15 which compared to the $3 used one I bought at
Salvation Army Store in Onalaska on my downstream trip was quite a bit, but as
far as new tee shirts go seemed pretty reasonable.
However, the price of an electric campsite was also $15 and I was down
to about $27 and some change in cash – the store didn’t take credit cards
either. I opted to increase my stuff and
buy the shirt. After purchasing the
shirt the store host asked me if I needed any other information - after she swatted some gnats and mosquitoes
away from my head. I asked her what the
meaning of life was. She looked at me
kind of funny, and then with some further explanation from me on what I meant
she thought for a moment and replied – “to find happiness within”. That seemed like some good information to
remember I told her, especially when I am biking up long steep hills with all my
stuff. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I still was not sure whether to spend the night at the campground
or not, so I stopped at the campground restroom to listen to the weather radio
while I swallowed some granola bars to fend off my hunger pains. The mechanical weather man was not too
helpful as he read off the predicted river stages up and down the river, so I
stepped outside to fill my water bottle and the gnats began swarming my head
again. The idea of spending the night in
my tiny tent to avoid the bugs and or the rain did into seem inviting. So I slipped on my rain coat to keep the
cold and sprinkles that start to fall at bay, and headed down the hill to the
town of McGregor. I zipped down the big
hill into town, and passed the first motel I came to on the outskirts thinking
there might be something better in the downtown area – closer to the
river. And I came to the downtown – an attractive
downtown as downtown river towns go – with the typical reddish brick 3 story
building and store fronts lining the road down to the river. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And then I saw a sign for the Alexander Hotel and Mexican Restaurant. I walked into the bar and restaurant and
noticed some men sitting at the bar eating Mexican food, and I asked the bar
tender – a young lady with a pierced tongue – if they had rooms available and
if so how much they were. She began
explaining the various room options to me and their prices, and it seemed like
I could find one option that would keep my price under $60 for the night – a bit
high, but after making her go through all the details I felt like I should
stay. I also asked about the ability to
bring my bike upstairs. The Hispanic gentlemen
sitting at the bar wearing a red Wisconsin baseball cap that spoke up and asked
me what type of bike it was – a motorcycle or a bicycle? I told him, and then he gave me a tour of the
first floor of the complex that he was in the process of remodeling and showed
me several rooms where I could stow my bike.
He also showed me a place out back I could lock the bike up. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I decided to take the room – after all the
hospitality I was shown I figured it was the least I could do. As I registered, I asked the man who had shown me around
where he was from as he didn’t have a south eastern Iowa accent – and he
proudly point to one of many flags displayed on the walls from Central and
South American Countries and said Peru.
I assumed he must be the owner of the establishment. He also told the bar tender to give me the
$52 rate </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"></span></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHzSbwknZ-trAVrUUTRt_YodhFWcYlps3ObS1Vu1PkqBPEVGWUyUnPynUx4fY3KFg02_Z0hBbecvCQszitKm1BGMZE6UHoNyyK2MOP4ifn4SaYHiTx6N89WqQIXCq_TnEImnsrzOYCBeFe/s1600/DSCN1890.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHzSbwknZ-trAVrUUTRt_YodhFWcYlps3ObS1Vu1PkqBPEVGWUyUnPynUx4fY3KFg02_Z0hBbecvCQszitKm1BGMZE6UHoNyyK2MOP4ifn4SaYHiTx6N89WqQIXCq_TnEImnsrzOYCBeFe/s200/DSCN1890.JPG" width="150" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">on the room with the queen size bed and bathroom in the room, which is
what they typically charge for the single bed room with the shared
bathroom. He took me upstairs and told
me he was in the middle of putting the window air conditioner in the room, and said
he would be done in a few minutes, so I began unloading my stuff to set up shop
for the night. After taking a shower in
the old claw footed bathtub with the improvised shower system – I headed
downstairs for some Mexican food. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I asked the bartender/waitress why the owner did not serve Peruvian
food at the restaurant. She explained
that when he first started up the business – he did have several Peruvian
dishes on the menu, but they did not sell too well. She explained that the owner would on occasion
make some of the dishes and I asked her how they were. She said that the meat is often guinea pig,
and she was not real fond of it herself as it was on the tough side. She said that being a local hunter who
believes in eating what she hunts she has tried many things including raccoon and
opossum, but she preferred beef. She
also told me she grew up across the river in Prairie du Chien. And she told me about her adventure hunting
cougars. I asked her if she had done
that out west, and she explained that it was actually on the Canadian
border. When I asked if that was in
Northern MN, she said no – Wisconsin. I
started to think that she may be embellishing her hunting adventure story – but
decided to just accept her tale of adventures hunting animals that could hunt
you back at face value, and didn’t ask her how the hunt went. I appreciated her taking the time to make me
feel welcome and her entertaining stories. After polishing off the vegetarian enchilada
and large bowl of homemade chips and salsa that were all delicious, I headed
back up to my room, where I came across the owner who was wrapping up his maintenance
duties for the day. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvDMQ9_F6D8J0tv6da9oNDR_2qkuUg2aFF50NmPzTV5WhTj0dLtSdbo9jjvIy8YbQTT5jZSqBVLYlYP6eQ8r0l2nzB5SEq26PehQzAqbYpNtWMXX0SaLQa9i4FCnKFBPu4gfi-V-r7ZEYE/s1600/DSCN1892.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvDMQ9_F6D8J0tv6da9oNDR_2qkuUg2aFF50NmPzTV5WhTj0dLtSdbo9jjvIy8YbQTT5jZSqBVLYlYP6eQ8r0l2nzB5SEq26PehQzAqbYpNtWMXX0SaLQa9i4FCnKFBPu4gfi-V-r7ZEYE/s200/DSCN1892.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">He asked me about bikes and told me he would like to get one
and was wondering what kind to buy. I advised him that I was no expert on the
subject, but told him my philosophies on the subject and told him I could do
some checking on the internet and give him a list of brands I would consider if
purchasing a lower cost used bike, in lieu of buying a cheap new one from Wal-Mart
as he was considering. We also reviewed the ins and outs of the
various types of bikes from mountain to cross to road to touring. He told me he was a tennis player and played
tennis on Tuesday nights. I also asked
him if he missed Peru, and he said he missed his family and friends, but that
he had many friends here. He had a wife
and two high school aged daughters who lived in Decorah Iowa which was about 50
miles away. He spends several days a
week at the Hotel in McGregor and several in Decorah with his family.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Later in the evening while I was sitting outside trying to
write up my days adventures he sat down and we talked some more about bikes and
other things. We also talked about the challenges
he has had in trying to learn the hotel and restaurant business, dealing with
bankers, lawyers, architects, insurance agents, and all the other complications
that go with running a business. I found
his concern for his employees quite interesting. He mentioned that in the winter time business
drops off a lot, but he doesn’t lay off his crew, because he wants to keep the
people he trusts employed. He talked
about how when he started up the restaurant he learned how to cook from the
cook he hired, and how he also took lessons from a Peruvian chief in
Madison. He has hopes of one day opening
up a restaurant that serves Peruvian food. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 115%;">He also told me that he is a pilot and can fly airplanes
and helicopters. He became a pilot in
Peru where he flew for American petroleum companies, and he also did some
commercial flying while he lived here, but the commitments took him away from
his family too much. That is in addition
to work he has done as an electrician, plumber, and HVAC worker. We also talked about his religious believes –
he said he was not a religious man, but he definitely was a man with a faith
the guided his actions to treat people right.
He liked the fundamental principles behind the Ten Commandments – to be
honest, to honor your parents, to not kill – and he also like the Our Father prayer
with its focus on forgiveness, and paying attention to daily needs, not long
term wants. And then</span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyXp0vri2PG5esTSEitTzwQ-wjJeFLJIGrWMU-LFsleTgCLdQjqKhGhocq8SAu1cTzBhE1xgftupYWYFs2ccZuj4uvgfAYv0kAEytfT77hHrteep3uyIgEzmlQdSp2X8w9O53ny2r2StFV/s1600/DSCN1888.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyXp0vri2PG5esTSEitTzwQ-wjJeFLJIGrWMU-LFsleTgCLdQjqKhGhocq8SAu1cTzBhE1xgftupYWYFs2ccZuj4uvgfAYv0kAEytfT77hHrteep3uyIgEzmlQdSp2X8w9O53ny2r2StFV/s200/DSCN1888.JPG" width="200" /></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 115%;"> he headed back to
Decorah, as his wife was expecting him home for the night and I went up to my
home for the night as well. I had been disappointed that I had only gone 19 miles that day, and that I took the cushy choice of staying indoors rather than in a tent - but the conversations and stories I heard from the people I met reminded me that it was a very good day. </span></span>Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3652025888906665858.post-60497853005740839072013-05-22T08:24:00.005-07:002013-05-26T16:01:37.113-07:00Tuesday May 21st - Dubuque to Guttenburg<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Dubuque was kind of gray and overcast when I woke up around
7, packed by stuff, swallowed some granola bars, an apple, and an orange, and
checked out of the Canfield Hotel. I
wasn’t quite sure what this day would bring, I wasn’t even sure how to get out
of town, so I headed towards the rising sun that keep poking it’s head out from
behind the clouds and down to the river.
On the way, I passed through what banner’s hung along the street
proclaimed to be the historic millwork district, which was a collection of old
large red brick factories, most of which were now owned by the window and door
manufacturer Jeldwen. Several of the
large old buildings sat empty, with the windows and doors brook out. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">One had the old fading and bent sign composed of three
upside down yellow triangles merged into a brown circular symbol for a nuclear
fallout shelter attached next to an open door into the building. Inside the building was another sign attached
next to another interior door, that would lead the panicked folks deeper into
the heart of the building where Dubuques residents were duped into believing
they would be safe from nuclear fallout.
It was suprising to see that after over 40 years, the signs were still
up and on display. I wondered if the
shelter itself was still stocked with the red and white hard candy that I
remember had been stockpiled in cardboard drums packed the sweet treats that
came out of the shelter that used to exist in the basement of the catholic
school I went to as a kid. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Passing through the district the sweet smell of sawdust
filled the air. And all the buildings
where sawing and sanding of the sash was being done were connected to a large
centralized sawdust collection system, by a tangled series of large baby blue
conduits that were strung from buildings across the streets, and routed to the
multiple matching baby blue large steel cyclones that spun the sawdust filled
air that drew a vacuumed through the pipes to carry the waste material away and
deposit it in large hoppers and bins. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">It was hard to leave the district, as there was something
about the massive old buildings that drew me in, maybe it was the smell of
sawdust, maybe it was memories of growing up in a town and region that was
dominated by millwork companies, and my summer spent working in one of them, or
perhaps it was just the look of the old brick buildings – each one presented
another opportunity for an interesting picture highlighted from the rising sun
that would lay down an intriticate series of lights and shadows . But time was passing and I moved on down
towards the river, hoping to pick up a trail or road back up river. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">There I passed by what must have been a large old power
plant with two short and stubby, rusty stacks protruding upwards towards the
diluting winds. There was a number barge
unloading facilities located adjacent to the flood dike installed to keep the
area safe from the river. Commodities
offloaded included the winter driver’s friend – road salt, and the crop growing
farmers friend – liquid fertilizer. And
further out near the river include the gamblers friend – the “river boat”
casino. I didn’t venture further down
near the river because it seemed like the roads dead-ended there. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">So I found a bike path, that looked like it might take me up
river and started following it, but the path also came to a dead end across
from a large screen that had been installed at the end of a large culvert that
carried the water from the Bee Branch Creek from where it had been diverted
under the road to drop it into the canal that lead to the lift station that
would pump the creek up and over the dike and into the mighty Mississippi,
where it could flow relatively free by gravity once again to the Gulf of
Mexico. The screen was installed to
remove the logs and sticks, and other debris (probably plastic bags, aluminum
cans, and other trash) that naturally find their way into creeks, but create
havoc on the unnatural pumps needed to lift the water up and over the manmade
dike. The screen was clogged with the
debris as there was a couple of feet of head loss as the water squeezed its way
through the trash. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Near the trash screen, I found a map alongside the trail
that showed a map of the City of Dubuque’s bike trail system, and there was
trail called the Mississippi River Trail located back further away from the
river, so I headed back into to town to try and find it. Along the way I passed an old interesting
red brick district that was more religious than industrious in nature. It consisted of an old high steepled large
church, probably some old schools, and some dormitory type buildings. Housed in one of the buildings now was the
Maria House – Transitional Housing for Women and Children. Across the street from that building was the
Dubuque Food Pantry. I watched one older
gentlemen walk up to the Pantry and then walk away as it must not have been
open yet. Some more rundown looking
housing in what likely used to be rather nice homes was located in the same
neighborhood, conveniently located to provide a steady source of clients to the
two charities. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I wondered if there were food pantries and women and
children’s transitional housing back in the days when the millwork district and
religious district were booming or if they are a new phenomenon that comes
about because of people’s failures to practice their religion and the work
ethic that comes with it. My guess was
they have always been with us as they seem to be a symptom of the corporate
system designed to prey on using the people and the planet as resources to make
a profit, and our churches are the tools to preach prophetic words to the
people to keeping them toiling in this world in hopes of a better life in the
next. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">As I progressed further into town, I asked a passing woman
where Main Street was (as that is where the map showed the bike trail) and she
directed me further away from the river and up a hill. I found Main street and started to attempt to
pedal up the large hill it lead up to provide access to the grand old castle
type housing perched high upon the hill, but decided if that is where the bike
trail was, I wasn’t going and headed back down towards the river. I saw a mailman walking his route and decided
to ask him if he knew of a bike trail.
He did and he told me to head back towards the river a few block and I
would run into it. So I did, and I
did. Finding the trail I though was my
ticket out of Dubuque, but let me passed more industry – a metal stamping company
was one facility where the large metallic bangs could heard as the large
presses stamped out new metal parts of various sorts. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Then I passed another large behemoth of what appeared to be
another abandoned factory. A historic
sign along the trail informed me that it was the old Dubuque Brewing and
Malting Company. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">It was once one of the
five breweries that operated in Dubuque around the turn of the 19<sup>th</sup>
Century. The sign touted all the new
technologies used by the grand old brewery like using refrigeration to keep the
brews cold for its customers, and how they drilled their well-used to provide
spring brewing water deeper than usual to make sure the water would remain
pure. But with the onset of prohibition,
the brewer met it’s demise and was never really used for a brewery again. The owners took a loss on their investment,
but likely carried away a profit from the brews they poored on the laborers who
worked for them and the nearby mills. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">So I finally tore myself away from the attractions of
Dubuque and headed off down the trail out of Dubuque ready to put some miles on
my tires. But shortly down the trail I
came to tunnel under the overhead road that was barricaded with an orange
warning sign saying “Trail Closed”. I
went around the trail and barricade as I wasn’t sure where else to go and
passed a walker how informed me the trail and bridge downstream were open and
you could get through. So I headed on,
and then a truck with flashing yellow lights blazing and a man wearing a bright
orange vest walking along in front of it painting new yellow dividing lines
down the middle of the new asphalt trail came at me. I expected to be scolded by the workers for
ignoring their barricade, but instead they kept up their business, and I simply
rode off the trail to get around them and continued up and over the new fancy
bridge that had been installed to get the trail users up and over the 4 lane
highway that led out of town </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">After the bridge, I came to a large pond on the side of the
trail with dozens of youth strung out along it shore line with fishing poles in
hand. A harried looking woman was
walking along the shoreline, apparently attempting to make what might be their
first and only fishing attempts successful.
I over heard her ask one of the students where his bobber was, and when
he replied he didn’t know she pointed it out to him and told him to get it on
the line if he had any hopes of catching a fish. More constructin workers blocked the trail
again as they stood around watching cement being poured for the finishing
touches being applied to the new outhouse being built alongside the trail. And then moving on down the trail, I came to
a large map of the trail system and a fee box and learned from another group of
passing teachers, trying to keep another group of younger students under
control as they came back from a walking expedition up the trail, that the trail
veered even farther away from the river and was not where I wanted to go on
that day. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">So I pulled off the trail and headed down the four lane
highway out of town, and noticed another group of students plying the waters of
the ponds with nets, and then carrying the netted contents back to some adults
who must have been trying to help them identify and any poor aquatic life forms
that had been captured in the nets. Perhaps
it was the cynical nature that I was developing on my own adventure that brought
out my worry that these activities – a onetime fishing adventure with
multitudes of other kids all throwing out a line into what looked more like a
storm water pond than a lake, or scooping out life from its home just so we
could identify it, was helping the kids to learn to respect and appreciate
nature, or if it was helping them learn to treat it as a resource to use for
their entertainment purposes. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Shortly down the four lane unshouldered road, I came across
a county road that turned off to the east and back towards the river and I
followed it hoping to find the elusive Great River Road that from the map I had
appeared to head of that way somewhere.
This road seemed to head out to the rural areas, away from the City, but
then I came across another large and modern industrial comlex, and from the
large sign out front and water tower in the background learned this was another
John Deer complex. I passed by this
facility, hoping to get away from industry for a while, and I neared the crest
of a large and winding hill through the tree lined valley up to the ridge top,
I saw a sign at the sign on the side of the road adjacent to a beaten down
gravel road through the woods that indicated it was an access road for John
Deer contractors, and then a short distance later I came to a gated blacktop
road with warning sign proclaiming that that road led to the “John Deer
Restricted Area. No Admittance”. I started to wonder what top secret
activities John Deer was up to and wondered if a the passing Cadillac Escape
SUV with black tinted windows might be carrying some top secret John Deer
operatives to the secret location on the top of the hill to design some new
high tech nuclear tractor or something. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">But as I climbed the ridge top, I learned that the heavy equipment
sounds I started hearing were coming from the construction activities that John
Deer was involved with in building what must be another new large industrial
complex on the top of the hill. From a
distance I could see earthmoving equipment going to work clearing and grading
what was probably a couple hundred acre site on the ridge top. I kept peddling hoping to finally get away,
and as I did the view from the top of the ridge became quite amazing, and a
short distance down the road the wealthy folks from the industries behind me
must have agreed as there were several large mansions type complexes that could
be seen further off to the east where the ridge top met the Mississippi River
valley below where the homes were strung out along the bluff top. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Further inland along the ridgetop road I was following were
more modest homes, probably catering to the lower management or higher paid
factory worker who might have a second imcome to help pay for the mortgage
cost. Signs for the lots that were still
available advertised “one acres lots with hundreds of trees and only 5 minutes
from the John Deer Plant”. Otherwise
the hills and valleys along the ridge top road were filled with farmland, some
large farms and some small farms and few trees.
I wondered what the land looked like before it was cleared for
farming. And while I was wondering this
I passed a long young woman out for a jog up and down the hills and thought she
should find a flatter place to jog, and then shortly after that a redish mut
came running out to me from the side of the barking and coming with in a few
feet of my ankle, which it looked like he had thoughts of biting into. I used my calming dog voice technique once
again to charm this devourer of ankles to back off. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I passed a farmer driving a red tractor pulling a green John
Deer rack and placing the hay in his wagon.
I wondered if it was difficult to get by with a non-John Deer tractor in
the heart of John Deer country. There
were more cows and barns, and then a heard of heifers came running out to greet
me as I passed nearby their fenced in enclosure. And across from that, a heard of barn cats
stopped their eating and frolicking outside the barn to slink down and watch me
pass. And then as I passed more farms
where the cows were confined to feed lots, while their calves had been removed
from them and fed formula so we could have their milk where confined to individual
white plastic Quonset huts, and where goats were confined to a large
confinement shed so they could be fed feed brought in from the nearby fields
last year so that goats could fight their way to eat the old feed from the
troughs located outside the huts. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I began to think about the crazy farming systems that seem
to be designed to sell farmers expensive equipment and infrastructure so they
can feed their critters who can in turn feed us. Why not simply let the critters get out on
the fields to feed themselves? I bet the
critters would be happier, and it probably would mean less work for the
farmers, but perhaps the downfall is that the equipment vendors would have to
take a cut in profits? Or perhaps an
even more sensible option might be to do like the native folks to the land used
to do, and learn to eat the native plants and animals, and do away with all the
foreign plants and critters that the immigrants brought with them. But then the huge agricultural industries: like
the seed companies that genetically modified and patented seed to make it
herbicide ready; and the herbicide companies that help to keep the mono-crop
practices possible; and the fertilizer companies that making farming
unsustainably sustainable as long as we have a cheap source of petroleum to
convert to fertilizer – might not be able to profit if we didn’t keep the whole
crazy process going. So I tried to put
those thoughts out of my mind, which is something I needed to do more and more
frequently and I spend too much time biking up and down the river. I moved on, passed a collection of homes and
waved back at a young boy who was playing catch with his mother and tried not
to fall off my biking while waving and shifting gears to climb the hill that
started as I passed their house.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I stopped to take a break in Sherrill at the community park,
a town with two churches – the Catholics had the taller steeple than the
Lutherans. And then it was back to the ridge top, where I
began to feel like I was in the Carpenter song – On Top of the World – where the
brother and sister Carpenter’s sing “I’m on top of the world, looking down on
creation, la la la la la”, and noticed that most of the attractive land with
trees or where the soil wasn’t tilled up and the natural grasses were allowed
to grow were marked with “No Trespassing” signs – a constant reminder on the
trip of the importance that property rights have played in building this American
dream of ours. If you own the property,
you control the resources, and if you control the resources, you are king of
the land – as represented in some of the larger finer homes that I saw
constructed at the high points of the land I was passing through. I also passed by some forested land that was
being cleared and regarded – either to make way for more farm land – or to
develop for more homes. For when there
is money to be made by putting more land into production or profit from
development, the trees must come down. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">And at the ultimate pinnacle some 585’ above the Mississippi
River below I reached the hamlet of Balltown, which must have been named for
the baseball field I saw tucked away at the side of town, I stopped at the
Lions Club Park to enjoy the view, take a break, and quickly explore the cemetery
that was built at the turn of the century.
And then I stopped at the overlook on the way out of town, touted as one
of the most scenic places in Iowa – and so far I would have to agree with the claim. From the overlook the rolling country side
below could be seen in all it’s slender, the rolling farms, the tree lined
valleys, the Mississippi River at the bottom, and then the Wisconsin coutry
side that seemed to almost mirrow the Iowa countryside. And it the very far distance, I could see the
mound outside of Platteville with the distinctive “M” whitewashed on it, that I
had passed the week before on my way down river on the Wisconsin side. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">And then it was back to the road, and what a road it
was. This was some of the best biking
road I had come across on the trip. It
was a concrete road with at least five foot wide concrete shoulders that were
in excellent condition, no cracks, no spaling concrete, no will bouncing gravel
kicked back on the shoulder, and no bone jarring potholes to watch out for on
the 30 mile per hour hill descents. So
climbs up and then down the many hills was almost pure pleasure. But the high hills, and strong head winds
reminded me that the land and the wind would dictate my progress, no matter how
fast or slow I wanted to go, or where I wanted to go, the up and down and side
to side turns would set the pace for me.
I was not in control, but the topography was. And then I met another crew out painting
fresh traffic lines on this finest of roads.
I wondered how the county could afford to have built and then maintained
such a fine road that did not seem to be used much – which on that day I
greatly appreciated. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">And then it was time for more inspiration, so as I passed
through the town simply named Grotto, I decided to take a short detour up the
hill into the town to see the church poised at the top of the hillside town.
Entering the town proper, I was greeted by two extremely large men who were
sitting next to road into town. One man
was sitting in his older model golf cart, and the other was sitting on the
steps that lead down to the sidewalk next to the street – he had an oxygen line
leading up to his nose to help him breath.
One man asked if I was out to see the sites and I replied that I was,
and not thinking also mentioned that I was also “getting some exercise in the
process”. But then perhaps
subconsciously as a way to cover up for what may have been an insult to the two
extremely obese gentlemen I tried to cover me tracks by saying “perhaps too
much exercise”. As I stopped to admire
the church, I could hear bits of the two men’s conversation. Unfortunately the only bit that jumped out at
me was how about every other sentence included the use of the “f” word either at
the beginning, middle, or end, or sometimes all three places, of the sentence. Further up the hill, there was indeed a
grotto carved into the limestone cliff above the town. The grotto was
apparently in honor of the Virgin Mary – and I wondered if there was a special
devotion to the Virgin in this part of the State as I had seen many statutes of
Mary stuck in the besides of many of the homes I had passed. These mostly large-fawned homes I passed had
to mow around a plastic or concrete image of Mary. Although the large lawns looked nice, I
wondered how much time it took to mow them – and I did see a number of folks
out mowing on that day – and I wondered how much water they had to pump from
way down in the groundwater table probably hundreds of feet below the ridge top
homes to keep the lawns green and lush year
round. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Eventually the road began dropping down into some lower
valleys that contained a small stream, and then it passed down in the Mesquite
River Valley. The River was flowing full,
but appeared to have dropped back down into it’s river banks. Evidence of recent flooding could still be
seen in the farm fields located in its floodplain. The river still flooded the fields, despite
the small dikes that had been build to keep it from completely overflowing the
fields as it likely did in the past. The
river was extremely brown, likely as a result of all the valuable sediment
being washed off the steep farm fields that feed the river. And then I was back on Highway 52 and close
to Guttenburg. I hoped my 38 mile
journey for the day would end here, as the sky was getting darker, I was hungry
and tired, and I wasn’t aware of anywhere else nearby that might have an inn to
house a weary traveler. I stopped at the
grocery store and restocked some supplies, bypassed some a more rundown looking
motel on the way into town and peddled on towards the river in hopes of finding
a more hospital place and finally found one in the Landing, and old limestone building
next to the river that looked quite welcoming.
