Up the Missisippi and into Iowa 16-18th Sept

We left our campsite in Geneseo to take a drive up the Mississippi river that forms the border between Illinois and Iowa (our 6th state I think, NY, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa). We crossed into Iowa and headed North. It is a huge river with enormous barges carrying tons of coal. We stopped in a little hick town called Camanche and drove to the waters edge over the dead straight railway tracks that followed the river North South. We found a place where lots of boats were moored and took a stroll along the pontoon to take a look. Celso found a fisherman and had a chat about what bait to use to catch which kind of fish and then we were on our way again further North and then back over into Illinois again on a long road bridge parallel to a mechano type railway bridge. The sky was a dramatic blue and the water was sparkling in the sun, so everything was looking very dramatic.
We drove North on the Illinois side until we saw a sign for a windmill and decided to go and take a look.
Fulton is a very Dutch town, many families from the Netherlands settled here in the 1800s and a windmill made in Holland was brought over and erected here to grind corn. 3 old timers were getting ready to do some grinding; they battled to move the blades round into the wind and to change gears to work a pulley system that build up bags of grain from the basement; but the blades were only passing 20 times a minute and they needed 40 to do some grinding so they gave up! Tristan insisted that Celso and I had our pictures taken as Dutch immigrants!
From the windmill we were advised to visit Heritage Canyon. This was set in the site of a quarry that closed in 1954 and was bought by a couple in 1963 who wanted a place to try to maintain the history of the area. They collected 19th Century buildings that were being dismantled from around the area and rebuilt them in the quarry. They filled the buildings with artifacts from the time and then allowed people to wander around and view them. The couple have passed away and now the town of Fulton maintains the buildings, but it is still a self guided, no payment required fascinating visit.
Nature has reclaimed the quarry beautifully, the rocks in the walls of the quarry make a dramatic backdrop to the woods and the old houses. There was a church, a one room schoolhouse, a doctors, a dentists, an undertaker, a bank, an office for the telegraph which had a fantastic sign in the window; 'Wanted, young boys under 20, lanky, good horsemen, prepared to face danger every day. Ride for the Express mail, 14 days to California, Orphans preferred.' !!! Also a log cabin, a 2 storey house from the 1860's, a printshop, a shoe repair shop, a dress makers, an old mill complete with waterwheel, a blacksmiths, a toyshop, a general store, one of those old covered wooden bridges and a few privies. As yo will see in the photos Celso and I were again invited to have our photo taken as 18?0's gentlefolk!
Again we headed North up the river until we saw a sign for a dam. Again we headed off the main road to investigate. What a site, the river was at least twice as wide above the dam and lock system, the drop through the lock being about 10 foot. There is a huge marshy area to one side with an enormous number of lily pads, ducks, heron and egrets. The dam was not very impressive but the river certainly was. On the downstream side of the dam was an area of sandy and rocky shoreline with an enormous number of high jumping, tiny frogs. Of course Celso had to fish... so Tris and I sat and did some maths for an hour whilst he experimented with different weights and baits. Celso was 'treated' (?) with the sighting of a water snake and many more frogs. During this time a couple of enormous barges went through the lock that must be at least as big as a hockey pitch, and also a remocked river steamer with a large number of oldies on board and some very load country music entertainment. As Tristan and I were insisting that we go, Celso caught his first fish, a silver Perch (also called a mooneye). It wasn't very big; only about 10inches; but it had swallowed the hook so deep that it had to be killed.. (and Celso ate it for supper with onion, tomatoe and garlic, cooked in a bag made from silver foil.) Celso insisted that he gut the fish there and then so he went back to the van to get the sharp knife, meanwhile I cast the line a couple of times. When Celso returned he was dismayed by my casting and by the fact that the line appeared to have caught on something on the bottom. He wrestled with it for a while and it turned out that I had caught a very strong clam!
We then drove a little further north and found a state park campground outside Thompson Illinois on an island in the Missisippi that has been connected to the mainland by a levee. There are a huge number of deer in the park but we weren't quick enough to catch any on film, but we were treated to a fantastic sunset over the river.
