day 23: prairie du chien to la crosse, wisconsin 66 miles

what a beautiful day.  a bright crisp morning as we rode with the mississippi river on our left  and towering bluffs on our right.

river islands and bluffs along the minnesota side of the river

since we only had a 66-mile ride with only light rollers on a basically flat route, we had plenty of time to stop and smell the roses.  so lots of pictures today.

one of the many lock and dam systems on the upper mississippi

along the ride, we have passed a number of locks and dams from the central mississippi up to the northern sections of the river.  one of the largest was in keokuk, where the hydroelectric power used to light up st. louis.

must have been nearly a dozen trains driving by us today

we rode up much of highway 35 north all day.  it runs right along the mississippi all the way from prairie du chien into la crosse and beyond.  between the highway and the river are two sets of rail lines.  for most of the day, we watched quarter-mile long freight trains traveling up and down the river.

don't know if this can show the incredibly steep slopes of the bluffs on the wisconsin side

on the right side of the highway were a series of towering bluffs.  as opposed to the long, continuous line of bluffs on the minnesota side of the river, the bluffs on the wisconsin side were more like a series of camelbacks.  we'd ride along flatlands for half a mile, then boom, we'd come up on a bluff with incredibly steep slopes.  

an old marker from the black hawk war

a newer version of what took place 

turns out, the area we rode through today is also steeped in history.  the famous black hawk wars were fought here in the mid 1830's.  a very young abraham lincoln cut his military teeth during these battles.  

an alternative to the john deere tractor for the remainder of the trip?

yesterday, rollie, bill, john and i passed a horse-drawn carriage as we were sailing down a long, steep hill.  our assumptions of it being an amish carriage were confirmed a few minutes later when we passed through a small town with an amish store in its center.  today, we passed a set of carriages by the side of the road with their horses resting in the grass.  don't know if my photo clearly shows it, but there's a horse lying down between two of the carriages.

finally, today's ride seemed almost like a day off.  it was a pleasure ride up the river.  we finished in la crosse, riding down streets with some of the most beautiful houses (including, if i'm correct, two designed either by frank lloyd wright or one of his assistants) in this area.  it was a recovery day for my legs.  they still ache, but it wasn't an overly challenging day.  tomorrow, we ride our last century of the tour.  that will be the challenge.  but, with only 180+ miles to go, we'll get through it.