If feared such a nice looking place would be out of my price range,
full, or not hospitable to biker types.
But when I entered the unoccupied lobby, called the number listed on the
card next to the phone on the desk, and opened the brochue and found a low
price of about $45 dollars listed for a room, was quite glad to find that the
gentleman who came to register me was most welcoming and that he had a
room. I also found out there was a
laundry mat a few blocks away, so took a quick shower, hung my two shirts that
were still wet from my sink laundering the day before up to dry and headed to
the laundry mat. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I washed my cloths, and talked to my friend Steve and my
wife Kitty on the phone to update them on my trips, then loaded the cloths into
the drier. I noticed the washer water
didn’t shut off when the cycle was done, but pulled my cloths and through them
in the dryer, but assumed the water would shut off eventually. I walked to the Pizza place in town, had a
taco salad and the remaining can of non-diet Barqs root beer that had not been
consumed by the Brownie Troup how had a party in the back room before I arrived,
conversed some with the woman running the place about the 1984 book I was
reading – she said the author had gotten it right, he just was off on the
year. We also discussed the population
of the town – which she figured was a couple thousand, and it doubles in the
summer with all the folks coming to spend time on the river. She also mentioned there were a couple small manufacturing
facilities in town, a hospital, and a care center for disabled that provide
work for the year round residents. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I headed back to the laundry mat and found the washer I had
used about to over flow. I looked around
trying to find a phone number to call someone about the soon to over flow
washer, when an older gentlemen came in.
Since he didn’t have any laundry, I assumed he was the owner there to
close up for the night, but he said he was just the closer. He tried calling the owner, but couldn’t get
his cell phone to work, so gave me the number and I was able to reach the owner
who said he would be right down. In the meantime,
I found some empty laundry jugs in the garbage and started bailing the washer
to avoid and overflow. The closing man
opened one of the back rooms and brought out a bucket with a bailing cup, as
apparently this was a regular occurrence.
We bailed, and chatted while waiting for the owner. The man who was probably nearing 80 had lived
into most of his life, got married in the 50’s and worked as a maintenance man
at various places in town and in Dubuque.
The owner arrived, and finally shut the water off by used the tried and
true method of tipping the washer forward and then slamming it back down to
dislodge the lime that was keeping the water valve from sealing
completely. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 115%;">I returned to me room and put the laundry away,
went through my pictures for the day, talked on the phone some more, and went
to bed at the late hour of half past 11. </span></span>Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3652025888906665858.post-69381585383715695942013-05-21T20:59:00.002-07:002013-05-26T16:00:49.083-07:00Monday May 20th - Bettendorf to Dubuque<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWnLywuCNEVBzmMMzdUXgCs4Hbn1HA8gaoaiqfi55vFq8-AtyIpP6rjq-jtdfNnQ6mMnex4fVvykJ69Xxl8CeGw98hqPTG76NYdAat9RaRaqkFOSq208xHPrn97hcj0vX5dz0n2SzRpaep/s1600/DSCN1296.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWnLywuCNEVBzmMMzdUXgCs4Hbn1HA8gaoaiqfi55vFq8-AtyIpP6rjq-jtdfNnQ6mMnex4fVvykJ69Xxl8CeGw98hqPTG76NYdAat9RaRaqkFOSq208xHPrn97hcj0vX5dz0n2SzRpaep/s200/DSCN1296.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Today was a day of many miles. And it was hot as well. I headed out of my casino hotel by about 7:30
and decided to try and put some miles in for the day. It was tough to not stop and take a lot of
pictures along the way, but I think I am starting to see the patterns of how we
treat the river. Basically it is a
resource to haul stuff up and down for the large corporations who have control
of all the prime river front property – along with the power companies who
provide them the power they need. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Heading out of Bettendorf, there were more barge unloading terminals for
sand and gravel, petroleum products, and some other stuff. I past a foundry of
some sort as well. The trail that
followed the river didn’t last long and then it was onto highway 67. Found out that like Illinois, Iowa also
doesn’t pave its shoulders, so battling traffic was not fun. Plugged the headphones in my ears and turned
up the music and soon quit worrying about cars and trucks – kind of – the one
thing that keeps going through my mind is if you get creamed by one, do you get
some kind of warning so that you can enjoy that last moment before you become
part of the pavement? </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">There were some smaller river towns along the way, and
started noticing a pattern with them as well.
The smaller towns that are not attractive to large industry ply on the
tourist trade that is located primarily from the larger Cities nearby. These towns, like Princton, can afford to
keep the old business districts kept up and specialty shops that ploy their
goods to tourists occupy them. As the
small towns get further away from the tourists, they no longer can afford to
keep things up, so they become more rundown looking. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Heading into Clinton, which is another major industry City,
I started getting this annoying cough that would not go away. I also began to smell this spoiled grain kind
of smell and then noticed a huge factory of some sort located adjacent to the
bike trail the City of Clinton built that paralleled the highway. I was trying to avoid stopping and taking all
kinds of pictures, but this facility was full of photo ops, so I stopped
several times along the way. There were
no signs in front of the facility calling out who it was or what they did. There were homes right across the highway
from the facility and I wondered how the poor folks who lived there could put
up with the smell and noise from the facility.
I thought to myself, that whoever owned that facility – owned the City
as well. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Then I noticed on top of one of the three large grain
storage silos was painted an American Flag with the initials ADM below it along
with the words “Proud to be Save” – which I am not quite sure what it meant –
but must be something to tap into passer-byers subconscious patriotic nature. Being one of the largest corporations in the
world, they likely did own the town, and probably employed many of its
residents as well. As I made it about ¾
of the way past the half mile long facility, a white pickup truck with some initials
painted on the door stopped in front of me, and a younger man waved me down and
asked me what I was doing as he had gotten a complaint that I was taking
pictures of the facility. I told him
that I was just biking along the river and have been taking pictures of
interesting things along the way, and told him I wasn’t a terrorist or
anything. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">He asked to see my camera, and
I told him I wasn’t going to give him my camera, and asked why I could not take
pictures of the facility. He said I was
on private property, and I asked him if the bike trail was private property and
then he apologized and said that his boss told him to check me out. I told him I understood, and told him to have
a good day, instead of telling him off which is what I thought about doing most
of the day later. He drove off, and I continued down the path and took some
more pictures as I went. The whole incident really ticked me off to think that some
huge corporation can try to intimidate people from taking pictures of their
facility that is so huge that people could be taking pictures of it from across
the street. I also wondered what it is
they are trying to hide, or why they were so paranoid. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> The whole experience left a bad taste – a
long with a bad odor in my noise – about the City of Clinton. Despite that I did stop at the Jimmy Johns on
the way out of town and had a tuna fish sub.
While sitting outside eating, I saw a couple of City police cars drive
by, and I half expected them to pull in and confiscate my camera, but that was
my paranoia talking. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I also noticed what must have been the court house with a
huge clock tower built on top of it, and then a Catholic church that had not
one, but two huge steeples. A reminder
that our government and even our churches get caught up in the idea that bigger
and more is better. That it is all about
the image. Then on the way out, I noticed
that the water tower in Clinton had the name “American Water Company” emblazed
on the side of it – indicating that the City had even sold out it water utility
to a corporation – although this
corporation also plyed to the patriotic nature with the name “American”. My experiences in Clinton gave me more incentive
to put as many miles in as I could, as I was starting to realize that I was
seeing the same things in City after City, and I was feeling like I had seen
enough. So Dubuque was my goal and I
peddled on and saw little of the river on that day. In Clinton, what I did see of it was from
behind the flood dike that ran through town. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">There were more small towns, more small farms, more large
farms, and a sign for the “Iron Horse Bike & Music Festival” sometime after
highway 67 ended and highway 52 began.
There was much less traffic on highway 52 which was nice. The road had a much more rural feel to it,
but I was leaving the flatter lands behind.
In this section there were limestone quarries, assorted cows, and some
gravestones; and I felt like I was making good time. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC3B2QV3MDLZsHuiseJqr_FXu_2v2OSfTqrf4Orgv3mGQmF0D8vep5EWHS6pYX5Xnlf1Iw6PYPnn8mbnjIbdmAH70uzbL7tM4bj07gj7qq8u9Z6noXLqbU7uNC4gZ7rsP761UAecfBjmBI/s1600/DSCN1395.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC3B2QV3MDLZsHuiseJqr_FXu_2v2OSfTqrf4Orgv3mGQmF0D8vep5EWHS6pYX5Xnlf1Iw6PYPnn8mbnjIbdmAH70uzbL7tM4bj07gj7qq8u9Z6noXLqbU7uNC4gZ7rsP761UAecfBjmBI/s200/DSCN1395.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Somewhere along the way, I heard a loud horn blast
that scared the begebers out of me. I
turned around to see what was coming up behind me to see an ambulance. Since I was already way over to the right,
and not blocking its path, and it didn’t have its sirens blaring, it seemed
pretty rude for the driver to blow the horn that way, but then maybe I was
still just ticked about the Clinton experience.
Later when I saw the ambulance returning from the other direction, I was
tempted to give the driver the finger, but my better nature kept me from acting
on my instinct. Earlier another driver coming from the other direction blew his
horn repeatedly to get my attention and then waved at me – I think it was a sign
of encouragement. I also passed by a man
mowing his lawn on a hillside above the road who also gave me a friendly wave
when I passed by. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">There were some picturesque towns in the last stretch of the
highway. One had their wastewater
treatment planted nestled along the river, and I saw two of the operators
working outside in the plant. I felt
like </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">biking down and talking to them.
Then there was a neat looking old red mill located next to a
stream. I stopped and bought a gallon of
water and two slices of pizza at a gas station and found out Dubuque was
another 25 miles. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Further down the road, was I was leaving the town of St. Donatus, where I debated spending the
night at an inn by the side of the road, another man pulled his truck to the
side of the road in front of me and came walking over to me with a bottle of
water in his hand. He asked if I had
enough water, and then explained that his dad who is 72 now made a biking trip
3 years ago from Canada all the way to Mexico.
On the way he ran out of water on one segment of the trip in New Mexico. He stopped at a house to ask a woman for
water, and the woman almost wouldn’t give him any water. He said that he and his three brothers took
turns driving a support RV for their dad in the trip that he did in multiply
segments over several months. He would
go home and rest up after each segment, and get a different son to drive
him. I thought that I needed to get my
two daughters to drive a support vehicle for me next trip I did. I thanked the gentlemen and showed him my
full water bottles, and felt reassured that human beings are still good; it is
the corporations that are bad. He also
told me that after I finished climbing the hill I was on, the road followed the
ridge top, and then dropped down a long hill, and then there was another hill
to climb before Dubuque. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And he was right.
Coming into Dubuque I debated stopping at a motel at the top of the hill
that advertised single rooms for $36.
But I decided to work my way the 3 miles to the City. Unfortunately there was road construction
that diverted the four lanes of traffic down to two, and this was on the
stretch up and then down the big hill prior to the City. The shoulder was in terrible shape, traffic
was heavy, but fortunately I was so tired I didn’t care anymore, so fought the
traffic and crappy shoulder and made it to Dubuque. I was looking for a Hotel and saw a building
with a Hotel name on it so stopped and walked in with my fluorescent yellow
vest, soaked in sweat, and with small gnats sticking to me all over and asked
how much their rooms were. She said the
lowest price was $99, and I told that was out of my price range and I asked if
there were any other lower cost options nearby.
She suggested the Holiday Inn.
But then I saw a sign for the Canfield Hotel. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I walked into the lobby and found out their
rooms were in my price range - $44 for the night. I asked if I could bring my bike up to the
room, and she said no but I could keep it in a hall way, and when I told her
that wouldn’t work, she let me take the bike up with me. I asked about a nearby laundry mat as I was
starting to run out of clean cloths, but there wasn’t one nearby, but there was
a sink in the room so I used it to wash out a couple of shirts and socks, hung
them from the cords used to open and close the windows, opened the windows and
hope they would dry by morning. Then I
headed across the street to the family café and had a salad with some chicken,
and a piece of cherry pie for desert.
The staying indoors at night was becoming much more comfortable and convenient
as compared to sleeping on the ground in a tent. And at the cheap motels, it was only about
twice the price of some of the campgrounds I had stayed at. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I got caught up with writing, talked to my friend Joe and
wife Kitty on the phone, and went to bed in hopes that with some rest I may be
able to put in a repeat performance of that days miles, but that may be too
much for this old man. Note a check of
Google maps shows I put in a whopping 96 miles.
If I could do that every day, I would go far, but likely miss much along
the way. </span></div>
Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3652025888906665858.post-18607592974050442332013-05-19T21:10:00.000-07:002013-05-26T16:00:06.241-07:00Sunday May 19th - Rock Island to Bettendorf<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Woke around 6 am – ate a quick breakfast and spend the morning
writing. It was raining when I woke up,
so was not in a hurry to head out. As
the 11 am checkout time approached I ate my left over pizza from Pizza &
Subs of Rock Island, and finished packing, and the rains stopped. I got a call from the front desk at 10:55
reminding me it was checkout time and thanked the lady and told I would be
right out. Had everything packed and
ready to go by 11:01, turned in my key, and headed back down to the River in
downtown Rock Island. I didn’t have a
particular destination in mind for my travels on this day, but had hoped to get
some miles in.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">After good nights sleep – I think this was the first night
of the trip I slept through the night – the area did not seem as bad as it did
the night before. There still were many
signs of poverty in the neighborhoods I went through – housing in poor shape,
people coming out of the plasma donor center on a Sunday morning, and shops
catering to folks without much money – like a used tire dealer, a drive up tobacco
shop, etc. Heading down the slight
inclined road, I wondered where most folks in the area worked, if they worked
for some of the factories along the river, or what brought the immigrants and
people of color to the community. I also
swung through the Rock Island downtown district which was scattering of
nightclubs, bars, restaurants, some shops, and other places where folks could
spend their money. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I decided to cross the river via the Rock Island Bridge and
after crossing it noticed the gate to the Rock Island Arsenal located below the
railroad bridge with a fading “Rock Island Line” still visible on the old steel
railroad bridge that ran over the top of the entry road to the gate. A man on a bike stopped and asked me about my
travels. After talking, I asked him
about entry to the Arsenal and he said it was open to anyone, you just needed
to provide the security guard with an ID and then you were free to roam. He said he had not been through it in about a
year, but suggested that I check out the cemetery. I thanked him for his information and decided
to detour through the base. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">After showing the guard my driver’s license, which he
apparently scanned a copy of with a portable scanner, I asked if I could go
anywhere on base. He told me I could,
but that I would have to come back out through the same gate, as the other gates
were closed. As soon as I entered, I
stopped to start taking some pictures of some of the military equipment
stockpiled in lots next to the road.
There appeared to be a multitude of some kind of generator housings on
one side of the road and military trailer with some painted the standard camouflage
dark green and others the more common tan camouflage colors.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Then came the huge military industrial complexes where
various weapons and accoutrements of war have been built over the years. The buildings were immense, and seemed to go
on, and on for many thousands of feet. There
were many large exhaust stacks, which I assumed must be for some type of
foundry operations used to cast some of the large guns that were on display
outside of some of the buildings. There
were probably miles of 8’ tall chain link fence topped with rows of barbed wire
surrounding the buildings. It was difficult to image why the buildings
needed to be so large, and what weapons of mass destruction had come out of
their doors. I also wondered how many
people lost their lives as a result, and how much profits were made from the
manufacturing process.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">There was also a plethora of various types of support
buildings located adjacent to the manufacturing facilities. The all were built from the same sand stone
block construction method, and housed everything from the Edgewood Biological Chemical
Building, to various offices run by various Generals, to Human Resources, to
Warrior Reintroduction Training Centers.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Next came an outside display of some of the various artillery
that the Arsenal had played a roll in manufacturing through the years. They were all laid out in a semi-circular
formation and included the likes of various weapons made from all the great
wars including World War II, Korea, Viet Nam, and even some of the more modern
equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan. The
weapons included the likes of some early tanks used in World War II, anti-aircraft
“guns”, rocket launchers, howitzers, and the grand experimental atomic cannon designed
to fire both convention and nuclear shells up to 18 miles. Some of the weapons on display were rejects
that never made it to production for battle purposes because designers didn’t
realize that requiring the operators to leave the armored tank to reload the anti-tank
guns might be harmful to their health, or that the tanks were too heavy to be air
lifted to the place where the battles were occurring, or that improvements in
rocket science would replace the simpler “guns”. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">While walking around the weapons, it was interesting to
watch the children playing on and around the weapons. I recalled doing similar “play” when I was a
kid and my family was visiting some military memorial or another where an old
tank was display. I guess getting kids interested
in war games at an early age, helps for recruitment purposes later in
life. Unfortunately, these toys are
designed to kill people who for some reason or another we don’t like and decide
that it is ok to kill them, something that gets glossed over in the placards
used to glorify the weapons. Dark clouds started to fill the sky, and amongst
the burst of lighten and thunder, rain began to fall. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The women and children and fathers abandoned the weapons,
and ran for their cars. I went back to
my bike and donned my rain gear and headed to the picnic shelter set up next to
the weapon display. There was also more
typical playground equipment for the kids to play on, along with a baseball
field. I ate some lunch and watched the
other folks gathered under the shelter.
There were two youngsters, probably a year and a half or so, and other
who was probably 3. As the rains
subsided they began walking around in the parking lot, playing in the water puddles,
and laughing. They would jump in the
water, reach down and touch it with their hands, let the water dripping off the
roof land on their heads, and just enjoy the wetness of it all. The parents would scold them, and tell them “gross”
when they touched the water, or tell them to get out of the puddles when they
walked in, but they ignored their parent’s warnings and had some fun. At one point the grandfather pointed out to
them that the grass needs water to grow, and then one of the kids told him that
it also needs sunshine, and the grandpa added dirt as a third requirement for
growth to occur. And then the state of
joy came to an end when the two kids collided with each other which brought out
some cries and tears, and playtime was over.
The parents packed them in their vans, said goodbye to the grandparents,
and went on to the next stop. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">With the rains passed, I continued my own tour. Next to the gun memorial, were some support
buildings for military families that lived on the island. There was a Child Development Center, with a
warning sign located in front of it that read “Warning. Excavation of soil, underground construction,
and installation of underground wells restricted.” I assumed there must have been some type of contamination
on the site that was not to be disturbed, in case it might harm the youngsters
who spent their days at the Development Center.
This struck me as pretty crazy that we find it acceptable to bring our
children, to our complexes where we make weapons to kill people with, but we
don’t want any harm to come to them from the wastes that got dumped in the
manufacturing process. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Maybe it isn’t crazy, but simply not thinking, or finding
ways to distract ourselves from the insanity of it all that explains why we do
the stupid things we do and keep on doing them over and over again. A good example of the distraction was the
golf course that runs along the North side of the island. It is doubtful if any of the folks out
golfing for the day were too concerned with what contaminants lurked beneath their
playground, nor where the group of folks wearing matching yellow shirts playing
Frisbee Football on the East end of the island.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I also wondered if all the war veterans and their wife’s who
joined them six feet under in the tens of thousands of military graves with
matching white tombstones laid out in intricate orderly lines understood the
insanity of it all. I had a feeling that
many of the one thousand nine hundred and sixty Confederate Civil War prisoners
who had died from disease while interned at the prisoner of war camp located on
the island from 1863 to 1865 probably understood the insanity of war. Unfortunately they didn’t live to warn us. So instead we raise “Old Glory” on a really
high flagpole over all the dead Privates and believe that honors them, and we
keep on developing new technologies to kill more of the enemies of their
ancestors, for there are profits to make in war. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And after all that, I
needed some distraction myself and rode off and found an old house that used to
belong to some Cornel who was stationed on the island some time ago. A tour of the cottage cost $5 and I wasn’t in
the mood to spend more money or take the hour long tour, so chatted briefly
with the two ladies who were guiding tours and selling memorabilia at the gift
shop. I asked them if the hot and muggy
weather was typical for the middle of May and they said it was not. They went from winter, to summer, with no
real spring. The upper eighties and high
humidly was more typical of their July days.
And this just reminded me how we have messed up the planet, with all the
CO2 emissions from all are consumption of the cheap fuel we have been burning to
make all the stuff we consume. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">It was time to leave the island, and it was nearly 3
pm. My plans of getting some mileage in
and reaching Iowa, were not going to be met if I stuck around Rock Island
Arsenal much longer, so I headed out the gate and crossed the metal truss
bridge that carried trains on the upper deck, cars below, and pedestrian and
bicyclists off to the walkway on the side.
At the other end of the bridge I entered the State of Iowa via the third
of the Quad Cities – Davenport. I didn’t
spend much time there, noticed the gambling boat docked further to the south,
and took a picture of the downtown area and an old mansion on the top of a
hill. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">And then I was in the fourth of the Quads – Bettendorf –
which as a sign pointed out is only 361 miles from St. Paul. The wind was really getting strong coming off
the river and slowing me way down. And
the heat and humidity were definitely on the high ends of the scale. As I stopped to admire the Interstate 80
Bridge over the Mississippi River, another biker stopped to ask about my
journeys and where I might go tonight. I
told him I was thinking about finding out how much a room was at the casino
hotel located North of the bridge and asked if he knew how much a room
cost. He wasn’t sure. So I stopped in and asked. The Hotel clerk told me if I would go over to
the casino and sign of for a membership card, I could get a room for $29 for
the night. I asked if that meant I had
to gamble and she said no. I also asked
if it was ok for me to bring my bike to my room, and she told me that what you
bring into your room with you is your business. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">So I journeyed across the enclosed air conditioned walkway
that took me to the gambling “boat” which is actually just a windowless barge moored
in the river and made to look like a river boat. I tried to find the “guest services” window
the clerk told me about, and was almost lured in the slot machines by the mind
numbing chiming sounds coming out the rows and rows of high tech gambling paraphernalia. I fought of my urge to gamble, made it to the
guest server who simply took my driver’s license and took down my data, and
gave me the ticket to a cheap night’s stay at a very nice hotel. I also found out that the card also gave me
$5 off the all you can eat “Grand Buffet” where I went after I went for a jog
along the river. </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: large;">The restaurant was full of quite a few folks of
various ages and ethnicities. Many of
them were obviously obese. I watched one
couple who appeared to be retired, gorge themselves, while the only
conversation I heard between them was asking if the latest takings were good or
not. Another table held 3 men who were
eating plates and plates loaded with crab legs.
I of coarse felt obliged to join in the gluttony and started off with a
salad, followed by an assortment of cooked vegetables, followed by some pizza,
followed by some shrimp, followed by cheesecake and blueberry pie. I waddled back to my room and watched the
thunderstorm outside my window, feeling that coming to the casino for the night
was indeed a wise escape to help me numb out from the day. Tomorrow
would be the day, if the thunderstorms allowed, for some miles to be made. </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span>Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3652025888906665858.post-38427788616127716412013-05-19T08:33:00.004-07:002013-05-19T08:33:58.392-07:00May 19th Halfway Point Mileage Update.<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: large;">With the decision to make the Quad Cities my turn around
point – decided to give a quick and dirty mileage update.<span> </span>Day 1<span>
</span>Blaine to Prescott, to Hastings - 52 miles. Day 2<span> </span>Hastings to Maiden Rock - 37 miles.<span> </span>Day 3<span> </span>Maiden
Rock to Merrick State Park - 44 miles.<span>
</span>Day 4<span> </span>Merrick to Trempealeau - 21
miles.<span> </span>Day 5 Trempealeau to Goose Island
Campground south of La Crosse -<span> </span>28
miles.<span> </span>Day 6 Goose Island to Wyalusing
State Park – 68 miles.<span> </span>Day 7 Wyalusing
State Park to Neslon Dewey State Park 23 miles.<span>
</span>Day 8, Nelson Dewey State Park to Galena<span>
</span>- 48 miles.<span> </span>Day 9, Galena to
Mississippi Palisades State Park 27 miles.<span>
</span>MP State Park to American Motor Inn in Rock Island, 67 miles.<span> </span>If my math is anywhere near correct in my hurried
state of mind, the total for the way down river comes to about 413 miles.<span> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 115%;">With the early morning rains on hold, it was
time to leave the American Motor Inn, and head out to the western side of the
river and begin my journey home.<span> </span>What
adventures would I have?<span> </span>Only time would
tell - stay tuned for the rest of the story. </span></span>Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3652025888906665858.post-32130249693936968632013-05-19T08:05:00.001-07:002013-05-26T15:59:05.998-07:00Saturday May 18th - Missississippi River Palisades State Park to Rock Island<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEacc6EObRov_r4oWG5PItTzLFo1dfwvqeZEl1R12XOJ21h5tm0d584etpRakP_O4NU4LW1L50TlVVx3em2wZ6KSObmFcuOaWFiGai3CgxA0KdoYIN7joBmmlY6dUslSRxPMNTn4pV9F_e/s1600/DSCN0873.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEacc6EObRov_r4oWG5PItTzLFo1dfwvqeZEl1R12XOJ21h5tm0d584etpRakP_O4NU4LW1L50TlVVx3em2wZ6KSObmFcuOaWFiGai3CgxA0KdoYIN7joBmmlY6dUslSRxPMNTn4pV9F_e/s200/DSCN0873.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">I rose around 7 on that fine morning. The birds were singing, the sky was blue, and
the campground was pretty quiet despite the number of campers spread-out
throughout the park. I walked to the
restrooms and admired the bat houses that were installed nearby and read the
sign telling folks about bats – seems a reminder that I need to put up another
bat house when I get home. After the
morning routine of eating, packing, and then sitting down to try to figure out
a destination for the day I pulled out Bob Robinson’s book BICYCLING GUIDE TO
THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER TRAIL to try and find some inside. So far I have been pretty disappointed in the
guide. It is light on details, the maps
are of poor quality, and I have found the phone numbers included for contacts
as out of service. But for the trail
heading south of Savanna the author mentioned a bike trail/route that takes the
traveler off Illinois unfriendly biking roads.
