We're Baaack!

We're baaack!  On The Great River Road, that is!  After a detour to the Winnebago Factory in Forest City, we rejoined the The Great River Road at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.

"Prairie of the Dog?"  That made little sense to me until I learned that early French traders named it as a tribute to Chief Alim, whose name meant Dog in the language of the area's Fox Indians.  This small town (population 5,911 at the 2010 census) was first established on the strategic triangle of land where the Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers join as a trading post by French fur voyeurers who sold goods to the Fox in exchange for pelts.

One of the jewels of this pretty town is Villa Louis, the estate begun by fur trader-turned-entrepreneur Hercules Dousman in the mid-1840s and expanded by his son, H. Louis Dousman.  When Louis inherited the property upon his father's death in 1868, he dismantled the earlier home and replaced it with this Italinate mansion built to reflect the family's wealth.  He began to breed and race horses and even built a race track on the estate.  His wife Nina was an accomplished hostess who held lavish entertainments in the elegant home.  I could almost picture the lawn and dinner parties held here.

Across the Mississippi are the Effigy Mounds now maintained by the National Park Service.

These bear-shaped mounds best seen from the air march in a line along the top of the limestone ridges in Iowa just across the Mississippi from Prairie du Chien.  Created by people now known as Woodland Indians between 800 and 1,400 years ago, they were possibly religious sites or burial grounds.

To Tim and I, they appeared as gentle rises barely discernible until we looked closely.  Then you could see them take shape.

The park also has some of the most scenic overlooks of the Mississippi we've seen.

That's also true at Pikes Peak State Park just a few miles south.  There one can easily see where the Wisconsin River flows into the Mississippi.  Tim and I enjoyed the view before hiking to Bridal Veil Falls just a short distance away.

On our back to our hotel room, we took advantage of the free wine tastings at Eagles Landing in Marquette, Iowa.  We walked out the door with two bottles of Sassy Cindy's Wild Rhubarb Wine which that sort of negated the "free" come-on placard on the sidewalk, but it was delicious.

So we're back on track with 350 miles to go before we reach Minneapolis, miles that will unroll, I'm sure, with many more Great River Road attractions.