In the morning we lay in bed, with the blinds up, watching the comings and goings of the Canada geese, the herons, ducks and egrets on the river. There was a fantastic symphony of honks (geese), quacks, cricks (cicadas), croaks and hicks (frogs), squeaks (chipmunks) and scamperings from squirrels up the bark of the trees. Strangely there was very little birdsong! Later as we stood by the waters edge drinking tea a kingfisher appeared from nowhere, dived into the water and surfaced with a small silver fish in its beak, hovered for a moment to lose the water from its wings, and disappeared again. It was a perfect film moment only about 3 metres from where we stood.
We headed North from our campsite about 15 miles to Savanna, where we could once again cross the river into Iowa. The bridge was another mechano affair and VERY narrow. If a truck (lorry) had come in the other direction I don't think we could have passed but, since the bridge was a hunchback affair and probably close to a quarter of a mile long, there was no way of seeing what was coming in the other direction before you got onto it. At the western end we were stopped by roadworks and then had to squeeze along the narrowest bit that we have been through in the van yet. The passenger wing mirror clipped the top of the roadwork flashing lights; it was a VERY scary moment. Once we had passed through we stopped to assess if there was any damage to find that we could easily have pulled in both wing mirrors that stick out about a foot beyond the side of the van on either side ..... lesson learnt! (And there was no damage.)
On the Iowa side of the river another tiny hick town greeted us, I think it was built mainly on reclaimed land from the swampy / marshy edge of the river as on one side was the river and on the other a series of lakes with raised levees passing straight through for the roads to sit on. We crossed on one of these roads and found; half way across; a little park (also on reclaimed land I suppose). We stopped under the trees in the park and watched fish jumping and splashing in the lake... of course Celso had to throw in a line and Tris and I sat and watched, read a book and just relaxed for an hour. No luck on the fishing Celso was happy to leave after an hour and we drove about 20 miles West to Maquoketa (the only place with that name in the World; we were proudly told by a guy in our campsite later that evening!), an Indian word for a type of tree. We had seen a picture of a natural land bridge on a small leaflet we had got from the windmill in Fulton, it said it was of Maquoketa state park; so after a few wrong turns and a few skid turns from very short notice, tiny signposts, we made it to the park. It was worth all the hassle though, the most enormous and long (about 400m) cave system with a river running through it, plus lots of other smaller caves dotted around a deciduous woodland, the natural bridge is the remainder of a cave that has collapsed and it now stands about 50ft above Raccoon Creek. We spent over 2 hours exploring and then decided to camp in the park campground too. It was an honour system where you put your money in an envelope in a little box by the entrance ... walking up to do this was how we met the guy who told us about Maquoketa.... he had a little MG parked outside his camper so we had to stop and have a look. It turned out to be a VW kit car in the style of a 52 MG that he had got from a lady in return for doing up her 2nd storey extension over her garage!
Tristan then had a lesson on the relationship between particles, states of matter and energy and then we supped on wood grilled steak with baked potatoes cooked in the embers of the fire, corn, brocolli and carrots and are feeling rather pleased with our days discoveries!
18th Sept we woke, showered and then did another of those heads down, don't look too carefully at the map nor ask anyone what we were missing and just headed West. We are now in a campsite in the middle of Indiana called Marshaltown in a park just on the edge of town. Celso has gone off fishing at a dam a 15 minute walk from the campsite and Tris and I walked into town and have found a sports bar with Wifi access. The only thing of real interest that we saw today was a wasp carrying a spider about 20m across our campsite. She dropped the spider at one point; to go and check the direction to the little hole she was planning to place it and lay her eggs; and then managed to return the 10m or so to the exact spot she had dropped it to continue her hauling job through the grass. Fascinating to watch the effort she put in, and considering that the spider was probably twice her weight, it was amazing that it only took her about 10 minutes to complete her journey.
Thanks to all at work who have written to me with all the gossip. Can Josla please tell us who you are... we have been trying to figure out who is following our blog and we don't know you!!!!!