Keokuk, Iowa

While driving to our next campground, drove through Burlington, Iowa to the newest bridge across the Mississippi River. The MacArthur Bridge is a dual tower cable suspension bridge, there is also a new railroad bridge being built near this bridge.



Burlington is also home of Snake Alley declared by Ripley's "Believe it or Not" as the crookest street in the world. Snake Alley consists of five 180 degree curves in a distance of 275 feet, while rising 58.3 feet between two parallel streets.



After arriving at the next campground, we set up and left to drive into town, we are only here for two nights, and not much time to see things. We had driven down to the river and over to the Lock & Dam #19, which is the highest step at 38 feet and is the second longest Mississippi lock at 1200 feet and can handle a full-length fleet of barges, 15 in total.



While standing on the observation deck, we saw one full barge, (15 barges), and one small barge, (2 barges), going through the locks before a huge cruise ship came through. They tell us that the cost to ride this ship is $1,000 a day, not in my lifetime will I get to ride this. The people on the ship were very friendly, waving and talked a little to us. We stood here for about 2 hours, waiting for the cruise ship to g through. We also saw this ship in Davenport and Burlington.



Notice the smokestacks are down, there is an electric plant at this dam and power lines are overhead, so they must put the stacks down to go through the lock.



This morning, we left and visited Nauvoo, Illinois. This is an old town where The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -Day Saints (Mormons) lived before being chased out of the area. They settled here after being forced out of Ohio and Missouri, and before going onto Utah. We had watched an historian movie and then took a wagon ride through town. After our wagon ride we had a chance to tour the town on our own.










This is the temple where they worship.
This evening we had a ladies night out, we went back to Nauvoo, had buffet dinner at Hotel Nauvoo and then went to a show that the missionaries that work in town put on for the public to watch.







The men had a pizza party and the drivers meeting while the ladies where away, moving again tomorrow.
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Davenport, Iowa

We were parkers on Saturday, Sept. 22, so we left the campground at 8:30 am, with the leaders and two other couples. We had to drive 107 miles this morning, we had 45 minutes to get set up at camp and be ready for the trailers by 1 pm. We had one hour to get everyone checked in, then the last GAM, before meeting at the Machine Shed Restaurant for dinner.



On Sunday, we had a free day. We had decided to go to the largest truck stop in the world and truck museum.











Monday, Sept. 24, we had to meet at the John Deere Harvester Works, for a tour through the plant where they make the combines. We had rode on a trailer, had to wear eye protectors and worn headsets so we could hear our guide. The most interesting part, was the painting section, where they dip the machinery into different baths before being dipped into the paint. John Deere is the second largest employer in the Quad Cities, after the Rock Island Arsenal.



We then headed to John Deere Pavilion, where we had a guide telling us about everything at was inside the pavilion, high speed dozers, tractors that steer themselves, and precision irrigation systems. He also told us of the history of John Deere.







After leaving the Pavilion, we had driven a short distance to John Deere Headquarters. They have a section where visitors can go in and see the different equipment they make and a lot of antiques from 1911 until 1937, all things that John Deere used during his lifetime.




Tuesday, we had carpooled to Rock Island Arsenal, there is an island between Iowa and Illinois, that is an active US Army facility in the Mississippi River. This arsenal is our nation's largest government owned and operated arsensal. We had visited the museum where there are a lot of artifacts from different wars, and is well known for its significant firearms collection.



We also visited the Memorial Park & Civilian Monument.



We also passed two cemeteries, Confederate and Rock Island National Cemetery


We then went to tour the Lock & Dam #15 and the Mississippi River Visitor Center. The Visitors Center is operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers. The center also provides an excellent vantage point to observe and learn about the function of the locks and dams system for the 9 foot channel project on the upper Mississippi, the operating of the Government Bridge, and the importance of the barge traffic on the river.







The bridge was built in 1896 and is a double decker bridge. It has double railroad tracks above and a roadway below. It swings span that can rotate 360 degrees for river traffic and is a rare engineering accomplishment.

This evening we had a social with pie and ice cream, celebrated Ken's birthday by singing and presented him with cake and a miniature John Deere combine.


