Thursday 4-13 Spectacular Day

 

What a spectacular day!!!!!

It rained through the night but by the time we woke up the rain was gone. I didn’t feel like getting out of bed so I stayed in bed until 8:00. It not have gotten as cold since I didn’t need to turn on the heater.

After having breakfast we headed down the road 20 miles to the Iowa 80 Truck Museum. The admission was free but the appreciate donations. It was in a big building and had a lot of old trucks, took us about 45 minutes to walk through it. We saw a lot of beautifully restored trucks. It was very clean and the employees worked hard keeping things clean by dusting off the trucks. We had a great experience.

 

Iowa 80 Truck Museum

                 An old Coca Cola Truck                                                          1946 White WA22       

An old pickup camper

The next place we stopped at was The National Motorcycle Museum in Amarosa, which was 45 miles away. It took us a couple of hours to walk through the museum considering it had over 600 motorcycles and hundreds of motorcycle related items to look at. Larry saw some bikes he use to own. There was a lot of displays so we walked slow so we wouldn’t miss anything. They had a display on the bikes Evel Knevel used to do his jumps. There was a big display on racing bikes. There were lots  of Harley Davidsons. We saw some old bicycles and motorized bicycles. The museum was outstanding and we would highly recommend it.

 

Larry and me at The National Motorcycle Museum

One of the bikes that Evel Knevel used                                           Easy Rider Replica

After touring the National Motorcycle Museum we went next door and had lunch at Subway. The next stop was Dubuque, Iowa. As we were driving around Dubuque we saw a sign that said that said Lock and Dam #11 on the Mississippi River so we went to check it out. We got there right in time to see a tugboat and nine barges go through the lock. It was a small lock so they had to split the barges into two sections. The first section was nine barges and the second was six. We watched it for an hour. Once the first section was in the lock they had to raise the water level five feet so it was the same level as the upstream river. I’m always impressed no matter how many time I see boats going in and out of a lock.

 

Lock and Dam No. 11      

         The lock gates opening up                    The barges being push in the lock

 

The final stop was in a parking lot right across the street from Diamond Jo Casino in Dubuque. By the time we setup the Minnie it was time for dinner. I heated up the leftover chicken from yesterday and we had sandwiches. After dinner Larry and I walked around to check out the beautiful riverwalk. We picked up a brochure that talked about the sculptures along the riverwalk. There were 10 of them listed and we were able to find nine. It was a very nice walk and a lot of people use it. Afterwards we went over to the casino and checked it out. Larry went back to Flo and I stayed for a couple of hours and played. Then I went back to Larry and Flo. I was not with them long before going back for another couple of hours. I had a great time.

We had a spectacular day.