Monday, November 1, 2010

Now comes the part of our road trip I've been avoiding telling anyone. Our primary purpose had been to explore the Mississippi River valley (yes, I learned how to spell that in the 2nd grade, too!), and we had originally set out to do just that. As it happened, the night we ate at Vinny's the waitress from Dubuque was telling us how great Madison was. "There's nothing in Dubuque... get to Madison as fast as you can!"

Without thinking (and I do mean there was NO thinking involved), we jumped into our rig the next day and sped our European behinds toward Wisconsin's cosmopolitan capital; it dawned on us about one hour from Galena that we'd not even seen the Mississippi...we'd not even driven the five miles west to explore what we'd come for!

Should we go back? What's wrong with us? C'est pas possible... we've missed the Mississippi!



Luckily for us, we took this picture right out of Galena. It is our formal picture of the great river, and we console ourselves saying that if you squint your eyes you can see the valley just yonder.

Still...we drove in silence for nigh on half an hour, every now and then one of us saying, Can you imagine? How did we do such a stupid thing?



To cheer ourselves up... we stopped at John Deer and snapped a few pictures; the nice Illinois/Wisconsin farmers waved to us from their hulking tractors, and that was the last we saw of the Mississippi. Sigh.

6 comments:

Neus said...

Hi Allison! I love this creatives mail boxes!!
BTW, the chinese pics were made in a trip! I'm living in Badalona, near Barcelona.
See you soon!

Judy said...

I'm sorry you missed seeing the Mississippi river. We did that once on a trip, we wanted to see something but somehow didn't end up seeing it. If it's any help you can come over to my blog and see it.

Out on the prairie said...

Can't believe you didn't follow the great river road, it goes all along the Big Muddy.Madison is also called Mad Town, but a fun place to play. I had a brother who lived there.

Southern Lady said...

Well I have never seen the Mississippi either. At least you had a great time! Carla

Evi said...

Quelle histoire, mais quelle histoire. C'est pas le fameux fleuve qui est parfois à sec? Je te propose de lire un "Lucky Luke" dans l'aventure sur le mississipi, c'est à pleurer de rire (en tout cas pour moi) :D:D:D:D:D
Mais c'est vrai que tu dois être frustrée. Allons donc voir le rhin ensemble ; )

Dawn said...

Oh Hi!!!
I am so very glad to have come across you and your thoughts. A friend of mine sent me your way....it sounds like we have a bit in common.

I love your blog- what I have looked at so far. I feel like a lot of the things you have written here and photos you take- are similar to what I think and see.
(Maybe not- but I do so love your blog!)

I live in Canada...and have never seen the Mississippi either. Maybe one day we'll take a road trip. It was funny when you said that you would sit in silence and every once in awhile one of you would say "I can't believe we did that"! We do that ALL the time- so don't feel bad:) Maybe you saw something else you never would have seen otherwise;)))

Have a wonderful weekend! I am adding you to my blogroll so I can read your every post!