Location: Mississippi-Palisades State Park, Savannah, IL
The drive up this part of the GRR was the prettiest so far. We are officially north of the flooded crest of the Mississippi River so roads are open albeit everything is saturated.
As the river recedes it has left a lot of wood debris, but this part of Northern Illinois has seen minimal damage. We took a couple of wrong turns first thing this morning, (this stretch of the GRR is hobbled together by country roads that are either poorly marked or have no names at all), but it was one of the best mistakes we've made. We drove for quite awhile right next to the river, within a couple of feet, and were in awe of the quiet serenity. The river was still moving fast, but quite flat and everything surrounding her was a deep lush green. At one point we drove by a small group of Belgian draft horses frolicking in the field and had to just stop for awhile and watch them. What a beautiful moment in time to just be quiet with my honey, watching the horses play, while the Mississippi rolled by.
Our first stop of the day was at Rock Island, Illinois at the U.S. Corp of Engineers Dam and Lock No. 15. There are 29 locks on the Mississippi, we've certainly seen our fair share, but this one was fantastic!! Our timing couldn't have been better. Just as we arrived a barge was leaving the lock, a pleasure boat was entering and then we spent the next 2 hours watching a double lockage. This is when a tow boat is pushing too many barges to fit into a lock at one time so it pushes in half of them, disconnects, and then pushes thru the second group. It was so much fun to watch the entire process and the Rangers were awesome explaining everything as it was happening. We had the added bonus of seeing a swinging train and auto bridge working with the lock system at the same time. Ned thought he had died and gone to heaven. I think it was his favorite day yet. For a week now we've been following the Mighty Miss. and stopping by the Information Centers, but today it all came together on how everything worked. We saw a really informative movie on the history of the Mississippi and why the locks were created to enable the navigation of this important travel byway. I honestly believe I could pass a test right now on the depths, dredging, navigation and lock system - ha!
It is just amazing how different this part of the Mississippi is from downstream. Once you are past the 3 huge confluences so much changes! We would never have imagined anyone boating, swimming or waterskiing in the Mississippi. Now upstream from these 3 main tributaries the river flattens out and is much calmer. We saw people enjoying the river as we would a lake. Amazing.
Our next stop after driving through the Quad Cities was Le Claire, Iowa home of Antique Archeology. Ned and I love watching Mike and Frank of American Picker fame. My impression of their shop was that it was off the beaten track, perhaps down a dirt road. Wrong! It's in downtown Le Claire, behind the BP gas station, and quite the hub of activity. It was fun to spot some of the items we had watched them pick - such as the Laurel and Hardy heads. We decided to take a stroll downtown Le Claire, which is basically a sleepy little town alongside the river that specializes predominantly in antique shops. Ned spotted a smoker and we decided it was probably our last opportunity to enjoy southern BBQ. We grabbed some pulled pork and had a picnic near the river, just being lazy and watching the Big Muddy roll by.
As we work our way upstream you can feel that change is a'coming. Little by little we've left the hot and steamy days of the Delta behind us, where people talked with a drawn out drawl, sipped on sweet tea and called you ma'am. People now speak with a bit of a twang or flat a's, the weather is cooler and bratwurst and cheese curds are beginning to show up on the grocery shelves. Knowing that Wisconsin and Minnesota are in our future, I began salivating for my much loved smoked whitefish.
Tomorrow we connect up with my family and I'm so darn excited to see my big brother, nephew and great-nephews. I just hope they don't mind that I'm bringing along a week of dirty laundry.
