Days 50-52: Cascade, IA

We've been without internet access for a few days now, as we seem to be in some sort of AT&T dead zone.  We managed to find coverage briefly this morning in St. Petersburg, IA, but that appears to have been an anomaly.  Right now I'm in Cascade, IA at the public library, as they have free wifi, as there is no AT&T coverage here.

Our stay at Wildcat Landing was interesting.  There appears to be a large Hmong population in the area, and every campsite they occupy seems to have two or more cars and at least three tents.  Then a guy with a propane brush burner goes around from site to site, where each fire ring is crammed with a half dozen or more logs, and gets everyone's campfire roaring.  And of course the whole extended family is on hand, from grandparents to the tiniest newborns.  So it was the most active campground we've ever been at thus far.  For some reason, around 4 am car doors were being opened and closed, car headlights shone from every direction and it generally was an interesting morning scramble, which was narrated in a language that was quite foreign to us.  I had presumed that some of the Hmong were heading out to their favorite fishing spots, but a ranger at the next campground we stayed at said that at this time of year they have a big family squirrel hunt, ending in lots of squirrels being skewered and roasted over open fires.  It seems like a lot of work for a little meat, but the skins can make great gloves, so perhaps there is more too it than just a big squirrel fry?

A barge heads downriver in front of our campground.

After leaving Brownsville we headed south, at times having some great views of the Mississippi River.  We also had plenty of hills whenever the road routed over the bluffs, and most roads were narrow with no shoulder.  But for the most part traffic was fairly light.  We did stop and explore Effigy Mounds National Monument, a series of mounds created by early Native Americans, some of which were arranged in the shape of animals, including at least two in the shape of bears.  These mound builders were busy all through the Midwest, with perhaps some of the largest mounds being found at Cahokia, near where my father was born in East Saint Louis, IL.  It has piqued our interest enough that we may try to visit there when we are in the area, if time allows.

Two views of some of the mounds at Effigy Mounds:

Two views of the Mississippi River from one of the trails at Effigy Mounds:

We ended up camping at Bloody Run County Campground ($10, primitive sites) just outside of Marquette, IA.  It was an awesome little campground, basically a huge meadow studded with very large mature trees and lots of space between campsites.

Our campsite at Bloody Run Campground.

Yesterday was a challenging day for Alea, as the winds once again shifted and came from the south, increasing in intensity as the day wore on.  We traveled as far as Colesburg, IA, where we headed south in search of a campsite.  We ended up staying at Twin Bridges Campground, located about 4 miles south of town.  At $16 per night for a site with power and water, it could easily have been our favorite campsite thus far.  It was similar to Bloody Run in terms of the meadow and large mature trees, but the one drawback was that the vault toilet was seriously in need of being pumped out.  And of course we made the mistake of choosing a campsite close to the toilet, so it wasn't fun when the wind would start blowing from the wrong direction. 

We ventured into town for a Sunday dinner at J. R. Willies, a tavern.  We played it safe and we each opted for the signature menu item, the Willie Whopper, since it was a limited menu on Sundays.  They were huge, but our appetites have grown with the daily cycling, so we were quite happy to have found a friendly place for a very satisfying evening meal.

The previous tenants of our campsite had left a big pile of scrap lumber for us to burn, so we set about building a campfire, in the hopes that it would screen the smell from the toilets (it did a pretty good job).

Lana's evening hideout - tucked into her bed while we enjoy a campfire!

The picture above is a typical scene in the evenings right now.  At some point Lana will get out of her bed and look at the door to the camper.  That's our clue that she thinks she'd be warmer and more comfortable if we let her inside.  Once she's in there she goes about rearranging all the pillows and building a nest in a portion of the goose down comforter..

Tonight we are staying at Riverview Ridge Campground ($30, power, with showers available), just outside of Cascade, IA.  It's a newer campground, so the showers and toilets are in better shape than most of the places that we've stayed.  We're glad to be there tonight, as we both were at the point where we were craving a chance to get cleaned up again.  

Like yesterday, there were brisk winds coming out of the south, combined with plenty of rolling hills.  And then when we got to Farley, IA we found out that our intended route was closed, as the road had been torn up and was being reconstructed.  The official detour to Cascade, IA sent us back to a town we had passed through earlier, so Alea asked at a local convenience store about available alternatives.  We were told to head south and look for Roller Coaster Road in about 3-4 miles.  At about six miles out the road still hadn't materialized, making us wonder if there was a missing part of the directions?  But just as we were about to stop and ask for directions, we found it.  Sure enough, from there it was easy enough to find our way to Cascade and our campground.

We're right about at the halfway point for reaching St. Augustine, Florida.  We should be at around 2,500 miles cycled so far, and St. Augustine should be around 5,000 miles by our Adventure Cycling route.  If we maintain the same pace we've kept thus far, then it will be close to Thanksgiving before we reach the Atlantic Coast.  But time will tell, as there are lots of variables that could conspire to make us choose a faster or slower pace.