More Friends along the Mississippi River

After not seeing anyone we know for four months the last couple of weeks have been a happy change. After leaving Land O’ Lakes on Monday we drove to the Mississippi River near Brownsville, MN and camped for a couple of days with our friends Jim and Margaret and their dog, Bo.

Jim and Margaret are always up for an adventure and they were willing to rent a camper van and come stay by us at Wildcat Park, Landing and Campground.

We left the colors of northern Wisconsin…

for the bluffs of the upper Mississippi where everything is still green.

Our campsites were right on the Mississippi and we enjoyed the sunrises over the water…

and seeing the boats go by.

We made the most of our brief time together, sharing a couple of meals and playing some cards in the evenings. On our one day we took a drive south along the river to this old bridge at Lansing, Iowa,

where we crossed the river and its many islands…

into Wisconsin.

We drove back north along the east side of the river to Old Settler’s Overlook.

There were some old paved trails we took.

There were several overlooks, but this was the highest and my favorite.

Yes, we were all there.

There was just a bit of haze, but the view was still great.

We drove 44 miles and could see our campground across the river.

There were some old quarries there that were pretty. That high point was somewhere up beyond this quarry wall.

Besides being pretty this quarry made a safe place to let the dogs run. It was like a box canyon with the opening at the road in where we parked the truck. No one else was there when we got back from the overlook paths so the dogs had a romp off leash. Admittedly, Bo did a lot more romping than Matey.

From there we continued north along the river to LaCrosse, WI where we had a nice lunch at Huck Finn’s on the Water. It was a bit hot (!) but we ate out on their dog friendly deck. Then we crossed back on I-90 and stopped at Lock and Dam Number 7. But nothing was coming through the lock…

so after a couple of quick photos we left and went back to camp.

Our time together was too brief, but great fun.