Monticello, Iowa

 Dubuque, Iowa has never presented itself to us in our travels, and so we’ve decided to make a short detour in our way north to at least drive through town. We’re staying in a small rv park a few miles out of town, in Monticello, IA, in the Blue Inn Campground, site 14.

This rv park is small and smacks of Deliverance since most of the residents seem to be firmly established in their ancient motorhomes with piles of “stuff” everywhere. Our site is in a corner, right by a small stream, with a bit of concrete patio and a feeling of privacy. If we don’t look out the back windows we can pretend we’re camping alongside a nice trout stream!

Driving north on The Saints Highway, out of Canton, we passed through a few miles of rolling hills before easing into Iowa farm land.

Dubuque was known for years as a timber city. Situated in the Tri-State junction of Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin, it is in an ideal commercial location, and, using the Mississippi River as transportation, the city manufactured and transported lumber, John Deere equipment, boats and brew. In the 1870’s, the Diamond Jo railroad line made its company headquarters in Dubuque, making manufacturing even more important because of the ease of shipping. As with so many cities, this city of 60,000 has reinvented itself, and now tourism, technology and publishing are large players in the city’s economy. Sporting events still draw large crowds, as they have since Tommy John pitched for the Dubuque Packers in 1961.

Our time here is very limited, so we rushed into town to see as much as we could. 

The little creek just outside our door is called Kitty Creek, and flows into the Manquoketo River. Just around the corner and on our way into Dubuque, we stopped for a look at Monticello Falls.

This was the site of a flour mill and a hydroelectric plant until it was abandoned in the 1970’s, and was an interesting stop on our way into Dubuque.

Our first stop in this lovely city was the Fenelon Place Elevator. In 1882 Dubuque shut down for an hour and a half at noon so everyone could go home for lunch. A banker built a house on top of the bluff overlooking the Mississippi River and then complained that he spent a half hour each way going home by carriage from his business down by the river. The answer? An inclined railway! Rides were offered to the public, after the banker took his trip, for pennies. The price rose to a dime in the 1900’s and today is two bucks for a round trip. Beats the heck out of a 3/4 mile uphill walk!

The view of the city from the top of the bluff is impressive.

At the bridge on the left in the photo below is the state of Wisconsin. Across the river is Illinois and we’re standing in Iowa!

A trip down the elevator and a walk around downtown brought us to the City Clock.

And a few of the older homes in the area caught our eye.

A short ride down to the river on third street got us to the Dubuque Riverwalk.

Just off the Riverwalk is one of three remaining shot towers. Hot liquid lead mined just outside Dubuque was dropped from the top of the tower through screens and into cold water, creating ammunition for use during the Civil War.

Returning to Monticello via Dyersville, we happened upon the farm where the movie Field of Dreams was filmed.

Two local high school baseball teams had reserved the field as an end of school year/end of baseball season treat and were gearing up for a late afternoon game. Good to see a bunch of young men having a memorable day!

And, if you’ve seen the movie…..

The last leg of our daytrip took us through more iconic Iowa farmland. Open the car door and smell grass and cows!

We have been very pleasantly surprised at our visit to Dubuque, Iowa, and hope to visit again one day.

P.S. Left Monticello and wandered through Waterloo, IA, and Mason City, IA, before settling in for the night at the Diamond Jo Worthy casino in Northwood, IA. It’s a nice overnight spot. Easy night tonight!

Tomorrow: Minnesota!

Canton, Missouri. On the Mississippi

 312 miles north of Branson, we backed into site 19 at the City of Canton Mississippi River Park.

We traveled on some Missouri state highways, Interstate highways, and US highways, crossed the Lake of the Ozarks formed by the Bagdell Dam on the Osage River and crossed the Missouri River near Jefferson City, the capital of Missouri.

Jeff City is also where we dipped our hat to an old friend, US Highway 50, which passes near our house in California..

We had left the layered old mountains of the Ozarks,

Passed through a teleportation portal,

and found ourselves in corn and cattle country, driving north along the Great River Road.

Yes, we’re on the west bank of the Mississippi River once again! We’re waiting out the next round of severe storms as well as Memorial Day. The rv park we stayed in near Branson was beginning to ramp up the onsite bands, bounce houses, and Bar-B-Que, so we slipped out before the party got too rambunctious. Canton seems like the perfect, quiet place to stay.

The Canton rv park is just a few hundred yards downstream of Lock and Dam 20 just a few feet from the Big Muddy.

The Mississippi looks clear and calm here because the dam filters out a great deal of sediment and trash.

River barge traffic was very light when we arrived in Canton, but increased after dark. The huge barges and “workhorses” must maneuver through the narrow lock with just inches to spare. We have a good view of the lock approach from our campsite.

We heard the sound of powerful diesel engines just before midnight and knew a barge was about to navigate the lock. The lights on the top of the workhorse illuminated the barges all the way to the front of the string, but we saw barge hands at the front in radio contact with the captain. They cruised in just like they knew what they were doing!

Sasha took me for a walk the next morning, stopping to make sure that the river fowl were ok.

A barge was just coming through the lock, heading downstream.

Little towns along the river, like Canton and a few miles south, La Grange, exist because of the river and the commercial shipping on it. Canton has many large fuel tanks scattered along the river to refuel workhorses, and one of the largest grain elevator complexes we have seen, operated by a farmer’s cooperative.

We managed to get a bit closer to the plant that moves grain from the storage tanks out to barges at the edge of the river. Looking at the trucks parked in front, those tanks are tall!

And as you can see, it dominates the town!

Canton has a number of well kept older homes.

After a brief trip around town and a stop at the local market for Oreo cookies, we set chairs up at the front of the trailer and watched the world come by.

A large barge train headed upstream was unusual in that it was carrying another barge alongside.

As the Jason R. Nyberg disappeared into the lock, we looked across the river to the westernmost point of Illinois and the grain elevator near the end of the dam.

Memorial Day.

Donna has a paternal great grandfather buried in the Keokuk National Cemetery. We had to pay respect to him and all service members who died for us.

The cemetery was the site of a Civil War hospital during the war, with casualties of both sides brought here via the Mississippi river. Even with care, many died, including our ancestor.

Mr Marshall was originally from North Carolina according to extensive research done by Donnas brother and apparently died of dysentery in Keokuk. Records are few, but one thing is certain: Mr Marshall was only one of 700,000 people who died during the Civil War.

Working our way out of Keokuk, we passed through an old residential neighborhood that needs some help.

Anf found ourselves heading south through Indiana on the Great River Road, taking notice of some locals.

The Great River Road parallels the Mississippi and opens into vast expanses of farmland, mostly planted in corn this year.

We came across the huge grain elevators that we can see across the river fron the rv park. Donna is standing in front….

From there we could see the rv park across the river. Our trailer is that small white spot!

So we dipped a toe in the Great River and headed home through Quincy, Illinois and the Quincy Bayview Bridge.

The sunset was beautiful, with thunderstorms on all sides of us.

Our last day in Canton was spent dodging rain showers.

To paraphrase Garrison Keillor, “It was a quiet week in Canton. The ladies auxiliary…..”