Take an Ol' Back Road

Justin Moore has a song with the lyrics "Does he drive the Interstate?  Or take an ol' back road?"  So I decided to take the back road from Madison WI to Rochester MN.  I left about 3 p.m from the Verona WI Subway and headed west on US 18 to Dodgeville.   It was pretty smooth 2 lanes on my side to Dodgeville.  I had hoped to see the home of Land's End after reading their catalog over the years.  But the Land's End store was pretty small.  Small town hours, 11 to 5 p.m.


Continuing west the road got to one lane on each side.  This is not Texas and the speeds were not 75 but more like 60-65.  No one was in too much of a hurry and so neither was I.

Coming into the town of Fennimore, WI, it was a place that Norman Rockwell would like.  Clapboard houses, nice trees, no cell service.  This is where you  could head north to the Interstate or continue west.  I stayed on the western trail.    In the town, I saw young boys riding bikes, older boys going to football practice, the bowling alley in the middle of town.  From what I saw, it didn't look like much real estate for a bowling alley but there was a long extension built in the back.

Down the street was the historical marker showing that Fennimore was on the narrow gauge RR tracks system in the 1800's  Three feet wide instead of the "standard" 4 foot 8 inch.   It was called the Dinky.  Traffic stopped for me crossing the street on foot.  As if on cue, an Amish horse-drawn wagon with two women dressed in black went by.

Westward to Prairie Du Chien WI, which is the crossing of the Misssissippi River.  The French name refers to this as a former French colonial area first explored by Europeans in 1673.  A early frontier Fort Crawford was on this site.  The trees and bluffs on this area were very scenic.  It was a much different look than the Moline IL/Daventport IA Transcontinental railroad crossing.  Turns out that much of Wisconsin and Minnesota was covered by glaciers thousands of years ago.  As they melted the runoff carved these bluffs out resulting in the Mississippi River.

Once into Iowa, the area turned quite rural.  This area of Northeast Iowa was the land of silos, corn fields, cattle, small towns (at most) and generally no towns.   Interesting to think that this is the state that elects our Presidents.  A strong Native American heritage here - the counties were called Winneshiek and Allamakee.  Effigy Mounds National Monument was in the area to the east.

On into Minnesota and the Root River Valley.  The towns got a bit larger as I got into the big town of SE Minnesota, Rochester.  The sun hung tough on me and stayed up until after 8 p.m. lighting my way.  It was a tiring drive and reminded me of driving from Phoenix to Las Vegas as the sun was setting.  But like Vegas I had a good Brinner - breakfast for dinner at Perkin's which is a 24 hour place.  It's a good day Hazel Grace.