United States
Rock Island County

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    • Day 25

      Wir erreichen Iowa

      September 21, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

      Heute war ein Fahrtag. Einen letzten Park in Illinois , den Starved Rock State Park, wollten wir heute noch besuchen. Dieser Besuch fiel aber buchstäblich ins Wasser. Na ja, es kann ja nicht alles klappen.
      Es hörte erst auf zu regnen, als wir den Bundesstaat Iowa erreichten.
      Jetzt hoffen wir, dass der Regen nicht zu unserem Dauerbegleiter wird😁🤔😮‍💨
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    • Day 8

      Mississippi

      September 25, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

      How come when they come from thousands of miles away, we can buy bananas here for 49c a pound when back home, when they come from just down the road we pay $3 or $4 a kilo.
      Add a few more thousand miles to that distance and we were paying only 99c a pound in Alaska so I tell you what, those thieves in Maclean aren’t so mellow yellow with their pricing.

      With a boot full of bananas and a troop of local baboons chasing us down the road we turned off Interstate 80 onto some quieter backroads to get a better look at the Mississippi River.
      What do you say to describe its size? and the part we were at was very narrow across because there was a bridge there, and narrow is the sensible place to build a bridge.

      This was at a town called Muscatine where we drove over the bridge into Illinois then to Lock and Dam 16.
      Just as we got there six massive barges joined together came up the river to go through the lock.
      The Mississippi is like a seaway, this barge had come up from the southern states and was going on to St Paul, Minnesota, a trip of a few thousand miles.

      As the barge approached the lock workers came out to assist getting the barge through.
      They were friendly so as one old guy walked by he said “hello” and “where y’all from” we say Australia so nodding at the RV and trying to be smart he says. “Australia! y’all drive that thing all the way from Australia”. Being a bigger smart arse I said “no don’t be stupid we put it on the plane as excess luggage”
      He cracked up, shook head and walked on.

      Next his mate comes along, friendly as and says hello, how y’all doing and goes about helping to get the barge through.
      The barge had a couple of deckies. One thing they had to do was secure the barge by tying it to the sides because of the force of the water when the lock gates were opened would have swept it back out again.

      We were looking at the river, considering the distances the barges travel and thinking this could be a great lifestyle if you are that type of person so seeing everyone was so friendly I called out to one of the deckhands asking what they were carrying.
      “ concrete” he says. I hope he meant cement or they would be in for a bit of a shock by the time they reach St Paul.
      “good job working on the barges” I say
      “ yeah good job, pays not bad but the place is full of “no goods”
      I crack up because I thought he was saying this like we might rib a mate or fellow worker, in that affectionate Australian way because just near him was another deckie but no he never cracked a smile once and then he was off.
      “yeah the place is full of no goods they’re everywhere... no goods! yeah can’t say nothing to them, not them no goods! You say something to them no goods and there’s trouble, them no goods is trouble”

      This went on and on and as the barge left the lock and continued on he was still going. We couldn’t understand a word of it except the occasional “no goods”.
      One of the lock operators heard all this and as he was finishing up he walked back past us and put his hand to the side of his mouth like he didn’t want anyone else to hear and said “a lot of them are just out of jail”.
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    • Day 4

      Tschau Chicago! Wir freuen uns auf Iowa

      May 16, 2023 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

      Gut geschlafen haben wir uns von Chicago verabschiedet!
      Auf dem Weg nach Iowa haben wir Rast am größten 🚛 Trucks Rastplatz der Welt halt gemacht!
      Iowa 80
      Das ist schon echt krass dort zu sehen, essen und kaufen gibt!
      Und dann ging es weiter Richtung Iowa, wo wir nochmal für Sandro in einem riesigen Anglershop einkaufen waren.
      Dann kam so langsam der große Moment auf den ich so riesig freute.
      Wir checkten in unserem Hotel ein. Klein aber fein.
      Stephanie fuhr dann zu der Brücke die den Film „Die Brücken am Fluss“ so berühmt machte, die Rosevelt Bridge!
      Genau wie im Film ging es bergauf,bergab über eine steinige, holprige Straße die nach Francesca ( Meryl Streep) benannt wurde. Und dann stand sie vor mir, vor uns. Die Brücke!Unbeschreiblich schön, das warme Abendlicht tat sein übriges!
      Genau beschreiben kann ich nicht was in mir vorging. Glücksgefühle, aber auch Gedanken über all die vergangenen Jahre kreisten durch meinen Kopf.
      Achterbahn der Gefühle mit Gänsehautfaktor.
      Gefühlt tausend Fotos habe ich und natürlich alle anderen auch noch gemacht!
      Sandro hat dann tatsächlich noch die Angel rausgeholt, angebissen hat aber kein Fisch.
      Da alle Restaurants im kleinen Ort Winterset geschlossen haben, sind noch im Supermarkt kurz bevor es geschlossen hat noch einkaufen gegangen.
      Wrap‘s und Knackige Würstchen, hmm sehr lecker. Hat aber gereichten geschmeckt!
      Und zur Feier des Tages dann noch ein lecker Bierchen, Wein und sambucca , was will man mehr!
      In Winterset haben wir von einer sehr nette Frau ein Prospekt aller Brücken die noch besichtigt werden können, geschenkt bekommen.
      Die werden wir morgen noch besuchen.
      Ein schöner und auch emotional anstrengender Tag geht zu Ende!
      Im 2. stelle ich noch mehr Fotos ein:
      Gute Nacht, ich weiss jetzt schon was ich träumen werde:
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    • Day 232

      Der Mississippi

      April 23, 2019 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

      Zwei Nächte hab ich an den Ufern des Mississippi River verbracht. Auch hier im Norden der USA ist er schon ein beeindruckender Fluß. Das Übliche Hochwasser das er jedes Jahr im Frühjahr hat geht auch langsam zurück so das der Campingplatz teilweise schon im trockenen war.Read more

    • Day 93

      On Route - Davenport

      October 25, 2022 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 7 °C

      What a long day. 6 hours of driving in the rain.

      Crossed 4 states - Started in Michigan, crossed Indiana & Illinois and sleeping in Iowa.

      Not a lot so say except that the trucks are absolutely amazing. They each have their own personality, and today you could feel their angs and aggression as they pulled their cargo in the rain.Read more

    • Day 84

      Kanal

      November 1, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 5 °C

      Ich fahre am Hennepin Canal entlang, ein schöner Radweg ohne Autoverkehr. Der Kanal ist von ca. 1900, und man sieht noch die originalen Schleusenkammern und eine schöne Hubbrücke.
      Nachmittags beginnt es zu regnen und ich ziehe mich bald in ein Hotel zurück. Ich esse Mikrowellennudeln aus dem Verkaufsautomaten, bis mir wieder warm ist.Read more

    • Day 2

      Crossing the Mississippi River!!!

      August 8, 2015 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 72 °F

      Angus, Maddie, Gordie, and Patrick crossed the Mississippi River by land for the first time! Sarah crossed it for the 15th +/- time. Welcome to Iowa!

      Prior to this we made stops in Genoa, Ohio and Geneseo, Illinois for gas. Ohio thruway rest area was gorgeous and very clean, especially at 2:30am. The land of Lincoln had the cleanest and most cheerful Mc.Donald's for breakfast full of an older crowd having coffee and chatting on a Saturday morning. Don't blame them, cheap coffee and a nice pristine environment would appeal to any of us as a meeting location. Pancakes were good.

      Mission Impossible #1: Getting a 21 month old to sleep in a camper!

      It took us a while to figure out how to get Patrick to sleep last night. PJ's, books, quiet time and then we tried to put him in his Pac 'n Play that we thought we had cleverly placed in the nook left by the table. The P'n P could not move in there. A truly perfect fit that we thought was ingenious. A much better option than the tub that Sarah got at 6 weeks old going to Disney World. Those were the days...

      Back to the sleeping dilema. So we had a drowsy, calm Patrick. Layed him down in the crib and he proceeded to jump up and use his arms and hands to pull on the couch cushions up and out of the crib all the while screaming: "truck!" "Dada, truck!" The kid loves his trucks and I-80 is full of them. Clearly, there was too much action to fall asleep within view of the trucks passing by.

      Try #2 had Patrick back in his carseat. Complete fail, all he did was scream at such an ear piercing volume that we all got headaches and Sarah became certain this was payback for her rather loud voice as a child. Not that she's loud now, oh no, she's definitely not teaching all the administrators near her classroom Beginning Spanish.

      So we moved on to try #3, co-sleeping on the back bunk. It turned into a half hour of wrestling a baby aligator from one side to the other. He then turned into Chip or was is Dale?, crawling up and down Sarah adjusting his head on her, then pulling her arms around him, then switching to another position on her bladder, where he hadn't been for 21 months and then he would sigh and the moment we thought he was asleep a truck would barrel by and he would scream "truck!" again and we were back to square one. Grrr...

      Try #4 was a bit more unconventional, but it finally worked. We put the Pac 'n Play on the back bed, covered the see-through sides with blankets, pulled the curtain around him and said goodnight. 30 seconds of angry Patrick and he was out. Finally, baby aligators do sleep. He made it 11 hours with one wake up at the Ohio gas stop. Stupid lights from the gas station shining in the vent above his crib. Gotta velcro a cover for that next. But he slept which meant so did everyone else who wasn't up driving or chatting to help the driver stay focused. M & G are amazing helpers!

      Approximately 1,134 miles behind us! Next stop will be Nebraska for gas and then on to the Gray's (Sarah's sister & family) in Denver!!!
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    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Rock Island County, مقاطعة روك آيلاند, Рок Айлънд, রক আইল্যান্ড কাউন্টি, Condado de Rock Island, Rock Island konderria, شهرستان راک ایسلند، ایلینوی, Comté de Rock Island, Rock Island megye, Ռոք Այլենդ շրջան, Contea di Rock Island, ロックアイランド郡, Rock Island Comitatus, Rock Island Kūn, Hrabstwo Rock Island, راک آئیلینڈ کاؤنٹی, Comitatul Rock Island, Рок-Айленд, Округ Рок Ајланд, راک جزیرہ کاؤنٹی، الینوائے, Quận Rock Island, Condado han Rock Island, 羅克艾蘭縣

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