Motel 6 - 533 North Marquette Road, Prairie du Chien, WI 53821, USA

Today has been a day of delightful discoveries and minor maybe disasters.   I woke up a little after 7 am.  I had slept well last night for sure.  For some reason, my cell phone refused to pick up the correct central time even though I had crossed over somewhere in South Dakota.  It was a little annoying, but minor as far as things go.  My first disaster was at breakfast - the Super 8 had make your own waffles, OJ, coffee, apples, some dry cereals and what looked to me like hot oatmeal.  So I opted for a bowl of oatmeal, but when I started to pour it into my styrofoam bowl, I noticed it was not oatmeal.  It was pretty runny and had lumps.  It was in a big pot next to the waffle maker so I figured it was the waffle batter.  Maybe I noticed the machine with waffles next to it, but I thought that might be the syrup dispenser.  I ladled 4 spoonfuls of the batter into the waffle iron and each one sizzled and fizzed up as I did so.  It beeped.  I turned it over.  Ater almost 3 minutes, it beeped again and I opened it.  It was a huge mess with bits of batter burnt to a crsip and stuck on each side but nothing in the middle.  I told the desk clerk I had made a big mess and he came over, cleaned it up by scraping it off the griddle  and poured a cupful of batter from the machine with wiffles pictured on it.  He informed me that the stuff I had used was gravy to put on the waffles.  Something totally out of the realm of my culinary experience. Ah, the embarrassment.  Then I poured myself some coffee from one of the coffee machines, pressed Colombian beans and then put the coffee under a pout and then put in creams.   It looked awfully light and the water pouring out had looked very clear, but I had thought that maybe when I pressed Colombian, a spurt of Coffee, like espresso, came out.  No, I realized when I got back to the room.  There was no coffee in my coffee, so I made 2 cups in the little coffee maker in the room.  It was the 3rd time I had used this model and I had it down!  It made sort of reasonable coffee.  And I sort of felt reasonably competent again.  No, not really.

After looking at the map of Minnesota, I decided to take the I90 most of the way across the southern border of the state.  At first it had looked similar to SD with the big modern, commercial farms, then the farms began to look more like the well-tended, immaculately groomed Michigan farms.  There were clouds in the sky today and a sprinkle now and then, but I was still in big sky country and the clouds were very dramatic.  Otherwise, not much else was going on.  The scenery changed a little from very flat to rolling with farm fields more like what I am used to and very few cattle sightings.   Closer to the eastern border of Minnesota, I spotted several scenic highways which went sort of in a SE direction so I got off at exit 193 and made my way through Minnesota Border Country.  Here the farms became more picturesque with some old style barns and mowed grass along the edges of the corn and other fields.  There were still some of the modern Dakota style grain silos but the farmhouses were stylish and nestled in their grove of trees.  At one point, my route (Rt 16) followed the cuves of a river...or a wetland...I wasn't always sure which since I saw a lot of  f algae on the surface of the water.  Now there were rolling hills covered with forests, then modern homes in groomed yards with gateposts. 

Just before the point where I was to cross the mighty Mississippi itself, I felt famished.  I was thinking of some local cuisine - not sure what that might be, but I was tired of gas station convenience food.  I stopped in the town before the bridge, only to find the Cafe closed at 2 pm - 20 minutes before I got there.   The woman at the cash register seemed confused about why I was confused about the time - she didn't know my phone wasn't on central time yet.  So she suggested the pizza place.  I had to wait 20 minutes, but I managed to work on my route after the crossing.  I was now worried about darkness setting in before I made it to my goal - crossing into Iowa.  I probably should have gone into the gas station because they had all sorts of food.  I stopped there to get gas, use the bathroom, and buy coffee.  When I went to put milk or creamer into my coffee, I tried to move the spigots of the creamer machine.  I pulled on the spigot and managed to knock over my coffee, spill it on my jeans leg, and all over the floor.  Emptied.  I had to go to the register and tell them I made a big mess.  Again!!  I didn't tell them it was my second disaster of the day.  I took a piece of the machine into the bathroom to rinse it off and put some cold water on my leg to get rid of the coffee stain....it didn't quite though.   As I came out, one of the staff was looking for that piece since I wasn't supposed to have taken it into the bathroom because of sanitary regulations.  She thanked me for my effort to help though.  They told me to get another cup to replace mine and I did and went to pay.  I handed them a 20 so I could get change but I got it back because my coffee was complimentary.  I didn't exactly understand why since I was responsible for spilling it and making a mess they cleaned up, but, unfortunately, when I finally got around to drinking some of it, I found that it was terrible.  I saved it though, thinking maybe more milk - if it isn't sour by now - could remedy the situation.  Oh, well.

So now it was getting a bit late.  I had my pizza.  I needed a place to eat it and change my jeans so I could soak them.  I headed down the road that paralleled the Mississippi River - the views were great - some were stunning - and it reminded me of the Hudson with the train tracks, the woodsy cliffs on the riverside in places.   It is definitely not built up here with mansions or condos - in fact, there are RV parks, and trailer parks, little log cabins, ordinary houses, some towns, very ordinary - a lot like the west side of the Hudson River valley.  Well, maybe not the trailer parks.  I was always looking behind me to see if I was accumulating cars, but not too badly.  I found a park campground sign - Goose Island - in the middle of the Mississippi River.  I followed the road - it took quite a while before I found a place to pull off so I could eat my pizza.  While I was pulling out my bowl and detergent for washing my pants, I saw a faucet running with water so I filled the bowl there!  Very convenient.  I ate my pizza on several different benches and took photos from each.  It was a very neat place.  On the way out, I stopped for pics a few times and at one algae pool there was a heron or a white egret maybe - a sign said they came there.

I made at least one more photo stop by the train tracks where I hopped over them to take a photo or two of the river, now that it was almost sunset.   Because it was so late, I got out my phone to try to find a motel/hotel in Iowa.  Nothing turned up.  So I tried the town across the river in Wisconsin.  A few things turned up, but quite expensive.  I switched from Hopper to Booking.com, then to Google search.  I called a place and she said she was all booked up and recommended trying a small motel.  I called it and no one answered.  So I went back to Booking and found an expensive Motel 6 in Prairie du Chien.  The location couldn't be better since it was right on the road I was on and not far from where I wanted to end up in Iowa.  As I neared the motel, I saw some great views of the Mississippi, some historical markers with signs and a Cabela's sporting good store.  I am contemplating going back to try to take a few pics in the am and then seeing if the store has anything on sale.

This Motel 6 is OK - I have a fairly large room with 2 queen-sized beds squeezed in, a refrigerator, wi-fi, and sufficient light to work by and to see by.  The outlets are not so conveniently located but I can deal with that - I had brought a little power strip that I haven't used much at all so I am putting it to work tonight.  Since I had my mini pizza, I will only snack tonight and maybe I will try to write up the blog from the day before yesterday on my hand-written notes and then I will be all caught up with my normal chores.  Yes, that is what I think I will do.  And maybe look at the US map and see where I need to go from here tomorrow to get around Chicago and back up to I-90.  Not that I am that fond of I-90.