September 9, 2026 - Guttenberg to Dubuque, Iowa

Well, today was a fiasco. It rained all night so we slept in and Tobey was hoping to get the road by 9:30. He was. Unfortunately, his ride was short-lived. About two blocks from the RV he realized his rearview mirror was missing on his bike. He turned around and came back.

We searched and searched. We were both sure we had taken it off last night when he got back, but could not find it anywhere. He got on the phone and called the three bike shops in Dubuque to see if they had one that would work. Nope. One might be able to order one and have it tomorrow. Because so much of his route is on roads with no shoulders we decided to load the bike and take off until we got to a section that went back on a trail.

It was a miserable drive - even parts of the road weren't much road! As we went through Balltown, Tobey noticed this restaurant.

It is the oldest bar and restaurant in Iowa, founded in 1852. Balltown has less than 60 residents!

Outside of Balltown, he was only a couple miles from the trail so we unloaded the bike and he was off to Dubuque and the bike shop (sans mirror).

 

This is one of the murals he saw riding into town.

I continued to Dubuque to the Mississippi River Museum where we would meet. Once parked, I went through the RV again ... and felt horrible - and elated - when I found the mirror. I quick called him and got him just in time because he was at the bike shop getting ready to order a mirror! Relief!! He continued on to a local optician who was able repair his glasses so he is in better shape.

When we loaded the bike yesterday it was raining and I had my jacket on ... and that's where his mirror was. We need to check and double check where we put stuff!

We took a short walk along the river and watched two paddle boats pulling out and heading along the river.

The first one was going through the bridge. It is actually a train trestle that turns sideways to allow the boats to go through. We saw the train stopped waiting for the trestle to move back into position before it could continue its route.

There were a couple of large turtles enjoying the afternoon sun.

Artwork along the walk.

We made another stop at the grocery store (RV refrigerators are not very big) and fill with gas before we will settle in for the night. His ride today was only 11 miles, but he did have one really large elevation gain. The weather tomorrow is supposed to be a little cooler and no rain so he is hoping to get an early start.

September 8, 2026 - Harper’s Ferry to Guttenberg, Iowa

Since the forecast was rain this morning we slept in (7:30am) before getting ready to drive down the road to where I would let Tobey get on his bike. We decided to stop at Effigy Mounds National Monument to check it out before heading on. As we got there, so did the rain! The visitor’s center was nice and we enjoyed a 20-minute movie that talked about the area and the creation of the mounds. After talking to one of the rangers we decided to go ahead and hike to the Fire Point lookout and see the Little Bear Mound Group. (Yes, in the rain.) We stopped back at the RV and got ponchos out and we shared one umbrella. It was a steep climb but fortunately, the first part is under dense tree cover so the hoods of our ponchos did the trick for us staying mostly dry.

The mounds are best viewed from above, so it was not easy to appreciate the exact patterns of the mounds as we went along. In this area we could see the bear patterns. There are also bird patterns in another section of the park. American Indians created these between 850 and 1400 years ago. Some of the tribal stories say that the bear is the guardian of the Earth and the bird is the guardian of the sky, so there may be a means of connecting the people to the land and their spirit world and ancestors.





It turned into a great hike – over 2 miles round trip. The rain did stop and it was cool to see the fog/mist hanging in patches of open space.

We also saw different types of fungi on the trees.


Back at the RV we headed on down the road toward Guttenberg where we are camped tonight. We wanted to scope out Tobey’s bike route so I could decide if I would let him ride or not. This is an area I said ABSOLUTELY NO to!

As we came up to one of the construction stops we looked out and saw this river covered in green (there have been several) but it had lots of ducks feeding in the water.

In Marquette we spotted this 10-foot tall pink elephant wearing a top hat. “Pinky” was built in 1963 and originally stood guard outside the Pink Elephant Hotel and Supper Club along the Mississippi River bluffs. To add to Pinky’s fame, Pinky water-skied on the River to welcome President Jimmy Carter who was visiting the area. In 2009, the supper club was demolished and Pinky was moved to its present location by a riverfront casino.

We arrived in Guttenberg about 12:30pm and after setting up camp and having lunch, Tobey set out to ride his bike back the way we came until the road got bad – or the rain started up again, whichever came first.

Along his ride he spotted a farm selling pumpkins and some selling corn on the cob.

He also watched some vultures chasing a bald eagle trying to get the eagle’s prey away from it. The eagle landed in the field and Tobey was able to get a great picture of it. He said it had something in its talons as it landed.

