Day 35 Dubuque, IA to Marquette, IA 62.0 miles Total 1,671.0 mi

 Another bright and sunny day, a little cooler and less humid.  Steve rode down into Dubuque for breakfast before heading north for Marquette.  Allane drove around Dubuque, looking for some neat building mural paintings we saw last night.



The Mississippi beckoned, so she walked the Riverwalk, enjoying the sunshine and morning quiet.  

Dubuque Star Brewing Co

Jukien Dubuque Bridge

Old Shot Tower where they made lead shot ammunition by pouring molten lead from the top of the tower.  It passed through a series of sieves to form it to the proper size, then it landed in a tank of cold water at the bottom.

Rolling hills and beautiful countryside.  We met for lunch in Guttenburg.  We watched an enormous barge collection being shepherded up river by a very large tug.  The picture (taken through the screen of a Fish Shack) shows about half of it, and it was three barges wide. 

Some of these hills were not just rolling, they were 11% and more grades for a mile or so.  Steve had to work hard ...again!
We did end up at The Frontier Hotel in Marquette, Iowa.  Steve was really happy to take a dip in their pristine pool!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 78 The FINISH! Snohomish, WA to Brackett's Landing, Edmonds, WA 22.2 miles Grand Total 3,820.5 mi

Image
STEVE HAS FINISHED HIS RIDE!!!!!! Son Ben, with great grandson Chip, grandson Elijah, granddaughter Briana, Steve, grandson Jacob, DIL Alison, granddaughter Alyssa and Allane celebrate at Brackett's Landing Steve dips his tires as Ben narrates for the Zoom participants and Brian Soergel, the editor of the Edmonds Beacon newspaper, gets the story. Like 67 other mornings this summer, Steve woke up and got ready to ride.  It was not a long ride, but it certainly was a momentous one.  I actually left before Steve for the first time, intent of finding my way to Brackett's Landing in Edmonds and ensuring a parking spot.  It is indeed a busy place for walkers, beachgoers, Tai Chi practicers, and scuba divers.   When the wildfires west of Winthrop forced us to find an alternate route through the Cascades, Steve elected to come through Stevens Pass along Rt 2.  We needed to find a place (originally supposed to be Anacortes) where he could dip his tires into the wate...
Read more

Day 1 - Belfast to Windsor; 35.7 miles

Image
My dear friends, John Williams and Judd Thompson, joined me for this first leg of the journey. John Benziger, who rode this leg yesterday because of the sketchy forecast for today, will join us tomorrow and onward.  Allane, bless her soul, got us to the start point and then drove the car back to Windsor. We dipped our tires in the Atlantic waters off the Belfast pier to not just officially start this journey, but to bless it for a safe and successful finish. The three riders for this day left Belfast under a partly cloudy sky. We anticipated colder weather, heavy clouds and winds. It turned out to be an almost perfect riding day. The clouds cleared, sun came out - we even lathered on sunscreen, and the winds were light. A remarkably nice day though we all went in with layered clothing, rain gear in our panniers, and a stiffened resolve to ride on regardless of the weather.  John, Steve and Judd The ride from Belfast to Windsor is one I've done several times in training. It's n...
Read more

Day 76 Leavenworth, WA to Skykomish, WA 51.0 miles Total 3,756.1 mi

Image
 The Enzian Inn in Leavenworth was above average in all respects.  When Steve learned that they offered breakfast, he signed up for the 7:30 seating and decided to sleep in.  Since he has not had a down day, this turned out to be a great idea.  He got a good night's sleep and filled up on a delicious breakfast.  They had an omelette station as well as fruit, meat, cinnamon rolls, pastries, muesli, and special yeast waffles with an amazing berry sauce.   He was off at 8:10am  for the last challenging mountain pass climb of the ride.  Stevens Pass was an elevation gain of 3,331 feet.  He stopped at the rest area after about 17 mies.  After that, he just climbed.   I was waiting for him at the top of the pass when he came riding up at about 12:40.   Finally reaching the peak! The ski area was all closed up, but there were a lot of day hikers all throughout the mountains.  Steve had a little lunch of tortilla, s...
Read more