I grew up in the Midwest near the Mississippi River,  and I’ve only ever known the Mississippi to be this wide, very muddy river. Even when I was in high school and learned to waterski on it, I wasn’t thrilled, especially when I could see a barge coming my way. I have friends with boats and see photos of them lounging in the river and I don’t even want to stick my toes in it. But I’ve been told that the Mississippi River is cleaner than Lake of the Ozarks due to the high E. Coli bacteria in its water. I’ve often thought that was why our dog, Lily got an infection in her right arm several weeks after we took them to the Lake. It took a long time to heal and recurred again about a year later after we thought it had been cured.

We traveled north up I-35 through Missouri, through southeastern Iowa where at one point, a detour took us on gravel roads. It was odd to me that the gravel roads had names like 201st Street and Adventure Avenue. I guess I never thought a gravel road would be named anything “road”.

We crossed the Mississippi from Iowa into Prairie du Chein, Wisconsin and continued north about 35 miles to La Crosse. When we got about halfway between Prairie de Chein and La Crosse, I got my first glimpse of “their” Mississippi River.

I thought I was looking at a lake. It was huge. It is estimated to be four miles wide at this point. I was gobsmacked, to quote my British friends, (not that I have any British friends except for those I’ve met in books.)

Our campsite at Goose Island County Park was on the shore of one of the smaller fingers of the river.

The sunsets were beautiful and each morning the campsite was surrounded by fog.

Saturday we spent the day at the Oktoberfest in downtown La Crosse and I even taught the Great Hunter how to polka.

Sunday was mostly a day of rest. We had a leisurely breakfast, took a nap and then took the dogs on a long walk and even gave them a chance to play in the water.

We drove home on Monday and although it was a great weekend, it was nice to be home.