Blogs from Dubuque, Iowa, United States, North America

Effigy Mounds National Monument, Harpers Ferry, Iowa It is not unusual to view, in a national park, works made of dirt. At Ocmulgee, in Georgia, on last year’s trip we saw huge platform and burial mounds, one as tall as fifty feet and bigger than a city block. Mostly, they believed, these mounds served as platforms for the houses of the power and religious elite. Some of them, as digging found, served as burial mounds. And there were a few that were definitely ceremonial lodges where people entered through a dug-out hole into a chamber that was partially underground, and surrounded with thick walls of dirt. Ancient Puebloans, with a different kind of mostly sandy dirt, didn’t create piles of sand, but rather learned to create mud bricks and built elaborate great houses. Although involving more ... read more

Pikes Peak State Park, MacGregor, IA ‘What?’, you say! Pikes Peak is in Colorado, not Iowa! So how can they be at Pikes Peak in Iowa? Good question. But here we are. Turns out that the same dude, Zebulon Pike, the first European to describe the singular peak on Colorado’s front range, also discovered this spot on the Mississippi River. And it is called a ‘peak’ here because it is the tallest bluff on the Mississippi River, around 500 feet above the river surface. Maybe not quite as tall as the mountains in Colorado, but impressive anyway. We didn’t have time yesterday to get pictures from the top, but we are going to be here a little while, so we’ll post them later. It is a State Park and we are camping here for a few ... read more

This morning we drove from Peoria, Illinois to Dubuque, Iowa and we are now back to the Mississippi River. It was a bit harrowing getting here because we had to drive through an October snow storm. We changed our route somewhat, sticking to highways and avoiding the back roads that run nearer the river. By the time we made it to Dubuque the precipitation had stopped, but it was still pretty cold. I think the high for us today was 35 degrees. We are just glad that there is no accumulation of snow to deal with. We spent most of the afternoon in the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium. It has displays about the river and ecology and is reasonably well done, but not as informative as some museums or aquariums we have been to. ... read more

Saturday, July 31, 2010 - Manchester to Dubuque “Take me to the river, drop (wash) me in the water” Al Green via Talking Heads et al. An easy 48 miles, right? WRONG! An easy 28 miles to Bankston, including passing through Dyersville, home of the “Field of Dreams”. You could feel the electricity in the air. Everyone was pumped. In the next 5.9 miles the real hills began. Fortunately those were all down hills, some very steep. I was cautious and never exceeded 25 mph but some came screaming by me at speeds at least 10 mph faster. Then we hit a flat and the little town of Graf. Shortly there after came THE HILL. Potter’s Hill was a mile long, .8 of it at a 19% grade. I didn’t ever think about it. I was ... read more

We left Indianapolis and had to decide where to go to next. We had a few days to fill before we drove back to Chicago to meet up with relatives again. We had ideas that we would like to see Oklahoma and Texas but felt we didnt have enough time to do both of them so instead we headed north to Dubuque in Iowa. Dubuque is located along the Mississippi River, not quite as wide as it is in St Louis nor was it quite so muddy. The city lies at the junction of three states of Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin. It is one of the few cities with hills in Iowa. We noticed a difference in countryside. Gone were the flat cereal growing farmlands and were replaced by mile upon mile of green meadows, Dutch ... read more