(click on picture to enlarge)
Saturday, July 30, 2011. Decorah, IA to Decorah, IA. via county A52 east to state 76 north at Waukon to Cnty A26 east to IA 26 south to Lansing (ice cream stop). Cnty X52 south to McGregor Pikes Peak State Park. County X56 south to Guttenberg and the Lock and Dam number 10 (barge traffic). Cnty C7X west to X3C west to Elkader. Cnty X16 north to B60 west to Clermont to B40 west to W42 north to to W38 north to Decorah (pork chops)
Beautiful day but a bit hot and humid. A lot of the nicest roads were high and offered great panaramic views of the countryside. They also had nice sweeping curves which we could take at highway speed and very little traffic.
We stopped at a road side picnic/boat landing for a break and an opportunity to figure our where we were and where we were going. Then headed to Lansing, IA and found an ice cream/bait shop called the "Skinny Dip". Had a good time eating ice cream and talking over the morning's ride. Lansing has a bridge across the Mississippi and thats where Keith was going to head across to Wisconsin and find his way home. We said our goodbyes and the rest of us headed on south to MacGregor on a nice county road. It was here that we decided to play "musical bikes". I traded with Greg. Then we stopped at another little town and I traded with Bill and Greg traded with Jim. At McGregor we got our own motorcycles back.
Next stop was the "Pikes Peak State Park". A nice park with a great overlook of the big river. Then we headed down to Guttenberg and stopped at a lock and dam where we watched a huge barge get a lift up the river. It was so big that it didn't all fit into the locks so had to seperate and go through in pieces.
Now it was time to start heading back to PorkChopVille (Decorah). Our main motivation was to get to the Nordic Fest before the smoked pork chop booth was closed. We found some more nice county roads with more great panoramic views of the hills, valleys and farms. And because these county roads run parrallel to main state and federal highways we mostly had the roads to ourselves. I was particullarly impressed with the architecture and use of building materials of the old farm houses, barns and churches. The builders really put some thought and quality workmanship into these structures. I would have like to have stopped and taken pictures of them all but we'd still be there taking pictures....
We stopped at a little city park in Clermont, IA. John was the first one to use the facilities there and came back and said that someone needed to take a picture of the men's room. That there was something very odd there. We thought that was an unusual statement and investigated. The men's room has two toilets, side by side with no divider. We had to wonder, why? and who would take advantage of these????
We made it back to Decorah, walked down town and had some great smoked pork chops on the street. Back to the house and a bible study on working "heartily as for the Lord". Then we headed back down town for the fireworks scheduled for 10PM. There was also a Nordic dance going on with some very talented dancers.
