Minnesota - The Vacation (Day 1)

Cutter's Log - Stardate 1102.52.40
Current Song - Lookin' Out My Backdoor (CCR)

Note: I've been back since April 7, and it is now April 25. Of the 18 days since I came back home, a lot has happened. Thus the delay. Plus, I didn't write while on the vacation (compared to last year) simply because there was too much to do.

There are pictures of the trip on my Facebook photo album.

Because of the numerous things I saw, I had to break the entry down into four days. This entry recalls Day 1, with the subsequent entries recalling days two, three and four.


After I came home from New York around this time last year, I started to think about where I would go the next year. Would I continue on my Hall of Fame journey and go to Springfield, MA (basketball)? Would it be somewhere west, or south? I thought about it for a while, and there were many bumps in the road along the way.

Mainly, running the website caused me to put the vacation idea on the backburner. I had requested some time off the week after Christmas, and thought that would be a perfect time to maybe go somewhere south or west. A destination just wasn't thought of. Ideas came to mind, such as Montreal, Boston, Florida, and Seattle. Myrtle Beach was another, and seemed to be the favorite. When it came time to start thinking about the actual vacation, I didn't have much planned. The days went by fast, and I spent this week off at home instead of somewhere else.

The time off allowed me to think of vacation plans earlier. I planned another week, this time in April, for the actual vacation. Again, Myrtle Beach seemed to be the favorite, but some other ideas came to mind. That, combined with the fact that any beach destination was going to be packed with people wasn't going to be enjoyable, made me look somewhere north.

From Illinois, there isn't much north. I had been to Milwaukee, Green Bay, Detroit, and the Mall of America. I needed a Passport to leave the country, thus forcing Montreal out. The feeling of Northern Exposure came to be a little, and I kind of focused on some point in Minnesota. I didn't know much about Minnesota, other than the fact that the Mississippi River starts there (and my sixth-grade teacher once visited the point where it starts). After that thought, it kind of all came together.

Visit the Mississippi River where it starts, and drive along it until I get there.

I really like off-beat drives, and this kind of solidified the plans. The first time I went to St. Louis, we went there from the Quad Cities down on the west side of the river. Real enjoyable.

After planning a route, and a vacation timetable, the journey to Lake Itasca was on.

I budgeted less than what I did last year. My mom would use the term "el cheapo" on trips that weren't all that financially great. But they were good trips, anyway. Just like this one.

"El cheapo" meaning for this trip:

1. I cut out a coupon for a loaf of bread, another coupon for a pound of ham, buy cheap sandwich bags, and made sandwiches for the trip. Cut out another for a 12-pack of pop, and put that in the cooler as well.

2. Find the cheapest chain hotel possible for a three-night stay.

3. Start filling up my tank in Iowa.

The first stop was Clinton, just for the purpose above - to fill up my tank. I wanted to leave very early in the morning, so I could cram the Mississippi adventure from sun-up to sun-down. I left home at 4:00 a.m., not knowing when the sun actually came up. I was given some lottery advice from a customer of mine, to buy tickets while vacationing because it always seems like the winners are always those who just pass by. So along with the gas, and fuel treatment, I bought a Cash Game ticket, Hot Lotto, Mega and Powerball ticket.

On north on Route 67 to Sabula. I had passed through Sabula a couple of times, but no from the side I came up on. It was still dark out, and around 5:00 a.m., and I parked at a place called Driscoll's Island for a small break and took pictures. The camera - Danny's - didn't fare too well for night shots. I had a feeling that this was going to be the theme for most of the Iowa stretch. It wouldn't do much good to go into Sabula because there would be nothing to take pictures of. It was there I planned to shoot a "gag photo" of myself on the Savanna-Sabula bridge. That would be on the way back home.

On north on Route 52 to Bellevue. To my dismay, it was still dark out. On our way back from the Mississippi River museum in Dubuque (with my grandparents some years ago), we stopped at a cafe there and watched barges go by. It was night, but the camera began to work a little. The town has a nice riverfront park.

As 52 worked its way north toward Dubuque, I noticed that I wasn't following the River any more. So I tried to go on some backroads to get parallel with the river. I veered off at St. Donatius, which is a small town with a Luxembourg heritage (and perhaps bigger than Luxembourg itself?). The thought of going on vacation and driving on gravel roads seemed a bit exciting before I suddenly got lost. What then made it worse was a wicked curve of the road. I was driving 30 mph when I cut a tight curve to the left. No signs or anything, but this curve made my car fishtail and my heart chugging. So I had to take a picture of the curve that nearly killed me. But all worries aside, this part of Iowa is very hilly and there are a few shelled-out houses, too.

Getting back on course, Route 52 then made its way into Dubuque. I had been there a few times, mostly for visits to Diamond Jo Casino when I was bored after Highland classes. The main bridge to Dubuque, the Julian Dubuque Bridge, engulfs the rest of the cityfront when looked at on the climb down on Route 52. While I had visited Diamond Jo on the riverfront before (both boat and land), I never visited the actual riverfront. Thus I did, and it was light enough for some good pics. There's a little walkway on a levee, and it had markers for the Star Brewery and the Shot Tower. They made lead in the Shot Tower.

Going up further on Route 52, I took a turn off toward the river. It was there I decided just to follow the "Great River Road" and "America's Byways" signage throughout the entire trip. The turnoff took me to a couple of unique places.

Balltown was just a small little town until I noticed a place I had seen before in a couple of news reports. Breitbach's Country Dining is the oldest restaurant in Iowa, and perhaps known for a couple of fires there in recent years. Unfortunately, they were closed on Mondays, so breakfast had to wait. Leaving Balltown, there is a great lookout where one can see for miles (just think of the "Who" song). Any place that has a binocular machine is a sight to see.

