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Road Trip Report- MN, IA, MO, KS, IL (with pics)

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Milepost61:

--- Quote from: on_wisconsin on July 12, 2012, 10:29:17 PM ---
--- Quote from: Mdcastle on July 11, 2012, 07:20:51 PM --- the Wabasha bridge.

--- End quote ---
Hell, that bridge was built in the late 1980's. It replaced a VERY rickety old through truss with a unique curved landing on the Minnesota side of the Mississippi.
old bridge: http://www.dajensen-family.com/roads/mn60bridge.html
current bridge: http://www.johnweeks.com/river_mississippi/pagesA/umissA02.html

--- End quote ---
Two sharp 90 degree turns. I remember it had signs that said "Trucks must not meet on bridge" which seemed kind of pointless because you'd never be able to tell if there was a truck coming from the other direction when you started up it.

Mdcastle:



The about 1 mile stretch of road leading up to the festival is officially called "Cornerstone Road".

On the final day, I drove IL 41 to I-74 to I-80. Lot's of memories- the "welcome Cornerstone" signs in Bushnell. Driving by the prison. Stopping many times at the Krisdala Baka rest area- once I looked up my name in the guest book that I had signed a year earlier. "Baka" means "hill" in Swedish, it reminded early settlers of the hills around their town of Krisdala. I've been told some parts of the midwest bear an uncanny resemblance to scandanavia, perhaps a factor in why so many scandanavians settled here. (I'm probably pretty unusual here in I have zero scandanavian ancestry- I'm British-German.). Laying under the ash trees is refreshing after the long drive across Iowa.


I crossed the Schwengal Bridge, incredibly boring but a traditional part of the road. Upon crossing the bridge I found the only gasoline station was sold out, so I turned into the city to find an open one, Several miles later I got to a gasoline station, and had 2/10th of a gallon left. Archive Photo


New sign and old sign. It's grainy because I got the exposure way off and had to "force develop" it in post. From the Quad cities I followed US 6,

Unusual stoplight in Wilton. There was two kittycorner to each other, they were dark, and the one car every 5 minutes or so was just blowing through it.



Sign on US 6


I went north on US 65 to US 20 before heading back to the interstate. Here's a new tied arch bridge in Iowa Falls. I'm kind of ambivalent about these, as much as I like cute bridges another part of me says it's false engineering and a waste of money to build expensive designs when a cheap one will do.

Finally tally on this trip:
1699 miles.

Notable Roadgeek accomplishnents during my time doing these trips (It was only in 2002 I strayed from taking the shortest route there and starting to see other things)
*Covered a vast swath of territory, from MSP to Kansas City to St. Louis to Chicago to Wausau.
*Came close to completing the Ave of Saints, down to Bowling Green.
*Drove all of the Great River Roads between MSP and ST. Louis, except for a short stretch between I-70 and I-270
*Crossed every Mississippi bridge between MSP and St. Louis, except the I-270 and McArthur Bridges.
*Drove long sections of the primo roadgeek accomplishment, X0 X5 interstates, sections of I-35, I-55, I-70, and many other roads.
*Took a ferry for the first time as a driver

Non-Roadgeek accomplishments:
*Went up the Gateway arch
*Toured a defunct prison and sat down in a real execution chamber.
*Went to Six Flags St. Louis and Great America, Worlds of Fun, Mount Olympus, and Noahs Ark theme parks.
*Saw Mark Twains house
*Saw Lincolns tomb
*Saw the state capitol buildings of WI, MO, IA, and IL

The reason for these trips may be history, but I do want to finish what I started as far as the GRR, Ave of Saints, and the Bridges and go back to St. Louis. Although I may elect to fly instead of drive. But then I'd be tempted to go further, maybe all the way to Cairo...

Milepost61:
Next time I'm in Iowa I need to go to Wilton just to see that signal. It looks like the N-S street has stop signs so it's not a totally uncontrolled intersection. I wonder if the signal turn-off coincided with US 6 being rerouted onto I-80.

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