Very Late Summer 2021: Roadtrip | |
This sci-fy looking device is what is left from the coal-fired electric plant that was torn down in Cassville, Wisconsin. I am speculating that this plant was a major employer in Cassville. Its demise might have contributed to the economic downturn that Cassville seems to be experiencing. | |
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Today was road trip day. The weather predictions called for a much cooler and cloudy day. After getting caught in the rain yesterday, we decided to stay closer to the van. I mapped out a 100-mile loop up to Prairie du Chien along any river road we could find, across the Mississippi River, and down to Dubuque, before returning to camp.
The small town of Cassville used to be a favorite place for us to fly to when we had our airplane. The landing strip was on a peninsula jutting out into the river. That gave it the feel of landing on an aircraft carrier. We could pitch a tent under our wing and camp out. With our folding motorbikes, we could drive into town, and drive to the nearby Nelson Dewey State Park.
This was about 15 years ago. We were sadly shocked by how the town had deteriorated. What had been a cute little vibrant town has been mostly boarded up. Even the airstrip has deteriorated to a rough condition that would scare off many airplane owners.
Cassville, being our first stop on the road trip, was going to be a breakfast stop. We were looking for our favorite Cassville cafe that we used to frequent whenever we flew into town. Alas, the cafe was boarded up like most of the downtown. Jeez, what happened?
There is one bright spot - the Cassville Car Ferry is still operating. This is the only river crossing between Prairie du Chien and Dubuque. It doesn’t just go straight across the river. It chugs a couple of miles upriver to a dock at Turkey River, a nearly non-existent unincorporated village. Unfortunately, after Labor Day, it only runs on the weekend, and today is Tuesday. We like to take a round trip on the ferry as passengers but we will have to wait for another visit.
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The Cassville Car Ferry provides a terrific boat ride up the mighty Mississip for just a couple of bucks. Notice the newly constructed ferry landing. This is the only new construction that we could see in Cassville. The ferry runs daily between Memorial Day and Labor Day. It only runs on weekends after Labor Day. Cars cost $15, but passengers are only $2. | |
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On well, time to stretch our legs. Our next stop was the Nelson Dewey State Park. The park is way up on top of the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River. At the foot of the bluffs is the Stonefield State Historical Site. This is a living museum of a farm and village restored on the former estate of Nelson Dewey, Wisconsin’s first governor. It's a fun place to walk through; however, unknown to us, after Labor Day, it is only open on weekends.
First, no cafe. Second, no ferry ride, Third, no Stonefield Village. On our fourth try, we finally hit paydirt. We drove up the bluff to the state park and hiked the stunning bluff trail overlooking the Mississippi River valley. There was one tiny problem - for the first time all summer, a horde of mosquitos pursued us. They weren’t terrible as long as we race-walked at top-speed, even up steep hills. We were fully tuckered out by the time we looped back to the van.
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Even though it was a windy and dreary morning, the view was still awesome. | |
With the aid of our Wisconsin Gazetteer, we found several obscure back roads that followed the river. My favorite road was a single-lane dirt track called Good-Nuf Hollow Road. Like the back roads in Utah, it crossed several creeks by driving through them instead of bridging over them. As the sign said - Good-Nuf. | |
No need for an expensive bridge. Just power your way through the creek. | |
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Just before reaching Prairie du Chien, we stopped off at Wyalusing State Park, perched high above the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers. We walked another bluff trail. Again, the mosquitos turned it into a sprint.
One thing we like to do on our trips is to inspect campgrounds. Both the campgrounds at Nelson Dewey and Wyalusing were nicely laid out, private, and with lots of elbow room. The showers were clean and modern. Wisconsin’s campgrounds are some of the best state campgrounds in the country.
Prairie du Chien’s downtown cafe just closed as we pulled up to the curb. There were a couple of bar-and-grills open, but we chose a Mexican restaurant on the outskirts. Mexican immigrants can truly cook. We were looking for a light meal, so we ordered a nacho plate to split. What we got was a mountain of deliciousness that only an authentic Mexican-owned restaurant could conjure up. So much for a light meal. We begged our waiter to wheelbarrow us out to our van.
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Los Aztecas, a Mexican family-operated restaurant in Praire du Chien is one of four Los Aztecas restaurants in that corner of the world (2 in Dubuque, 1 in Galena, 1 in Prairie du Chien). It opened just five months ago. The food was terrific. The atmosphere was terrific. The service was terrific. We have found some of the finest Mexican family-owned restaurants in some of the most unlikely places in America. | |
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Crossing the Mississippi between Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and Marquette, Iowa, puts the river's breadth in perspective. There are a couple of miles of sloughs and channels to cross before even reaching the main channel, and this is in the northern reaches of the river. It still has well over a thousand miles to journey.
Marquette is a cute little river town built on a bluff. It features a riverboat gambling casino permanently tied to a dock. We passed up the chance to turn a couple of dollars into millions and continued driving south along the river on the Iowa side.
Just a couple of miles from tiny Marquette is the larger town of McGregor. The last time we drove through McGregor, two years ago, it had just been hit by a tornado. Several trees were twisted up, and homes had blue tarps on their roofs. Happily, most of the scars had been healed. McGregor is a lovely town, in far better shape than poor Cassville.
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You can’t have a river town without a winery. But, where was the brewery? And the distillery? Come on Marquette, let’s get with the program. | |
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The Great River Road on the Iowa side is impressive and very rural, with rolling hills, prosperous farms, river overlooks, and a series of quaint little villages. It was getting late so we didn’t stop at Pikes Peak State Park. We had hiked it two years ago. It was hard to pass it up.
However, we noticed that many so-called resort areas hugging the riverbanks on both sides of the river, were host to a vast number of shabby RV parks. I guess that owning a waterfront cottage on the river might be expensive. I’m sure that renting a dinky plot to stuff a run-down camper-trailer on is cheaper, but these sardine communities did not look very inviting to me. Fortunately, there were also several nicely restored and charming old-world bed’n’breakfast establishments that would be fun to stay at.
Another nice river town is Guttenberg, Iowa. It features a private airpark on an island in the river - talk about landing on an aircraft carrier. Once we drove past a series of those funky RV parks I just mentioned, the actual town looked to be quaint and enticing.
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Scenes along the river, above the river, and on sloughs feeding into the river. | |
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About 20 years ago, we stopped in Dubuque and liked it. This time it was getting late as we approached Dubuque, so we just drove around a couple of the neighborhoods, including downtown, just to get a feel for the city. It looked pretty good, so we hoped to return tomorrow for a walking tour.
We returned to camp in time to catch another great sunset over the Mississippi River and twenty more BNSFs.
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Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum. | | | | |
