Monday: Prairie du Chen, Wis to Le Clair, Iowa

Monday and the beginning of a new week.  We viewed the eclipse last night through mostly clear skies and talked of the primitive people who must have been absolutely terrified by such a sight seeing their reliable moon being consumed by something right before their eyes. 

The day started in the usual manner with wiping the dew off of the cars and loading up the suitcases and personal items, then heading for breakfast...today provided by the folks at AmericInn, a new hotel chain, or at least one I had never heard of.   The banner out front said they were voted the best hotel breakfast in 2015 and I can see why.  Janet!  She expertly made omelets or scrambled or fried eggs to order, and instructed neophytes like me how to use the waffle maker.  Thank you Janet...we got a great start to the day.

The hotel staff were enjoying the sight of our cars in their lot and asked if they could take a photo of them all, and it was time for us to make a group photo too.  So all but one were aligned in front and many photos were taken.  Here's the best one:

Group Photo

 From left to right: Char and Reg, Beth and Charles, Myron, Sally and Gary, Vern and Sandy, Missy and Bob, Judi and Bill, and Al.  Kampschafers were still inside the hotel somewhere, but were with us in spirit.

Then we were off.... crossing the Mississippi right away and into Iowa.

We stopped at an overlook a few miles down the road and caught this barge pushing upstream.

 

 

And Vern took this great photo from the Pikes Peak observation center



River valley from Pikes Peak observation site.



A bit later we stopped at a convenience store - and of course a friendly chap is curious about the cars and Reg chats with him.

In Guttenberg, Ia, the lock on the great river was operating, moving a large barge northbound.

 The lock gate opened and the barge moved into the next section.

We stopped in Clinton, Ia for gas, and the clerk at the station was helpful describing a good restaurant for lunch....and it was.  Here's the view from the deck of the Candlelight Inn.

And here's the deck.  It sure would be pretty to dine there in the evening, watching the boats and barges move up and down the river.

Soon we arrived in Le Claire, which is home to Antique Archaeology, famous for the History Channel TV show American Pickers. 

Here's the original store, now one of two buildings housing antique picks from around the country.

Sally ready to go pickin'

 

Sally inspects this old bumper car and one of their trucks, as seen on TV

 

Vern and Sandy at Antique Archaeology.

 

Bob and Missy at Antique Archaeology

 

 

 

Vern and Sandy sent me this photo of their lunch stop in LaClaire,  where they joined Judi and Bill and a newcomer joining the crawl, Ron Davis from Illinois.

 

McKenna's, Boyles and Davis' cars at lunch.

 

 

And, just down the road is our hotel for the night.... again, right on the great Mississippi River, or as we call it, the Big Muddy. 

 

 

It's Pizza night on the Pub Crawl so we all gathered in the breakfast room for refreshments and pizza, then a friendly gals against the guys game of trivia.  After many rounds of questions hosted by our "den mother" Char, the game score was a tie.

 

 

 

And the Pizza was all consumed except for these two lonely sad pieces. 

 

 

More tomorrow from Hannibal, Mo.