Red Wing, Minnesota

Hello from Red Wing, MN. We have had some great times the last few days. Let's start with our day off, Sunday in La Crosse, WI. We went to Christ Episcopal Church. It was a beautiful historic church built in the 1800's. Everyone was super friendly and made us feel very welcome. Anyplace you can take your bike inside is a good place. After church we celebrated 65 year wedding anniversary and had some excellent Rhubarb.......something. When we left church we found the YMCA and went swimming which felt great on my neck and back. So far they are holding up pretty good. Sorry I can't say that for the migraines but what can you do?? La Crosse was an interesting town on the river. There was a great park so we bought a sub and went to the park to eat. After that we rode back over the bridge to our campsite. Hap did some maintainance on the bike and I helped by taking a nap! A lady working at the visitor's center told us that there was going to be a jazz concert at Riverside Park so after my nap we rode back across the bridge, picked up a pizza at Big Al's and headed to the park. Several people were there waiting, but there was only one problem. Someone forgot to invite the band. After waiting awhile we rode back across the bridge and headed to bed.

An OLD friend of Hap's explained what the splashing in the Mississippi River was the night before so I want to share that with you. Keep in mind that he is a Retired pilot, went to Purdue AND is from California! "That splashing was most likely the Mississippi River Monster, called “Missy” by the locals. No one has ever gotten a good photo of it, but there have been several sightings reported by drunken fishermen and other reliable sources. A grainy video was posted on youtube.com several years ago, but the original tapes have been lost. Some believe they are stored in a large warehouse in Area 51 with a crate containing the Arc of the Covenant. The thing that you thought was a snake was probably a young Missy. There is some speculation that there is, in fact, a mating pair somewhere between New Orleans and Minneapolis." Nuff said!

Yesterday, we didn't leave La Crosse until 2pm. Ok so let me 'splain to you! We had to pick up our mail in La Crescent, MN which was 3 miles west in MN from where we were camping. So we got up and rode the wrong direction to pick up the mail. Then we spent alot of time going through papers, maps, clothes and stuff that we didn't need to mail home. Once we left the campground we had to ride across the Mississippi again going east this time to Wisconsin and then FIND the post office. After finding the post office we decided it was time for LUNCH! I had seen a European Bakery restaurant (wouldn't YOU have stopped there) so we ate lunch. The lady at the visitor's center (the SAME one who told us about the jazz concert) told us about a bike trail that went 25 miles north to Marshland WI started from right here. So we took off on the bike trail (it's right here you can't miss it...) and of course realized that we really wanted to ride NORTH not EAST. So we got out our trusty maps and ended up riding up RT 35 north until finally we found the trail. In the meantime we passed a Walgreen's and I needed a refill of a prescription. And of course they said it would be a half hour wait. We waited and I got my prescription only to realize that when they called the pharmacy in Circleville it was transferred wrong so they had to call them AGAIN. So we waited some more, and then they didn't have enough of what I needed...........whew I'm tired already. Now it is 2pm. He said he could have them tomorrow. We told him we would get them at another Walgreens. OK so now we found the trail and are headed north on the Great River Trail. It was very pretty. A packed dirt trail in the woods. We ended up on Rt 35 again and headed BACK across the Mississippi to Winona, MN and stayed at a campground on the river. For dinner Chef Hap cooked spaghetti noodles, beans and mandarin oranges (not in the beans!). The weather was warmer. The mosquitos chased us into the tent!

Todays ride was all on the Minnisota side of the river on Rt 61. It was generally flat and we had a tailwind. How did THAT happen? It was really hot today. We had breakfast at the Country Kitchen in Winona and headed north. Just as we were passing Wabasha we saw a sign for a DQ..........so what would YOU do? Hap forced me to eat ice cream. Wabasha is the town where the movie "Grumpy Old Men" was made. All day we had a huge berm, low traffic and great views of the river. We rode into Red Wing and found the Island Campground. Of course that meant going across another bridge to get there. Are you seeing a theme here? We did some laundry, took a shower and headed to a restaurant on the harbor for dinner. It was a great place.