</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I decided to stop somewhere to find out more about the biking route
and if I could find it to possibly continue on down the “Great River Road” to
the “Quad Cities”. It seemed that going
from the “Twin Cities” to the “Quad Cities” would put a poetic spin to my
adventures (although later in the night when I told my wife where I ended up,
she did not find the poetry in the destination, but that may have been due to
my lack of poetic abilities at the end of a long day). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">By 9 am I was packed and headed down towards
Savanna. Biking down the shoulder less
Highway 84 still sucked, and now the road was also butted up next to the
Burlington Northern railroad tracks making the ride even more annoying – which
made continuing on the mile or so past the bridge to the hopefully shoulder
paved roads of Iowa on to the town of Savanna very challenging. I got to a gas station in Savanna – purchased
some expensive small bottles of orange & grapefruit juice and a blueberry
muffin and asked the gas station attendant if she was aware of a bike trail
that led to the Quad Cities. She was and
told me it wasn’t hard to find, and then she even went in the back room and
came out with a free biking map of Northwestern Illinois. It was a treasure map to me, something I
wished I had had the day before to guide me through the back roads. But then if I had had it, I likely would not
have experienced the thrill of discovery. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">I decided to attempt the Twin to Quad Cities Tour, biked
on, found the trail and a grocery store adjacent to it. With restocked supplies of granola bars,
oranges and grapefruit, some assorted trail mixes, and a large bottle of
contact solution – by 10 am I was heading down the trail into the rising
sun. The trail started off crossing the
BN tracks and followed an older rail corridor adjacent to the Mississippi
River. I passed a group of boys fishing
from a bridge and asked if they were having any luck, but they replied no. I wished them a good day and continued the
journey. It was good to see a few folks
out riding their bikes along the trail and I felt invigorated being away from
traffic. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The trail wound its way through some prairie remnants, and I
noticed much prickly pear cactus growing along the trail, giving me incentive
to stay on the trail and not add cactus thorns to my ankles already suffering
from poison ivy I had picked up at the Nelson Dewey camp site. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The trail also was routed along some of the
back roads that followed the river so it was nice to actually be able to see
the river from the Great River Trail.
Along the way there were plenty of recreational homes, boat launches,
and other parks to provide a more fitting homage to the Great River than some
of the industrial uses I had passed on my way.
As they was dry prairie country by nature despite the large flow of
water to west, the large lawns and farm
fields required irrigation to keep the cactus at bay and the lawn and crops in
full green. Another example of how we
tend to take our “large” water supply and “cheap” energy that allows us to pump
it for granted. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Passing near the town of Thomason, I noticed what appeared
to be a large prison in the distance. As
I got closer, it became clear that it was a prison, but surprisingly it looked
vacant. It also didn’t appear to be that
old. Checking out the site later on the
web <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomson_Correctional_Center">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomson_Correctional_Center</a> , I learned it was never really used as
intended and there was a string of government fiasco’s related to the
site. The site built in 2001 now sits
empty. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">A similar fate which befell the
Savanna Army Depot that I came across upriver from the prison the day before, (see
website here for more on that site <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savanna_Army_Depot">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savanna_Army_Depot</a>). That site was a former testing and storage
site for military munitions used from world war one until that facility was
finally closed in 2000 – leaving large infrastructure abandoned, along with a
Superfund Site to go along with the deal.
It seems amazing how politics and government can spend huge sums of
taxpayer money on prisons and military complexes that now sit abandoned. I guess that must be what the bumper stickers
mean when they say “Freedom Isn’t Free”.
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<span style="font-size: large;">As the trail passed what I believe was the City of Fulton,
it ran along the top of a flood dike that had been built to try and contain the
Mississippi River from flooding the town.
I passed a Corp of Engineers park, where the only thing on dry ground
was the outhouse that had become an island of fill that had been hauled into
the site to keep the poopers high and dry during high water events. Unfortunately users would have needed a boat
to reach it on that day. Further on down
the dike, I came to a large pump station complex that was used to pump the
river (and probably water level in general on the dry side of the dike) up and
over the dike during these high water times.
Another example of how we take </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">advantage of cheap energy to save us from
our poor decisions to locate communities in flood plains. Instead of letting water follow its natural gravity
driven course, we use human technology (and the huge price tag that comes with
it) to keep control at all costs. But in
the end, our technology usually fails, and we try the same foolish techniques
all over again. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Coming into Albany, I noticed a large domed structure off on
the horizon, and as the road came back down along the river I found out the
doom was one of three huge what must have been grain storage silos. The complex was likely a grain barge, train,
and truck loading and unloading facility.
As it was after lunch and I was hungry, and getting hot from the rising
sun and climbing a few hills, I decided to stop in the park in the small river
town of Albany. I noticed a family
having fun in the park and the mother and her young son came over to me (while
I was eating some extremely hot in a spicy way trail mix that cleaned my
sinuses out well) to ask me about my adventure.
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<span style="font-size: large;">Becky, as she introduced herself, and her husband Chris, moved
to Albany a few years ago to get out of the Chicago area. They liked living in the smaller town along
the river, but were heading back to the City to celebrate her son’s four year
birthday with the grandparents who still lived in the City. Becky and her husband worked at a small
Christian School in town, she as a part time first grade teacher, and her
husband Chris as a teacher/principal.
Becky told me that they would pray for me on my travels and then as the
rest of the family gathered round she told them of my travels all the way from
Minneapolis to large quad cities where they go to shop. Then she asked me if it would be ok for her
husband to lead them in a pray for my journeys.
</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Despite my initial nervousness about what I was getting myself in for, I
agreed and was actually quite honored by the very nice prayer he said for my
safe journeys while out enjoying God’s Creation. I thanked them for their prayers and told
them I would keep them in my prayers as well as they traveled back to Chicago. Despite my negativity towards Christians (lately I have given up on my christian ways and become a follower of doubt, which I didn't get into with the Christians) I felt honored by the family coming together and honoring me with their prayer (even if the kids didn't seem to interested). </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">With good prayers behind me, a full stomach, but running low
of water, I headed up the hill out of Albany and entered a park that had been
set aside to protect the Indian mounds located on the hills south of the
town. There was a water fountain at the
park that I filled my bottles with and I watched a mother and her two young
sons who lived next to the park pull the dandy line flowers that had gone to
seed on the boundary between the park and their weed free lawn. The boys were shirtless and the mother wore
shorts and a wrap to try and keep cool as the afternoon heat set in. I debated hiking back along the path to honor
the mounds and view, but decide to keep moving on as I wasn’t sure how far I
had to go to make to the Quads. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The trail than veered back out to a path that ran parallel
to the main highway 84 and the river began taking on a much more industrial
look again. I passed a couple on touring
bikes and gear, and wanted to stop and ask them where they were off too, but we
just smiled and said hello in passing. 3M
had a huge factory nestled along the river near Cordova, and there were more
barge unloading terminals loading and offloading huge quantities of assorted materials. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Power lines began to parallel the highway,
and soon the Quad Cities Nuclear Generating Facility appeared next the
river. And not too far from the power
plant, loud racing engines could be heard tearing down the road and a drag
strip appeared along with an announcer filling the audience with admiration for
the speed and power being displayed by the drivers and their awesome dragsters
on that early summer day. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">And then some smaller towns and recreational areas and parks
as the trail diverted back to the back roads.
The town of Cordova had invested in putting some fitness equipment in
their river side park, so I parked my bike between the stair stepper and
ab-machine and debated getting a workout in.
But instead used their porta-potty, admired the river views, and young
adults fishing off the rocks. I didn’t
want to work up a sweat, and since there weren’t showers at the outdoor fitness
center, I would have had to jump in the river (and I wasn’t too sure I would
come out cleaner than before), so I decided to continue using the mobile cycle
I brought along and then headed back across their pretty streets. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Across from the City Library, pastel sidewalk
chalk type pictures had been painted on the road – a courteous biker passed me
by and said excuse me as I had stopped to take some pictures of the street art.
Back on the road through the limited
country side I passed another touring biker with a full load of gear that might
have even excited mine own in volume.
Again I felt like stopping to ask him about his travels but we just
passed and smiled and said hello. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I took another break at the lock and dam on the way into the
quad Cities as I was getting hungry and hot again. Pelicans and Hispanic folks were plying the
waters below the dam for fish. As it was
5 pm, I started thinking I should figure out where to stay for the night. A previous biker lady had told me that there
were no motels or hotels directly along the path as it ran through half the
quad cities of Moline and Rock Island, so I reluctantly pulled out the sketchy
BICYCLING GUIDE again and tried to find a motel for the night. The guide only listed 3 places in Rock
Island, so I called the one were I thought I might be able to figure out how to
get to, the American Motor Inn located at 4300 11<sup>th</sup> Street, asked if
they had a room, would take bikes, and had WIFI, and received an answer of yes
to all three all for only $46 per night, plus tax. So I made my reservation and paddled on
feeling content that I at least had a place to stay for the night. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The trail then entered East Moline and Moline Proper. Along the way I passed paddle boats, power
plants, poop plants, and many people.
The parks were scattered with people all dressed up and taking pictures
for weddings, graduations, and perhaps proms.
Traffic on the trails began to pick up as well, and I passed more folks
out for some day peddles, or even strolls along the dike that protected
Moline. Industry activity also picked up
– acres and acres of parking lots where filled with John Deer green harvesters
and associated implements waiting to be shipped out. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I also had to do my fist bicycle portage as a pipe had been
routed across the trail coming from one of the industrial plants. I assumed it must have been a temporary
bypass of some sort due to high river water causing some kind of back up from
one of the industrial plants located behind the dike. Fortunately a couple of bikes had just
finished portaging their own bikes over the 4 foot high pipe. The woman, who was on the other side of the
pipe, boasted that she was strong and to simply hand her my bike and she would
be able to carry it over the pipe. I
told her that I could not pick the likely 100 lb. plus load up myself and her
biking partner gave me a hand lifting the load up and over the pipe. I shared some answer to questions about my
adventure, and wished them well on their upstream journey where they intended
to hit the bars and consume some beers on their way up river. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Moving downstream I passed more parks with signs reminding
me to continue to play; one lone woman jogging who I had passed earlier, but who
then re-passed me at the portage site; another bridge or two and then passed
through downtown section and the Cities drinking water plant which was downstream
from the wastewater treatment plant. I
suppose with all our high technology treatment – putting the water plant downstream
from the sewer plant doesn’t really pose any technical challenges. I stopped to check out my map again to try and
figure out how much further before I had to exit the trail and find the road to
my motel. I was having a difficult time
relating to the one dimensional scaled down paper map I had, after spending a
number of days in the full-scale, multi- dimensional world. A passing biker stopped by to offer some guidance,
and I think he was challenged by the map as well, but told me to just keep
following the river. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">As I did, Rock Island the island and source of the City’s
name came into view, along with the military arsenal for which the island is
now named. Apparently the arsenal has
been around since world war one and has been and still is used for manufacturing
munitions for the military. I wondered
how many cleanup sites would be found on that island when it too became abandoned. Near the downtown of Rock Island, I began to
think that I should have held off making a hotel reservation at the American
Motor Inn as there were several hotels located in the downtown area close to
the river, that would have allowed for some interesting exploration once I
settled in for the night. While stopped at
a stop light, I talked with a woman about 55 to 60 years old who informed me
that her and her husband were bike tourists.
They were on their way from Columbus Ohio to Alaska, but were driving
their bikes there strapped to the top of their SUV. They also brought along their small white dog
who some of her hair had dyed red. She
asked about my biking adventures, what the roads were like, and wished me
well. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">So I headed South from the river trying to find 11<sup>th</sup>
Street. The route took me through some
of the poorer neighborhoods I had been through so far, and I began to get a bit
nervous about where I would be staying.
I was also getting really tired of biking and wondered how much further
the motel would be. Finally, as the
homes looked a bit nicer, I saw the sign for the motel, parked my bike, and
walked into the office. Behind the
bullet proof glass (maybe it wasn’t bullet proof, but that adds more drama to
the story) the motel attendant had me fill the registration card after having
me slide my credit card and ID through the small slot below the glass. After filling out the card, I read the warning
sign taped to the glass window that if I had an overnight guest, they would
need to pay an additional fee for using the room. I had a difficult time hearing young man talk
from behind his safe glass, as the ice machine in the small closet of a lobby
was making a lot of gurgling sounds as it grinded out the ice. I asked him if there were any good pizza
places that delivered nearby, and he pointed to the Domino’s Pizza place advertised
on my room key card, but said I would have to look the number up in the phone
book, as the number of the card was incorrect.
</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">After having to walk back to the office to have
him reset the Dominoes Key Card, I was able to enter the room, pushed my bike
in, and admired the king sized bed next to the full wall mirror, and wondered
what had happened in this room before and if I would be better off to pull out
my sleeping bag and spend the night on the floor. But after cranking the air conditioner,
figuring out how to operate the shower, I felt somewhat better about the
place. But my concerns returned when I
called the Domino’s Pizza place and when I told them that I wanted the pizza delivered
to the American Motor Inn was told they don’t deliver their, despite the fact that
it was only a few blocks away. Fortunately I found another pizza place and
they were afraid to come to my Inn, and the pizza they brought and my tired
state made my stay ok, despite what my fears told me I was in the bed shortly
after 10. </span></span></div>
Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3652025888906665858.post-8302302771698369932013-05-19T05:14:00.001-07:002013-05-26T15:56:13.382-07:00Friday May 17th - Galena to Mississippi River Palisades State Park<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<u><sup></sup> </u></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnJHiAWAXXh2NZvPvnUFDufqkUFc50fUtFH5kzbjPDxVGcgfqXH9ZSWD65SUVuxm24Der5AgvRYxedcCj9rWlrgoDnKUnH6grPra3w078QxLPhHRSnrGypHw9giUv9BSv3iKe8r_e64j6U/s1600/DSCN0744.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnJHiAWAXXh2NZvPvnUFDufqkUFc50fUtFH5kzbjPDxVGcgfqXH9ZSWD65SUVuxm24Der5AgvRYxedcCj9rWlrgoDnKUnH6grPra3w078QxLPhHRSnrGypHw9giUv9BSv3iKe8r_e64j6U/s200/DSCN0744.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Woke up this morning around 6 and got caught up with
writing. Took my leisurely time packing
and headed to drop my key off at the office around 11 am. The Inn’s hostess was kind enough to give me
a 5 minute history lesson of Galena after I asked her why the extremely hilly
town was settled. She mentioned two
reasons, one was the Galena River acted as a paddle boat port for boats
cruising up and down the Mississippi River located further downstream from
Galena. Second were the lead mines that
existed in the area. With the unset of
the Civil War, there was a huge demand for lead for bullets to shoot the
southerners, so there was much war profiting invested in developing the
town. She also mentioned that with the
onset of farming in the watershed, the river eventually silted in due to poor
erosion control practices, so the river eventually was no longer navigable to
the large boats. Now only canoes and
kayaks navigate the dirty old stream. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtkkwErYEemAQiLBYeNClkSjrcTKUzbmGU3SvSffoUxn1Gi5zZjbIazbgTScY8WFKwU8yDPnZM_NpUgcT10yxC6XQZxECDLfQal_zafA1cprU2UArDxsthXvoI0Uedcm8dKpiNRqMVnwFj/s1600/DSCN0755.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtkkwErYEemAQiLBYeNClkSjrcTKUzbmGU3SvSffoUxn1Gi5zZjbIazbgTScY8WFKwU8yDPnZM_NpUgcT10yxC6XQZxECDLfQal_zafA1cprU2UArDxsthXvoI0Uedcm8dKpiNRqMVnwFj/s200/DSCN0755.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">On my way out, I took a detour up Main Street through town
as the hostess had pointed out this as the hotspot on the map she gave me the
night before. I had to pass through the
flood gates installed to provide access to the historical tourist portion of
town that was protected by a levee system constructed adjacent to the
river. The street is store after store
of clothing, purses, jewelry, and other goods catering to those who already
have large purses. Since I already had
way too much stuff and no room for more, I passed up the opportunity to
shop. I did stop at a coffee/tea shop to
have a spot of tea and a blueberry muffin, and used their WIFI to update my
blog. Figured out I had turned off my
wireless network on my computer last night and after fiddling around finally
got it turned back on – that might have explained why I was not able to log on
at the inn. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Leaving Main Street, I headed back along the road that paralleled
the flood dike. An old lead smelting factory
appears to still be operating only a block off main street – let’s hope their
not still making bullets. Passing back
out through the flood gates I headed back onto the shoulder less Highway
20. I wanted to stop and take some
pictures of the Galena River, but with the lack of shoulder and busy traffic I
waited until I crossed the bridge. I
noticed that the water quality in the river still did not looking too good – it
had that typical gray-green soup appearance that seems common in heavily farm
land, which is likely the result of poor farming practices that are still
occurring today. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Heading south out of Galena, I debated whether I should
continue on Highway 20 and then head down Highway 84, or take the back roads
that veered closer to the river. I
didn’t have a very good map of the back roads, except for one I had ripped from
a tour guide brochure I found in my room last night. The map didn’t indicate if the roads were
paved or gravel, and it was difficult to tell the names. But after already battling traffic and not
even a mile down the road, when I saw a sign to the Chestnut Mountain Ski
Resort that existed via the back roads I decided to take it, hoping I would not
get lost or wore out from gravel and hills.
I didn’t know any ski hills existed in Illinois and thought it might be
a memorable site to see the one that did.
When I was greeted by a sign that said “Be Alert, Winding Road Next 14
Miles”, I wondered what I would get myself into.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSyQwnWHt25SPxhoR7Jh70h4lbZ_yc6GlY1SyBS8157uLXl4xj0UOpAd4R8j48mvUFKY2ZRVnYsivsYuOSwYnwSgDBGxUb5jDDjipUNi_q1RKZntZ4C3ucypyeLlPHnGZMVndjhpvPIbGX/s1600/DSCN0771.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSyQwnWHt25SPxhoR7Jh70h4lbZ_yc6GlY1SyBS8157uLXl4xj0UOpAd4R8j48mvUFKY2ZRVnYsivsYuOSwYnwSgDBGxUb5jDDjipUNi_q1RKZntZ4C3ucypyeLlPHnGZMVndjhpvPIbGX/s200/DSCN0771.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The road started out pretty good, it was paved, there were
some hills, and plenty of curves – giving the day a roller coaster ride type of
experience. In the lower sections of the
road, I passed a number of older farmsteads, and when the road came close to
the base of some the limestone hills, old lead mine entrances could be
seen. As got into climbing one of the many
hills I would come to on that day, a black SUV pulled up beside me and
stopped. The passenger between puffs of
his cigarette asked me where I was heading.
I told him I hoped to make it to the State Park located to the south and
on the Mississippi River. The driver who
was also smoking away, mentioned that it was a nice park and that I would like
it. They also warned me about another
hill that was coming up, and that I would know the one when I got to it. As they pulled away, they wished me luck, and
I replied that I might need to bum a cigarette from them if I made it. One them replied a beer might help as
well. Unfortunately the smell of the
cigarette smoke lingered up the hill as I continued my effort to climb the
hill, making even more difficult to breath.
</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2MdebO-nOPfyaZbejh4HkvZ1YARojWbhYOBiEmksdnAaT1_cdER1venTaGqq9bIWdCu_yGFWlqQbGnqwAe71_FdwitOwpzMuboA-DXpUDEgkXuH2N4lSorqczT5T5fb8K5WbV-NiGqdQv/s1600/DSCN0775.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2MdebO-nOPfyaZbejh4HkvZ1YARojWbhYOBiEmksdnAaT1_cdER1venTaGqq9bIWdCu_yGFWlqQbGnqwAe71_FdwitOwpzMuboA-DXpUDEgkXuH2N4lSorqczT5T5fb8K5WbV-NiGqdQv/s200/DSCN0775.JPG" style="cursor: move;" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I took a detour up a long and hilly gravel path to the
Casper Bluff Land and Water Preserve to find out what it was. It was a reserve of land set aside with some
trails that wound around the property that also contained some Indian
mounds. I took a quick lunch break, and
watched a female Oriel trying to remove some strips of cloth that had been tied
to some branches so she could weave them into her nest. I would have liked to walk the trails, but
figured I better keep moving. Before I
left I untied the cloth from the branch, and ripped it into smaller more
manageable pieces to ease the nest builders workload.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE8r9WkEgBt3zklMokk4NG2JJ66Uw4vQVnzXf7UFiMYB3HlVzAgbu6zlkQXeD8axfYuFZ3NdPUmGAh4647oTRLaBX-Y6qvg_2NOXf_UDiEINf2iTeJ39xzIjDMH-ywn64q5HF9EC6A4k2D/s1600/DSCN0802.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE8r9WkEgBt3zklMokk4NG2JJ66Uw4vQVnzXf7UFiMYB3HlVzAgbu6zlkQXeD8axfYuFZ3NdPUmGAh4647oTRLaBX-Y6qvg_2NOXf_UDiEINf2iTeJ39xzIjDMH-ywn64q5HF9EC6A4k2D/s200/DSCN0802.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The road eventually wound its way back down to the river
bottoms and followed the railroad tracks.
There were a couple of interesting vacation cabins build down along the
river, and then I came to the ski resort.
It looked like it would be a fun hill to ski, but the runs were quite
short, with fences provided at the bottom of the hills to keep skiers from
running across the road and onto the railroad tracks at the base. There were still a few piles of snow located
at the base of one of the runs. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJQYO1ryz80fpmTDVUI8BfSsgbf23fl-waIgdTG39gg9Kbnxvd3s9Nd6A-FVdfh7bUzPTUaPRPB5_H6Y6gIMkU-0-9IpkndhdFKMtw5dZdXYHuRvVpcHsMUFYnDb4Lf3yu2C0VVuk5by43/s1600/DSCN0816.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJQYO1ryz80fpmTDVUI8BfSsgbf23fl-waIgdTG39gg9Kbnxvd3s9Nd6A-FVdfh7bUzPTUaPRPB5_H6Y6gIMkU-0-9IpkndhdFKMtw5dZdXYHuRvVpcHsMUFYnDb4Lf3yu2C0VVuk5by43/s200/DSCN0816.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">As I
passed the hill, the road turned to gravel, and then began to become narrower
and more path like. I was beginning to
wonder if this was the correct road, but on the map I had it looked like the
road continued. I was enjoying pedaling
along the remote trail, but was disappointed when I saw a guard rail strung out
across the path, indicating I had come to a dead end. The guard rail had been spray painted with declarations
of love among other things by some youth back in the 1990’s according to dates
of their declarations. There was also an
old kitchen stove dumped there. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4SeWc8zGU-PWoqrP19_zTEhomrDXeODRq1oeVzXoE6Dzh9g8_zl5Ye0J0RT-IX2bVDEecxi5tCivHpiqZelDhYYXRkcFxy8lVWJgrvzr_uhyJXFWOAzttH0pfBjdn0RMTZQHlKuzEiku0/s1600/DSCN0826.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4SeWc8zGU-PWoqrP19_zTEhomrDXeODRq1oeVzXoE6Dzh9g8_zl5Ye0J0RT-IX2bVDEecxi5tCivHpiqZelDhYYXRkcFxy8lVWJgrvzr_uhyJXFWOAzttH0pfBjdn0RMTZQHlKuzEiku0/s200/DSCN0826.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">So I headed back, a little worried about how far out of the
way I had gone, but after backtracking and enjoying the ride and noticing a
mine entrance I missed on my way through, I found a road climbing back up the
hill, not too far to the North of the Ski hill.
