I'm in La Crosse for an hour or so to catch up on some notes before driving another hour to meet up with friends. This being the first weekend of OktoberFest, the streets are packed with people walking from the Fest grounds to the downtown bars (and back). Amazingly, I haven't seen anyone fall down
Population (2010) 26,885 Introduction The first time I drove through Clinton, I noted “some towns look like they struggled from the very beginning; Clinton is one of those towns.” Appearances can be deceiving, though, as I learned. Driving through, you don’t get a sense of the city’s well-to-do past.
On Friday, the back seat of my car was strewn with the remains of half-eaten food: part of an apple turnover, a bite of something called a Blarney Stone (a sweet cake lathered in frosting and rolled in crushed peanuts), half of a pizza, a plastic container full of barely sampled spaghetti (minus the meatball)—the
You never know where you’re going to find the good stuff. Last week I had a dreary visit to downtown Clinton, Iowa, a dreariness amplified by my own weary mood, as I searched in vain for unique stores and signs of street life. This week in Clinton couldn’t have been more different. After a morning
So I’m backtracking through familiar territory right now, visiting motels, B&Bs, etc. to get a look at rooms and verify rates as I finish the chapter for the loop north of the Quad Cities. I am not very excited about this part of the project. I am also trying to figure out what kinds of stores
Continuing with the religious theme, let’s talk about churches. I am not a religious person (hard to believe after the last two posts, huh?), yet I never get tired of visiting churches. In many small towns, the church is the most impressive structure. In the mid- to late-1800s the Upper Miss Valley was the frontier, the edge of
