The Bridges of Madison County

We left Dubuque and rode north, following the Mississippi. Readers will be getting sick of the descriptions of the various scenery, so suffice to say that we both loved the ride along the river. Turning west, our faithful steed broke down. It just died, right there in the middle of nowhere (on Highway 51, Yellow River Valley, two rocks in, according to Nagging Nellie but it still looked like the boonies). No problem as we had purchased an emergency rescue package. But there was no cell phone coverage there in boony, Iowa. OK, so there was a problem, and just as Ric was deciding on whether or not to throw Jenny into the path of one of the few vehicles travelling this road, an Iowa State Trooper pulled up. He was most helpful, and with a series of relayed radio messages, arranged for a Honda dealer located not too far away (and also in the middle of nowhere) to come get us. This they duly did. It turns out the alternator was no longer supplying zaptrons at the required rate to feed the battery. The dealer did not have any alternators in stock, but gleefully scavenged one from one of the several second hand Goldwings he had in the showroom. So an hour or two later and more than $500 poorer, we resumed our journey - grateful to the Iowa State trooper (who by the way had also informed the other troopers of our plight and asked them to look out for us) and to the guys at Waukon Honda. By this time, we needed to find somewhere to stay so stayed at Charles City. The following day, we seemed to zigzag all over Iowa state. We visited the Winnebago plant, taking in the tour and checking out the latest models. Hint: if you are pressed for time, just check out the RVs. The tour is interesting but overly long! We then rode to the small town of Gladbrook to a museum called Matchstick Marvels. This was built by the town officials for a local man who makes amazing sculptures from matchsticks. Check out the photos - they are unbelievable. After riding around the Amanas Colonies (German settlements), we stayed the night in Pella (a Dutch settlement). Pella is another of the beautiful small towns we have found in the US. It is proud of its Dutch heritage to the point they have built a new 1850's design working grain windmill. In fact, they had a company in Holland build it and ship it to Pella. Pella also has a working Klokkenspel - a musical clock that has automatons playing some key Pella identities. One of these was Wyatt Earp. We cannot get away from this guy. We learned he was in Deadwood, SD for a while but it turns out he was brought up in Pella - we even visited his house! Another mechanical/electrical mishap. Ric managed to bend one of the small pins in the lead that connects his helmet audio system. In the process of trying to straighten it, the pin broke, so while he can now hear Jenny prattle on, he can no longer tell her to clam up as the broken pin was for his microphone! From Pella we visited the National Balloon Museum in Indianola and from there to Madison County. There really are covered bridges in Madison County and we visited three and rode through one. These are the same bridges that featured in the movie and Ric commented that the bridges were way more interesting than the movie ever was. We ended our fifth day in Iowa in Shenandoah, not far from the Missouri state line. We are watching the weather channel and hearing of thunderstorms, high winds and tornado warnings further southwest. Tomorrow could be interesting!

The Mighty Mississippi

After a short ride, we again crossed the Mississippi and rode into Dubuque, Iowa. We planned to stay a couple of days as rain was expected. What a contrast! The Iowa Information Centre was easy to find (it was provided by the Dubuque Chamber of Commerce) and the lady there could not have been more friendly or helpful. There was so much good information provided that we ended up staying in Iowa longer than we planned - but more of that later. Dubuque is a river city and every single person we spoke to there was very friendly. We called in to the local Honda dealer to get the oil and filter changed on the bike and the guys were great. We walked along the Mississippi River but were too late to take in the Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium on that first day. The second day brought the expected rain so we took in the museum. This was another of the many "finds" for us. It is very modern and fantastic. Apart from telling the story of the river (we had not appreciated how significant this river was and is to the USA), it housed a very good aquarium of fish that are found in the river plus a few snakes, turtles, otters and an alligator. In the afternoon, we took a river cruise in a paddle riverboat. There were only eight passengers in all on a boat designed to take a couple of hundred so initially they debated whether to go at all. They did, and despite the rain, we had a good trip, with the captain regaling us with interesting facts all the while. We were invited up to the pilot house and Ric engaged the captain in conversation, and indicated that he was surprised at how manoeuverable the craft was. A juju must have been laid down at that point because as we came in to dock, something went wrong and instead of neatly turning and berthing at the designated place, the riverboat plowed on, hitting the docking barge with the extended gangway. The gangway splintered, one of the crew high-tailed it up a ladder while the other was thrown into the water. You can imagine this disrupted the berthing sequence somewhat but shortly after, all eight passenger safely disembarked and all crew were safe and well. We guess there are quite a few people who can claim to have sailed the Mississippi in a riverboat but how many can also say they crashed in one?

Wisconsin? What Wisconsin?

