Day Six – Duluth MN to Dubuque IA
Miles: 420
We stopped for breakfast at The Kitchen in Superior WI, and really liked the place. It was certainly off the beaten path, a place for locals, and it did not disappoint. Our first stop of the day was at the Big Manitou Falls. The whole area is quite big and there were some good looking falls as I did my research for the trip, but we didn't have a lot of time to walk all of the trails and look around so we just snapped a few pics capturing what we could and got on our way. We stayed south on WI35 until we reached Milltown where we started heading east. Eventually we were going back south on WI25 and stopped in Menomonie at their Riverside Park for a quick break. The park sits along the bank of the Red Cedar River and was quite nice. The Red Cedar State Trail, a 14 mile trail on an old railroad bed goes through the park and we walked onto the trail and an old railroad bridge over Gilbert Creek. We met up with the Mississippi River and followed south on its eastern bank for a while before crossing over to Winona MN and stopping at Island City Brewing for a quick beer and a couple of snacks. The brewery sits next to Levee Park which is right on the river. We had the place to ourselves but it looked like it would be pretty good in prime time. We stayed on US14 and the western bank of the Mississippi before crossing back over at La Crosse. We drove by the world's largest six pack which was some sort of bulk storage system at City Brewing Co. We had planned to ride down the eastern shore but we hit a detour making the route much longer, but the rural scenery was pretty nice. We once again crossed over the river at Prairie du Chien and we were in Iowa. Once over the river we were in Marquette IA where we exited off the four lane US16 into this nice little town. There is a nearby Casino which I guess is why there are some motels nearby including a really nice looking double decker that dates at least back 30 years. As we continued down 1st street along the river we quickly found ourselves in McGregor which is larger than Marquette and equally nice. We couldn't pass up stopping at Old Man River Brewery. It looked to be in an old bank building and had lots of charm. We rode Clayton County Road along the river before catching up with US52 in Guttenberg. We rode on US52 for a short time stopping at an overlook of the river before taking Great River Rd. I had noticed this road, and routed for our trip out west which never happened, so I felt good that this would be a good route coming into Dubuque, and it was. Riding up high on the bluffs above the river provided great views and an occasional glimpse of the river. The Balltown overlook is truly worth a stop even though we did not, but we did drive very slowly past. All too soon we were back on US52 and into Dubuque. We stopped at 7 Hills Brewing Co in the downtown area for dinner. Our destination for the night was the Hilton Garden Inn that sits on Chaplain Schmitt Island which was named in honor of the Navy Chaplain in 1980. The good Chaplain was from nearby St. Lucas IA and found himself in the Navy aboard the USS Oklahoma on December 7th 1941. He was trapped below decks with others and aided the rescue of 12 sailors rather than saving himself. He was buried in Hawaii in a grave marked unknown until 2016 when DNA was used to identify his remains and were moved to Loras College, his alma mater in Dubuque. The island was carved from a backwater channel in the 1930s and the island began life as an airport during World War II. It was then used as a dump through the 1970s before it began its restoration in the 1980s. We did stop in the casino for a short time to play some craps but we didn't stay long. A really good day of riding despite not really having any major highlights.
