Masterpiece on the Mississippi

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  Dubuque, Iowa
Monday, July 5, 2010

Saturday, July 3rd, was a driving day for us. We drove across SD to Vermillion, Home of SD State University. We stopped at a couple of Louis and Clark Highway markers but didn't really feel like tourists again until we stopped at the Louis and Clark Visitor’s center overlooking Louis and Clark Lake. Do you start to see a theme here? At Gavin’s point, on the Louis and Clark Lake, the explorers met with Chiefs of several Indian tribes to make peace. It is here that the Army Corp of Engineers decided to build the Gavin’s Point Dam across the Missouri River. Of course, they had to wipe out Gavin’s Point to do it. The location is lovely however and the Visitor’s center has beautiful glass walls to take advantage of the views. Since it was late, we didn’t take the tour of the power plant of the dam until Sunday. The gigantic size of the machinery is impressive. Three huge generators provide power for 30,000 homes (or something like that, I forget the statistics). Everything about the operation is huge … the lathe in the maintenance shop could turn a telephone pole!

The dam was the first dam built on the Missouri and closest to the Mississippi (1957)… it’s main purpose was for flood control but also helped stop the "meandering" of the Big Muddy Mo & created a lake for fishermen. The road across the dam had the customary traffic light allowing first one side then the other to travel so they could patch up the road… another example of TARP money being spent on the critical infrastructure of Nebraska.

Anyway Saturday eve we checked into the Buffalo Run B&B which occupies the second floor of the Valiant Vineyards Winery … which is not a winery, but does sell Valiant Vineyards Wine. The accommodations are very cushy and we got a free glass of wine for checking into their B&B. Not to be a critic, but cushy does not include the wash cloths which could have been used by the Indians to scrape buffalo hides.

Nobody makes money running a B&B nor running a winery so we looked up the owner, Eldon Nygaard and found that he was a politically active Lawyer … figures. Nice guy though. We chatted with him several times and he never alluded to his personal history.

Drove around Vermillion and through the campus of SDU.  Pretty nice little campus. But there’s not much else to the town so it was back to the motel to ask about a spot to eat … Mona Lisi (sic) was high on the list because it had lamb. Say no more. Phyllis had boef medallions avec fettuccini Alfredo (we call it eclectic Europa). I had the lamb, but I don’t remember the pretentious name. It was good. Since we were eating after 7:30 PM we didn’t have many other diners with us so we could talk with the owners who had owned the place for a short time. He was the Chef, She the manager, but since it was a holiday weekend, she was also a waitress.

Sunday was spent revisiting the Dam Power Station (as mentioned) and seeing the fish hatchery and aquarium. We were warmed up to the fish-bit when we left the power station because there were hundreds of swarming fish in the water outside the power station.  It seems that fish that get ground up as they go through the turbines end up as dinner for the huddled, swarming masses on the other side of the dam. This then was the warm-up for the Aquarium and Fish Hatchery. We learned about the Pallid Sturgeon and Paddlefish … both endangered fish of the Missouri River. We saw the suspects at the Aquarium and must say that they were unique looking. Currently, the National fish and wildlife people are milking the Roe from these species and mixing the male’s “milt” to beget little fishies.  They are grown to some length and released back into the big Mo. It’s illegal to keep them if you catch them, but you know how that goes.

I guess you don’t need to know about our trip to the Laundromat. Evening brought another trip to Mona Lisi’s only to fine that they wished to celebrate the 4th of July away from the restaurant. We passed several closed restaurants before finding "Little Italy" and a parking lot full of cars.  If the locals liked it we figured we could too.  And we enjoyed a nice meal.

Back at the Motel, we had been warned that there were no fireworks allowed in town and so the townsfolks would be coming out to the winery parking lot to set off their M-80s … thank you very much. But they would all be gone by midnight. And so it was. We put up with fire crackers and puny fireworks until the real big stuff was released by the town and then we had some après pyrotechnics by the locals … Kent, however, slept through it all. He was still coming down off a week of work.

Monday was a day of travel, we did the second “B” of Buffalo Run B&B and headed east for Dubuque, Iowa. Dubuque is the oldest city in Iowa established by fur trader Lucien Dubuque and claims to be the "Masterpiece on the Mississippi". We arrived at a Holiday Inn on the Mississippi and needed to take a walk along the banks of the big Muddy. We drove to the tourist area which had two big casinos. The river walk was memorable not only for the views but for the clouds of Mayflies that were dead or living out their last moments. They were called Fish flies by the locals, but they were called Eeewww Gross by Phyllis. They were so thick on plants and buildings by the river that they blackened the structures. We didn’t see them more than 100 yards from the river; However, you can see them at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/mayfly.  Drizzle convinced us to return to the hotel for dinner.

Tomorrow, we go to Urbana, Ill ... home of the University of Illinois which we left in 1959 ... Will we recognize any landmarks there? Tune in for the next thrilling episode.

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