LA CROSSELa Crosse is our last stop on our trip up the Mississippi. It is another town that had is origins as a trading post. The trip here from Chicago was horrendous with blinding rain much of the way. Stopped outside of Madison for lunch but never got into the city because of the rain. Not much to say about the city itself, a small town with a university and a pretty river walk.
The trip to Sioux Falls was through pretty countryside. Ten miles outside of La Crosse we crossed the Mississippi again. For several miles we drove by the river where it was almost a lake dotted with islands. The state highways are concrete and so it is mile after mile of washboard - a sound that is reminiscent of driving with one or more flat tires. In addition to the picturesque farm sites, barn, silo, and farmhouse that repeated endlessly, windmills were visible every now and then. A new addition to postcard Middle America.   Along the way we passed the town of Austin, the home of Spam. Talk about America. I thought we had reached the apex until we came upon the town of Blue Earth (yup, that was the name). It sported, among the friendliest people we met so far, a huge statue of the Jolly Green Giant.  The place we had lunch was originally a roller rink, then a bowling alley and today a furniture store with a restaurant? That served Panini's and cappuccino.
We spent the night in Sioux Falls. It was impossible to get a room downtown because there was a Corvette convention in the city. Fun to see the collection of cars but frustrating to be stuck in the "beltway" outside the city. |