Nov. 3-4

We made our way to Muscatine, Iowa to our jeeping friends, Roger and Lu Wilson. This is the third of the trilogy of jeeping friends that we have visited on this trip. We started with the Russell's in Missouri, met Tom and Tena at her brother's in West Virginia and then brought the circus to them (our mini family reunion) at their home in Baltimore.

As we have experienced with all of our "jeeping family", the Wilson's have treated us well! They have a lovely home and shop. I could see David's mind working with ideas of what he could do with his shop when he gets home and catches up on a few projects!

They live very close to the Mississippi River which is a new experience for us in itself. We watched a tug boat pushing nine barges carrying grain go through a lock. I can't imagine being a tug boat captain. It was a tight squeeze!

We drove along the river going up to Davenport and Le Claire. We stopped at Wild Cat Den State Park and saw the Park Creek Mill. This is the fourth old mill that we've seen on this trip and this one was the largest and also was rigged so that it ran by water power through a water wheel when there was enough water and by steam power and a turbine when the water was low. From there we went on up to Le Claire and visited Antique Archaeology, the business where American Pickers is filmed. Of course, there weren't any of the main characters at the shop, but there were some things that we recognized from the show. Three fourths of the things in the shop were not for sale, but display pieces that they had collected. We didn't find anything that we needed to bring home with us, but it was fun to see it in person. We spent some time exploring the fun shops there in Le Claire (and yes, I did spend a little money shopping).  From there we went to the I-80 Truck Stop in Walcott. It claims to be world's largest truck stop and it is huge! I certainly don't have any reason to question their claim. One of the cool things at the stop is a truck museum. I like old trucks, at least the smaller ones, and they had an awesome collection. They are even expanding the building to add more trucks and the museum is free!

Bridge over the Mississippi

 Lock and Dam #16

Muscatine County Courthouse 

Pine Creek Grist Mill in Wild Cat Den State Park 

Antique Archaeology in Le Claire 

This is the Indian motorcycle that they dug up in someones back yard 

We had an interesting tour of a distillery in Le Claire 

A freedom rock in Le Claire 

The Truck Museum