Two days of travel have brought us to the Quad Cities; our campground is in Rock Island, Illinois, most of our excursions the next three days will be in the Davenport, Iowa area. Our driving since we left Minneapolis has been increasingly along the Mississippi; it’s fun to see how the river grows and changes.

Both days had stops along the way. Between Minneapolis and Prairie du Chien (Prairie of the Dogs? That’s got to be tough to make into a tourist t-shirt) we toured the National Eagle Center on the banks of the river in Wabasha, MN. They help with the rehabilitation of injured eagles; we saw several up close and personal, and enjoyed a presentation on the life of an eagle. We spent the rest of the drive and that night making a cameo appearance in Wisconsin…never going more than about 5 miles across the border.

Next day we headed out on a very foggy morning. For the first couple of hours it was hard to see the road, let alone the river in the valley below us. We persevered, and arrived in Dubuque at the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium. The museum reminded us of OMSI in Portland; lots of displays meant to engage kids, including a salt water tide pool. Dubuque seems like it’s a long ways from salt water, but there you go.

The rest of the drive was very pretty. We arrived at our campground, got setup, and a thunderstorm started to move in just in time for the group to drive over to a dinner cruise on the river. The storm put on a pretty good show, the dinner was very nice, and a keyboard player kept the audience entertained; eventually some line dancing broke out. Fun was had by all.

Today we start exploring…more later.