Saturday 31 July 2010

Great Roads, Big Rivers, Brown Cow, Little Birds....

I left Milwaukee on Friday morning and was joined by Dan who I had met the day before. It had been a while since my friend Paul had gone back to the UK and I had ridden with anyone, so I enjoyed it.

Here are a couple of shots I grabbed of Dan on the move....












































After Dan left to go back home, I went continued heading east and found this picture on a wall in Watertown, Wisconsin. I liked the picture, but no, I didn’t understand it either!....




















Frank Lloyd Wright was a very famous American architect and I went to see his summer home and studio called Taliesin, near Spring Green, Wisconsin. Sadly however they only have two tours a day and I had just missed one, so I would have to wait for about three hours for a two hour tour. It was a shame, but I should have checked in advance! I did sneak into the grounds and take one picture of the house....





















I saw this when I was riding along. She probably saw nothing wrong with having a dog on her lap as she drove....
















This mail box made my smile, so I went back and took a photo of it....




















I spent the night at Prairie du Chien near the banks of the Mississippi. A few years ago I went on an organised bike tour across Europe to Austria. On that tour was a guy from Illinois called Mike Nees, who runs Nees Harley-Davidson

We rode from Prairie du Chien south to Dubuque and then north up the west bank of the Mississippi along what are the best bike riding roads I have been on in the US. They were fantastic! We kept as close to the river as possible both heading south and then north again.

Along the way we spotted this car turning off the road we were on. We turned around and went and checked it out – it had driven into a place that serviced and restores cars, so we went and had a look. There were some real treasures at this place which I might add, was in the middle of nowhere! This was the Buick that made us decide to turn around and go have a look....




















Another lovely Buick....




















A Dodge with its external sun visor that makes the car look angry....



























A Dodge Charger....




















Inside, they had just started to restore a Model T Ford....


























Shortly after, we arrived in Dubuque and did two things here. First we went and found the Fenelon Place Elevator, an inclined railway originally built to transport a Mr J.K. Graves between his place of work and his house, because the journey by road took too long by horse and buggy....



















































Then we were stuck at a road junction for a while as a huge number of cyclists were completing a week long ride of about 425 miles....




As we rode, we saw these cows. One seems to be saying “Do I look out of place?”....




















Mike and I went to the top of a number of Bluffs (aka cliffs) that overlook the big Mississippi River. Here is Mike admiring the view....



























One of the Locks and Dams on the river (I had no idea the Mississippi had dams)....



































This is where the Wisconsin River (in the middle of the picture) joins the Mississippi (at the bottom)....



















Finally for today, we spotted some Hummingbirds, and I managed to get a photo.....

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