Mount Pleasant, Iowa to home, sweet home.
Today's scripture: Isaiah 55: "... everyone who thirsts, come to the waters..."
After the rain this morning it was, thankfully, much cooler today. We had a long way to go to make it home (350 miles) so decided to take the first leg on the fast fourlane up through Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. This wasn't much fun but necessary.
We got off the super slab shortly after Cedar Rapids, IA. From there we headed north on State 150 to Decatur, IA. This two lane was better but still busy. After Decatur we got into the hills of southeastern Minnesota. Now things were getting interesting.
Keith & Lloyd wanted to take the most direct route home (US52). I (Wayne) however, had a hankering for some more twisties. So we split up at Preston MN. They continued north on US52 to Rochester and home while I headed east on State 16 to Lanesboro and Rushford. This is a very fun road but can be heavily traveled with tourists.
From Rushford I headed north on State 43. Stopped and took some pictures of an amazing abandoned brick dairy. It was quite the building (click on picture to enlarge it). After State 43 I went a ways west on Interstate 90 but jumped off at the first exit and started taking county roads. I took so many different roads that I can't even remember what the numbers were. I also drove through little towns whose name escape me as well. I really had very little idea of where I was. I just knew if I went east I'd hit US61 eventually and if I went west I'd hit US52. So I went east some, west some, north some, east some, etc. The roads were twisty and great fun. A couple of curves did have some gravel on them which was a little dicey...
I eventually ended up in Wabasha, MN on US61. From there I needed to decide if I wanted to head home on 61 or take some more twisties first. It was only about 4:00 PM so I chose the twisties. I took MN60 west along the Zumbro river. This is another great-fun road and I was glad I took it.
Finally my fun came to an end as I decided to head home on US52 at Zumbrota Falls. This is a quick four lane and I was home by around 6:30PM. It was an exciting afternoon. This was an unexpected benefit in that I thought today would just be travel day.
Overall we had a great trip this past week. A bit hot but that is what we expected when we decided to head south in August. We found some great roads, saw some great sights, fellowshipped with great friends and met some great people. Thanks so much, guys for all of your help in making this such a good trip.
