Great River Road / Fall Colours MSP->STL

[Grainbelt]

Wandered down to St. Louis last weekend to crash a party a friend was throwing, and bake some pies. It is fall, after all.

Quick 11hr, 550mi day down there. It was 39F when I awoke on Friday, so I went back to bed and didn't actually leave until after 9.

I abhor the interstate, so I took US and state highways the entire way, with the exception of slabbing it on 80/280 around the quad cities.

Route link

Blasted down US 52, a route I know very well, since I have family scattered around SE MN. Dropped into Iowa, gassed up in Decorah, and made my way to the river at Guttenberg, IA. Kept seeing signs for 'honey and jam at scenic overlook' and thought, I could bring some jam to the party. :dunno

Bought some raspberry jam, had a nice chat with the people running their little famers-market-style booths, and headed south.

Harvest was in full swing, so I had plenty of opportunities to downshift and pass grain trucks, tractors, combines, and the like. This one was close to the road so I nailed the brakes, pulled a u-turn and snapped a pic. Soybeans being harvested, for those of you not from this part of the world.

A short time later I realize I had to pee. Now, this being central Iowa, there aren't trees anywhere other than farm yards. Here's the view from the only cover I could find.

Gassed up in Monmouth, IL, and noticed a Taco Bell next door. Now, I don't eat a lot of fast food, but that Dorito shell taco thing has been on my mind for a while, so I slurped one down. Soo bad, yet soo good. Perfect road snack. Onward!

Somewhere around dusk in the middle of IL, my bike rolled over 40k miles. That's 25k since I bought it in Aug 2010. Worthy milestone.

Sun was going down, I still had a few hours to run so I put on my heated vest and neck gaiter and got back on the road. No more pics from that day, but suffice to say I was happy to see my goofy friends and sit down with a few beers.

 

[Grainbelt]

Now, I'm a big fan of Autumn. Leaves crunching, colors changing, and more than anything, ripe apples mean it is time to bake some effing pies. :rockon:

We hit up the local farmers market, and found some nice tart apples as well as some fresh pears. My buddy wanted pumpkin, so he bought a pumpkin too.

I, meanwhile, proved that I am as juvenile at 31 as I was at 13.

Pumpkin was put in the oven, black powder rifles were shot at the farm, and I chilled the flour, butter, shortening, bowls, and rolling pin. Pie crust has to be on the very cold and very dry side of being almost impossible to roll out, to ensure that it is flaky and the fat doesn't melt into to the flour. This is normally not a problem, but my hosts only had a tapered (French?) rolling pin, not a standard flat one with handles. I sorta mangled the whole thing but managed to bake the empty shells for the pumpkin and get the apple done, as well as a new attempt for me - blackberry pear with cardamom.

It was worth the effort, and the homemade pumpkin was a big hit (people seriously use cans all the time?)

 

[TSRBrad]

Nice pics and sounds like a fun excursion.

I made sort of the same trip (heading north) earlier this year. Pretty boring riding between STL and Quad Cities but I did jump over into Illinois at Alton and followed the river for a while but things really flatten out after that.

Hwy 67/52 between Davenport and Dubuque is a very enjoyable ride but the best part is hitting the county highways starting just north of Dubuque, up to Prairie Du Chen. Great scenery and absolutely GREAT roads.

Finally crossed into Wisconsin at PDC and followed Hwy 35 into La Crosse, then back home on 61.

 

[Grainbelt]

Alright. Sunday, figured I'd head partway home and meander along the river a bit. Didn't hit the road til about three, so I noted where the state parks were and figured I'd stop at dark and camp somewhere, then finish up on Monday.

Well, the river road in that area is effing slow. Grafton was full of HD pirates and slow ass tourists. I only made it ~200 miles in four hours.

Route Link: Edwardsville, IL to Nauvoo, IL - Google Maps

I waited for half an hour to get across this lift bridge over the Mississippi in Hardin, IL.

That done, I hit some construction, passed some more pirates at a, err, spirited? pace, and got up past Hamilton just as the sun was setting. Never did see (unlit) sign for the state park south of town, got up into town, saw a bunch of signs for historical sites and whatnot, eventually some dude at a bible camp asked me wtf I was doing turning around in his parking lot at 8pm, and gave me directions to the park. Which was a mile away, right at the edge of town, completely unlit and unattended. No ranger station, nothing.

I found a campsite, saw a sign that if no one was there, they'd get my cash in the morning, and crashed out for the night.

In the morning, everything became clear. That big church I saw? Mormon Temple. Historical sites? Old Mormon settlement. Big statue? Joseph Smith and his brother, right before they were tried for treason and the rest of the Mormons fled to Utah.

 

[Grainbelt]

The ride back from there is where it got all sorts of stupid. My GPS was on the fritz, I forgot which of my five bags had a Wisconsin map, and generally forgot that even though I had planned on two leisurely days to get back, I'd only made it 200 miles the day before.

Here's the route of derp: Nauvoo, IL to Minneapolis, MN - Google Maps

I set off thinking I'd follow the river, since I skipped this section in the interest of time on the way down. Cool again in the morning, but nice enough and not much traffic for a weekday. Crossed over into IA at Burlington, then stopped for a snack and a break at a wide spot in the river valley just north of town.

The fall colors were in full-on splendor here. They were good for most of the trip, but really nice thru N IA.

From there I (stupidly) went up thru Muscatine, since I had been there a decade before for work and wanted to see if my memory held up. Yep, still a river town. Worked my way up to the quad cities and took the slab around, missed an exit, and backtracked back to the river. Stopped off in Fulton for lunch, and remembered somebody said there was a windmill there.

Yep. They had some Dutch workers assemble it overseas, take it apart, ship it there, and put it back together, about ten years ago. They mill lots of grain, just to sell in the giftshop. We got to talking about the Mill City Museum in Minneapolis, all sorts of other stuff, the relative viscosity of organic sheep and horse fat (they switch to horse in the winter) and before I knew it it was 2:30, and I was still in freaking Illinois.

Made it up past U.S. Grant's house in Galena, IL (cool town, btw, very touristy though) and finally into WI. Down the river road, past the Potosi Brewery but with no time to stop for beer.

SW WI looks like this, everywhere:

Went thru Cassville and stopped to get a pic of this old church up against the bluff.

Then on up to Prairie du Chien and over to Hwy 99 on the west side of the river. This is an old military road used to move supplies between two forts in the 1800s. Cool spot.

From there I grabbed IA 76, which is a fantastic road. Didn't have time to run IA 26, but that is nice as well. Then up to I90 at dark and decided to take the interstate home to avoid the deer as much as possible.

1400 miles of smiles. Thanks for coming along.

 

[lytehouse]

1400 miles of smiles. Thanks for coming along.

No, Thank You for sharing it with us! :rockon:

 

[mxgolf]

Thanks for the great ride report and the excelent photos. :thumbup::thumbup:

 

[motojoe122]

I printed out a pic of the pies....It didnt taste the same

Great pics tho:thumbup:

 

[DANG144]

Thanks for posting up the ride report! I got married in that church in Cassville in '93, musta worked, I'm still married to a wonderful girl.

You're right, there is some great riding all around sw Wisconsin.

Great Pictures btw, thanks again.

Dan.

 

[JPH]

Awesome!! Thanks for Sharing! :thumbup: