June 28, Thursday

Almost all of the deadheads are gone now, thank goodness. We went to the Richmond restaurant for breakfast. This is a hometown place with hometown food. They even had the table of guys having coffee, just like Lake City at the Galley.

It seems like at every lock there is a blue heron bird sitting on the cement watching what's happening. It's so fun to watch them.

We had to wait for a lock, so we stopped in Dubuque, IA and went for a quick walk. There was a Chris Craft woody bow sticking out of the restaurant, and Kip wanted to know if the captain drove it there or if someone stuck it there.... A park was made for a businessman named McDonald, and it was very nice. There was also a Veteran's Memorial in town that was very nice, and a Catholic church that was beautiful!!

We got through lock 10, and we are staying at the Wingar Works Marina in Guttenberg. Walking to town, we saw an old paddle boat that looked sort of in rough shape (see picture 1). We walked over one mile to get to town to shop, and there were NO gift shops open. None. Zilch. What the heck is that about? So, at a gas station, we found out where the one grocery store was, walked there, and walked back to the marina. I left a note with the lady at the gas station to give to my relatives who live here (even though they don't like me much). haha The old paddle boat we talked about earlier was sinking now... (see picture 2). Before we ate, Kip insisted we clean the boat. The fenders were black from all of the locks.. ISH. The people at the next boat asked us if we were "clean freaks" because they said that the boat already looked beautiful.

We drove (and probably walked) 60 miles today. The may flies (or fish flies) just hatched, so that is really nasty. Gas was $3.29.