June 21 and 22

Day 24 and 25

Well, since we were on the Mississippi I checked to see what there was to do near Le Claire, IA.  I found a 2 day Riverboat Cruise.  Steve and I have discussed several times about going on a Mississippi River Cruise, but the cost is more than we want to spend.  Sooooo, I found one that looked like it would be fun and affordable.  We left Thursday morning, left the MH and Chevelle with Mike at the farm, boarded the Riverboat for Dubuque, IA.  From Le Claire to Dubuque by car it is about 1-1/2 hour trip.  By Riverboat it was a 10 hour trip, going up river and against the current.  We went through Lock 12 and 13.  This is very interesting.  Had great meals.  We spent the night in Dubuque at the Grand Harbor hotel and wandered over to the Casino for an hour or so.  What Steve lost at Roulette, I made up for half of it on a Penny machine.  Crazy huh!!

On Friday morning the Riverboat provided us with a shuttle to go do some sight seeing.  We went to the Methodist Church to see the leaded glass windows that were created by Tiffany, himself.  These windows are absolutely beautiful.  Our next stop was at the Fourth Street Cable Car.  The person that had this built worked in town but lived up on the hill.  He wanted to go home for lunch each day, but the walk up the hill was too much so he decided to have this built.  Boy, is it steep.  Very interesting.  Our final stop was at the Mississippi Riverboat Museum and Aquarium  This is definitely a great place to take kids.  Very interactive displays and lots of fun for the little ones.

We boarded the Riverboat at 11:30 a.m. for our return to Le Claire.  The return trip only took about 6 hours because we were going down stream and the current was going with us.  We met some great people and just had a very nice time.  I would recommend this adventure to anyone.  It was relaxing, way too much to eat and very interesting history.  We saw lots of Bald Eagles along the way.  They are beautiful.

Mike picked us up from the dock and we headed back to the farm to get ready to leave for home.

Oh, did I mention that while we were in Dubuque at the hotel, Steve got a call from his previous boss at Parker wanting to know where he was and when he would be available to help them out on a problem? 

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House on stilts on the Mississippi

This is called the May fly.  Seems they live for only one or two days a year and make a mess of things while they reproduce.  We left before the major "blum" the next day. Apparently, they have to actually close the streets down due to the slim.  Yuck.