After forty delightful days touring Michigan, mostly in the Upper Peninsula, we rolled into Superior, Wisconsin. Friends, David and Patsy Kessler, were staying in Duluth, Minnesota and were leaving the next day so we had only one day with them. They drove fifteen miles down to visit us and we had a great time together and a good meal in a restaurant. It is always nice to see friends on the road. I forgot to make their picture so I'll use an old picture. Heck, since they travel in a motorhome they don't age.

In two years we plan to tour Duluth after traveling the Great River Road from New Orleans to Lake Itasca, Minnesota, but we wanted to take a peek at Duluth. It looks like an interesting city and we look forward to spending several days there in 2007. We did take one picture of the lift bridge, the largest lift bridge we have seen in our travels. Freighters pick up loads of grain, other products of the upper mid-west and iron ore in Duluth and the bridge must rise high enough to allow the freighters to enter Lake Superior.

North of Duluth we drove highway 61 by beautiful houses along the Lake Superior shoreline and when the highway became a modern four lane divided road, we exited to County Road 61 that hugs the shore and goes through small towns. Just north of Two Harbors, we spotted Betty's Pies. It was mid-afternoon on a Thursday and their large parking lot was overflowing so we had to wait for a table, but it was worth the wait. Betty's serves a full menu but pies are the specialty. She started baking pies years ago and the public loved them so she opened a restaurant and then moved and enlarged it. Betty is no longer there but her delicious pies continue. The list shows 26 baked varieties plus 21 cream pies including several five layer pies.

Doesn't this one get your mouth watering? Layer (1) pie crust (2) thin cinnamon meringue (3) melted dark chocolate (4) whipped cream (5) raspberry chocolate mousse with fresh raspberries. Unfortunately, only about fifteen varieties are served each day. We selected slices of warm blueberry crunch and blackberry peach served with ice cream and hot coffee - a great late lunch.

Visiting Friends

Internet friends, George and Kathleen Brosius, have been inviting us to visit them at their home in Stoddard, Wisconsin (south of La Crosse) so we stopped and spent a weekend with them. They have a nice house that fronts on the Mississippi River with a beautiful lawn and they are willing to sell it, buy a motorhome and hit the road fulltime next year.

George was a semi-professional bass fisherman and he won many tournaments. Just how good is he? Well, he won two bass boats. It was an honor and an education fishing with him in the Mississippi River and we were so busy pulling in bass we forgot to make any pictures. George said the fish were too small to keep but they looked large to Norm. As a boy Norm fished for bass with a cane pole in ponds in Kentucky and now he fished the big water with an expert. While the guys were fishing Kathleen took Linda to her archeology lab at the university and showed her many interesting artifacts, how they were cleaned and cataloged. Life on the road is great and friends make life better.

What do we do with friends? Eat and talk. Friday night we ate "all you can eat fish" at Rocky's, a local establishment, with fired cheese curds for an appetizer. Saturday evening found us eating delicious pizza at The Roadhouse and Sunday morning we ate brunch at Rosie's Cafe. All meals were great and spending time with George and Kathleen made it special. But we saved the best meal until Sunday evening and ate on their deck while watching boats on the river. George grilled tender mouth-watering steaks, Norm grilled corn on the cob and sweet onions, Kathleen prepared broasted new potatoes and a tossed salad and Linda fixed a cake topped with fresh fruit and brought a bottle of wine.

OK, we did more than eat. We took a scenic boat ride on the Mississippi River and into the bayous. (We didn't know the river in Wisconsin had bayous.) George and Kathleen took us to Grandad Bluff, an observation point 590 feet above La Crosse, for a beautiful view of the city. Then we roamed through the Coulees (over cliffs and rolling farm land) to the home of George's brother, Bruce Duwe and his wife Jody. They raise quarter horses and had a six week old colt that Linda fell in love with. Too bad we can't take a horse fulltiming with us. Bruce took us in their home and showed us a 26-ton stone furnace that was built by Amish. He said it takes three days to get warm enough to heat the house and another three days to cool down.