The road took me passed a large horse farm and then at the top of the
hill was a large resort, The Golmore Inn – “Galina’s Finest Country Inn” per
the sign, overlooking the river and the horse farm below. The farm below was for sale, and I wondered how
much it would cost to buy a horse farm in Northeastern Illinois. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">There were smaller old farmsteads along the higher road, and
eventually as usual the road went back down into the river valley. I had seen signs advertising the Blanding
Resort and campground, and as I reached the bottom of the hill was greeted by a
large black dog that came out of the resort to greet me with some angry barking. I used my most calming soothing voice to
convince the monster that I meant no harm, and he let me pass. I took his warning as a sign to keep going
and not stay at the resort or its campground.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinFBiXEpxgsFrWFrQ00kAfNVWRD6kAyoatKzzmpAjedpoo_msL4plskLG0km8InqM7Wrbtz9TzIAMoTyrT5n3rZhesRqoWmztzwjB8sRli-1r8Ov8DuG6rZsE55EGIAR7fP0iVHFFDzQv9/s1600/DSCN0837.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinFBiXEpxgsFrWFrQ00kAfNVWRD6kAyoatKzzmpAjedpoo_msL4plskLG0km8InqM7Wrbtz9TzIAMoTyrT5n3rZhesRqoWmztzwjB8sRli-1r8Ov8DuG6rZsE55EGIAR7fP0iVHFFDzQv9/s200/DSCN0837.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Moving on down the road along the river, much larger farms began to
appear. I also began to smell a strong
odor from what was coming from what appeared to be a large feed lot or dairy
operation set way back off the road. The
entrance to the farm was marked with a sign warning of bio-hazards and no entry
without an appointment, so I kept to the road that ran through the huge corn
fields that must have fed the cattle I could see confined in the distance. It is pretty amazing how much land it takes
to produce the feed to raise meat or milk to keep us eating our hamburgers and
drinking our milk shakes. I wondered how
much land we could avoid plowing up, fertilizing, and herbiciding, if we ate
more fruit and vegetables directly ourselves, instead of feeding it to cattle
first to produce our meat and dairy. It
seems like I read somewhere that it takes 10 pounds of crops to produce 1 pound
of meat. After the large farm fields,
there were several abandoned old farm buildings that were in various states of
disrepair and I wondered if the large industrial farming practices are what
eventually drove the old places out of business. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB1OG6O-LYJGu2r9ZAnWY6lEqKlFo1608BkD4_WPeAJfxLgZMu0nqZIIpICpeg4e_yDKgRyhH78MgunWGKBDJIwJogbQy5qyEzp_YeKAmiVcyxUiD5ZQfV4BXOEb5isnQbVQvZ8V5ThUvk/s1600/DSCN0846.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB1OG6O-LYJGu2r9ZAnWY6lEqKlFo1608BkD4_WPeAJfxLgZMu0nqZIIpICpeg4e_yDKgRyhH78MgunWGKBDJIwJogbQy5qyEzp_YeKAmiVcyxUiD5ZQfV4BXOEb5isnQbVQvZ8V5ThUvk/s200/DSCN0846.JPG" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1Kw9K6xmgY5WRBDG60pbJspOHUzO649_zScjkwinXg2UxSIjXz-gsWq5m5YDOQ6eZNONFFSEshyphenhyphenT3BURkRt-BceG8tAqvG5Lmu_FM4zvhzpdq9iXf4fqUDV0uHZ9zptO0F6eXXJ8yMxMD/s1600/DSCN0862.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1Kw9K6xmgY5WRBDG60pbJspOHUzO649_zScjkwinXg2UxSIjXz-gsWq5m5YDOQ6eZNONFFSEshyphenhyphenT3BURkRt-BceG8tAqvG5Lmu_FM4zvhzpdq9iXf4fqUDV0uHZ9zptO0F6eXXJ8yMxMD/s200/DSCN0862.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Moving on down the road, the road continued to be gravel,
and moved up and down some more hills, and then lowered down into the river
valley again. I noticed some strange
looking long buildings strung out for miles between the Burlington Northern
tracks and the Mississippi River further to the West. I was trying to figure out what they were
for. I thought I recalled seeing
somewhere about some kind of Military base being in the area, and also assumed
that no one but the military could afford to create such a large complex. Later on when I got to the campground I
stayed at, I asked the park attendant what the facility was and he just
mentioned that it was some kind of military operation. I didn’t push him for more details, as he
seemed reluctant to talk about it anymore.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Eventually, I noticed a large cut in the side of a hill and
the distance, and assumed it must be for Highway 84 I was hoping to connect
with. And it was, so I got back on the
shoulder less road and put my energies into reaching the Mississippi River
Palisades State Park without being creamed by a passing car or truck. The headwinds began to pick up and the sky
started to get darker, making me peddle faster to avoid the threat of a
storm. I passed a motel on the side of
the road and debated stopping to avoid the traffic and possible storm, but as I
approached, two folks sitting in the front yelled out an encouragement to “pickup
the pace”, and I replied “I am too tired to”, but kept pedaling all the same,
hoping the State Park would not be far.
And it wasn’t. I pulled in around
6:30, and was relived to find out that the campground had over 200 sites and
most were available. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">I drove around to find the perfect spot, but
after a long day of hill climbing and back roads, I picked a spot near a
shelter, so I could escape the rains if they came. I asked the campground attendant if it would be
ok if I set up in the shelter, since there was no one else camping in the loop
I was in, but he told me no, I needed to stay on my site. Later as I was setting up, a different attendant
drove by me and encouraged me to use the shelter if it rained. I quick ate some nuts, carrots, fruit, and
left over mix John had given me in La Cross, walked back to pay for my site,
set up my tent, took a shower, did some writing, and after battling mosquitoes
while trying to update my writing, decided to crawl into the tent for the day
as was typical by that time I was feeling exhausted. I thought about crossing the river the next
day and then heading back up river to get off Illinois unpaved shoulder roads,
but would wait to see what the sunrise brought before I decided.</span></span></div>
Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3652025888906665858.post-62075523613187823262013-05-17T09:25:00.002-07:002013-05-26T15:55:28.114-07:00Thursday May 17th - Nelson Dewey State Park to Galena <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Had somewhat of a restless sleep that night – sometime
during the night a motor or engine of somesort started up. At first I thought it was the large fan on
the campground bathrooms that was left running constantly, even though there
was only myself and the campground host use the bathrooms on a very limited
basis. But after packing up and heading
down the hill back down the river valley below the campground, I noticed the
noise was coming from a train that had stopped below the campground and the
multiple engines were left idling during the night. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">I also stopped across the street from the
campground to admire the large complex of bat houses that had been
constructed. I was treated to a morning
flight of a little brown bat that dropped out of one of the boxes to give me a
morning display of her flying abilities. If the two sets of apartment complexes
where inhabited to capacity, there must have been thousands of the furry
flappers roosting in them. </span></span>
<br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The river town of Caseville was only a mile or so south of
the park, and it was another multi-power plant town. Alliant Energy ran a coal
fired plant on the North end of town, and the was a second smaller station that
appeared to be using wood for fuel, as stacks of logs could be scene piled up
to the south of the plant, along with another large pile of woodchips. There
was also a visible plume of exhaust coming out of its shorter smoke stack. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Coming into the town, the main street was
lined with matching maple trees with dark red leaves lining both sides of the
street that created quite a welcome as one entered the town. I stopped at the grocery store to refuel
myself and decided to try some new provisions including a small container of
fresh blueberries, some yogurt, sunflower seeds, a couple of grapefruit, and
some carrots; along with the old standards of apples and granola bars. The warming temperatures where making it
harder to keep foods in eatable condition for long, so I would need to make
sure I ate the yogurt before it curdled and the blueberries and bananas before
they turned to mush. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Leaving Caseville, the road began one of the many climbs out
of the river Valley I would face that day, making me wish I had a couple of
lower gears (or about half as much gear) to make climbing the hills
easier. Along the valley out of the
hill, passed an ideal looking old farmstead nestled along the road – its
farming days were over. As I reached
the ridgetops, the farms expanded exponentially in size from that smaller
farm. In many of the farms you could see
how the smaller original barns were added on to or replaced by larger or
different types of barns and old buildings as the farms changed what they grew
or increased in size. The small concrete
silos were replaced with the blue steel glass coated Harvesters, which were in
some cases now replaced with disposable plastic silage bags laying on the
ground, or with large grain bins on the farms that no longer grew crops to feed
their animals, but now dealt in the bigger money venue of cash crop grains to
trade on the open global market. I
wondered how much of the infrastructure now sat idled, like some many of the
old concrete silos that lie scattered across the landscape like tombstones
honoring a long forgotten way of life. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Technology changes in the farm utilities also became obvious
– where the windmills once used to pump water for the farm, where then
converted to places to mount TV antennae’s and yard lights when electricity
came to the rural areas. Satellite
dishes mounted to the side of the house, than made the old steel towers
obsolete, and on several farms you could see where they had been partially
dismantled. As I rode the through the seemingly
infinite rolling farmland, I wondered why farms had to become so much larger
and more complex these days to support a family – or was it no longer the
family that they supported but the corporations who likely drove the
expansions. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Dropping back down into the river valley before Petosi, I
noticed a plume of dust being generated by some type of maintenance activity
going on to the Burlington Northern railroad tracks. As I got closer to the operation, I noticed
two young men wearing orange vests walking slowly in front of what looked to be
some kind of mobile rail gravels processing plant. What the two walker’s jobs were I wasn’t
sure, but they did not look too excited about the miles of rail they must have
to walk each day in front of the noisy dirty operation. As the mobile plant passed I was enveloped in
a cloud of dust, and noticed there was an engine, a couple a cars that must
have held screens and crushers and conveyers with one dumping what might have
been waste rock off to the side of the track, some type of fuel tanker, and
then a operations control car. On the
final car, two more workers wearing orange vests sat on the rear deck of the
car in the relatively clean air provided by the relief of the side breeze. They two did not look too thrilled – or
perhaps that was my projection – about their duties for the day either. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The entrance to Potosi was flanked by a brewery and winery
operations. I decided to stop in and
find something to eat and found out the winery only served cheese and crackers
so headed across the street to the breweries bar and restaurant. I noticed other patrons using computers so
inquired about internet access and took the opportunity to update my blog posts
while eating a chicken wrap and salad, then headed up the hill that let back
out of the river valley. As I was
wheeling my bike to the road, two men who had been eating lunch at another bar
across the street walked by. One of them
encouraged me with the comment “it’s a nice day for biking” and the other added
“unless your going that way” as he pointed up the hill out of town, and I
replied “I am going that way, which is the way it usually goes”. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">About half way up the hill, a large man on a riding lawn
mower had stopped next to the road to quench his thirst from a large plastic
thermos of liquid and as I passed he asked me where I was going. I asked him if he would mind pulling me up
the hill out of town with his tractor, but he only smiled. With what appeared
to be the top of the hill in site, a gentleman older than myself on a fancy
looking road bicycle passed me on my left and slowed to talk for a while. He asked me where I was going. I asked him if it was easier getting up the
hill without all the gear attached to the bike.
He too smiled and told me that there was a nice campground a few miles
out of town. I replied that with all the
hills I was climbing that might be a good destination for the day. But then he told me it was all back down the
hill – so I told him I think I would stay on the top of the hill and peddle
some more as long as I had come this far.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">At the top of the hill, there was more rolling
farmland. I hardly saw much of the river
from the Great River Road on this day, and the only sign it was near was when I
peddled for brief periods along the flat railroad tracks. Approaching Dickeyville, I came across the
Dugout Bar and Restaurant. Dickeyville
was about 5 or 10 miles from Platteville where I went to UW Platteville during
he early 1980’s. The dugout was a place
I had gone to at least once to escape from the bars of Platteville. I am not sure what drew us to Dugout, and
apparently the past clientele must have wondered the same things as the club
now looked abandoned. A farmer hauling a
load of manure to apply to a field across the highway from the dugout waved to
me as he passed, and I watched him spread his load of shit for a while,
remembering the time I drove through a more liquid version of the material many
years ago while going to school in Platteville.
At that time, a farmer must have spilt the liquid manure from his honey
wagon, leaving a slick smelly slime across the country road I was driving down. It left a foul odor on my old 1972 VW Beetle
for some time after that, despite several attempts at running the car through a
car wash. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Peddling on toward Dickyville proper, I noticed the large white
“M” that had been emblazoned on the large hill outside the distant City of
Platteville. The “M” was supposed to
signify mining, which is what the University of Platteville used to be known
for. Because of the lack in mining
interests in Wisconsin back in the 80’s, the school had discontinued the Mining
Engineering degree it was famous for, but continued the annual practice of canceling
classes once a year to allow ambitious students to participate in the
whitewashing of the “M” onto the hillside.
Not being too ambitious back in my college days, I took the day off from
classes as an opportunity to sleep in, and left the whitewashing to those who
likely went on to more illustrious careers.
So I guess my lack of ambition in those days might in part be why I was
forcing myself to climb all the hills I did on this day. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">On the way through Dickeyville, I stopped for a short moment
to take a closer look at the famous Dickeyville Grotto. On the way to the shrine, I waved to some
passing preschoolers who were parading their big wheel plastic trikes along the
sidewalk that led to the Grotto. I
believe the rock bejeweled shrine had been built by a priest how had served at
the adjacent Holy Ghost Church some time the first part of the 1900’s. The shrine kind of looks like a large head of
a monster from the front, and I decided to keep moving to avoid being swallowed
up by the monstrosity. I stopped the
second gas station in town on my way out to try and pick up and map of Illinois
which I hoped to enter into before the day was over. Unfortunately they had maps for all the other
States in the area – which I already had – but no Illinois. I also learned that before entering the men’s
bathroom at that place, it would be advised to knock on the door first. For when I failed to do so and simply turned
the door knob and started to walk in, I was greeted by a loud “hey” and the
vision of a man seated on the toilet with has pants down to his ankles in the
mist of what looked to be some serious concentration. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I fled that station and jumped on my bike and ventured onto
Highway 151, which was essentially a four lane freeway. Fortunately there was a large paved shoulder
adjacent to the freeway lane, and I plugged the Ipod in and turned up the
volume to drown out the traffic whizzing by and put my energy into cranking
through and on to East Dubuque, the gateway to Illinois. I was cruising along pretty good myself,
until I came across a large buck that had been hit by a car, and whose badly
bloating body was blocking the entire shoulder.
I had to stop and wait for traffic to pass before I could work my way
out into the traffic lane to avoid the pour unfortunate creature. And then before I knew it I came to the East
Dubuque exist, and was soon peddling in Illinois. I recalled some other attempts to find excitement
out of Platteville while going to college and tried to reflect on a trip or two
we made to the bars of East Dubuque. As
I passed by the town, I was again not sure what drew us to that town, but I
guess when you’re young and foolish, you do foolish things. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The Great River Road follows highway 20 between East Dubuque
and Galena, which is essentially another 4 lane freeway. And although the road followed the railroad
tracks for a few miles, there was no visible sign of the Mississippi
River. And then more hills – which where
the State of Illinois invested in 6’
wide paved concrete shoulders the going was good. But unfortunately, in what must be attempts
to save some of the State fortunes, the paved shoulders would suddenly narrow
to maybe a 2’ strip with half of that being a rumble strip, or even worse, be
eliminated completely. So during the
rumble strip portion the choose was to try and negotiate the 1’ foot of
pavenment between the bone jarring rumble strip and the tire stopping gravel or
moving out into the traffic lane and hope to avoid being hit by the passing
semi’s and speeding cars who wouldn’t move into the left lane as they
passed. And then things got even worse
when as the road approached Galena, the freeway ended and narrowed down to just
two traffic lanes and there was no paved shoulder at all. I had a couple of fearful moments going
around curves, hoping that I wouldn’t be passed by a semi, around a corner
while another car was coming in the other direcition. Fortunately I made it through and entered
Galena. I debated were I should stay if
I made it to town and opted to pass by the chain motels that were located on
the high ground as you entered the City, and instead decided to find something
more interesting in the lower downtown portion of the City. I decided to stop at the Greenbriar Country
Inn & Suites, which is a division of the Briargate Hotel Corporation, which
is probably a chain of some sort, but the room I stayed in certainly appeared
to be an authentically old and charming place.
The nicest of the places I have stayed so far, and even at the midweek
discounted rate of $85 the most expensive night of the trip so far, but the $85
is definitely worth the price.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Unfortunately the Greenbrier did not have laundry facilities,
but the caretaker of the complex, whose cooking of spaghetti I interrupted,
directed me to the only laundry mat in town, located back up into the high part
of town. I debated if I was up for
climbing more hills, but after showering and eating my warm yogurt and still
non-mushy blueberries for supper I loaded up my dirty cloths and walked my bike
up the steep City street, that led to the laundry mat and spent the evening
washing clothes, reading a chapter from the book 1984 that I had brought with
me, and then going for a brief walk around the charming neighborhood where the Laundromat
was located. I took a dusk stroll
through an old cemetery a couple of blocks from the Laundromat that based on
the dates that could be read on some of the tombstones appeared to have been
inhabited in the early 1800’s. It was
interesting that the spacing between graves was quite far apart, compared to
most cemeteries I have been too, unless not all the graves markers remain. Maybe at the time they didn’t realize how
many more graves would be needed and they took advantage of the available real-estate
to spread the dead out as far as possible.
With the tourism industry boom that has come to Galena, and the demand
for bed and breakfast properties, the vacant graves could probably fetch a
pretty penny on today’s market, if they would have packed the dead closer
together. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">With my laundry cleaned, I packed up my backs and headed
down darkened streets on my bike to return to my room, large soft bed with
about 10 pillows, to call it a day. I
gave my daughter Ali a call first to find out how her move out of the dorms
went. I felt a bit guilty for taking off
and not being around to participate in the semiannual or more frequent ritual
of moving daughters out of dorm rooms, and instead left the duty up to my
oldest daughter Paige. Ali said it went
relatively well, but I think I will have to wait and hold out judgment until I
talk with Paige. </span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 115%;">So as I approach what will soon be the half-way
point of the trip, I need to decide where to go next and when to cross the
river to Iowa and start heading back home.</span></span>Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3652025888906665858.post-60361578865974946752013-05-16T10:32:00.001-07:002013-05-26T15:55:03.839-07:00Wednesday May 15th - Wyalusing State Park to Nelson Dewey State Park<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Woke up to the sun rising at about quarter to 6, so crawled
out of bed, washed up, ate some breakfast, and then went for a hike along the
trail that runs along the ridge top in search of the Passenger Pigeon monument. Along the way took a detour down the trail
that lead to a cave. I was beginning to
give up hope on finding the memorial, when I finally came upon it. It’s a large limestone wall, with a bronze
plaque imbedded. The monument is built
into an overlook of the Mississippi River confluence with the Wisconsin
River. The plaque has a likeness of a
passenger pigeon embossed on it along with the following words: </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">“<i>Dedicated to the last Passenger Pigeon shot at Babcock, September
1899. This species became extinct
through the avarience and thoughtlessness of man.</i>”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The plaque also had the name “Wright 1946” imprinted on
it. On a smaller sign located adjacent
to the monument was printed the following:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; margin-left: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">“<i>On May 11, 1947, at the dedication of the monument Aldo Leopold said, ‘The
monument perched like a duckhawk on this cliff, will scan the high valley,
watching through the days and years. But
no pigeon will pass, for there are no pigeons, save only this flightless one,
grave in bronze and rock.’”</i> The sign
also included the following quote from Leopold’s THE SAND COUNTY ALMANAC: <i>“There
will always be pigeons in books and museums, but these are but effigies and
images, deal to all hardships and all delights.
They know no urge for seasons; they feel no kiss of sun, nor lash of
wind and weather.” </i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">As I sat looking at the monument, a turkey vulture soared
along the ridge tops, coming to a near standstill 100 feet to the West of me as
it glided along the edge of the bluff. A
male Baltimore oriole landed in the tree just to the south of the memorial and
called out in a loud whistle, and then the female followed him and gave a much
softer chirping sound of her own. To the
east in the direction of the risen sun, an unknown bird landed on a branch in
an oak tree in the grove located behind the linear Indian mound. And to the North in the oaks overlooking the
mouth of the Wisconsin River and valleys beyond, warblers flitted amongst the
blooming leaves in search of insects and a gray squirrel made his way around
the trees as well. The honking calls of
geese could be heard coming up from the river valley below. And from above the sound of the wind passing
through the trees, merged with all the bird songs that filled the air. It was a reminder of the beauty of the
natural world, and its power to continue to evolve and endure, despite the
folly of man. We humans may not be as
fortunate as the rest of the natural world, if we do not overcome our mindless
ways. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Earlier as I walked towards the memorial site, I heard a kin
of the missing passenger pigeon, the morning dove calling out “who, who,
whoooo” in the distance. I could not help but wonder while I walked
along the Indian mounds strung out along the ridge top to the South of the
memorial if someday one of our surviving kin walks among our abandoned
constructed remnants of our way of life, wondering who the people were that left
them behind. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">As I was getting ready to go, another passerby wanted to
borrow my view to take some pictures. If
I had known how popular the site was, I would have started charging. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I walked back to the campground and decided that rather than
staying in the park another day, that I would bike on down and try to make it
to NELSON CONFIRM NAME park. So I ate
again, and packed up my gear and by about noon, I was almost on my way. I
stopped to talk to a man carrying a branch back to his camp site where
he had an assortment of other items laying out on his picnic table. He told me he was getting ready for a group
of sixth grade students who were coming to spend the day and night at the
park. He told me they were from
Platteville, and I told him that is where I went to college. He said he had been helping coordinate these
trips for over thirty years. I told him
about the time I went with my daughter’s sixth grade class to a similar
experience and how much I had enjoyed it.
He said he enjoyed it too and working with the kids to get them
interested in spending time outside. He
regretted that because of the high river flows, he would not be able to get the
kids out canoeing, but would try to make up for it with other activities. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Once I made it out of the park, the ride out was all downhill
and a fun ride. Being off the main
highway and now peddling down a county road was quite pleasant and the traffic
volume and noise was almost non-existent.
Coming off the bluff tops, the road returned to the River bottom next to
the railroad tracks. It went through the
quant looking community of Wyalusing that held some charming looking homes are
cottages that overlooked the river.
Further on I came across a rock building that had been built with the
local limestone that sat nestled against a rock outcrop. It looked like the building had been abandoned. Across the street from it was a house build
using the same materials that was also an eye catcher. Leaving town I wondered if living in the town
would be as idealistic as it seemed. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Further along as the road meandered away from the river, I
came across a series of older looking trailers and campers that were likely
used as vacation properties. Then came
the Yogi Bear resort with more campers packed into fields - it’s hard to
believe that some folks would find that type of place relaxing, but then who am
I to judge. Eventually, I knew the road
would leave the river bottoms and head back to the ridge top, and when it did I
had to grind up another long and fortunately winding road. The bends made it difficult to see how much
further uphill I had to go, so with each new corner there was hope that the end
was near.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">When I did reach the ridge top, the land expanded into huge,
rolling, farm fields that covered the land as far as you could see. It looked like it was most corn fields, but
there were some contoured strip fields that contained a rotation of crops. Interspersed amongst the farm fields was a 10
to 20 acre cemetery about every couple of miles. The cemeteries seemed to just be plunked down
in the middle of a corn field. At first
it didn’t seem like too nice of a place to spend eternity, but for many of the
pioneers and future settlers who lived in this place, the rich farm fields
probably seemed like heaven. At one
point I stopped to watch a dark horse how came trotting out to greet meet. She seemed glad to see a strange face. And before I knew it I was racing down
another hill again, towards the River Bottoms below. The ride down almost made the climb up
worthwhile, and I also was ready to leave the farm fields behind, but I worried
that I might be climbing more hills to get to the campground – which of course
I did as it was all up hill. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 115%;">Once there I found the campground almost vacant,
except for the group host camper. I ran
into the host once while I was washing up and he said he was only doing his
nightly round to make sure no one had passed out in the bathroom. I told him to be sure and let me know if I
did. Otherwise I spent the nightly
mostly getting caught up with my writing, and watching the birds. A couple of times, a humming bird would stop
and hover about five feet away from my face, and I finally assumed they must be
attracted to the red tee shirt I was wearing.
I walked back to the walk in campsites at the end of the campground and
kind of wished I had set up there; as they were set back overlooking the
Mississippi River valley below. But my
site so far worked out well, but the mosquitos are definitely out and staring
to get annoying. I also decided to make
a fire, to please my wife who can’t understand why I don’t have fires when I go
on my adventures. In this case someone
else had done all the work and left me a load of wood, so I broke out my new
lighter and left over brochures from the previous campground and had a short
fire.</span></span>Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3652025888906665858.post-26982801308136045252013-05-16T10:25:00.001-07:002013-07-14T14:39:37.412-07:00Tuesday May 14th - Goose Island Campground to Wyalusing State Park<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: large;">After living in La Crosse for 12 years, I felt some twangs
of guilt only spending one night there.
