On The Road Again!

ON THE ROAD AGAIN…

This picture was taken in Muscatine, Iowa.  We are on the lookout for those green Great River Road signs to guide us on this first part of our adventure.

Yes folks, we are doing another road trip.  Our plan is to go south through the heart of the U.S. traveling along the Mississippi River on the Great River Road (GRR) from Wisconsin to Louisiana, then head east to the Gulf of Mexico areas of Mississippi and Alabama. 

After getting the RV serviced with fresh motor oil, tire air pressure checked, loading up the tool box, battery charger, jumper cables, hitching up the Jeep, Jim was packed and ready to go.  I was in charge of packing the household items we will need for the next 2 months.  Once we made our final trip from the house to the RV loading up the last minute gear, we pulled out of the driveway about 8:30 a.m. on February 4^th.

The visibility was poor due to the fog, but the fog also treated us to spectacular hoar frost that made the trees and grasses frosty white.  We drove to Prescott, WI to get on the GRR taking Hwy 35 down the Wisconsin side.  While we have been on this section of the GRR in the past, it was a beautiful drive through the rolling Wisconsin farmland and tiny river towns.  There were several places on the river where ice fishermen had set up their ice shacks or were sitting out on their white plastic 5 gallon buckets trying their luck fishing through the holes in the ice they had just drilled.

We stopped in Pepin, Wisconsin to get a bite to eat at Two Old Guys…Restaurant, Bakery, Grocery Store, and Wine & Beer.  The front of the building was a small grocery store that not only sold food staples, wine and beer, but also sold the ingredients to make home brew and wine.  The restaurant was in the back of the building with a few miss-matched tables and chairs.  The food was good and the place had character.  Oh, on the way out there was a hand printed sign by the door that read “$100 Reward for information about who broke into Two Old Guys”; sorry, I didn’t write down the phone number, but you can probably find it out if you have any information and want to collect the $100 reward.

We noticed three guys in a pick-up truck pulling a boat and motor.  Jim said “those guys are optimistic” and we laughed about them pulling a boat in Wisconsin in the winter.  The laugh was on us a few miles down-river where the there was a boat landing and the river wide open and free of ice.  There must have been 20 boats out on the river.  From then on, depending on whether there was ice or not on the river, we saw people fishing either on the ice, or in boats in the open water.

We crossed over to the Minnesota side of the river at Wabasha – Jim’s birthplace.  We followed highway 61 and then crossed back into Wisconsin at LaCrosse getting back on highway 35 and continuing south before crossing the river again at Marquette, Iowa to make a stop at The Effigy Mounds National Monument.  This area on the bluffs of the Mississippi River contains several burial sites built over thousands of years by Mound Builder civilizations.  Some of the mounds in this area were built in the shape of bears.  

Because we dilly-dallied too long at Effigy Mounds, we decided to use the GPS to find a faster way to our next destination – Jim’s sister’s house in Muscatine, Iowa.  We got off the GRR, driving east through rolling hills of farmland.  Who knew Iowa had so many hills?

Our first day on the road, we drove 383 miles, which took us about 8 ½ hours.  Jan welcomed us into her home where we will enjoy her hospitality for 2 nights.  Muscatine is located on the Mississippi River, so we are back on the GRR.

February 6, 2012

We left Muscatine and arrived in St. Louis, MO this afternoon.  Barge traffic on the river was spotted at Hannibal, MO.  Missouri highway 79 is a scenic drive ascending and descending through densely wooded bluffs.  It must be beautiful in the fall with the blazing colors.

We pulled into the Cahokia RV Parque (fancy French name for “park” I’m guessing) in E. St. Louis on the Illinois side of the river.  The first item of business after getting to our ca mp site was to de-winterize our home.  We got the anti-freeze flushed out of the water lines and have running water; ahh, the simple pleasures.  The hot water heater is refusing to start, so until we figure that out, we’ll be heating water on the stove… just like campingJ.