The next stop on this very tiny road was a place called North Buena Vista. Usually I think of Buena Vista as a southern resort, but this was far from it. The road actually just nicks the corner of the town, but I went in. There is a grotto made from the foundation of rock. There are also some campsites, and an old restaurant that kind of looked like a place I wanted to eat at. It was there that I wanted to stray away from the usual chain places, and have dinner at these types of "dives."

Going up even further on Route 52 (I rejoined it again), I kind of got the feeling that Iowa is much more than it's sterotypical feeling - that of corn and farms. Upon reaching Guttenberg, there was a "roadside table" (I call them) along 52. It was a unique view of the river looking north, where most views make you look left and right. The river was very high at that point, so I wasn't able to tell the actual river boundary, but there was plenty of river to look at. It was there that I tested out the camera's 10-second feature. My family kind of gets a little bummed when I take these pictures and there's not much of me in them. This 10-second thing would really help out on the photo album, having to balance the camera on a level point and then dash to a pose.

Once again, after leaving Guttenberg, I found myself not seeing the river anymore. I didn't want to get lost like earlier in the day, so I just drove on until I found the next major road that would take me east again. That was a road to McGregor. It was there that I found Pikes Peak Park just south of the town. My feet were tired and I decided to take an extended break. I was the only car in the parking lot of this very large park. You go on vacations to get away from it all, and here I was literally away from it all. Pike Peak was the place to see where the Wisconsin River met the Mississippi, but with a lot of high waters it was hard to tell where the meeting point was. There was also a marker there stating that Father Marquette and Louis Jolliet entered the Mississippi from here.

When I got back to my car, I noticed that my both my camera battery was low and my cell phone battery was getting lower. I had both chargers with me and found a shelter with a couple of outlets for charging them. While I was waiting for them to charge, I walked around the park a little bit before it rained. (Mind you I was the only person at the park, so I could literally leave my electronics safely in the shelter and walk freely). I read a park display reading out the path of the northern part of the river, and noting to myself that I was making great timing to make it to the Twin Cities before dusk.

McGregor is an interesting-looking small town. Most of the town is high, while the downtown is nearly level with the river. You could see shops, with the rock bluff literally in the background. I didn't know this before, but McGregor was the site of the first Ringling Brothers circus. We were off Route 52 at this time, and was on a county road. After leaving McGregor and Marquette (pretty much twin cities), I was anxious to get to the Minnesota border - much to the tune of the cries of "are we there yet?"

Finally after exiting New Albin (a town that has a high school with a lot of state baseball championships), we reached the wooden sign hanging from a stone rock, "Minnesota Welcomes You". There was another marker at the sign, with a mileage display. Another 150 or so miles to the Twin Cities. I crossed the border around 2:30 p.m. and hoped I get to the day's endpoint soon. But there was a lot of river to be seen. At this point, the roads and Minnesota landscape were becoming the attraction.

I reached Winona only to see a very unique rock on the top of the hill. I didn't know what it was until I stopped at a Walgreens simply to find some Minnesota postcards. It was after reading the postcards that I found the name of Sugar Loaf Rock. Green-eyed lady, lovely lady? Hardly. The rock looks like a vertical trapezoid sticking out of the ground. I drove through Winona, which is home to Winona State University (were Rock Island played a football game at a couple of years back), and stopped at their riverfront.

After leaving Winona I noticed my gas tank was getting dry. I went on for a few more miles on Route 61 before deciding on a Kwik Trip in Kellogg. The price of gas there was the same as it was in Sterling at the time (3.79). Little did I know this gas would be better than the Shell gas I got in Clinton. Because I that took me to Itasca and back to the Twin Cities.

On I went following the river past Wabasha and into Lake City. The welcome sign to Lake City noted that the town was the birthplace of waterskiing. The Mississippi forms a lake at this point (hence the name Lake City), where I stopped and took some river pictures because of the vast amount of water. To tell how high the water was at the time, I placed my camera on the ground and took a pic from ground level. There were small waves rushing onto the land as I took the picture.

I took a second break at Lake City to reorganize my plans. I had just topped off my tank at Kellogg and thought to myself that I was going to go over my fuel budget on this trip (not knowing how good this fuel in my car actually was). I had planned on taking a side trip up along the St. Croix River, which would have taken me to Duluth. I decided to axe that entire side trip, and put all resources toward the Mississippi. Thinking tactically kind of meant my head was getting the best of me for the day, and I was longing for the Twin Cities.

It was about 4:00 when I entered Red Wing. I wanted to get my mind off of vacation planning and find something interesting. Then I found the Red Wing shoe store and museum. It was basically a shop with shoes and Red Wing memorabilia. The place was also home to the world's largest boot (size 877), which is about two stories tall. The museum was upstairs and had a spacious artifact display telling the history of Red Wing shoes.

By the time I arrived in Hastings, I found out that these "Great River Road" signs were becoming misleading. I was following it, and I was crossing the Mississippi River at the same time. I hadn't crossed it since Clinton. I was a bit confused at that point, and stopped for a while. It was there that I realized that there's only one Great River Road in Minnesota, and it crossed the river at various times. I was playing tactical once again, and decided enough was enough. I drove toward the Twin Cities and found my way to the Travelodge in suburban Burnsville.

Because it is just me traveling, a small room with a small bed, television, alarm clock and a bathroom fits me well. When I got there, I went to the phone book to find a map of the city. There I could map my way through the Twin Cities along the river. I ordered some pizza and slept away watching television.

Day 2 would be touring the river through the Twin Cities, Day 3 would be the drive to Lake Itasca, and Day 4 would be the drive back on the east side of the river.

Day 2's adventure will come in the next blog entry.