I thought about riding back into town and trying to visit with some old
friends, but just didn’t have the energy to get back on the bike and ride back
into La Crosse the previous night. I
also didn’t feel like spending another night at Goose Island Camp Ground. I paid $25 for a picnic table and a place to
set my tent up, and then had to pay to use the showers that didn’t work. So when the sun came up I ate some breakfast
and began packing my stuff to continue down river. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">When I was almost done packing, a gentleman and his small
shaggy looking dog (the man was a bit
shaggy looking as well, and was missing a few of his upper front teeth, and
wore a gruff looking beard) stopped their red pickup truck by my site and began
chatting. I was glad that this was not
the same angry man who mouthed profanities at me back in Fountain City, and
despite his gruff appearance, he seemed to be a pretty nice guy. The dog was in a hurry to go, as the man
informed me that the dog would lick his hand when he wanted to go, but he must
have been used to the man talking as eventually he curled up on the passenger
side floor of the truck and settled in for a nap. The dog was actually the man’s wife’s dog,
but the dog spent most of his time with the man. He told me he lived in La Crosse, in the
second trailer park East of La Crosse on Highway 14. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">He spent most of his life in La Crosse and grew up on French
Island. He went into the Army in the
mid-70’s, and he wished he would have stayed in longer. But he had gotten married and was going to be
stationed in Korea, so he didn’t reenlist.
He spent some time working as an auto mechanic, and then became a truck
driver. He said the life as a truck
driver was tough, he would make trips back and forth across the country, often
a couple of them in a week. And eating
food from gas station and restaurants was not too healthy either and eventually
he developed diabetes and had to have a portion of his leg amputated, which put
an end to his truck driving. He watches
his diet and take pills to keep his blood sugar under control, and so was able
to eventually get his regular driver’s license back. He maintains a camper at Goose Island and
spends most of his free time in the camping months at the park or in his boat
fishing with the dog on the river. He
wished me well and we both headed off for the day. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I left Goose Island around 8:30 and was a little worried
that my escape might be blocked by a train that had stopped. Fortunately the exist was not blocked, but something
further to the north was holding the Northbound trains up, as there was a
string of trains stopped all the way back to Genoa. As I traveled down Highway
35 out of La Crosse, I recalled many other trips I had made down that road and
river. In 1999, I took the wooden row
boat I had made (along with a motor just in case) and attempted to row down the
river from Goose Island down to Prairie du Chien, a trip of about 60 miles, in
two days. That was my first attempt at a
solo adventure and I did make it about half way down the river without
rowing. I had to call my wife from the
Genoa Lock and Dam to have her bring me some rain gear, as I had gotten caught
in a down pour just before reaching Genoa and realized raingear might be
handy. I did that trip in May as well,
and the river was quite high at the time, so all the camping spots on the
islands downstream were flooded, making spending another night or two on the
river difficult. So I fired up the motor
and finished the trip in two days. I had
parked my truck at the Prairie du Chien wastewater treatment plant which was
just above the boat landing. I knew the
City’s Wastewater Superintendent Wayne from my work, and he was kind enough to
let me park my truck in the City’s fenced in wastewater plant. It helped to work with good people. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I recalled other adventures I had in most of the communities
along that stretch of the road. In the
first town Stoddard, I recalled climbing the bluff on the North side of town to
do an inspection of the Village’s drinking water storage concrete tank that had
been built up on the bluff many years before.
There was no access road, so Rudy the water operator, guided me up the
side of the bluff. Rudy was a heavy
smoker (and a decade or two older than me) and I worried that the climb to the
top might give him a heart attack (and me as well). When we got to the tank
Rudy realized he had forgotten the key to open the hatch, so he started
climbing back down to get it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I took a look at the
rusted old chain keeping the hatch sealed, picked up a rock and with one light
blow broke the chain and had access to the tank and water within. I called out to Rudy to forget about the key
and later learned from the Village clerk that the City had had a history of
acts of vandalism occurring up at the remote tower. In previous years when they cleaned the tank
out, they found everything from rocks and sticks, to assorted other junk. Since this was the water that the Village
residents had to drink, it seemed it was time to get the Village to build an access
road to the tank so the water operator didn’t have to climb a mountain to keep
an eye on it, and construct a fence around it to keep the vandals at bay. The
Village gave me much grief over the expense of the project, but in the end they
did complete the project and hopefully prevented the Village residents from
having God knows what end up in their drinking water. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">On this trip, I pulled into the Stoddard Kwik Trip to
replenish my supplies, and decided to plug the Ipod in to give me some momentum
and cover some miles. I had hopes of
making it the 60 or 70 miles to Wyalusing State Park, located South of Prairie
du Chien, and I had heard reports of a strong head wind and temperatures in the
80’s, so I would need all the help I could get if I was to make it that
far. Fortunately the road was relatively
flat in this section of the trip and I made pretty good time. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9DWBrSsPlPp65-KV064Qb709X3X3e2W9Dka99pA5i3npFX64ZXKO-eme-OY_7KEuaEtF-HdS8BSBECMlgXhGces6bDnyhVraIhdkP-rA0J1kCYoPsM49yDGiBfl1ttdFWNo_aPZG5o9ZB/s1600/DSCN0487.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9DWBrSsPlPp65-KV064Qb709X3X3e2W9Dka99pA5i3npFX64ZXKO-eme-OY_7KEuaEtF-HdS8BSBECMlgXhGces6bDnyhVraIhdkP-rA0J1kCYoPsM49yDGiBfl1ttdFWNo_aPZG5o9ZB/s200/DSCN0487.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Rounding the corner into Genoa, the Dairyland Power coal
fired and old small nuclear power plant dominated the horizon. I recalled having to visit that plant as part
of my old job duties, and it always made me a little bit nervous to realize
that the old nuclear plant, although no longer operating, still contained the
old nuclear fuel. Fortunately it was a
very small experimental plant that was not cost effective to operate so they
shut it down, but since there was nowhere to dispose of the spent fuel, it
still needs to be maintained at the facility.
It was also at the plant where I first got an inside tour of a power
plant, and recall being overwhelmed by the complexity of what it takes to
produce electricity and manage all the wastes that are generated in the
process. </span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjskAmK4ZGegThyphenhyphenuy4tDwXRLjaA7zbrUpSG0K_V2XMuK-WAfDlA1mRwU5atH6Fsr6X61XjwogvM41jTpwppQEMHj-N4_a79Pk6JfW4dod1rEqsUg-VroD2UEAlPFboW_styULXd4FnvAlEc/s1600/DSCN0491.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjskAmK4ZGegThyphenhyphenuy4tDwXRLjaA7zbrUpSG0K_V2XMuK-WAfDlA1mRwU5atH6Fsr6X61XjwogvM41jTpwppQEMHj-N4_a79Pk6JfW4dod1rEqsUg-VroD2UEAlPFboW_styULXd4FnvAlEc/s200/DSCN0491.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">I also debated stopping by the old water and wastewater
operator from the Village of Genoa’s house to see if he was still in the
area. I had met Bob at his house
numerous times in the past to conduct work, and gotten to know him pretty good
through the years. I wondered how he was
doing, but despite the guilt, I kept on pedaling. And pulled over for a quick rest stop at the Bad
Axe Fish Hatchery located to the south of Genoa that was another facility I had
worked with. At first it seemed strange
to me that there would be a concern about wastes from a fish hatchery, but as I
got familiar with the operations, I came to realize that raising fish is not
much different than raising other animals.
They produce a lot of waste, and if it isn’t managed properly, it causes
water quality problems in the receiving waters.
They also use a lot of chemicals to treat the fish and rearing ponds
that also can impact receiving streams.</span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyjeF5xaiETGmC7sAB7K7nlrB4qyb0ALh4bi4seRs0vN4sIIe1rfSOqhypHfXOK-zSfWd42EqPKWcTM80_zx0hCIMTXKN8a-gHEmxoQytaJV3N2cg0Kj2YgjUfVL5O9n6l4lf-ZTYRVbJB/s1600/DSCN0498.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyjeF5xaiETGmC7sAB7K7nlrB4qyb0ALh4bi4seRs0vN4sIIe1rfSOqhypHfXOK-zSfWd42EqPKWcTM80_zx0hCIMTXKN8a-gHEmxoQytaJV3N2cg0Kj2YgjUfVL5O9n6l4lf-ZTYRVbJB/s200/DSCN0498.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">And then there was Victory, the community named after the
slaughter of Indian’s during what was called the Battle of the Bad-Axe during
the Black Hawk War. A local doctor by
the name of C.V. Porter had the monuments made back in the early Twentieth
Century as a memorial to the events.
Some of the messages he had carved into the stone monuments seemed worth
noting.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>“Site
Of Red Bird’s Village, - June 28, 1827.
First battle of the BadAx was fought opposite, between 37 Winnebagos, on
Minnesota and Wisconsin Islands, and crew of keel boat O.H. Perry grounded on
sandbar. Fatalities: 4 whites, 7
indians. The same day Red Bird killed
Lip Cap and Gagnier at Prairie du Chien.
He died in prison there.” </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>“At
shallow pond 115 rods due south Black Hawks 700 Sac Indians encamped July 31,
1832. Soldiers found six decrepit
Indians there and “left them behind”.
Lee Sterling in 1840 found a handful of silver brooches there, hence
concluded those killed were squaws.”</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>“Overnight
of August 1 and 2, 1832. Gen. Akinson’s
army of 1200 mounted men in pursuit of Black Hawk encamped on this area from 8
p.m. until 3 a.m. The spring from which
men and horses drank is 140 rods North West.”</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><i>“Head
of Battle Isle. On the eve of Aug. 1,
1832, Blackhawk and his men with a flag of truce, went to the head of this
island to surrender to the captain of the steamer “Warrior”. Whites on boat asked are you Winnebagoes or
Sacs. “Sacs” replied Black Hawk. A load of canister was at once fired, killing
22 indians suing for peace.” </i></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmt0vf2uLKFgVn-v6RXCRTopLj16Ehjl6xP7_r9y2DlzTIVrS0w_9PtsjGX4eXPfs5cvhAvADxhNjz2yRpg141O8v0abmNt4pKLfb7OWoT3ZYc_FjX8FKC5BVkur4YHeNxV18CHQX7obNh/s1600/DSCN0504.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmt0vf2uLKFgVn-v6RXCRTopLj16Ehjl6xP7_r9y2DlzTIVrS0w_9PtsjGX4eXPfs5cvhAvADxhNjz2yRpg141O8v0abmNt4pKLfb7OWoT3ZYc_FjX8FKC5BVkur4YHeNxV18CHQX7obNh/s200/DSCN0504.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Add caption</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: large;">Not too far down the road and I
came across o a couple of Lama’s or Alpaca’s that were grassing the grass from
the ditch along the highway. Someone had
installed a temporary enclosure for the critters. When I stopped to take a look at them, the
two friendly looking beasts stopped there feeding and walked over to take a
look at me as well. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The other river Village’s all had
other stories, and they played through my head as I keep moving along. Listening to music would help quiet some of
those voices, but many still lingered reminding me of the times I had spent
working, and playing along this river road.
</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQe2BTWboMunqBSIHAjm_0cKZ6_c5SokaTDG9t4a2O3a4uUi70_pok3IkxmB8rqOddoaaJnQvNRW7X-lI0DslOV5vurW9hngJIanVdtfgysoFr0CEOZwmT_unZHtsBZLx5748Go23B0JMr/s1600/DSCN0506.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQe2BTWboMunqBSIHAjm_0cKZ6_c5SokaTDG9t4a2O3a4uUi70_pok3IkxmB8rqOddoaaJnQvNRW7X-lI0DslOV5vurW9hngJIanVdtfgysoFr0CEOZwmT_unZHtsBZLx5748Go23B0JMr/s200/DSCN0506.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">The road became a bit more hilly
after my lunch stop at the Governor (LOOK UP NAME OF GOVERNOR WHO WORE THE RED
VEST) historical marker that advertised having picnic tables. The site was actually pretty nice, had some
nice tables, with a great view overlooking the wide open expanse of the river
at Ferryville. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: large;">On my way out of
Ferryville, I came across some kind of female warbler who must have been hit or
stunned by a passing car. At first I
thought she was dead, but as I sped by on my bike, it looked like she was still
alive, so I turned around to at least get her off the shoulder of the
road. I picked her up and held her in my
hand, and she did not look too good. She
could hardly hold her head up and seemed to be breathing pretty hard. There was not much I could do to help her, so
I carried her off the road shoulder and set her down in grassy area out of the
sun. I hoped her suffering would be over
soon. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Climbing the hills, the
temperatures seemed to be increasing.
Fortunately the direct sunlight was shield by the trees and bluffs, but
as I came out of the hills and hit the Prairie du Chien prairies, the strong
wind and high temperatures were taking their toll, so I stopped at a park in
the City </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyBJovbqXhj8U_xEPuCSNcgfaVr3uHJ1W6poMaGy_r4K1C7j9i2nQ4cgrTf7RxEPQHGN5seEv9XQWHXeyMbqJMD7mLNGYH6mwNCbcQUzlmT2CaqgtK8l7zA9dJFf7n763xvATULl6rLLJK/s1600/DSCN0521.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyBJovbqXhj8U_xEPuCSNcgfaVr3uHJ1W6poMaGy_r4K1C7j9i2nQ4cgrTf7RxEPQHGN5seEv9XQWHXeyMbqJMD7mLNGYH6mwNCbcQUzlmT2CaqgtK8l7zA9dJFf7n763xvATULl6rLLJK/s320/DSCN0521.JPG" width="240" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">of Prairie du Chien near the river that was half flooded. I ate some snacks and filled my water
bottles, and headed back out towards highway 35 and Bridgeport to cross the WI
River and head on towards Wyalusing State Park.
</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDCpdnVC06tPoo-WZRarh96YH3cvttXSApUqy2eqsCrQlgR9acjJMvhrgre1Ss41E-Gcqz4dwJXZtcn7H2ZOHACT3WvEIWQZoBP_TDIC6-9k7UTGcR3W-DiRAoNVanPdkKxexwM-Fdx-14/s1600/DSCN0524.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDCpdnVC06tPoo-WZRarh96YH3cvttXSApUqy2eqsCrQlgR9acjJMvhrgre1Ss41E-Gcqz4dwJXZtcn7H2ZOHACT3WvEIWQZoBP_TDIC6-9k7UTGcR3W-DiRAoNVanPdkKxexwM-Fdx-14/s200/DSCN0524.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">The winds seemed to increase even
more as I headed out of PDC and I debated stopping and spending the night in
one of the many motels in PDC. But
something kept me going and I peddled up what seemed to be the endless hill to
Bridgeport, eventually made it and crossed the river. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc2rHHwHDcYbTb0oFZ2EKkzyRHt3nztDlhXxNXwmUOm3cyxxom5AGNtlpNatBb8bYLRNk-Y5htz9fsQOAROMZJKccLqQq0Pc_xNjE8-8pzIz3BZvq9IQkgKt-v4JRC3iHBo8_NbsjBTw8W/s1600/DSCN0530.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc2rHHwHDcYbTb0oFZ2EKkzyRHt3nztDlhXxNXwmUOm3cyxxom5AGNtlpNatBb8bYLRNk-Y5htz9fsQOAROMZJKccLqQq0Pc_xNjE8-8pzIz3BZvq9IQkgKt-v4JRC3iHBo8_NbsjBTw8W/s200/DSCN0530.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Then I hit the hill leading up to the
Park. It was the longest, steepest grade
I had come across so far on the trip.
And then after making it up that, found out the park was all uphill as well. But when finally made it to the campground,
all my toil was worthwhile. The
campground was perched on top of the ridge overlooking the Wisconsin and
Mississippi River Valley’s and the City of Prairie du Chien. The views were amazing and I was able to get
a site right on the edge of the overlook.
It must have been about 7 pm when I got to the campground.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdOd0MLZ459fsSlW9vP2BeiMLPbakERvOEDlZEryGhJQSTPo7bbjJP0UmhzVkKB84kYDJ-B2wnB2M1uoo0tUVI9fOS0liijD90RpMpCm8rC2P5QLbyF7oPU_d_P5lgRYmN4qaOxvTm7CDc/s1600/DSCN0542.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdOd0MLZ459fsSlW9vP2BeiMLPbakERvOEDlZEryGhJQSTPo7bbjJP0UmhzVkKB84kYDJ-B2wnB2M1uoo0tUVI9fOS0liijD90RpMpCm8rC2P5QLbyF7oPU_d_P5lgRYmN4qaOxvTm7CDc/s200/DSCN0542.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Unfortunately the views also
dramatized the passing thunderstorms that all the heat had produced and the
winds from the south began to pick up making me fear that my tent and all my
gear would be blown off the site. So I
hurriedly set my tent up, making sure put the aerodynamic small back end into
the wind, and I pulled the picnic table up alongside it to have something
substantial to tie it to – just in case.
And once I had it up and all my gear stowed, I grabbed out my food and
gobbled it down enjoying the views and hoping the storms would pass by – which
they did. Just a few sprinkles came down
and scared me into the tent for a couple brief escapes along with some really
strong wind gusts. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">During one of the
lulls, a gentleman stopped by to ask if he could borrow my view to take a
picture. I told him to go ahead and
offered him the use of my bike or tent as well, but he was only interested in the
view. We talked for a little while
before the rains drove him on and I found out he was from Waupaca Wisconsin,
the town where I was born. He told me
the town has changed a lot through the years and that he had moved there in
1968. I also found out he graduated from
high school the year I was born in 1962, which made me feel young again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The campground itself had a good
number of campers in it, mostly folks with hardshell campers. There were a number of what appeared to be
retired couples, one younger couple probably in the 20’s next to me, and one
family with 3 children who based on their laungauge were not from around
here. My limited linguistic skills lead
me to believe it was some kind of Nordic language, and the children also were
quite blond and they liked running around in just their underwear. They had
rented a motor home, and I assumed must be touring the country in it. I hoped to chat with them to find out more
about their story, but never got a chance to.
</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheq3FehOg3TXjG-V_bJO4VHaSaAveDMDcTLFvN-h5lKG2rnajRDhwOUeEevV9XPsPkV2PUxqAxuzaIDjHU3MSRmiq8pyKmayzgk-5jQweUxFLQgnjzmW6TkDh4V0GNVFpe4Tm-qskgN4RI/s1600/DSCN0546.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheq3FehOg3TXjG-V_bJO4VHaSaAveDMDcTLFvN-h5lKG2rnajRDhwOUeEevV9XPsPkV2PUxqAxuzaIDjHU3MSRmiq8pyKmayzgk-5jQweUxFLQgnjzmW6TkDh4V0GNVFpe4Tm-qskgN4RI/s200/DSCN0546.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">In the end it turned out to be a
very nice night at place that helped me recuperate well from my long and
challenging day of peddling. It was a warm
night compared to the previous nights – with an amazing view of the setting
sun. It was an appropriate way to celebrate
surviving my first week on the road.</span></div>
Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3652025888906665858.post-49960889229348556732013-05-16T10:18:00.005-07:002013-05-26T15:39:04.531-07:00Monday May 13th - Trempeleau to Goose Island Campground<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj98XINwgAyF8pvM4IW_wJEoIG_fgOu83Dk8ECn1lzzGN1JTC8w5N4IjAUmr6FzoZN8mIyUdA8VKTMaA60hIu1O4hva55K9B82Q1PQkzRrGG5MPk7OMILUOl9m63v47wD9SZmLUsqybYrG/s1600/DSCN0420.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj98XINwgAyF8pvM4IW_wJEoIG_fgOu83Dk8ECn1lzzGN1JTC8w5N4IjAUmr6FzoZN8mIyUdA8VKTMaA60hIu1O4hva55K9B82Q1PQkzRrGG5MPk7OMILUOl9m63v47wD9SZmLUsqybYrG/s200/DSCN0420.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">The night was pretty quiet.
Could hear the trains roll by at night and a few barges working their
way through the locks, but after about 11 p.m.
the bar downstairs closed up and I think I had the building to
myself. I woke about about 6 am to the
sound of trains, so got up and got caught up on my writing from yesterday. I then grabbed a quick bite to eat from my
supply bag, and hauled my bike back down the steps, and made several return
trips to haul my stuff down. I loaded up
and was read to head out when a man named JR stopped me as he was driving by to
find out where I was going. We talked
for a little while and I learned he was in town vacationing, with another
person. He had just drove to the gas
station in town to pick up their morning coffee. JR was from Milwaukee, but went to LaCrosse
for school for a couple of years back in the 70’s. We shared stories about biking down Grand-dad
bluff hill, and he told me about the time he watched someone hang glided off
the bluff. We wished each other well and
I headed out of town for the Great River Trail.
</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSZMpGfKwRvCUpqjdk-FzS18HGq47BOQFO1ayPbSKHtNFSD7fz2rVZF2_oQ4eeDHNnooq40yd5Ust98j70Fylp0rp_1JBVb31_VbiGlalHBoYh6uo6oszgnQ2kt2qlntJ41UMHinQ1Nkh3/s1600/DSCN0428.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSZMpGfKwRvCUpqjdk-FzS18HGq47BOQFO1ayPbSKHtNFSD7fz2rVZF2_oQ4eeDHNnooq40yd5Ust98j70Fylp0rp_1JBVb31_VbiGlalHBoYh6uo6oszgnQ2kt2qlntJ41UMHinQ1Nkh3/s200/DSCN0428.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">After jogging down the trail yesterday, I wasn’t sure I
wanted to bike down the rough trail, or take the smooth highway, but opted for
the trail, and I was glad I did. The
trail cuts through the Van Loon Wildlife area which is an interesting area
created by the flows of the Black River filtering into lake Onalaska. Although the trail parallels the Burlington
Northern railroad tracks it is far enough away that the passing trains were
mostly unnoticeable. There was lots of
water, numerous bridges – including the old rail </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFX57_Rd_2xKzY6eZXlhmrvL0kouoQvGh6NZI25mMDvFPLUbBgewpDPeHUqK3LLavfdsaHITCKDYvUqfP2Ae8Td9TlvK4GajVfmtVsUXg9ZX0PYCdxxaaPjlKWJsIenc9KYnH4_U9QV_JM/s1600/DSCN0438.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFX57_Rd_2xKzY6eZXlhmrvL0kouoQvGh6NZI25mMDvFPLUbBgewpDPeHUqK3LLavfdsaHITCKDYvUqfP2Ae8Td9TlvK4GajVfmtVsUXg9ZX0PYCdxxaaPjlKWJsIenc9KYnH4_U9QV_JM/s200/DSCN0438.JPG" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">road trestle, and plenty of
warbles, water fowl, and at least one pair of sand hill cranes. Nicholl’s Mound, a Hopewell Indian burial
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaMu-tPM-hL7KnrLXW8fstHKnFwAGyNYQ_lC4-QtQR7xSvKEOLl4S2gdim9jdRxm5quL0OuXxOdNkgAQaP6Kgd6TDe6cItnn0_LXlqy9ZcJr4E43KUlPsAc0w8G8Fd9Nw2OhjO5qdw9mNu/s1600/DSCN0424.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaMu-tPM-hL7KnrLXW8fstHKnFwAGyNYQ_lC4-QtQR7xSvKEOLl4S2gdim9jdRxm5quL0OuXxOdNkgAQaP6Kgd6TDe6cItnn0_LXlqy9ZcJr4E43KUlPsAc0w8G8Fd9Nw2OhjO5qdw9mNu/s200/DSCN0424.JPG" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
mound, is also found along the trail.
