Today was a light driving day, because we woke up across the street from the National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa, IA. Though there was some commonality with the bikes of the Barber Motorsports Museum, the National Motorcycle Museum tended to have many more unrestored bikes, some interesting early chopper designs, and a number of motorcycle oddities including the legendary Gelbke Roadog. The layout wasn't as dramatic as Barber, but they did have over 400 motorcycles, and we spent the best part of the morning checking them out.
     The next stop of the day was at Spook Cave in McGregor, IA . The ride from Anamosa to McGregor on IA-13N was nothing special, but somewhere along the ride, the wind picked up, and I mean WIND! I swear, it was blowing at 30-40 mph, or at least it felt like it. As long as we were either with the wind, or against it, it wasn't too bad, but when it hit us from the side, you almost had to lean the bike over to keep it going straight, and hope you didn't get blown off the road or into the path of an oncoming 18-wheeler. But, we made it in one piece, though we were dying for a cup of coffee. The lady at Spook Cave brewed us a fresh pot, and even though Jody had to suffer through with Coffeemate instead of real milk, it really hit the spot.
     Spook Cave is probably the last privately owned show cave we will be seeing for a while, and it is much different than the ones we have seen so far. Spook Cave is toured entirely by boat. They use a small aluminum boat with an electric trolling motor, and you actually board the boat at a dock next to the concession stand and enter the cave from the water . The ceiling was very low in spots, and you had to duck to keep from hitting your head. The cave was a cool 57 degrees, but the water was an even colder 42 degrees year round.
     We left Spook Cave heading for the hotel, expecting it to be an early day. Sometimes I forget why we are following some of the roads in my plan, and this time was certainly one of them. Shortly after leaving McGregor, we turned onto IA-76N, the start of the Great River Road. This is about 60 miles of the most scenic highway following along the western shores of the Mississippi River. It was just a beautiful ride, and the scenic bluffs shielded us from the wind gusts almost the entire time.
     A few miles into the Great River Road, we ran into the Effigy Mounds National Monument. It turned out to be some wonderful countryside, mostly known for its hiking trails. It looked inviting, but we weren't really ready for any hard core hikes. We watched the film at the Visitor Center, and checked out the Mound artifacts at the little museum, and we were talking to the ranger while getting our National Parks Passports stamped . She suggested we should take the short walk to see the 3 mounds around the corner, and that there was a half-mile hike down to the yellow river bird sanctuary that we shouldn't miss. It was really quite beautiful, and as we reached the end of the hike, we actually saw a beaver in the water working on his lodge!   We're so glad we stopped, and we're trying to stop at all the natural sites we can, along with any of the scenic overlooks.
     We followed the Great River Road out of Iowa and into Minnesota, where we finally took a right and crossed over the Mississippi so we could spend the night just over the bridge in Wisconsin. Trying to keep up our fast food theme from last night, we decided dinner would be pizza from the local Edwardo's Ristorante di Pizza across the street. Thin crust Sicilian pizza with pepperoni and sausage - it was delicious! Tomorrow we begin our journey west, as we cross back into Minnesota and head for South Dakota. Two days should have us in Wall,SD at the entrance to the Badlands National Park.

170.1 miles today
2557.3 miles total

3,848 gallons today
61.447 gallons total