Day Eleven – St. Cloud MN to Henry IL - Miles: 556
We called another audible on breakfast, got an early start and rode 50 miles to breakfast in Hutchinson. We skirted around Minneapolis without the need to get on the interstate. We caught up to the Mighty Mississippi in Red Wing and followed it down river to Lock #5 near Whitman MN. We rode US14 as long as we could before we had to jump on I-90 that runs with US14, but after a few miles I-90 runs due east at La Crosse but we continued south on US14. In 2020 we rode on the east side of the river where now we were riding the West Bank. We crossed at Prairie du Chien where we stopped to look at some of the historical buildings. We came through here in 2020 the opposite way but we didn't stop in the historical section. Some interesting history in the area and we read as many plaques as we could but it had gotten really hot and we were constantly looking for shade. Once we crossed the river we were headed east on US18 but before we got too close to Madison we took WI191 and headed towards New Glarus. Our target was the New Glarus Brewery which is fairly famous for its Spotted Cow beer. The brewery is on the far side of town but riding through the town of New Glarus was very nice. I'm sure it is quite touristy in the summer months. The brewery was nice but also more aseptic than I would have thought. We had a pint and stood around to drink it talking to a couple who had ridden in on Dual-Sport bikes. We rode through Dixon and decided not to stop at Ronald Reagan's boyhood home since we had previously been there. Before long we were pulling into Henry and found our hotel located on the banks of the Illinois River. This town and hotel were chosen somewhat randomly based the route and mileage but it turned out good. When we arrived to the hotel there was no one there but we quickly got hold of the owner and she met us there and let us in. The place was decent and we quickly settled in. We took a walk along the river and walked into downtown for a bite to eat and landed at the Italian Villa. Once we got in there and started ordering we noticed they had no alcohol, so when we inquired they said bring in whatever you'd like. We didn't want to walk all the back to the hotel so we stopped in at Henry Foods and bought a couple of bottles of wine. They really had nothing to choose from in either wine or beer so we settled on some Barefoot. It wasn't great but good enough for the pizza we ordered. While we were there we sat next to some guys who had come in on their boat and were docked by our hotel. They were taking the boat from Chicago to Miami via the Illinois River. The captain had a first mate who was only able to join him for the first couple of weeks and then he was going to be on his own. Very interesting guys. Both were retired and the first mate was definitely younger than us. It seemed like they were having fun. We walked back to the River Bank Hotel and had some good wine. The choice of Henry was a good example of a place that would never have been on our radar as an overnight stop but it turned out to be a really nice place.