There are a number of interesting cabins located adjactent to the
trestle bridge crossing the main channel of the Black River. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">After a couple of liesurly hours of peddling,
I found my self in the City of Onalaska, and the sign advertising Tequila’s
Mexican Restaurant called out for me to stop and feast on some Mexican food, so
I did. I ordered a vegetarian fajita of
tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, broccoli, and carrots served with rice, beans,
lettuce and some tortillas. Before the meal
came I gorge myself on some tasty salsa and nachos. And they served me one of the largest glasses
of orange juices with no ice – my favorite beverage to drink. While I was eating, a gathering of 60
something year old Onalaska women began to fill the three tables next to
mine. All the 6 or 7 women appeared to
be about the same age and have similar short cropped hair cuts. It was difficult to listen in on their
conversation but it seemed to range from a debate on whether or not some woman
convicted of a heinous crime should get the death penality or would it be
better for her to spend her life in a cell, too how would win the latest TV
dance compition, to the latest Detroit Tiger baseball game. They all had margaritas to drink and must be
regulars and the waiter seemed to be pretty familiar with the women. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Feeling extremely full, I waddled back on to my bike and
started peddling up Highway 35, and soon came across a Salvation Army Thrift
Store. I decided to stop in and see if I
could exchange the old flannel shirt I found along the Great River Trail
yesterday, with something a bit more stylish, lighter and weight, and less
mildowy smelling. I also wanted find another tee shirt and some shorts for
backups. So I found some bargains and
traded in my old shirt, then </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJI4KTeTAtDw0Dx96A2WdiRs93fPatzo3qfTs3FwDYyQTCAyj1Vh6qbZ0C2UAO9dB02BSbDh8sqZAfzKqok1tkMyKK0nLnZ6NHDomOVlB3WHVu5iNj8hqZCfn0k8AP1qnLITSxEecM4Cvy/s1600/DSCN0443.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJI4KTeTAtDw0Dx96A2WdiRs93fPatzo3qfTs3FwDYyQTCAyj1Vh6qbZ0C2UAO9dB02BSbDh8sqZAfzKqok1tkMyKK0nLnZ6NHDomOVlB3WHVu5iNj8hqZCfn0k8AP1qnLITSxEecM4Cvy/s200/DSCN0443.JPG" width="150" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">as I got in to La Crosse, I started looking for a
bike shop. I had wanted to find someone
to try and fix the problem I was having with my middle range gears slipping on
me. I asked several people for
assistance if find the shop, and came across congress man Ron Kind talking to
someone on the side of the street. I
debated asking him for directions, but is sounded like he was engaged in some
kind of serious political discussion, so passed him by. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuZkUvOF3lTy1opUEPWdDoIWRM6J9TRiVkF12WfsH6RZYsDMbr2AN_8ixg03H23uet2sZnNcGqQmUUN7Vg4OoTMuwwZziMNVUKQUtxhxR7bM7xdxpgcRCqg9WR4Wfzedv87J-xd4d2i-B9/s1600/DSCN0447.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuZkUvOF3lTy1opUEPWdDoIWRM6J9TRiVkF12WfsH6RZYsDMbr2AN_8ixg03H23uet2sZnNcGqQmUUN7Vg4OoTMuwwZziMNVUKQUtxhxR7bM7xdxpgcRCqg9WR4Wfzedv87J-xd4d2i-B9/s200/DSCN0447.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Eventually I found Smith’s Cycle shop, and the repairman was
good enough to take my bike and and hopefully make some adjustments. And then he was kind enough to not even
charge me for his work. I did however
feel obliged to purchase something, so picked up a headlight to replace the one
I brought with the shorted out in the rain, and a yellow reflective triangle to
strap to the back of my bike to avoid angry men who drive red trucks. And then I headed south through La Crosse,
stopping of course to admire the world largest six pack of beer at the La
Crosse Brewery, and then to take some pictures of the Gunderson Lutheran
Hospital, which is the birthplace of my youngest daughter. </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNoz40_3mi0FdYpLVhk_SpcqdZEYxL1sq85Y40Qt3WecZXdAjtf4pTxDwa34RK5_MZfxDN7AQDjcOCEZtsLnjUQWqaXFHcUmwUmsArTqnvuuX42wr33fVueuRaxekiWEls5UG1ECLfVgas/s1600/DSCN0450.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNoz40_3mi0FdYpLVhk_SpcqdZEYxL1sq85Y40Qt3WecZXdAjtf4pTxDwa34RK5_MZfxDN7AQDjcOCEZtsLnjUQWqaXFHcUmwUmsArTqnvuuX42wr33fVueuRaxekiWEls5UG1ECLfVgas/s200/DSCN0450.JPG" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpcj3TV6KLRQEtMaixIsNzssTc1T0VXzObTP-CTt_WBrloq3vTBYXnHz9jZ8k2T8D8_gEtmNHjUOV-SlOvrYio4G_SsH2YD-QFEIOsOALM9HKNN8Eyd15j9oobtgD84PyTWPnbp7jBR2A1/s1600/DSCN0451.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpcj3TV6KLRQEtMaixIsNzssTc1T0VXzObTP-CTt_WBrloq3vTBYXnHz9jZ8k2T8D8_gEtmNHjUOV-SlOvrYio4G_SsH2YD-QFEIOsOALM9HKNN8Eyd15j9oobtgD84PyTWPnbp7jBR2A1/s200/DSCN0451.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Then I stopped at my old work place – the Wisconsin
Department of Natural Resources to meet my friend John again. I found his office and he presented me with a
bag of food, which was very kind of him.
He also was kind enough to walk me around the office where I met with a
number of other folks who had worked out of the office when I did. It was good to see old faces – not to imply that the faces were old
(although I learned many of them were older than mine), and catch up on how
life protecting Wisconsin’s natural resources was going after the political
changes that occurred over the past several years. Most of the folks seemed in good spirits,
despite the political foolishness that capture the State. I also tried to borrow a larger than life version
of the Mississippi River Valley map to strap on to my bike, but decided the map
might be needed more by the folks in the office. </span><br />
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Heading out of the DNR office, I decided to swing by my old
neighborhood, took some pictures of our old house and was sad to see all the
plantings and landscaping we had done on the house had been removed and
replaced with lawn. The two bat houses I
had installed were gone, and all the wood siding I had put on the house to give
it a unique look had been replaced with low maintenance. I was glad however to see how big some of the
white pine trees I had planted in the yard had gotten, and also noticed that a
third bathouse I had installed in the park behind my neighbors house was still
standing after 15 years of use and bats were still inhabiting as evidenced by
the fresh bat droppings below the house – but it was in need of some
maintenance itself. </span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">I then headed south out of town for the Goose
Island Campground, found a site, paid my $20.25 self-registration camping fee
for a tent only site, spent 0.75 for a shower, ate some supper, and then saw my
old friend John driving into the campground.
He brought more food – I probably should have warned him that if he
keeps feeding me, I might not leave. He
had brought along his 4x5 box camera along which was a pretty interesting
gizmo. Apparently it is the same kind of
camera that Edsil Adams used. He made me
pose in front of my tent for him and then headed off to capture a sunset
photo. I pulled out my laptop, and
started writing up my journal entries for the day, watched the sun go down, and
then enjoyed the tastee morsal of terrici steak John had brought me. Later as I was typing a way, I heard my
panneirs rattling by what I thought was the wind, but when I shined my light on
my bike which was only 4 feet away from me I saw the glaring reflecting eyes of
a brazen raccoon who was attempting to claw/chew his way in to my pannier to
get at the cookies John had brought me.
I jumped up and scared the beast away, but now know I better sleep with
my food in the tent tonight. Hopefully
the thief won’t try to chew his way into my tent. </span></span><br />
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</div>
Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3652025888906665858.post-66465470915760648792013-05-13T05:37:00.001-07:002013-05-26T15:39:24.854-07:00Sunday May 12 - Merrick State Park to Trempeleau<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u> </u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Having spent Saturday as a day of rest, I felt compelled to
move on and put a few more miles behind me.
It felt good to see sunshine when I crawled from the tent, despite the
cold temperature. I woke up refreshed,
did some yoga stretches to try and work the kinks out of my body, and started
packing up. The gang of five sons from
large family was out shortly after that having a grand time – with one of the
younger boys laying down crying while his brothers gathered round his supine
body to find out what all the commotion was about. Listening
in on their conversations, I learned two of the boys names – Jacob and Joshua –
and imagined that the other three probably had been named after other Old
Testament prophets as well. This seemed
to be a family that took the call to go out and fill the earth to heart. Later as my packing was delayed because I
could not find my stuff sacks for my tent and sleeping pad, I blamed the
prophets for likely taken it, but after letting go of the blame, I unpacked my
sleeping bag from its own stuff sack and found the missing bags with no one to
blame but myself. At around 11 am, I
finally had everything packed up and down the road I went, and where I would
end up I did not know, but kind of figured it would be Trempealeau – either Perrot
State Park or the Trempealeau Hotel.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHcezwbxY8WGbPj05_FbpmfYdK98YNXq_r9_f4S_KUHBd4U3RnOR8JWlVdnE1rutExeIgl535NNtdehyphenhyphenQ_FR44xEqXZQ837ZfeniDmWwTeQlKB2-Xd8TUvVF_zbmTM-CgLrdTfWDwKASuo/s1600/DSCN0379.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHcezwbxY8WGbPj05_FbpmfYdK98YNXq_r9_f4S_KUHBd4U3RnOR8JWlVdnE1rutExeIgl535NNtdehyphenhyphenQ_FR44xEqXZQ837ZfeniDmWwTeQlKB2-Xd8TUvVF_zbmTM-CgLrdTfWDwKASuo/s200/DSCN0379.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The road out of Fountain City soon entered the Trempealeau
Wildlife Preserve, and then climbs a bit to higher ground dominated by sandy
loam farming country. I passed an
assortment of farms included the standard corn farms, beef, turkey, Shetland pony,
one place with a couple of draft horses
of some type, and some that at this time of year looked like sterile
dirt farms – the genetically modified seed that could withstand the herbicide
applications had not been planted yet, hence the look of sterile dirt. With the sandy soils, there were also a number a irrigation rigs in the fields. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1MRk2yXAZ2eErrzM0WTK65TJPuO-CdHll8cJIjElQlorEp_yQY-YKuqiXDtj18_j54rmEC1sRHFnxY22imI3lL3a0Iqbb2piKE70wvbQztLB7PbvMHrMaEHZ4otGviPtKIaUTte6ylqkX/s1600/DSCN0385.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1MRk2yXAZ2eErrzM0WTK65TJPuO-CdHll8cJIjElQlorEp_yQY-YKuqiXDtj18_j54rmEC1sRHFnxY22imI3lL3a0Iqbb2piKE70wvbQztLB7PbvMHrMaEHZ4otGviPtKIaUTte6ylqkX/s200/DSCN0385.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">With a pretty good tail wind, it wasn’t long – around 1:30
or 2 pm – and I had covered the 21 miles from Merrick to reach the City of Trempealeau. My
first stop was the Hotel, to inquire about room availability and cost. I figured if I could get a room for under $50
I would take it, rather than spend another night in the cooler temperatures
camping at the State Park for $20 including electric. The bartender at the Hotel informed me they
had rooms and they went for $40 plus $7 for tax for a night – and he described
the rooms as “Eurpean style, with just a room and a bed and one communal
bathroom”. I couldn’t pass up that price
and a chance for a soft bed, warm shelter, and opportunity to eat one of their
walnut burgers – and was used to sharing a bathroom at the campground. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6q10wRExitt85mVHuJXvBDn6831XFMDk8XBxmzCRTXPsMdoMGNvE-dpXS8fd6p27M2mvtYaPpYOtuDGqcPBjBm_reavmq0IYq9ZMQB-tLEhxk3-f5tDE4L9unjR3Yz_YCAKC6Tq1b7wWm/s1600/DSCN0416.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6q10wRExitt85mVHuJXvBDn6831XFMDk8XBxmzCRTXPsMdoMGNvE-dpXS8fd6p27M2mvtYaPpYOtuDGqcPBjBm_reavmq0IYq9ZMQB-tLEhxk3-f5tDE4L9unjR3Yz_YCAKC6Tq1b7wWm/s200/DSCN0416.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">While sitting at the bar waiting to register, the young lady
next to me mentioned that she used to work at the Hotel as a maid when she was
younger. She told me that I would like
my stay and told me that her favorite room was room 5. She said it was a corner room, a bit bigger
than the others – except for the suite of course – and that it had two windows,
and that if I didn’t like the room I could hold her accountable. So when the bar tender told me it was
available I took it. He also told me it
would be ok to bring my bike upstairs to the room with me as well. So I began unpacking it for the trip upstairs
and headed up to the room. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCKdCzupElp3qINJM5ZNLODd-z5K9AiYhWfoTfvhXNSP3-ahgsljVSZ1m7uKzNkCRAqyd_bTZ9cWeju9RS4VG1Yy0X4Xo_NjQjHRQiG-Daez5svdSuAX1p3BCr9ceW9cYP88TLLrJpMuGz/s1600/DSCN0406.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCKdCzupElp3qINJM5ZNLODd-z5K9AiYhWfoTfvhXNSP3-ahgsljVSZ1m7uKzNkCRAqyd_bTZ9cWeju9RS4VG1Yy0X4Xo_NjQjHRQiG-Daez5svdSuAX1p3BCr9ceW9cYP88TLLrJpMuGz/s200/DSCN0406.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">The rooms upstairs are all older, but very clean. All the doors were open to the rooms, and
they all had a similar look and feel. My
room was equipped with an old lumpy, but comfy bed that reminded me of the ones
my grandma used to have in her upstairs -
it had old tubular iron headboards.
Also in the room was a single wooden chair by the window overlooking the
river and lock and dam, adjacent to the old radiator. There was also a wooden dresser that leaned a
bit to the West, and a large wooden closet. The floor was wooden and painted
gray and the walls and ceiling were textured and painted bone white. I unpacked
my stuff, and decided to stretch my legs by going for a quick jog through town.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">When I came across the bike trail that led to Perrot State
Park, I decided to detour down it to see what the trail was like, and if I was energetic
enough check out the park. The trail
itself appeared somewhat rough and rutted and passed through the residential
section of Trempealeau. As I jogged
along, I found someone’s old heavy flannel shirt hanging in the trees. As it was cold and I was thinking I could use
some warmer cloths, I took a closer look, found out it was my size, and decided
to take it as a gift from the gods to take back with me to wash up and
hopefully use to keep me warm if the cool temperatures continued. Not feeling as energetic as I had hoped, I
decided to head back to the Hotel, and on the way stopped into the laundry mat
located a block from the Hotel to check out prices. Two middle school aged boys greeted me with
smiles, wearing their underwear and tee shirts, and informed me you could get 9
minutes of dryer time for a quarter. They explained they had fallen in the lake
and gotten wet, so conveniently stopped in to dry their cloths before they
returned home. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlirLe1Y3_fUHPEAM8WwNBUkIXK2pWrqYcdqkmS4ScbVVB8_Nf0ysqQyz3_KPry4tnNPtsbC61WDZ1tuvEpsGjLlKlxsNFE09s6qEWICbhyhOQm6toUvnWZ7rs9VUlCsWzS2nYXdjdw-HC/s1600/DSCN0407.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlirLe1Y3_fUHPEAM8WwNBUkIXK2pWrqYcdqkmS4ScbVVB8_Nf0ysqQyz3_KPry4tnNPtsbC61WDZ1tuvEpsGjLlKlxsNFE09s6qEWICbhyhOQm6toUvnWZ7rs9VUlCsWzS2nYXdjdw-HC/s200/DSCN0407.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">Returning to my room I showered in the community bathroom,
which was also quite clean and definitely an upgrade from the campground
facilities. The floor and shower/bathtub
were tiled, and a refreshing place to clean up.
Then it was back to the laundry mat to do a load of laundry using all
their facilities. And when I finished
with the laundry went back to the Hotel to meet with my old coworker and
paddling partner John and his wife Beth who came into to town to share a meal
with me. It was good catching up with the
two of them and enjoyed the meal of chicken Caesar salad – unfortunately the
walnut burger was not available on the limited dinner menu. After
dinner I headed back up to my room and got caught up with my writing. I was a little worried about how the noise
from the restaurant and bar would be, but found that at least on a Sunday night,
the room was fairly </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE2I3-v7HPtaG3GVJ92CKVhic7gKv4ZZyzD-BbLe7XyxmI3QrVaW2Y6BJ25QCob2PCiHwXLyNYJdi27zGNJ5qXlWTPdjsqH0QluEns2wEGkqh1O7QkdZC8CVLCb_vVJkjT0MuMmmn-GLLw/s1600/DSCN0401.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgE2I3-v7HPtaG3GVJ92CKVhic7gKv4ZZyzD-BbLe7XyxmI3QrVaW2Y6BJ25QCob2PCiHwXLyNYJdi27zGNJ5qXlWTPdjsqH0QluEns2wEGkqh1O7QkdZC8CVLCb_vVJkjT0MuMmmn-GLLw/s200/DSCN0401.JPG" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">quiet. I was also surprised
to find out that I was the only guest in the motel for the night, so pretty
much had the run of the place. Also,
although the train noise from the tracks across the street, along with the barges
passing through the lock, did wake me up a few times, I did sleep pretty well. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; line-height: 115%;">I was curious about the distance I have been
traveling, so checked the mileage on Google maps. My first day from Blaine, to Prescott, to Hastings
was about 52 miles; Hastings to Maiden Rock was 37 miles, Maiden Rock to
Merrick State Park was 44 miles; and Merrick to Trempealeau was 21 miles; for a
grand total of 154 miles. Definitely not
a distance record setter, but a good reminder that it is not about how many
miles you cover, but what you experience in the miles you cover – which has
been a good lesson for me so far on this trip.
In the past I would get caught up in trying to get to certain
destinations, or cover a lot of miles, and in the process the trips become all
about the miles and getting somewhere.
So far this trip has been much more about trying to learn to enjoy the
process, the places, and the people I meet.
So I have come to lower my expectations of how far I will go, where I will go, and hopefully continue to just take each day as it comes.</span></span>Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3652025888906665858.post-41537577589358254662013-05-12T20:06:00.001-07:002013-05-26T15:37:27.170-07:00Saturday May 11th - Merrick State Park<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I sleep relatively well which was nice. Despite being within a quarter mile of the
tracks, the trains didn’t blast their horns as they passed the campground, and I
must have been tired enough from the lack of sleep the previous night to sleep
through their passing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0x37tGjIpfEoGBLe70Z4O3BvD6hZDpz2CGrJiBGr93eUnv3NuDCFtoScC1tVopAjExQvj3ClGWIlKjfAWwU37gAuJGSLx5pkwbam0tKHWkBNjP8Wth_Sb5dKUGx73xTe34gLpXHRec2tX/s1600/DSCN0336.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0x37tGjIpfEoGBLe70Z4O3BvD6hZDpz2CGrJiBGr93eUnv3NuDCFtoScC1tVopAjExQvj3ClGWIlKjfAWwU37gAuJGSLx5pkwbam0tKHWkBNjP8Wth_Sb5dKUGx73xTe34gLpXHRec2tX/s200/DSCN0336.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I woke up around 7 a.m., put some warm clothes on and
decided to go for a walk to try and warm up some more. Found a bench in the sunshine and just sat
for a while in front of the Nature Center that had a sign in it indicated that
due to lack of funding, it would no longer be staffed by a naturalist. After this warm up exercise I headed back to
camp, ate some breakfast, and spent some time catching up on my writing. The day seemed to get colder as it went on,
and I gradually had to keep adding clothes to try and fight of the cold. At one point ice pellets began falling from
the sky, combined with some rain, which drove me to the tent, where I wrapped
up in my sleeping – and the warmth felt good.
</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrMQ2F9kS_cgUn735ZzBFc_FkdG6Nbuh7ZWYbC8NrO1D-i5Uuy6MlWfoglGKD1l3lV83thv5hNTDeb285eMOPPz5Ey1561x2CtQqaBoKe8zDFwbKJWo0REBrsfGx2gkFJJPjpYO2b_23Y8/s1600/DSCN0341.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrMQ2F9kS_cgUn735ZzBFc_FkdG6Nbuh7ZWYbC8NrO1D-i5Uuy6MlWfoglGKD1l3lV83thv5hNTDeb285eMOPPz5Ey1561x2CtQqaBoKe8zDFwbKJWo0REBrsfGx2gkFJJPjpYO2b_23Y8/s200/DSCN0341.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Coming out of the bathroom, I almost stepped on a quarter
sized painted turtle hatchling on his way to the river. In an attempt to ease what would be an extremely
difficult journey for such a small creature, I picked him or her up (seems like
a read somewhere that depending on the temperature of the nest site after the
mother lays the eggs, the hatchlings all come out the same sex) and after a
brief detour back to my campsite for photographing my short-term companion,
carried it down to the edge of the river.
He seemed to smell the water, and quickly withdrew from the shell, and
tumbled down into the windswept water. I
started to worry that maybe my interference would be the end of my friend as
the waves and current were battling the little fellow this way and that, and he
spun several summersualts revealing his bright orange bottom shell. I debated wading back into bring him to
shore, but he seemed intent on continuing the struggle to find a place in his
new world of endless water. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhKvjVsAJMpVOiHI0FQhzZUyDHyE0HDpiIiHiuTcvbgzMnpmp_SDNkHRKlF_bsNB6VT1xncE9A9IR3Mcy4qCqWRYRC8X5-AaJyz-Ypk3dWvC3WUT2167O_2tDRRMwSaTrgDDGfVwrcLzK5/s1600/DSCN0374.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhKvjVsAJMpVOiHI0FQhzZUyDHyE0HDpiIiHiuTcvbgzMnpmp_SDNkHRKlF_bsNB6VT1xncE9A9IR3Mcy4qCqWRYRC8X5-AaJyz-Ypk3dWvC3WUT2167O_2tDRRMwSaTrgDDGfVwrcLzK5/s200/DSCN0374.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">As the son came back out and dried things off and warmed the
air, I went back outside. Byron stopped
by to chat while I was sitting out on the picnic table. Byron hails downriver in Fountain City where
he spent his life. He is 78 years old, a
bachelor, and retired from working at the sawmill just outside the park
entrance. The sawmill turns the oaks and
other hardwood from the nearby bluffs into primarily railroad ties. He spent 12 years after retirement working in
a nearby cemetery, but had to give the job up this year. He didn’t dig the graves in that job, but
took care of the grounds. He missed that
job. He is also a dual cancer survivor –
having had first prostate and later colon cancer – for which he indicated they
snipped out a section of his colon. He
also liked to fish, and has a boat that he likes to row into the back waters
where he can get away from it all. He
was on his way for a stroll through the park which he has been coming to for
many years. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">He said he has seen many changes in the park, and pointed
out that the field behind me used to be a nine-hole golf course. He is a sports fan, as his Greenbay Packer
stocking cap gave way. He likes watching
the Cubs and baseball in general. I
asked him about the race track noises I heard last night and he confirmed that
it was a race track, but admitted he was not a race car fan, and fortunately
they only race on Friday nights. He is
troubled by all the money in sports – like the Packer’s Arron Roger’s recent 25-30
million dollar contract. He mentioned
the weather and the recent snow that took down many of the tree branches in the
park, and joked about global warming. He
said he sometimes wonders if he should have gotten married, but mentioned that
rather than raising kids, he raised gardens.
He also lives in a simple apartment in town, but often wondered if he
should have got a house. And seeing as
he liked to stay active, he walked on with his rubber tipped drift wood cane,
backpack, and portable radio for company.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg62MjdDJxfgp61FcbvolQG58ADF7TKjyy9yCYXFoHD8zpNBunvDo5_WmSiqxyKbRhgxELnmwvzLbx0_ljgSExT0i-tAMvn_aI8V4uu6-yLp8Q3riEV4X-wZEYiJRtfS7X-NcoY0HkxSt-c/s1600/DSCN0364.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg62MjdDJxfgp61FcbvolQG58ADF7TKjyy9yCYXFoHD8zpNBunvDo5_WmSiqxyKbRhgxELnmwvzLbx0_ljgSExT0i-tAMvn_aI8V4uu6-yLp8Q3riEV4X-wZEYiJRtfS7X-NcoY0HkxSt-c/s200/DSCN0364.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Byron also mentioned that besides the three bars located in
Fountain City that served coffee in addition to harder fare, there was also a
coffee shop in town that he thought had Internet connection. So taking the advice of my wife who in a
phone conversation earlier in the day suggested I go find a warm coffee shop to
spend the day, I decided to battle the cold and winds and bike the couple of
miles into Fountain City to warm up and update my posts on my ramblings
online. On the way into town, noticed
the vineyard that had been planted on the bluff side that looked quite
quant. Also passed the Corp of Engineers
dredging maintenance facilities which was a reminder of all the taxpayer
subsidizes needed to keep the river navigable for the barging companies. Across the street from the Corp’s facilities
was the infamous tourist attraction The Rock In The House – which was a </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjCa2cdHBcCpXLD0Hw5haqcTMblIvjqv2Fig0manvHsU_aMfU4HyJK9UoP_FiYi0gNgFnQdheQabYGPmh6uIYoNJ-cQCvB-hU56ryPgQITAZgUbgwhiU9tgbElnST-pSlpzOYvkI9XMC5x/s1600/DSCN0360.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjCa2cdHBcCpXLD0Hw5haqcTMblIvjqv2Fig0manvHsU_aMfU4HyJK9UoP_FiYi0gNgFnQdheQabYGPmh6uIYoNJ-cQCvB-hU56ryPgQITAZgUbgwhiU9tgbElnST-pSlpzOYvkI9XMC5x/s200/DSCN0360.JPG" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">house
located below the limestone outcropping of the overhead bluffs that had a rock
crash into the back of it – a reminder that it is not a good idea to build
houses below rock outcroppings that tend to send rocks back down to earth from
time to time. </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The highway narrowed as it came into town, and cars were
parked along the curb, forcing me further out into the traffic lane. Suddenly I heard tires sliding on gravel
behind me, followed by a horn blast, and then an angry looking man in a red
truck pulled up alongside of me mouthing what could be assumed to be some
profanities about people riding bikes where they don’t belong. I was tempted to mouth some profanities back
at him, but somehow managed to bite my tongue, and just shook my head and biked
on. Shortly after that I saw a Fountain
City policeman wearing his dress blue shirtsleeve shirt (I wondered how he
stayed warm in only short sleeves), picking up a street sign that was knocked
over by the wind. He said hello, and I
asked him where I might find the coffee shop in town. He told me it was closed, but said I could head
up another seven miles to get to the bridge to take me to Winona where I could
find a coffee shop still open. I thanked
him and decided to continue through town to see if I could find somewhere to
eat supper. Finding only the three bars
Byron had mentioned, I hit the end of town and decided to stop at the Kwik Trip
gas station I passed and just get something to eat there instead of dealing with
the Saturday night bar crowds – that probably included the angry man in the red
truck. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjtpliGgTNYOFnL1uvN0-O3zJPBNa8eZtwJDUkfL6pVxu1p8vp5ZCQF_3co86HrkPaI5A52p0CWdv4oW1Lk7jl0q8wNkGphtHiGIz-EKKb45ePCwNwoKY613awXULw-vRase90-sERBDK8/s1600/DSCN0368.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjtpliGgTNYOFnL1uvN0-O3zJPBNa8eZtwJDUkfL6pVxu1p8vp5ZCQF_3co86HrkPaI5A52p0CWdv4oW1Lk7jl0q8wNkGphtHiGIz-EKKb45ePCwNwoKY613awXULw-vRase90-sERBDK8/s200/DSCN0368.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">So I picked up an egg salad sandwich, Greek pasta salad; fresh
carrots, broccoli, and dip; along with four bananas from Guatemala; a quart of
OJ; some cheese sticks, and a couple of chocolate chip bagels to fuel me
through the night and then some. In a way it felt good to respond no, when the
sales lady asked me if I bought any gas.