About 11-1/2 miles in, the rain started back up so he turned around and headed back to Guttenberg. (I was only allowing him about 14 miles before the shoulder disappeared so it wasn’t bad.)

Just before he took off, we discovered that we had neglected to close the vent over our bed when we arrived at Effigy Mounds. Needless to say, it was soaked! So … while he was gone, I used the hair dryer and tried to dry them and the bed out. I also took advantage of the time to do some other “house” cleaning.

Here are some shots from his ride back into town. This section of road had a shoulder!

The bed was dried out but we decided to walk to the laundromat and wash the sheets and some of his bike clothes while we were there. While Tobey waited there I walked a few more blocks and dropped some mail off at the post office. I went by the post office and saw this fun sidewalk art.

Laundry finished, we headed back to the RV in time for the rain to start again! Oh well, that’s the forecast for the rest of the night and it is coming down pretty hard! They are forecasting about an inch of rain.

Tomorrow is supposed to be dry by about 9:00 am so we will probably have a little later start again. The ride to Dubuque is only about 38 miles but he has three very steep climbs so it will take at least four hours. Today’s ride was 23 miles with one huge climb.

September 7, 2026 - Onalaska, Wisconsin to Harper's Ferry, Iowa

Three states - almost 69 miles - what a long, hard day it was!
Tobey headed out about 7:20 this morning ready to face the day. The trail wasn't marked well and he made a couple wrong turns just getting to it! Yikes. It was pretty once he reached the trail and was next to the river again.

I had a different route and went by a shopping center that had a line of cars waiting to turn in. There were at least 150 cars in the lot in line - like at Disneyland - waiting to drive through a COFFEE SHOP! I stopped at a grocery store and asked them what was going on and they explained it was a new coffee shop and they were running all kinds of specials. He thought they were giving away a free 6-ounce cup of coffee today. I'm sure glad I don't drink coffee. Some of those folks would be waiting for an hour or more before they got to the little shop!

Tobey got some good photos that I wasn't able to stop for.
He went by one of the Viking River Cruise ships and their port by La Crosse, Wisconsin.

This is one big ship!

This is one of the bridges we went on across the Mississippi from Wisconsin to Minnesota.

I thought this is a pretty bridge when I went across.

He even took a selfie of himself if you look closely!


So, it's goodbye to Wisconsin and back to Minnesota.

Still on the Mississippi River Trail ...

We stopped in Brownsville, Minnesota for a short break after his first 18 miles.

I stopped at one of the scenic overlooks and spotted a wooly worm (caterpillar) zipping along the parking area and had a nice view of the islands forming in the river.

Unfortunately, several sections of the road didn't have much shoulder for Tobey to ride on.

I also took a turn off the road to check out one of the Army Corp of Engineers boat landing sites. This area also suffered quite a bit of flood damage so they are working on restoration.


Tobey got some other fun shots on his ride before we stopped for lunch in Lansing, Iowa.


Lots of bluffs along this route.

Next stop - Iowa!

We had a long break in Lansing for lunch since Tobey had ridden 41 miles at this point. Lucky for us we didn't need to cross the river across again to the Wisconsin side because this bridge is under construction. The signs said it would be completed by November 2026, but I have my doubts. There was a ferry for cars that didn't want to take the long detour.
This was the ferry boat taking cars across.


Tobey was on this road leaving Lansing. It was HORRIBLE!

Leaving town, Tobey had the first disaster of the trip. No shoulder and a drop off edge do not make a good combination. He caught the edge and went down. He hit his arm and has a cut on his elbow, a cut on the back of his shoulder, bent his glasses, and has road rash and a big bump on his hip. It even bent his handlebars a bit. I didn't know because I waited to leave Hastings and we met up again until 15 miles outside of Harper's Ferry. Geez.

This is when the road got better but I wish he was on trails.

After he rested a little and we cleanup his cuts and had some Tylenol, he headed off down the road. He wanted to go as far as Effigy Mounds since the weather forecast for tomorrow isn't good and there are so many hills. The road didn't get much better - and then the "shoulder" also had the rumble strips in it - and there was a lot of traffic. I stopped a mile from Effigy Mounds and waited for him because there was a sign that side "NO SHOULDER NEXT 6 MILES" (like there had been one???). We loaded his bike and drove the to the next town. It was horrible. I didn't even like driving on it!

We came back to Harper's Ferry, Iowa for our camp tonight. Our Fantasy Football draft was tonight so we got take-out from Spillway, a local bar and grill. We both got the breaded pork tenderloin sandwich and it was good.  

We're heading off to bed soon so we will see how the weather is tomorrow.