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Captain’s Log Stardate:-
I feel like Captain Kirk on the Star Ship Enterprise relaying his thoughts
for the day, and unlike Dr Spock my ears aren’t the right shape to take in
all the day’s activities and conversations.
Monday mornings will never be the same again when this trip is over. The
normal domestic chores needed to be done after a busy weekend or returning
to work, seem to be insignificant in comparison. Here we have MOAers busy
packing, cleaning, swapping tales, or offering advice, and then the horn
blows ready for the 08.00 briefing.
We also say goodbye temporarily to a fellow driver (Jim Robinson) having to
return to England as duty calls, or in his case his boss. (His company
mobile phone catches up with him courtesy of FedEx only eight days later!
–Ed). He does however plan to return towards the end of our trip and finish
the last week or so. Today was a more gentle relaxing drive, not too long a
distance, and certainly in no hurry to get away early.
Many of us chose to go into the town of Galena (Latin for lead due to the
Lead mines in the area), for breakfast and we then took a look around this
lovely typical American town. It was Memorial Day throughout the US, a day
to remember veterans in past wars to present day.
All through the weekend as we have driven along, flags have adorned
cemeteries, monuments, shops, churches all along the route. It was a
perfect lazy family day, people mowing lawns, working on their cars, garage
sales, DIY jobs, whilst others went fishing, and young children playing near
rivers and lakes always within the watchful eyes of their parents. The
smell of BBQ’s filled the air at campsites and private back yards. This was
a day to relax. Even the cows in the fields were grazing contentedly, with
not a care until called in for milking.
The whole journey was a day of beauty, lovely plush green countryside, and
the lakes and of course the Mississippi River at it’s best. At Ferryville a
terrapin was trying to cross the highway oblivious to the traffic, as the
cars were doing their best not to hit it. I do hope he made it to the
Mississippi! What I didn’t expect to see was a No 49 Red London bus parked
along the road near a town called Prairie Du Chien, a tourist attraction may
be? On another note, a field of factory built timber houses stockpiled
ready to go perhaps to make a scene like something out of the Stepford
Wives’ movie. Only in America!! And so to the Holiday Inn Comfort Suites at
Winona.
Each day seems to bring an incident, all fortunately without injury. Today
was our turn. A truck loaded with stacking chairs was about 50 yards in
front of us traveling around 40mph. The bumpy road must have separated the
chairs, and before we knew it around 4 or 5 chairs fell off the back. We
took evasive action and ground to a halt on the opposite side of the road,
just as well no other cars were coming in that direction! All ended well,
but a lesson for the truck driver who had not secured the chairs. He must
have thanked his lucky stars they did not hit us knowing the litigious
culture in America!
This has certainly been a very pleasant day, from visiting President Grant’s
house in Galena at the start, to a tour of the ‘heights’ at Winona, but I
also took note of two quotes which American towns seem to love to portray:-
Dicks has ‘Fresh’ written all over it. (Restaurant)
Willies Quickie $ (Auto car wash)
(Also “Dead beat Bob Pasch I want my money” large hand sign in village, debt
collection USA style, seen Day 18! –Ed)
Only in America!
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