Resupplied, I headed back into the cold north wind to the campground. As I approached the bridge to the Park, I was
greeted by a number of deer standing guard over the bridge (or eating grass
along the embankment). One was located
on the entrance side of the bridge and three more on the exit side. I stopped to watch them for a while, and then
proceeded to cross the bridge – fortunately they let me pass without any
conflict. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I decided to take a detour to the south campground loop to
see what was happening on the side of the park.
Found out that the south campsites were mostly under water, and so un-campable. I tried biking around the access road to the
sites, that was mostly above water, and decided to try biking across one
section of water that I hoped wasn’t too deep.
But as the water got deeper, I decided to abort my mission, but had to
put my foot down to keep from falling over. Panic set in once again as I got my right foot
and only wool sock wet (but fortunately didn’t tip over getting my whole body
wet). I envisioned frost bite setting
into the foot with the cold temperatures, but then remembered the electric hand
dryer back at the fancy north campsite bathroom and headed back for the
campground with renewed spirit – and a greater appreciation for coal fired
power plants that provided the luxurious electricity needed to power that hand
dryer that would soon be drying my sock and shoe. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Having dried my sock and shoe, I sat back polishing off my
fine Kwik Trip meal, cleaned up and crawled into the warm sleeping sack to
enjoy the warmth. I woke up around 2:30
and forced myself to crawl out from the warm bag to get some relief outside. The star filled sky made the venture into the
cold worthwhile – it is always awe inspiring to be able to see the stars
without the light pollution that fills the sky in City where I live. I took a few moments to try and identify the
one or two constellations I knew and the Big and Little Dipper – with its North
Star – jumped out of the sky at me. But
the cold air drove me back to bed. </span></div>
Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3652025888906665858.post-12982959943393255482013-05-12T19:43:00.001-07:002013-07-14T14:21:22.229-07:00Friday May 10th - Maiden Rock to Merrick State Park<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Well sleep was indeed a challenge despite the constant
rocking from the trains that speed past at least every half hour or so. It almost seemed like they held off blowing
their horns until the full power of the blast would be directed, directly at my
tent. By the end of the night, it felt
like my ears where begining to bleed with each blast of their horn. By morning, the train traffic seemed to slow
down enough to allow me to catch a few winks of sleep. But at 6 am, I heard a vehicle pull up next
to my picnic shelter, heard a truck tail gate open, and then three men began talking
just outside my tent. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I hoped they might
be Village workers, picking up garbage or something that would not take long,
but soon understood that my fellow shelter seekers where not going away anytime
soon. I overhead them talking about
having a pig roast. So I reluctantly climbed out of the warm sleeping bag, got
dressed for another day of biking and climbed out of the tent and asked my
three new companions if they were there to make me breakfast. They hesitated and then told me that it would
not be ready until 6 pm. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">So, my visions
of bacon and eggs for breakfast disappeared as I ate a few granola bars and
watched them pull out a power cut off saw to shorten the legs of the soon to be
roasted hog, so that its feet wouldn’t hit the side of the roaster as it
rotated around for the next 12 hours.
Fortunately none of the spatter made it over to my gear which was laid
out two picnic tables away. The purpose
of the event was to celebrate one of the men’s 5<sup>th</sup> wedding
anniversaries. The celebrant informed me
that his bride was back at home getting the kids ready for school, while he
came down to prep for the feast. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Once the hog was roasting, the anniversary man broke out the
fixing for Bloody Mary’s to keep the two roast watchers going for the day. The celebrant downed one himself, and then
went back home to drive his kids to school.
The “bloodies” would have to tide them over until the beer barrels for
which they had multiple bags of beer cooling ice stacked around the shelter
arrived later in the day. They also
didn’t offer me any of their mix, which was probably a good thing. The roast master, who shared the same first
name as me, and his partner talked about their work. It sounded like they were dealers for the
Prairie Island Casino across the river.
The roast partner was hoping for a promotion. They also worked out a plan for getting the
hog roaster back to the roast master if he decided to leave before the
celebration was over, as he had to work the next morning. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5SJ0OJ29ZNkLkLI-ZTMVMg2-hTeE-XSZa68SVH96ROtr1gk4gMZgEbTguCjOhX_Wbgsrbm_Wm-hfa01BhFqKSTGhd-4TMZrwFMdXsEXnJb8M2QemhD_cw1ewcB0SjnL22Yo2BQwWpbO9G/s1600/DSCN0253.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5SJ0OJ29ZNkLkLI-ZTMVMg2-hTeE-XSZa68SVH96ROtr1gk4gMZgEbTguCjOhX_Wbgsrbm_Wm-hfa01BhFqKSTGhd-4TMZrwFMdXsEXnJb8M2QemhD_cw1ewcB0SjnL22Yo2BQwWpbO9G/s200/DSCN0253.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">As the fumes from the roasting hog began to fill the
shelter, I loaded up my gear, put on all the warm cloths I had, wished the hog
roasters well with their day, and headed out of town around 8 a.m. Fortunately the rains had stopped and the sun
was out, but it would be a while before it cleared the bluffs to provide any
warmth. On my way out of town, I stopped
to admire the views of Lake Pepin and the surrounding bluffs. As I descended the hill out of town, I
noticed the sand mining operation that was removing the sand from the bluffs,
washing and sorting it, than loading it on the rail cars via a conveyor system
that ran under the highway. That
explained the sign I noticed in someone’s yard in town that proclaimed “Save
Our Bluffs, Stop The Frac Sand Mining”. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitlWC3wJ3fuCtRbbsznCE18g5z60VTl7h0JXwSVU0fCwcSiYomsnp1dE60DOnkmyMcg1kEtXyuboBqy_KCpNZfCaEjxz2h29UFZ4lR1rRSI0uxjKLSNU13Y9tnbzlUqTh2K7o_xFlSkr6U/s1600/DSCN0255.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitlWC3wJ3fuCtRbbsznCE18g5z60VTl7h0JXwSVU0fCwcSiYomsnp1dE60DOnkmyMcg1kEtXyuboBqy_KCpNZfCaEjxz2h29UFZ4lR1rRSI0uxjKLSNU13Y9tnbzlUqTh2K7o_xFlSkr6U/s200/DSCN0255.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I stopped at a historical marker detailing how the previous town had gotten it's name. Seems that back in the day, a Dakata women, choose to jump from the cliff located south of town, rather then being forced to marry a man she did not love. Tough love at it's best if the story is true. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDfKNvXeeQUA4jJdFA9BTVuPAUBi-Fc4VYJ-Tl9w_QE_8-PaQqWEnrdQSDEsetdXq8u40GSwcywCLZFY_pxDeLkiinIhEWlnk0u5612xthMYeTrhOeTyGS5Zvk3Jp7cmU_F2-S3RiR38Yt/s1600/DSCN0257.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDfKNvXeeQUA4jJdFA9BTVuPAUBi-Fc4VYJ-Tl9w_QE_8-PaQqWEnrdQSDEsetdXq8u40GSwcywCLZFY_pxDeLkiinIhEWlnk0u5612xthMYeTrhOeTyGS5Zvk3Jp7cmU_F2-S3RiR38Yt/s200/DSCN0257.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">I wasn’t sure what the road ahead would be like, and as I
climbed another hill or two, I hoped that things would flatten out. The views overlooking Lake Pepin though did
make the climbs worthwhile. I stopped
for a midmorning snack at the bottom of the hill in Pepin at the City Park
located adjacent to Highway 35. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE2K51H3SwRARxU2spK7Qg_-fxV0ijLqJKN8nePbBsB9bMbKPr-6NBAh4sWJBBUzOHNV-zt0gfL07BriVqpPIGqCRLSHltA-76y6TFODLeFmCx-bRP257YhGIMaZVb2y9sBACZRQU1kojY/s1600/DSCN0261.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE2K51H3SwRARxU2spK7Qg_-fxV0ijLqJKN8nePbBsB9bMbKPr-6NBAh4sWJBBUzOHNV-zt0gfL07BriVqpPIGqCRLSHltA-76y6TFODLeFmCx-bRP257YhGIMaZVb2y9sBACZRQU1kojY/s200/DSCN0261.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">I
recalled waiting at this same park 22 years ago after starting work with the WI
DNR. At that time I was meeting with a coworker
who was responsible for oversight of the City’s water system and I accompanied
him on the inspection he did of the City’s wells located in the park. That was probably one of my first trips out
and about on the River Road, a very different and more memorable experience by
bike rather than car. It felt good on
this day to not have any work responsibilities to worry about. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Moving on, eventually the road did flatten, and I reached
the bottom, the Tiffany Bottoms that is.
This is an area created by the Chippewa River as it enters the
Mississippi River. With high water,
there was water running everywhere, and every direction. Water birds of various sorts were also everywhere. I recalled a couple of paddling trips I had
done in years past through the area, and in some ways wished I had my kayak
with me to explore the area as it should be, by boat. But pulling my kayak up and down these hills
behind my bike would probably find me still in the Twin Cities somewhere. I had tentatively planned a day paddling trip
to explore this area with some friends back in April, but cold weather and
conflicts kept us from that adventure. But the road adventure was in progress, so I
focused on the pleasures viewed from my higher, and so far dryer, bike seat
vantage point. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Numerous bridges were built to cross the maze of flowing
liquid, and each bridge was protected by a flock a swallows who would escort me
across their territory with what I hoped were friendly swallow songs. Biking through this area provide much
distraction, and made the previous toils worthwhile. I began to think about making a short day of
it, and finding some high ground to camp on and just sit and watch the water,
soak in the sunshine, and rest for the day. But the only dry ground was adjacent to the highway
and listening to cars and trucks zoom by accompanied by the tire strutting
sounds as they crossed the bridge expansion joints kept me </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLEBXx-27z8fgL0fkMYUK2awfUI1yqM9WOmmq5RuyK7mw09fNBoPvt19V1xD5Fz5lBMRKnjgig5936R6EKc421C3eYtCC00BDRGOhFr06VHhfy1FYxSujBQRB2VWjE4JOWZL84L6m_WT0x/s1600/DSCN0283.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLEBXx-27z8fgL0fkMYUK2awfUI1yqM9WOmmq5RuyK7mw09fNBoPvt19V1xD5Fz5lBMRKnjgig5936R6EKc421C3eYtCC00BDRGOhFr06VHhfy1FYxSujBQRB2VWjE4JOWZL84L6m_WT0x/s200/DSCN0283.JPG" width="200" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">moving on up to
higher ground. Leaving the Bottoms, I
entered old flood plain farm fields, and as I rounded the bend, the twin stacks
of the Alma Dairyland Power coal fired power plants dominated the horizon. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Not really being hungry, but finding the opportunity to
experience some food other than my standard fare of fruit, nuts, and granola
bars intriguing; I stopped at Alma’s only barbeque place overlooking the lock
and dam, thoughts of the poor creature I had scene earlier in the day being prepped for roasting forced me to order the chicken salad sandwich, in stead of their specialty roast pork.
It was quite good, and the waitress brought me a copy of the local paper
so I could catch up on the happenings in the area. I can’t recall reading anything too news
worthy – but that seems to be the trend of most news anyway – which makes
getting away from the news a worthy experience.
After finishing up my meal, I quickly cleaned and lubricated my bike
chain as I was noticing some squeaks in it earlier. Getting back on it, peddling seemed easier;
at least the squeaks went away. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEDmZjlav30y_ZkRlzEZ3ast1lw2Yq8_t-Y4x-TQQWjtni6HFLiFDAz_dGmYEgLwg54YIlO8zMbtNPxlWXtjjFE66nxjrScALprD_FDRyJZ9BE40zIGKtaR6IDWKY1-N9OnlO9lDWdibnj/s1600/DSCN0287.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEDmZjlav30y_ZkRlzEZ3ast1lw2Yq8_t-Y4x-TQQWjtni6HFLiFDAz_dGmYEgLwg54YIlO8zMbtNPxlWXtjjFE66nxjrScALprD_FDRyJZ9BE40zIGKtaR6IDWKY1-N9OnlO9lDWdibnj/s200/DSCN0287.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I stopped to take a look at the power plants as I headed out
of town and again thought about the apparent craziness of our power craze. The Alma facility has the advantage of
getting coal by both rail, and barge.
They maintain two huge stock piles of coal, one for each plant. The dark material seems to be just dumped in
piles on the ground, with no obvious containment systems around them. But since the coal rail cars and barges don’t
seem to be covered, there must not be much to worry about from the runoff, at
least we hope. An end loader and series
of dump trucks were in the process of relocating some of the coal from the
North plant pile, to the south plant pile.
There must be a huge energy value
in the coal, to be able to burn all the diesel fuel to move it once again, and
not be able to take advantage of moving it only once via all the intricate coal
conveyance systems constructed around the complex. Watching all the coal being moved around was
sapping all my energy, so I figured I better move on as well. Moving down the road, I noticed the signs
pointing out the Dairyland Power coal ash disposal landfill, tucked back in the
bluff side. Another example of what it takes
to keep us powered up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">With my energy reserves feeling tapped, I turned on the
Ipod, plugged the earphones in my ears, and rolled on towards my next
destination – Merrick State Park. I was surprised
to come across a sign not too far down the road announcing that it was only 1
mile to the Park. As it was only about
2:30, I still would have some time to get some rest in. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">There was no attendant at the entrance to the Park, so it
was serve yourself to any available campsites for $14. I choose to go to the North Loop first and
noticed only three other campers in large campers, leaving me the pick of the
remaining sites. I choose an electric
site next to the river, and later paid the park ranger who stopped by my site the
extra $5 so I could charge my phone and use the laptop and enjoy the water
front property views. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKv2hyphenhyphenyAFi8byiHu0GN9SqojFbNxU9HyFs8SgeRz0wK1k_aQn5ZgnaYJIjN5_FwWlBTar3VMxyTANlni5WTBdj3dWFiaJIuoP_qPin0r5h2E4HsOM3B3lDcEDlIfU3TaYez2SQUmxePOQa/s1600/DSCN0356.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKv2hyphenhyphenyAFi8byiHu0GN9SqojFbNxU9HyFs8SgeRz0wK1k_aQn5ZgnaYJIjN5_FwWlBTar3VMxyTANlni5WTBdj3dWFiaJIuoP_qPin0r5h2E4HsOM3B3lDcEDlIfU3TaYez2SQUmxePOQa/s200/DSCN0356.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">After setting up the tent, and getting things
arranged I decided to wash up some laundry.
I unpacked my collapsible kitchen sink, added some detergent, and set to
work. I then installed the wind/solar
powered clothes dryer I brought along and hung my cloths out to dry. I walked down the camp road a bit and came
to the trail that said “river access”. I
followed the stairs down to the river and noticed that the river was flooding
the bottom of the steps, and I recognized this as the rest stop I made with my
paddling partners as we passed by this way on our way back to La Crosse from
the Chippewa River paddling trip a number of years ago. After camping a couple of days on sandbars
and islands, the pit toilets across from my current campsite seemed pretty
fancy at that time. If I had paid more
attention then, I could have used the even more luxurious flush models at the
other end of the campground. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I began to notice loud engines revving up, and I figured it
must be some hooligans on loud motorcycles roaring down the road, but as the
noise faded away, and then repeated about every 15 minutes or so, I realized
there must be some kind of racetrack nearby.
I hoped that the racing would not go on all night long, but it did, at
least until around 10 p.m.. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I ate my typical meal, and then went for a walk on the trail
going down river. I stopped and sat on a
stomp by the river, and wondered what it was like before humans invented engines. Would the bird songs and the water flowing in
the river sound different without the roar of engines? Could birds hear their calls over all the
human noises? What did the bird calls
mean? Did the sound of petroleum
exploding inside an engine have meaning – meaning besides our quest for more
power? And then some human noises coming
down the trail caught my attention. Two
voices, talking, some kind of conversation – caused me to panic and abandon my
perch on the stump and head back down the trail. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Walking on I, stopped at the boat landing and descended down
the flooded handicapped accessible walkway to where the dock would be when the
river descended, where I stopped and looked out at the slough. As I waited, the two talking ladies and their
dog passed me by, and two chickadees landed in the tree in front of me. One of the birds repeatedly sang a soft
dee-dee-dee-dib kind of song. Then one
of the birds – I assume the male – passed some sort of morsel to the other bird
I assumed to be his mate. The ritual
must be part of the courtship act of the chickadee. Then a boat came motoring up the river
carrying a man, a woman, and what I assumed to be the results of their own
courtship ritual – two sons and some fishing poles. Then some vultures came soaring overhead and
I wondered if it was quieter in the sky.
</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhfUHtI7Q8AcvAR65vrk1HBdB2iToOtobqnD8RxnIUX8uCUGFIM_xpKnTV0UHHP98ik2E86EPwFHz2bHqQE26heCF26ig3fzCz0WMThbBUSkf2TKaVkVLoUjX3v8RuSPo8rEVKZwMx01r3/s1600/DSCN0318.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhfUHtI7Q8AcvAR65vrk1HBdB2iToOtobqnD8RxnIUX8uCUGFIM_xpKnTV0UHHP98ik2E86EPwFHz2bHqQE26heCF26ig3fzCz0WMThbBUSkf2TKaVkVLoUjX3v8RuSPo8rEVKZwMx01r3/s200/DSCN0318.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Leaving the boat landing I headed towards an old log shelter
building. The high river water was
making most of the area wet, but the shelter sat on a bit higher ground so it stayed
dry. Numerous robins and grackles seemed
to be taking advantage of the feeding opportunities provided by the high water
forcing all the worms to even higher ground, so there was much bird song or
ruckus as the case may be filling the air.
The joint chorus was almost loud enough to drown out the human noises in
the background. The smell of exhaust
also filled the air as a passing motor boat left it in its wake. Seemed like we ought to have a national day
of silence – on that day the use of engines would be prohibited, and no talking
would be allowed – only listening. I
wonder what it would sound like? What
sounds would be heard that have not been heard for hundreds of years? Woodpeckers hammered back forth to each other
on the trees. Some bird poop from a
passing bird splat into the water. A
pair of wood ducks splashed down into the pool of water, while waves lapped
against the shore. Birds called out –
lustfully – in search of mates. And the
bats from the overhead bat-house screeched in anticipation of the coming
dusk. These would all be events that
contained sound that would seem much more intense, if the human noise could only
be turned down or better yet off. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKeDms0tPmczcAmn8uyieCWLxLZZQ6xagAPSJ5v-9CIcEi-13JvwH2Xf29GQcTyD0yojsuo5Hwc0wmZP4WA829fkK4Jgf0X2nIP0TVwg9tjH_YUmrg73vJOgfwaS59QCRRL5J4yAwPYpNR/s1600/DSCN0320.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKeDms0tPmczcAmn8uyieCWLxLZZQ6xagAPSJ5v-9CIcEi-13JvwH2Xf29GQcTyD0yojsuo5Hwc0wmZP4WA829fkK4Jgf0X2nIP0TVwg9tjH_YUmrg73vJOgfwaS59QCRRL5J4yAwPYpNR/s200/DSCN0320.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I walked back to the north end of the park to watch the
sunset from the stairway to the water.
The fish had become more active as the night approached, breaking the mirrored
surface of the water on a regular basis, creating gradually expanding
concentric circles that got stretched by the flowing water which eventually erased
it all back to smoothness. The sun
descended and a patch of orange on the horizon was the only remnant of our
fiery star. Miraculously it seemed, the
racers had stopped roaring their engines, perhaps to pay tribute to that most awesome
engine in the sky. For a moment, there
was some quietude, when all seems to be as it was meant to be. As the racers roared back into action, the
orange faded to pink, as the earth continued to revolve about its axis, the
mirrored surface of the water, faded to black.
And a black silhouette of a blue heron reflected the darkening
hour. Oh Great River, wash away our
inequities, and cleanse us from our sins!
</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Later in the night a fourth camper joined the pack. This one was loaded with kids. A couple had taken their 5 or 6 sons who
ranged in age from teenager to three year old, along with what might have been
twin toddler girls or at least one toddler and a double toddler strolller. The kids seemed to enjoy themselves, but the
little I saw of the mother she looked wore out.
The father made an occasional appearance dressed in an orange tee shirt
and shorts. They joined another camper
who I didn’t see any people at, but heard their large dog barking from the cab
of the camper, whenever someone would walk by their site. There also was an older couple with their
grandson. And a motorhome, who again I
never saw people at, but some fancy Christmas lights lit up and laying on the
ground next to the motor home. </span></div>
Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3652025888906665858.post-58608242186292360252013-05-09T19:04:00.000-07:002013-05-26T15:35:46.796-07:00Thursday May 9 - Hastings to Prescott to Maiden Rock<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBShS_x0y5zcnAeSGurxFCtDl-8ZtNW-i4f7XChjZZ8NLeAvE_ZQwfEO3UmljCvUX8fJLRo7u8I2-eHcRIwLRhmdyF8wxlJct8Hc7lhN_0AGXO6vbdZzWIVq-hjNGWThAL63JKhGmFbfnF/s1600/DSCN0208.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBShS_x0y5zcnAeSGurxFCtDl-8ZtNW-i4f7XChjZZ8NLeAvE_ZQwfEO3UmljCvUX8fJLRo7u8I2-eHcRIwLRhmdyF8wxlJct8Hc7lhN_0AGXO6vbdZzWIVq-hjNGWThAL63JKhGmFbfnF/s200/DSCN0208.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">Well as much as I feared not getting a good night sleep for
a while, I slept pretty good last night.