We enjoyed spending three days with George and Kathleen Brosius and thank them for taking time from their busy schedules to entertainment us. As we have written many times, the best part about traveling fulltime is the people we meet and we are rewarded with each visit. We hope to meet them on the road after their retirements next year.

Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin

Fifty miles south of La Crosse we stopped at Frenchman's Landing Camping near Prairie du Chien. The campground is nestled between railroad tracks and the main channel of the Mississippi River. It was interesting having trains rumble by the rear of our motorhome and the view of barges plying the river from our windshield. Using Passport America we got a rate of $10 a day and after a few days we decided to stay eight days and rest a while. Having 50-amp electric was nice because we could run both air conditioners during the extremely hot weather for Wisconsin with temperatures in the nineties. Six of the nights we grilled outside and ate on the picnic table. Some of the foods we grilled were smoked pork chops, chicken, ground chuck steaks, corn on the cob, sweet onions, potato strips and shish-kebabs with steak, chicken, shrimp, onions, tomatoes and bell pepper. Then high winds and rain moved in so we stayed two more nights since we don't like to drive in stormy weather. High winds shook the motorhome and woke us the last day. We jumped up to find trees bending over and large branches breaking off with six foot limbs blowing across the campground like paper. We had requested an open site so our satellite dish would work so our motorhome received no damage, but two sites away a travel trailer under trees received major damage. Several limbs up to six inches in diameter and thirty feet long fell on the trailer ripping the roof, breaking the air conditioner cover and skylight, bending the top of the slide and severely damaging one side. Parts of the campground looked like it was hit by a tornado or hurricane.

Prairie du Chien is the second oldest community in Wisconsin (Green Bay is the oldest) and is the oldest town on the upper Mississippi River. Its history dates to 1683 when Father Marquette and Jolliet explored the area and a few years later French Canadian fur traders came to the prairie to conduct business with Indians. Hercules Dousman arrived in 1827 and amassed a fortune in fur trading, lumber, railroading, land speculating and other businesses. He built a large home on St. Feriole Island and when he died his son, H. Louis Dousman, replaced the house with a larger more elegant structure known today as Villa Louis (pronounced Louie). From 1843 until 1913 the Dousman family called it home and it is known as the "World of upper class Victorian America."

Today the grounds are comprised of twenty-five acres of the original estate, is owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society and costumed interpreters give guided tours of about one hour in length. The house has been beautifully restored and furnished with 90% of the original furnishings. On the grounds are many other historical buildings of which some have been restored and are open for self-guided tours and other buildings are closed.

Before the Dousman family claimed St. Feriole Island as home, it had a significant impact on American history. One of the first western forts, Fort Shelby, was constructed for protection of the upper Mississippi River valley. During the War of 1812 William Clark, of Lewis and Clark fame, sent a large boat to the fort and it sat in the middle of the river loaded with cannons and gunpowder. In July 1814 British troops marched from Green Bay and along their trip they picked up support from settlers and Indians. The British reached the fort at Prairie du Chien and fighting began on July 17, 1814. The U.S. troops were out manned and for some unknown reason the cannon boat and gunpowder were sent downstream for it would not be sunk or captured. Without food and running out of gunpowder the U.S. troops surrendered after three days of fighting. Both sides must have been poor shots because there were no fatalities and only five U.S. soldiers were injured. Actually, the citizens of the Prairie du Chien area may have been happy the British won the battle and raised their flag over the fort because of their association with British fur traders. In 1815 the British troops burned the fort and left Wisconsin. This was the only battle on the War of 1812 fought on soil that became Wisconsin. Each year the battle is fought by re-enactors and we enjoyed the fighting from shade with temperatures in the upper nineties. We felt sorry for the British troops wearing heavy wool clothing. Both the U.S. troops and the British soldiers were camping and cooking on the grounds.

