Great River Road - Marquette to Guttenberg

Marquette, Iowa is a picturesque little town, except for one unfortunate feature that afflicts many of the little towns along the Mississippi. There are railroad tracks running right alongside the river, which is right through the middle of town. So, at regular intervals the entire community rattles to the rhythm of a giant freight train. Marquette was once a major rail hub and continues to support considerable rail traffic, so I suppose the diesel engines and endless freight rail cars sound good to its citizens. They sounded bloody awful to me.

The road weaves on along the river for a while, then climbs steeply up into hills covered with oaks, maples and birches. Suddenly, up on top of the hill, there are are rolling hills covered in cornfields. We are now officially in Iowa, the tall corn state.

We visited the Pikes Peak State Park to check out the views of the river valley. Dad was quite disappointed that this Pikes Peak wasn't anything like the other Pikes Peak in Colorado where they race fast cars around cliffs. I'm sure this criticism had much more to do with the terrain than my delicate piloting of Puff Lite. This bluff, like the serious mountain in Colorado, is named after Zebulon Pike who was almost as interesting as his name suggests. He led an expedition through here in 1805 and had a lumpy mountainy thing named after him in return. I led an expedition through here in 2007, but my landmark has not been allocated yet.

The views are spectacular, even if Dad did think the drive was slow and short on cliff-edge excitement. In the shot below you can see the Wisconsin River flowing into the Mississippi. The river here is wide and dotted with heavily treed islands.

It's also covered in thick green slime. I don't remember that from Mark Twain. Where was the part when Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn climbed out of the water and spent two hours wiping the algae off their skin?

Next stop was Guttenberg, yet another Mississippi River town. My guidebook tells me that Guttenberg was settled in 1845 and named after the inventor of the movable press. The extra "t" was apparently a mistake, perhaps one of the earliest typographical errors. The mostly German immigrant population prior to the civil war left their mark in the form of many stone buildings constructed from bluff limestone and good, local clay and lime.

Guttenberg is a nice town. The mile long River Front Park has picnic tables and charming views of the river. I felt strangely at home, a feeling that intensified when I saw this sign.

Surely Ingleside must be fairly close to Ingleburn, where I live in Sydney. No wonder I felt so comfortable. Of course, some of it might be due to the rather relaxed vibe of Guttenberg.

Check out the signs in this shop window. We've kind of gone out of business, and we're kind of still in business, but you know ... whatever ... relax.

This one in a neighbouring window also caught my eye. There's a man who knows what he wants. I'd want to see the boat and motor too.

This one on an open door just cracked us up. Fortunately, we managed to find a cafe that actually was open for lunch. We sat next to the huge glass windows and ate fish while the river ambled by. It was a scorching hot day so we decided to seek out ice-cream. Having observed a tendency for the business operators of Guttenberg to be somewhat unpredictable in their habits I asked the woman who had served our lunch if there was somewhere nearby that we could get ice-cream.

Her eyes lit up and a strangely euphoric look came over her face. "Oh, yes." Clearly this is a woman who appreciates good ice-cream. She gave us directions to a place several blocks away. "All the flavours are good," she said "But Almond Joy is my favourite."

When we found the place in question, "The Pup Hut," we were initially rather discouraged. Surely this small house converted into a burger joint and ice-cream dispensary couldn't be the source of the almost mystical "Almond Joy." Could this be another one of those linguistic culture clash moments where "good" is understood to mean "Lots and cheap."

I was particularly put off by the drive through window at the side of the house. However, just to prove you can't judge an Iowan book by its cover, the menu turned out to be extensive and fabulous. I had another choc mint hit, Dad had something called "Zanzibar dark chocolate" that was at least 90% cocoa, and Patricia ordered the marvellous "Almond Joy." They were all delicious and I highly recommend a visit to the Pup Hut if ever you're in Guttenberg. Tell your friends.

It cannot be denied that Guttenberg has style. Even people riding cruisers, whom I normally view with deep suspicion, seem to have their own personal flair around here. I particularly like the bike mounted esky (ice chest). That could really catch on with Aussie motorcyclists.

Finally, on our way out of town we stopped off at this scenic overlook for another grand view of the deep river valley.