We are home.  The slow internet and difficulty in uploading photos finally did Mom in.  We are pretty sure she used up her limit and patience as well.  ATT was not the service of choice in the north so any correspondence here and on FB was a trying task at best.  Here’s what happened after Dubuque.

Continuing to follow The Great River Road, we reached another destination: Le Claire, Iowa.  We again visited Antique Archaeology, home to the television show, American Pickers.  While we have never seen any of them, we do enjoy the past revisited.

We went on the Lock and Dam #14 to check out eagles and met up with Le Claire friend, Connie Kroger, and Scotties:  Maggie and Annie.

Kansas was our next on the list.  This is the KCMO skyline driving to Shawnee, KS.

Where Gordon and Gillis Lauber along with pawrents, Mary and Larry live.  Mary had Mom a birthday lunch( yes, she had her birthday on the road) and we had fun in the back yard.

That’s Gordon and Gillis.

This is us on the table.  BOL!  It was a short but great visit.

See the Scottie( Gillis, we think) in the window saying bye. 🙂   Finally: Oklahoma

On Route 66, we dropped in on The Blue Whale.  What an icon.  It used to be a swimming place back in the day.

It has much more character than the waterslides of today.  Simpler times.

Thanks for traveling along on our adventures.  Here’s to:  Keeping It Simple.  ~Indy and Lucy

As the sun rose on Dubuque, we set out to explore the Mississippi river towns of Galena and Guttenburg, one in IL and the other in Iowa.  First stop: Galena, IL.

It a quaint town with a narrow main street lined with shops of all kinds.  It reminds me of Eureka Springs, AR without the steep hills.  This is the real reason for our visit, however.

The home/museum of the 18th President of the United States, Ulysses S Grant.  We went on to follow the Great River Road north to Guttenburg, IA which we didn’t see yesterday because of the missed turn in Prairie du Chien.

We had a picnic on the banks and watched the barges ferry their goods up and down the river.

We are tired pups tonight.  See ya tomorrow. ~ Indy and Lucy

What a day!  We left Lacrosse and struck out for the Great River Road.

We learned about Chief Win-no-shik, a notable chief of he Winnebagos, trains tooted their horns for us,

and we saw barges making their way down the Mississippi.

  We stopped at a little town named Lynxville.

Here at the Dawg House, Mom and Dad had some fish and chips while we watched 15 or more bald eagles fly across the river to the bluffs behind us. It was the treat of the day.  We missed the turn at Prairie du Chien so we continued on to Dubuque, IA.  Our loft is in the refurbished warehouse/mill area of Dubuque.  It is pretty cool.

The window overlooks the town.

The floors are concrete and a lot of the walls are brick.

We ran all over the place exploring.

We are staying here a couple of days.  No tellin what’s tomorrow. ~ Indy and Lucy

Door County was clothed in its finest as we left.  We traveled to Green Bay and went west following Highway 29 across the top of the state.  It was a pretty route fraught with farms and barns with barn quilt patterns.

Our friend, Michele Bronsky, suggested we stop at a place called Nueske’s and we are sooo glad we did.

We opened the car door and smelled bacon.  The cherry wood smoked was the favorite as were the brats and root beer for the road.

A neat pit stop, and then we were off.

We followed the Great River Road down the side of the state:  Mississippi River on one side and bluffs on the other.

We spent the night in Lacrosse, Wisconsin on one of the Mississippi River Canals.

We continue our travels home tomorrow.  Please join us. ~ Indy and Lucy

Leaving our friends at the cranberry farm, we traveled to Oshkosh, Wisconsin to meet a friend of Mom’s who once lived in our hometown of Henryetta, OK.  Mom had not seen Sue in over 30 years.  They spent most of their time laughing.

The next morning we stopped by to see Colleen Lambrecht and her Scotties, MacDuff and Roosevelt.  We got some good exercise playing in her yard.  Then we continued on the Door County to our rental on Whitefish Bay, the Linger Longer.

This is our first view of Lake Michigan from the cottage.

The cottage was a cute A frame right on the shore of the lake.  VRBO (Vacation Rental By Owner) once again does not disappoint.

Of course, its best feature was the wall of windows for water watching.

This is my (Indy) favorite place.  I love laying on top of the sofa looking out all the windows.

These chairs are handy for bird watching.  We have seen gulls and teals.

The kitchen/ dining area is nice too.

There are three bedrooms.

There is plenty of room out side for us to walk too.

We are going to enjoy staying here.  Join us this week for our Door County Fall Adventure. ~ Indy and Lucy

The weather was quite cool in Wisconsin this morning.

It was a glorious fall day though, perfect for a visit to a cranberry farm.

Our friend Debbie invited us for a personal tour of her cranberry bogs since she knew we would be traveling her way.  It was a wonderful time.  We made all kinds of new friends.

Connie and Seamus

Kathy, Tiffany and more Scotties

Our parents had an informative tour of the bogs.

Saw wolf tracks

and deer tracks

Wild turkeys too.

We had a great lunch of a big pot of soup, homemade dill pickles, cranberry relish; it was all delish.  Cake, did we mention cake?

It was a memorable day.  Thank you Debbie for welcoming us into your home and Connie for getting us there.  Your hospitality was much appreciated ~ Indy and Lucy

After a good rest, we were on the road again.

  As we were driving north Dad, noticed the name of a town and zipped off the exit.  Mom found directions to where we needed to go and we ended up here:

a cornfield in Clear Lake, Iowa.  In the early morning hours of February 3, 1959, three young recording artists, Buddy Holly,  JP Richardson,”The Big Bopper”, and Ritchie Valens, ended their rock n roll careers in this cornfield when the plane in which they were flying crashed. They were on a Winter Dance Party Tour performing across the Midwest. Plagued by cold tour buses and flu, Holly decided to charter a plane to reach their next venue.  After playing the Surf Ballroom and despite deteriorating wintry conditions, the three of them along with their pilot, Roger Peterson, took off only to crash a short time later.

We had to walk a quarter of a mile through a cornfield to pay our respect.

Buddy Holly, age 22, was a central figure in the mid 50s rise of the genre of music known as Rock n Roll.  He wrote, recorded and produced his own material and was a major influence on later popular artists: the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Elton John.

” Everyday, it’s a getting closer/Goin faster than a roller coaster/Love like yours will surely come my way.’  Simple lyrics, simpler times.

Keep It Simple! ~ Indy and Lucy