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Dubuque, Iowa

We had driven a long time today, about 8 hours, where a little late getting into campground, but there where more people behind us. The drive was very slow because of poor road conditions, hilly, whinny, and drove along side of the Mississippi River. We had stopped at Pikes Peak overlook, what a view of the Mississippi River and Wisconsin River joining together.


After arriving at camp, we had less than 3/4 hour to be ready to go on a Dinner Cruise on the "Spirit of Dubuque" paddle boat, the ride was 2 1/2 hrs long, the food and scenery was great.



Thursday morning, we all went to the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium, what a great museum. We had learned about the Indian people, river ways, rivers of the sea, river works, black water marsh, bayou, barge traffic, pilot, simulator, Mark Twain's River, Tom Sawyer's Cave, and watched guys working on a miniature steam boat they are building.













Ken at pilot stimulator



We had walked over to the Boatyard.


And then walked out to the William M. Black Steam-Powered Dredge Boat, The 34" pipeline dredge used to deepen the river. Labor-intensive nature of steam power and rising cost of fuel forced retirement in 1973.







We had spent the whole day here and were very tired til the end of the day. Before dinner, we had another GAM, and then off the rest of the night.

Today, we had left and went about 30 miles west of Dubuque to Dyersville, to see Field of Dreams. This is where the movie was made and released in 1989, this movie has inspired millions and became a Academy Award nominee for " Best Picture of the Year". "If you build it they will come.". And that is how it goes.







We had come back into Dubuque, and went visit the Fenelon Place Elevator. This was built by a banker, so he could go back and forth to work in a shorter period of time, since they only had 1 1/2 hours for lunch, and it took him that much time to drive his horse and buggy round the bluff to get to the top , even though his bank was only 2 1/2 block away. The first time it ran was in 1882, and today you can ride up and down for $2.00 round trip.



Off to the Old Shot Tower, this is where they melt down lead and make lead shot for shot guns, we understand this is still how they make them today.






After our trip to the Shot Tower we had driven another 20 miles to Galena, Illinois, someone on the caravan said this is a good trip, so here we go. This town is very quaint and all the store front where full with coffee shops, candy shops, clothing, jewelry, and restaurants, you name it was there, just really neat.











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Red Wing, Minnesota

Upon arriving at our next stop, we are camping at Treasure Island Resort and Casino, which is on an Indian Reservation, the management are Indians but there are no Indian people working in the casino. We had another GAM and then had a buffet dinner at the Casino.

Monday we had a chartered bus take us to Mall of America for the day. We where there from 8:45 til 4:15, what a long day of shopping. The mall has 520-plus stores, four stories high, covering approximately 96 acres, the nation's largest combined retail and entertainment center features an indoor amusement park, an underground aquarium, a miniature golf course and more than 50 restaurants and night clubs. The Lego Imagination Center features four stories of life-sized models as well as millions of Lego's to play with.


Transformer made with Legos.

Tuesday, we had a free day. We had gone into Red Wing to the Stoneware Co., watched them making a piece of stoneware, then downtown to the Red Wing Flagship Store and Museum. We had seen the world's largest boot, 20 ft. long, 7ft. Wide, 16 ft. High, and weighting 2,300 lbs.



The lower floor of the building houses the factory store, the main floor is the retail store, and the other floor is the museum, with a movie showing you how they make the shoes and boots.

We had taken a walk through the town, which has a small town charm. The town lays along the Mississippi River with a bridge which crosses over to Wisconsin. They are to have a steamboat that runs on the river, but while we where along the river we didn't see any boats.


On the way back to camp we had stopped at Hobgoblin Music barn where there is a harp factory. On the lower level of the barn, artisans make folk harps, mountain dulcimers, mountain banjos and bodhrans. The Music Loft offers a regular schedule of folk, Celtic, and bluegrass music, plus an occasional stage show. We had seen one guy working on a dulcimer through a window when leaving.



We had another GAM today and then a drivers meeting before leaving tomorrow.

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St. Cloud, Minnasota

After arriving at the campground, we had a GAM, and then to Coyote Moon Grill at Territory Golf Club, for a social hour and then dinner and a driver's meeting.
This morning before moving to the next campground, we had driven into St. Cloud to the Munsinger & Clemens Gardens. This garden is in tiers and just beautiful, with roses, perennials, shrubs, annuals and fountains.

















These gardens are along the Mississippi River and has a nice walking path along the river.

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