In the last post, we mentioned the benefits of stopping at Information Centres. When we crossed the state line - across the Mississippi - from Minnesota to Wisconsin at La Crosse, we couldn't find the Wisconsin Information Centre. We saw one sign - then nothing! We decided to ride into the city of Madison about a hundred miles or so west of Milwaukee and we struck the old traffic again. Admittedly we were on the Interstate and the wind was a bit gusty anyway (not great for motorcyclists) but the speed of the traffic was somewhat daunting. The posted speed limit is 65mph and we were doing just under 70 and still the slowest thing on the road - a six lane highway. We were overtaken by everything from huge semis to pick-ups towing horse floats to family cars with caravans. And the drivers were changing lanes like you would not believe. Eventually, we just decided to stay in the right lane at around the posted limit and let everyone overtake us - it seemed safer and was definitely more comfortable.

We were in southern Wisconsin which is supposedly not as scenic as the north. Even so, we were a bit disappointed, Jenny had heard good things about the state and wanted to visit but we could find no information about it. Even the normal tourist material at the motel told us nothing, so we departed Wisconsin the next day for Iowa. A pity.

From South Dakota to Minnesota

The ride from Sturgis to Sioux Falls on the I-90 was long and uneventful, except for one stop. This again was prairie land with miles and miles of grain crops and grassland. The one interesting stop was at a small town called Wall and here we visited Wall Drug. The only reason we stopped there was that for miles along the I-90 there were dozens of small billboards telling motorists of the things that could be procured at Wall Drug - almost everything. It turns out this store is now a major attraction and up to 20,000 visitors stop there daily. It started as a small town drug store in the 1930's which struggled for business until the owners had the bright idea of attracting people to deviate from I-90 by offering them free iced iced water, and advertising this fact with a series of billboards along the road. The idea worked and Wall Drug is now a huge and amazing store where almost anything can be obtained from meals to western wear to jewellery to motorcycle leathers.

Continuing to Sioux Falls, we struck some gusty winds which did blow us around a bit. We initially travelled at the posted 75mph (about 120kph or so) but were forced to slow - especially when close to the big semis which tend to displace a lot of air.

We stopped at Sioux Falls for a couple of days as the weather was predicted to deteriote with thunderstorm warnings issued. These did not eventuate but we took the time to look around the city and visit museums and the butterfly house. We also popped into the Sioux Falls YMCA where the previous CEO gave us a quick tour.

Leaving Sioux Falls, we rode into Minnesota. As a hint, we have discovered that it is almost always worth while stopping and talking to the staff at the information centres. Mostly, these are located on major highways just across the state lines. A really nice lady at the Minnesota Information Office suggested we visit the Spam Museum in Austin - not something we would normally contemplate. As the name suggests, this is a museum dedicated to Spam - something of a US food icon - and their sometimes tongue in cheek approach made it pretty interesting.

We road the scenic byway through southern Minnesota where the countryside is beautiful. We stopped for gas at Rose Creek - a town/village of just 400 inhabitants and is exactly what we often picture a small US rural town to be like. It was really picturesque and we both felt that it was a place we'd like to live in. This time of the year - the start of Fall/Autumn, this part of the country is popular on weekends as city dwellers come out to see the changing colours and to ride the mountain bike trails. It is also Amish country. As a result, the first two motels we tried were full so we drove on to another small town - Chatfield. Here we had the worst accommodation experience of our journey so far. The Val A Lodge (aka the Chatfield Hotel) is a goodly sized place which looks fine on the outside and to be fair doesn't look too bad on the inside. It is run by Lloyd, an elderly gentleman who quoted us a rate of US$94 - a pretty high rate for a small town establishment. The room we had was quite big but had nothing other than a bed, a TV and a bathroom. No coffee making facilities, no fridge, no microwave, no internet. There was a common area in the hallway which had a snack vending machine, a microwave that didn't work and a coffee machine. We think we were the only guests (we checked in at around 4.30) though some others checked in later. Ric turned on the coffee machine but when he went to get the coffee, the coffee pot was gone! He asked Lloyd about it and it turns out Lloyd had got upset that Ric had turned on the machine as it was set up to be turned on the following morning. When Ric asked about coffee, Lloyd told him to go up the road to a convenience store where he could get a cup of coffee. Needless to say, Ric was unimpressed with this and told Lloyd so. Lloyd was unflinching but did let us have a cup of coffee from the pot he has rescued from the common area. Shame on you Lloyd for charging premium rates for sub-par accommodation and especially for being such a mean spirited old man. Lloyd had lost an arm at some point so Ric immediately referred to him as the one-armed bandit.

The following day, we visited two cave systems - the Mystery Cave in a state park and the privately owned Niagara Cave. Both were really interesting but unfortunately, our little camera is not equipped to take good photos in such conditions so we cannot show the true majesty of these structures. We then headed towards Wisconsin - a state Jenny had wanted to see - via Harmony. Harmony is a small town with apparently a large Amish population. Amish were not thick on the ground the day we went through (it was Sunday). Ric, the ex-reconniassance man - put his tracking skills to work. While we saw all manner of dead critters on the road (as we usually do) there were no signs of the Amish. No buggy tracks - not even horse poo.