Despite it’s appearance and smell, the Hasting Inn provided a
comfortable place to spend the night. I
woke up to a couple of phone calls from friends checking to see if I was still
alive, and then spent an hour or so writing up my trip notes. Then ate some granola bars and an apple,
loaded up the bike, donned my rain gear and headed for the road at about 10 a.m. A late start, but with the cold and rain I
was in no hurry to leave the comfort of the Inn. Brian, who must be one of the Hmong family
who apparently own the Inn, asked if I was going to continue on with my biking
in the rain. I told him I was, and
showed him my fancy bike helmet shower cap covering that would keep me
dry. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLoworSguRDN-8W1MSL-qaQdzAotCcX9zaX0fFkxbHqFKCVnskdHfEro8tP2-Lj-et5EzBECN3yN-rZ0QkiHbE3Ku72wwzIb1tMjyBS3aGDNhEr9GTAfEUtpNgwkqhQeoI_zOifPFH5CAA/s1600/DSCN0209.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLoworSguRDN-8W1MSL-qaQdzAotCcX9zaX0fFkxbHqFKCVnskdHfEro8tP2-Lj-et5EzBECN3yN-rZ0QkiHbE3Ku72wwzIb1tMjyBS3aGDNhEr9GTAfEUtpNgwkqhQeoI_zOifPFH5CAA/s200/DSCN0209.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">So I headed back East over the Mississippi, across the two
lane truss bridge adjacent to the fancy new orange arch bridge that is being
build. As I entered the narrow bridge, I
hoped that avoiding semi’s was not going to be an ongoing challenge for the day. I came across the sheep farm outside of
Prescott again, and tried to find the three new born lambs from yesterday. I thought I could see two heads, and hoped
the pile of white fluff I saw lying near the fence was not the third one. I finally returned to Prescott after an hour
of pedaling, and stopped at the Mississippi River Road visitor’s center that
overlooked the confluence of the St. Croix and Mississippi Rivers. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcbL3cSLTgvItHPHB_w9kVHkZv4zx4aopJwHSekTkzQ1twTJ1m-EVdAPgv8pDfrtYki7-oxIEfhTGnG1A8v0S1fM3X5bhpQsLTibquHgjnkta6gHA9zeVqPo02xiuFy6PoSSGWpcGgroUZ/s1600/DSCN0219.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcbL3cSLTgvItHPHB_w9kVHkZv4zx4aopJwHSekTkzQ1twTJ1m-EVdAPgv8pDfrtYki7-oxIEfhTGnG1A8v0S1fM3X5bhpQsLTibquHgjnkta6gHA9zeVqPo02xiuFy6PoSSGWpcGgroUZ/s200/DSCN0219.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">On the way in I stopped to use the restroom,
and was in such a hurry that I didn’t check to see if I was going into the
right room. Upon entering I noticed a
lack of urinals, and make a quick retreat and while crossing over to the
correct room, noticed the woman working behind the visitors desk looking at me
with a look of concern on her face. I
hoped she wasn’t going to call the authorities on me. When I finished up my business, and enter the
center, I was relieved to hear the woman joke about my mistake. She said she actually didn’t even notice that
I went into the wrong room. I thanked
her for her understanding and also told her I was thankful no one was in the
woman’s room. On the grounds of the
facility was a sculpture of two herons and a deer made from trash removed from
Minnesota rivers. Based on my observations
of the roadside ditches, there were enough art supplies to recreate the entire
heron and deer population of the Midwest, and also an equal number of dead deer
in various states of decay. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi04pt-gsb7qDERLOQU569DaMuGMK0plQ0IVW-tbtpwNAoz-Sipljj5Y0brLqbTkF9-wAYixWkEeVHB9PraB6IkOYgi2bT-8W_-x8nUlU4_WsYxtCcoq1kvRrQI86BETOQ3op_-RjgCwfaK/s1600/DSCN0233.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi04pt-gsb7qDERLOQU569DaMuGMK0plQ0IVW-tbtpwNAoz-Sipljj5Y0brLqbTkF9-wAYixWkEeVHB9PraB6IkOYgi2bT-8W_-x8nUlU4_WsYxtCcoq1kvRrQI86BETOQ3op_-RjgCwfaK/s200/DSCN0233.JPG" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">Heading out of Prescott, I began climbing the first of what
seemed like an endless up and down climb.
As I cranked into a gear or two above granny, I reminded myself that the
hills were not hard, just slow. But by the
end of the day, I realized that not only were the hills slow, they were also
quite tiring, especially in the cold rain.
Going up the hill I would heat up from pedaling, and then at the top of
the hill would be the farmland ridgetops where a strong side wind hit me and
started cooling me off, for the even chillier descent as I flew down the hill. At the
top of one of the hills, I could see across the river valley to the Prairie
Island Nuclear Plant perched above the river in Minnesota – clouds of steam
from the cooling water enveloped the two containment vessels. </span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">For lunch I stopped on a bridge over what looked to be a
nice trout stream. As I sat and ate my
standard fare of salted nuts, granola bars, and an apple and orange, two large
golden retrievers came running through the woods and barking as they approached
me. I began to worry that they might be
interested in making a meal of me, but when the one barked at me from below, my
calming voice must have charmed him and he wagged his tale and took off running
after his partner. A car stopped in a access
path next to the bridge and the two passengers got out to take a look at the creek. They asked me if I saw any fish, but I told
them no. They when back to their car,
pulled out a cooler and some lawn chairs and had their lunch as well. I never would have realized that was such a
popular picnic spot. The owner of the
dogs began calling from her house a quarter mile away, and one dog when running
home, and the other continued exploring whatever it was he had found. </span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The cold and climbing hills was wearing on me, and around 3
pm, I began thinking about finding a warm motel or cabin to crash at and hunker
down for the night. So when I hit Bay
City, I stopped at the gas station to warm up, restock my supplies and inquire
about a finding a place to stay. The
gas station attendant mentioned that someone in town near the river had a
couple of cabins they rent out, so after satisfying my craving for cheese curds
and crackers, and trying to figure out the evacuation plan map posted outside
the gas station for the Prairie Island Nuclear Plant; I headed down to the
river hoping to get off the road and out of the rain, and out of the path of
any nuclear fallout – for if escape from the fallout meant climbing more hills,
I was likely doomed. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I found the two cabins or resort as the sign said, and after
listening to the owners two yellow labs bark at me for several minutes, a young
lady finally came to the door and informed me she would need to get her mother
to find out about the cabin rental. When the mother came to the door, she
informed me that rental was $60 dollars per night, and when I told her I would
like one, she informed me that they were being rented tomorrow morning, so they
were not available. I told her in my
coldest saddest voice that I could get out early in the morning; she told me
that they were not ready yet. Sensing
she must not like renting to biker types, I reluctantly climbed back on the
bike and headed up yet another hill. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfOx4R6wYdGbrq73KynvGmR4khCJH5mmr2Gp4FBU8Xbae1AFd8lYd6qjqQ9XBXSCkZa7FZA7lG2UFsmIo3iSjDwot4I9NXoeTOvk6FvrG2LhXCF5kjrRVQFjNPeAAa7qlTP2hLVU89oGQ7/s1600/DSCN0231.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfOx4R6wYdGbrq73KynvGmR4khCJH5mmr2Gp4FBU8Xbae1AFd8lYd6qjqQ9XBXSCkZa7FZA7lG2UFsmIo3iSjDwot4I9NXoeTOvk6FvrG2LhXCF5kjrRVQFjNPeAAa7qlTP2hLVU89oGQ7/s200/DSCN0231.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">As I descended back down into the river bottoms, I noticed
what looked to be a frac sand processing plant on the horizon. And as I got closer, I also started noticing
a string of dump trucks feeding it sand.
I hoped that I would not join the decaying deer on the side of the road,
if one of the trucks should side swipe me.
Heading up another hill, I noticed where the dump trucks were coming
from and saw what looked to be some kind of underground sand mining operation
going on. It sure seems crazy to me how
it can be cost effective to spend all that energy mining the sand, trucking it,
washing and sorting it, then loading it on to trains, and shipping it to
fracking wells, so we can get more oil, to fuel the whole crazy process – must be
some huge profits in the oil business to be able to pay for the sand. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Running out of steam, I decided to pull out some technology
to help power me up the hill, and pulled out the Ipod and cranked some Radio Head
to give me some additional energy. It
worked, and I found a new head of steam.
Near the end of ride, I finally had to stop at a closed rest stop and
put on a sweatshirt and hat, unfortunately my only warm cloths. It was at this place that I debated staying
for the night under the shelter over the well pump. The covered benches seemed quite inviting at the
time, but I figured I had at least one more hill climb in me. So with my new warm clothes I peddled on, and
eventually made it up an over the last hill of the day. I should have paid more attention to
volunteer at the Visitors center in Prescott, who warned me about the hills. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIXTkg3pcgYmqQv1b5vGF4zg82jFHRz_jfn7UgiOXHs4OHc1wYEKv5QVE2Jf3D4PRZt4fWmZgTtQ7JSr81SAI2IF-Epe1ZUNbGhLdK6rQKEzYbU584dp14wc6oMznAEUYFj5Paxgt2c4oA/s1600/DSCN0242.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIXTkg3pcgYmqQv1b5vGF4zg82jFHRz_jfn7UgiOXHs4OHc1wYEKv5QVE2Jf3D4PRZt4fWmZgTtQ7JSr81SAI2IF-Epe1ZUNbGhLdK6rQKEzYbU584dp14wc6oMznAEUYFj5Paxgt2c4oA/s200/DSCN0242.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">So here I sit in the Maiden Rock village campground
overlooking Lake Pepin – quite a pretty spot, with bluffs surrounding the lake,
filling out with the green leaves of spring that hopefully is finally here,
despite the few piles of snow that I saw on the north slopes on top of some of
the hills. Since I am the only camper at
the campground, I decided to set my tent up under the pick-nick shelter. Unfortunately I didn’t notice that the two
Burlington Northern railroad tracks are only 100 feet from my tent, but after
about the sixth train has gone by blowing the whistle as they speed by, I have become well aware of them now, and
wonder if this might be the night where sleep might be difficult. </span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidp8DyWgHrf2yKY4hrVyzKyK3geG1DgFnvIxzXArZ1aSx7QEPMB-NRrZBkAC2CD3HRNxs_bw45vSCYN1Mk_dFHUSjAZ9mj4NENrpyZMIbF9NnXN2wfz5dLc1q3Z1wQWoM0BoAdcjaXonNz/s1600/DSCN0238.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidp8DyWgHrf2yKY4hrVyzKyK3geG1DgFnvIxzXArZ1aSx7QEPMB-NRrZBkAC2CD3HRNxs_bw45vSCYN1Mk_dFHUSjAZ9mj4NENrpyZMIbF9NnXN2wfz5dLc1q3Z1wQWoM0BoAdcjaXonNz/s200/DSCN0238.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Perhaps I should take the woman from one of the two bars located
just on the other side of the tracks offer to come in and warm up and she would
buy me a beer or a pop. While setting up
my tent, I listened to two women patrons from the bar have a loud and profane
argument. It wasn’t quite loud enough
for me to figure out what the anger was about, but I worried I might have to intervene
to prevent someone getting hurt. I
stopped at the other bar for supper (a fine chicken salad, washed down with two
glasses of OJ) and to get some change to pay for my camp shelter earlier, and
had a brief conversation with a patron who downed 5 Bud Lights in the half hour
I was there. When young lady tending bar
informed him that he drank fast, he mentioned he had had a tough day. The bar maid indicated she wished she could
have my life as she wants to bike to California someday. She also mentioned it was supposed to rain
until 3 am, and then be nice tomorrow. Needless
to say, spending time in bars with folks who drink fast, although quite
friendly, did not seem like a good way to spend the night. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigJWgmVWHNl-uniJpdCstUPpKajy9MuCQFW_mkT_S1obS35MNNkeTPnN28CHvqNrS82Pua-aKZ7p1gb4aQFMl69Z6KyDf2qLC0qSJlAIeowWuQqv61L1gT0zdahcRSZrGfzaC2tsICBbSe/s1600/DSCN0246.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigJWgmVWHNl-uniJpdCstUPpKajy9MuCQFW_mkT_S1obS35MNNkeTPnN28CHvqNrS82Pua-aKZ7p1gb4aQFMl69Z6KyDf2qLC0qSJlAIeowWuQqv61L1gT0zdahcRSZrGfzaC2tsICBbSe/s200/DSCN0246.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Enough rambling for one day - time to take advantage of the
free internet WIFI, courtesy of the Lodge, and get this posted and get to bed,
and crawl into my cold sleeping bag and wait for the next train to rock me to
sleep. </span></div>
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Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3652025888906665858.post-26149052056561463412013-05-09T07:21:00.000-07:002013-05-26T15:34:08.717-07:00Wednesday May 8th - Blaine to Prescott to Hastings<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixv5VoiWBiF7i3zdqvgOJf9gGhsGmve5Rp9dYB005V-nRd77i8H2a5iGzwpvDKzgBgIXuXtmyVku8xw-3V7K_z-N5k2DHLAuSVUAYO-1kf3GP7G4NT8M2hc0bJ075-5_Vy_wxzeI6oIFcH/s1600/DSCN0034.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixv5VoiWBiF7i3zdqvgOJf9gGhsGmve5Rp9dYB005V-nRd77i8H2a5iGzwpvDKzgBgIXuXtmyVku8xw-3V7K_z-N5k2DHLAuSVUAYO-1kf3GP7G4NT8M2hc0bJ075-5_Vy_wxzeI6oIFcH/s200/DSCN0034.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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<br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">Didn’t sleep too
well last night, which is too bad. It
was probably going to be the last night in a comfortable bed for some time if
all goes well. As usual before an
adventure, spent the night obsessing over whether or not I was bringing the
right stuff, too much stuff, or not enough stuff. Also worring about what might go wrong, where
I should go, etc. Did some last minute packing and unpacking and finally set
off at about 10 am. Had Kitty come out
to take some photo’s off me before I headed out – needed to feed the ego one
last time. </span></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLXBG5tFuVM2YFZU7OpSqPHYRbepCmyCXOPNN6DDiudAZzj03q5Lk39Bm5XtH_0mtOcj_DKxXZ0hz7p6eggMEXWS81NbbjfnEGiWqs0dl1hbZ4aubKb2Oj-lg7ngKVtDaSRVe9diykknVu/s1600/DSCN0043.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLXBG5tFuVM2YFZU7OpSqPHYRbepCmyCXOPNN6DDiudAZzj03q5Lk39Bm5XtH_0mtOcj_DKxXZ0hz7p6eggMEXWS81NbbjfnEGiWqs0dl1hbZ4aubKb2Oj-lg7ngKVtDaSRVe9diykknVu/s200/DSCN0043.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Was kicking around where I should go on this trip and toyed
with the ideas of going around Lake Superior, heading down the Mississippi
River Road, or biking around Wisconsin to visit the places I used to live. In the end, I settled on heading down the
Mississippi River Road, but could leave the option open to veer to the East
when I hit Prairie du Chien if I got tired of the river, assuming of course
that I made it that far. So with the
River Road in mind, figured I would make it a watershed themed trip, so decided
to head out of town following Ditch 45 out of Blaine, which is the headwaters
of Sand Creek that heads West to Coon Rapids.
Since this was the opposite direction of where I ultimately would go, it
was challenging to go the wrong way intentionally. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">From Sand Creek, I followed the trail the paralleled Coon
Creek, to the Coon Rapids Dam on the Mississippi River. And then downstream following the trail
systems that follow the East bank of the River through, Fridley, Minneapolis,
and St. Paul. The part of the trip went
well. Took way to many pictures, along
the way, but it was interesting to spend some time and stop along the trails I
was pretty familiar with. After stopping
to take a picture of the Minneapolis skyline, a mail man yelled to me asking
where I was going. I started talking
with him and told him I wasn’t sure, and told him I had 3 ½ weeks off and had a
couple of possible routes in mind, assuming I could make it out of town. I told me about the bike touring he had down,
and informed me that he had paid over $1000 for his touring bike back in the
1990’s. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilwa5vbeMJQDQWkAb3iIY8Akb-nqimcWXjAwp44HPXLDgO7T_GHryvlSNEsDJ6tkA2O0vBloUHn8uoNaDH-GZ3OOyZ89L59R81MCUFTk29JPzw0vhW9cP2CiGDDfFwk0R5htuBiZ-dsMmB/s1600/DSCN0091.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilwa5vbeMJQDQWkAb3iIY8Akb-nqimcWXjAwp44HPXLDgO7T_GHryvlSNEsDJ6tkA2O0vBloUHn8uoNaDH-GZ3OOyZ89L59R81MCUFTk29JPzw0vhW9cP2CiGDDfFwk0R5htuBiZ-dsMmB/s200/DSCN0091.JPG" width="150" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Stopped at Nicolet Island for a lunch snack – some salted
nuts, an apple, and a couple of granola bars around noon. My lunch entertain was provided by what
looked to be some 4<sup>th</sup> or 5<sup>th </sup> grade students from the Drake School who were
on some type of field trips. The
teachers and chaperones had all they could do to keep the kids from jumping in
the river and going over St. Anthony falls.
It was fun to watch the kids running around, taking pictures of each
other, and pestering the teachers to see if they could go swimming above the
falls. I hoped that some of the energy
from the kids would rub off on me to help me keep peddling. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The ride through Minneapolis, as always, reminded me how
separated the City is from the River. It
is difficult to actually access the water anywhere as there are concrete walls,
rip rap rock, bridges, culverts, locks and dams that pretty much seem to line
the river bank. The whole system has
pretty much been reengineered from what it likely used to be. The border
between Fridley and Minneapolis, is also a reminder of how industrialized the
river has become. Along this section of
the river you find water withdrawal stations, water treatment plants, power
plants, railroad switch yards, grain elevators, barge loading facilities, and miscellaneous
manufacturing facilities. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVpIpd5y5HWHqS2B1AX5Ek0SoNTn7vaQC0xzTJwuV5KKM3JsJaPFOzCPaHjlByxAPURmP_TKs1fMEnXRrg7Jqo3zX87tV60PuOfTEk_cUOyn5zVdFyBx0Un0h4dApBWpE_7e9slqGPMc-F/s1600/DSCN0135.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVpIpd5y5HWHqS2B1AX5Ek0SoNTn7vaQC0xzTJwuV5KKM3JsJaPFOzCPaHjlByxAPURmP_TKs1fMEnXRrg7Jqo3zX87tV60PuOfTEk_cUOyn5zVdFyBx0Un0h4dApBWpE_7e9slqGPMc-F/s200/DSCN0135.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Biking up the gorge
out of Minneapolis is a climb and you end up on the bluffs overlooking the
river valley as you enter St. Paul. This
area of the river is much more residential, likely because the steep banks of
the gorge prevent industry from accessing the river. Further down the gorge, the old Ford
manufacturing facility did find a way to access the river and build a dam to
provide power for it’s manufacturing operations. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjglO5Vp5IYlhXC-6KokxyXnBb2Clye5uW6C9InTTBIpYtej53AU-Ldl5dyl8rTkSuS7RqZCLI5RUYvifZkVb5rZgcHYxLSTY-Qf6BEl7fIDuVOriDSmgjyf07yI2VdAPT7zLnN37bSPxGM/s1600/DSCN0150.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjglO5Vp5IYlhXC-6KokxyXnBb2Clye5uW6C9InTTBIpYtej53AU-Ldl5dyl8rTkSuS7RqZCLI5RUYvifZkVb5rZgcHYxLSTY-Qf6BEl7fIDuVOriDSmgjyf07yI2VdAPT7zLnN37bSPxGM/s200/DSCN0150.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">As I entered St. Paul, a biker heading up river waved me
down and I stopped to chat with him. He
introduced himself as Bob from Eagan, and he informed me that he and his wife
have done some bike touring. He proudly
told me that he still does some touring despite having knee replacement surgery,
although he mentioned that he now uses an electric assist bike. He and his wife have done several trips in
Europe where they fly their bikes out with them and then pack their gear along
as well. Bob is 76 years old and still
at it, which gave me hope that maybe I could at least make it through the
day. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYeXVGmulMuW2UJVcYionLXMSLtTS3B7N6F8u8j-KRA88EcnIZQUswqRMCeJXei66hdoEwRPZe3sGDXDikcH5gHKAxqh2cMxqNIsVEBZ5QVCCA3TdwnJqGtta5OyukXKYTygX8_tOCLVIl/s1600/DSCN0179.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYeXVGmulMuW2UJVcYionLXMSLtTS3B7N6F8u8j-KRA88EcnIZQUswqRMCeJXei66hdoEwRPZe3sGDXDikcH5gHKAxqh2cMxqNIsVEBZ5QVCCA3TdwnJqGtta5OyukXKYTygX8_tOCLVIl/s200/DSCN0179.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Barging activity picks up again as you head out of St. Paul
where a number of barge loading and unloading operations exist. Two tugs were tied up along the concrete wall
the separates the river from the City.
Crew members could be scene painting and doing maintenance of the
tugs. Further downstream, barges full of
coal, scrap metal, and benzene sat waiting to be shipped back down river or
unloaded. It is amazing how much stuff gets shipped all over the place, just to
keep our fix for stuff satisfied. I also
wondered what we do with all the stuff?
What do we accomplish with all the electricity that the coal burning
provides? What is all the cancer causing
benzene used for and where does it come from – must be the oil refineries
located south of the Cities. And where does all the rusting scrap metal come and
where is it going and what will it come back as? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">On my way out of St. Paul, came across three other bikers
with touring gear. We stopped and
chatted and found out they were on their way back from a four day adventure
into Wisconsin. Coming across all the
friendly chatters was much different from some of my previous bike trips where
I rarely ecountered other bikers. Made
me wonder if the whole world was out
biking. But as I headed out of St. Paul
on Highway 10 to the east, I was soon reminded that the majority of folks are
still driving exaust producing cars and trucks that wiz along at 60 to 70 miles
an hour. Traveling this section at
rushhour was not a good idea and soon consumed the peace and serenity I had accumulated
on the earlier bike trails that had gotten me to this point. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh7zNVqUjNUFovYH8agzsxhDUoZYICd6FsdqxTR8HqUjkAhxTu_NsWkOwHlzz1_pcav1HerB9v2reHn4-Fh7qWXe8xLnRV7k6G8tylL8244l3jBIy1q19lEisJ9MGuwaVQvTzHK-s-oH7z/s1600/DSCN0192.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh7zNVqUjNUFovYH8agzsxhDUoZYICd6FsdqxTR8HqUjkAhxTu_NsWkOwHlzz1_pcav1HerB9v2reHn4-Fh7qWXe8xLnRV7k6G8tylL8244l3jBIy1q19lEisJ9MGuwaVQvTzHK-s-oH7z/s200/DSCN0192.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">It didn’t help matters that the river was now out of site
and had been replaced with a river a railcars moving up and down the tracks
that parallel the freeway. And next to
the tracks were more large industrial complexes, making god knows what. It also started to sprinkle on an off, which
helped was some of the exaust out of the air, but required I adorn my rain gear
to keep dry. As a way to avoid the
traffic and rain for a while, stopped into a Burger King about 4 pm. and downed
a vegie burger, large fry, garden salad, and carton of orange juice. Also tried calling the only motel that was
listed in my Mississippi River biking guide book, but got a recording offering
me a chance to win some prizes if I answered some questions. So I hung up deciding to take my chances at
finding a place to stay in Prescott.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv5Y-J_ojcMBCNbcmYodiLXVcvOs17cKHBS1UF40ORqv8jICCpCChEHqrIRTEi0cXddIi8ki-zZeHXq8HDsBGH3pAJfKB7jVbGxNt3OB5ouism5rcDa90cEiubMqjskzSgErxcZONMWFyO/s1600/DSCN0200.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv5Y-J_ojcMBCNbcmYodiLXVcvOs17cKHBS1UF40ORqv8jICCpCChEHqrIRTEi0cXddIi8ki-zZeHXq8HDsBGH3pAJfKB7jVbGxNt3OB5ouism5rcDa90cEiubMqjskzSgErxcZONMWFyO/s200/DSCN0200.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I felt the energy return to me as Highway 10 continued along
the East bank of the river to Prescott and highway 61 split off to the west to
Hastings MN. Traffic began to thin out
some, and the road began to descend into the river valley. Came across a small herd of sheep along with
a couple of watch lama’s confined in a small enclosure next to the road. Got to
witness the afterbirth of some lambs hanging from the mother sheep’s rear-end. I stopped to watch the activities for a
while, and noticed that the mother of twins was about to become the proud
parent of triplets as I could see a foot protruding from the afterbirth. But feeling like I was intruding on the
blessed event, I moved on down the Valley towards Prescott, anxious to find a
place to stay before the rains increased.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6QAW2hTZc6uEKJIAIcKTCszZihPxhG53t5XRQbWJxZvyty5A2InnL7E9Wb4PX1GtECXnrtbHLBAbT3Lv_6cPW1wx5cLsniXUOp4UYj-3LGn6l86iqfpsfwiKz-4vIdAhDlu58PRJ3LOJG/s1600/DSCN0205.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6QAW2hTZc6uEKJIAIcKTCszZihPxhG53t5XRQbWJxZvyty5A2InnL7E9Wb4PX1GtECXnrtbHLBAbT3Lv_6cPW1wx5cLsniXUOp4UYj-3LGn6l86iqfpsfwiKz-4vIdAhDlu58PRJ3LOJG/s200/DSCN0205.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Not sure where the motel was, I stopped at a gas station and
got the news that the motel was up at the top of the hill leading out of
town. So I peddled up what I hoped would
be the last hill of the day, only to find out there were no rooms left, and
found out the closest motels would be back across the two rivers in
Hastings. So I reluctantly climbed back
on my bike and headed back up the hills to Hastings. On the way past the sheep farm, I was greeted
by the birth of the third lamb, as it feel from it’s mother and plopped into
the dirt. The birthing process of
domesticated animals always seems more sacred and clean and over scene by
helping hands when they show it on TV, I guess I need to get out more to see
how the real world works. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Well I made to Hastings, and after getting directions, found
the Hastings Inn, and fortunately there was a room at the inn, and I took
it. The Hastings Inn, is not one of your
five star affairs, but I did appreciate the shelter as the rains began to poor
down, and despite the smoky mildew smell, burned cigarette holes in the carpet
and bedspread, found it a welcome place to stay for $50. And the eventually hot shower gave me some
renewed energy. A good reminder that
perhaps better planning might help to find more hospitable shelter and avoid
biking 15 miles out of the way. </span></div>
Tom Jablonskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17886870552330964564noreply@blogger.com1