The U.S. Army returned in 1816 and built Fort Crawford and it has its place in history. Three major Indian treaties were signed at the fort and Indian chief Black Hawk surrendered to Col. Zachary Taylor. Jefferson Davis also served at the fort.

Iowa Side of River

We crossed the Mississippi River on day trips to check out the west side of the river. Marquette is a small town on the river bank that had its beginning in 1800 when Basil Giard received a Spanish land grant, one of only three Spanish land grants in the state of Iowa. In 1920 Marquette had the largest railroad terminus in Iowa, but today it has only 850 inhabitants. Isle of Capri Casino is located there with a river boat casino, hotel and restaurant that serves a great seafood buffet on weekends.

Just south of Marquette is the town of McGregor. In its heyday of 1860-1870 the town was a major river shipping port and boasted 120 businesses. Today the population is 662 and the town has retained many of the beautiful downtown buildings and houses. We ate lunch at Mr. McGregor's Beer and Bratz Garden while overlooking the river.

Effigy Mounds National Monument

Three miles north of Marquette is Effigy Mounds National Monument. Domed shaped conical mounds were being built about 3,000 years ago by people known as Woodland Indians and earthen effigy mounds began to appear about 1,400 years ago and were built until about 50 years ago when construction ceased. There are conical (round) mounds, linear (oblong) mounds, compound mounds (combination of conical and linear), and effigy mounds that are built in the shapes of animals with bears being the most common. They may have been religious sites or clan symbols that were used for seasonal ceremonies.

Surveys of northeastern Iowa in the 19th and early 20th centuries documented more than 10,000 mounds of all types. The land on which the mounds stood was logged, plowed and converted into farmland so today fewer than 1,000 survive. Effigy Mounds National Monument was established to preserve some of the remaining mounds. Within the park are 206 known mounds of which 31 take the shape of animals.

We began at the visitor center and watched an interesting video presentation and toured the museum with displays and exhibits. The park is divided into two units - the north and the south units. We inquired about ranger led hikes and found one was leaving for the north unit at 2:00 p.m., only a few minutes away. As visitors entered the building they were asked if they wanted to join the hike and all declined because it was 99 degrees in the shade. We always enjoy ranger led hikes because we learn more than taking a self-guided hike. Park Ranger Jeremy Bahls, a very nice, friendly and informative ranger agreed to take us on a two mile hike (that ended up being 2 1/2 miles).

The first half mile was a steep climb zig-zagging back and forth across a mountain to reach cliffs overlooking the Mississippi River. We hiked slow and drank bottles of water so the extreme heat and strenuous walk did not bother us. Jeremy took us to three conical mounds, to two compound mounds and then to Little Bear Mound. The bear is too large to see the entire animal but rocks around the perimeter outline the bear. Thens we hiked to Big Bear Mound and finally to Fire Point where after a few minutes Jeremy left us and headed back to the visitor center. We want to thank him for taking us on the hike on such a hot day, for answering all our questions and for being such a nice young man.

The scene from Fire Point is breathtaking with a view over the Mississippi River valley. From that elevation we saw the channels of the river with its many islands, Prairie du Chien and the coulees in Wisconsin, boats, a river barge and a hawk soaring below us looking for a varment to fetch. We stood there several minutes in silence and made some pictures before leaving. We took a one mile hike by Eagle Rock and down the mountain back to the visitor center. Effigy Mounds National Monument is one of the more unique parks operated by the National Parks Service and it is off the beaten path, but worth a visit.

Note:
There was much more to see along the river bordering Wisconsin and Iowa but we have to save the rest for later. In 2007 we plan to travel the Great River Road from New Orleans, LA to Lake Itasca, MN. We'll spend three month on that trip staying mostly in small towns so check back in the summer of 2007 for more. (No, don't wait that long - check back every month to see where we've been.)