From Muscatine IA to Minneapolis MN

After our restful night in Muscatine we headed north to meet up with one of Anna's mates, Scott, who she had met on her last bike trip. We rode the 55 miles to Oxford Junction with time to spare before Scott arrived. We then headed to the local park to enjoy a delicious salad courtesy of Scott. Then we discovered rain was forecast so we retreated into the local Legions Club for the night.

The next day we had to wait out the rain until after twelve before cycling on to Dyersville with Scott. It was nice to have a new addition to our team, and a real Iowan to boot. When we arrived at our destination we convinced Scott to sleep in a park picnic shelter after some deliberation. 

The following morning we awoke to a thick fog surrounding us. It was at this point we realized that maybe Iowa was the beginning of some colder weather as we were getting closer to Canada after all. Though later that day Iowa definitely challenged this though, turning on the sun big time as we climbed some steep bluffs to reach Pikes Peak on the Mississippi. 

On Wednesday the 7th we bid farewell to Scott with a celebratory breakfast in Marquette. Then Anna and I continued along the River crossing into Minnesota then making another river crossing and border crossing to into Wisconsin. We made it to our warm showers host Ed's place in La Crosse. Ed took us our for tea and talked to us about his cross country bike tour on a recumbent. He even let us try it out the next morning before we headed off. Ed also rode with us about 30 miles or so to help us get on our way through some local trails he knew. It was lovely to meet Ed and learn more about recumbent bicycles and to be honest I think I see a recumbent bike in my future. 

That night we crossed the river back into Minnesota and went to another Warmshowers place in Wabasha, but this time there was no one there to greet us. Our host was away but told us just go in the back and stay in the pool house and we could use the hot tub. Pretty nice really great view right on the river for the sunset and our own little pool house for the night. 

Thursday the 8th we crossed the river again back into Wisconsin and headed to Prescott. We stayed with another Warmshowers host, Bicycle Bob and his family. They cooked us a lovely tea and the next morning Bob guided us into Minneapolis where we took advantage of the many bike paths in the twin cities to get to my friend Hannah's place.