La Crosse, WI - day 1

Fri. we drove from eastern Iowa into Wisconsin through rolling, and very pretty, dairy country and eventually along the Great River Road (the Mississippi) to river town, La Crosse. We had to detour a couple of times due to closed roads due to flooding from all of the rain the night before and recently. This first picture was taken in Manchester, Iowa. People were all over downtown watching as the downtown streets started flooding and wreckers were trying to rescue cars from the water. The DQ and a Hardee's were flooded. I thought it was scary. The story was on the front page of our paper today. Besides the rain, a dam had burst.










I had to check out this Gifts of Wisconsin shop. Found a WI Christmas ornament which is really the only thing I collect - when on trips. The check in guy at the hotel had recommended Buzzard Billy's for mostly Cajun food and great chicken dishes so we decided to try it. It looked like an unusual place. I had an au gratin chicken entree that had shrimp and crab, and Bill had catfish. Both were very good! The Pearl (on Pearl St.) was also recommended for homemade ice cream. It was an old fashioned ice cream parlor also with chocolates and jars of hard candy. You can see that it was a popular place! The old downtown buildings were neat!


Our room had an unbelievable view of The Mississippi (last picture). Check back for Day 2 of La Crosse! In the meantime, RAGBRAI comes through our area tomorrow!