Iowa
Saturday 22nd September
A full day of driving – right across Iowa ahead. Beautiful weather again today, I wonder how long it will last? The scenery around Savanna is stunning. We started off and immediately went off route as there was a spectacular metal covered bridge crossing the Mississippi. The river on the other side was so still, the sky was reflected in it. The trees running along the side were just starting to turn colour and U2 was on the radio – it could not have looked more breathtaking until we turned round and on the way back Ophelie and I both saw an Eagle flying just above us. Dk Brown/Black body, white head and yellow beak – and it was huge and in the wild. I just couldn’t believe it. Definitely a Kodak moment. One day I would love to come back to this region to spend some more time exploring the area in detail.
Saw so many bikers on the road – am sure they are all not going to the motel we just left. Just seems popular area, but to see them with wind rushing through their hair and the open road in front takes me back to the Harley ride in Cape Cod last year.
Galena and Dubuque are both pretty towns. Galena is on the river and full of little Victorian style houses. Dubuque has a lighthouse that some madman built in the middle of nowhere!
The scenery constantly changes. In the morning we had road names like Old Hawkeye Road and Thunder Falls by the afternoon the landscape was completely flat. There’s a song by Mansun – “I’m in a wide open space” – it’s exactly how I felt. The roads are completely straight and go on for miles – with the sun they had that mirage effect on them and I have never seen anything so flat. There are vast fields of corn with an occasional farm dotted here and there and the huge sky. The sky seems “softer” if that makes sense, at sunset the clouds were lilac.
We made a detour in the afternoon to West Bend. The Grotto Of Redemption (http://www.westbendgrotto.com) has the largest concentration of minerals/ semi precious rocks in the world. A priest starting building a shrine to the Virgin Mary and just kept going. The stones are worth over $5 million. I can’t really describe it so here are some pictures, it was fabulous.
Sioux Falls is our resting place tonight and we will spend a few days here to relax a bit. I can’t believe we have already done over 1000 miles.
Tags: America, Travel
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