#Schummer14: Day 2 recap Summer of Schnyder

Day 2 = 367 miles. We spent half the day in Dubuque, Iowa, then drove through Illinois, the top edge of Indiana and into Michigan before stopping for the night.

If you read one of my pre-trip posts you might remember that I said we were making one stop at the front of the trip for a small research project related to work. I have a magazine client who is interested on an article about what there is to do for a family or couple flying into the Dubuque area so I wanted to spend a few hours exploring.

Dubuque, right on the border of Illinois, is Iowa’s oldest city. We spent all of our time downtown. We started with a few hours at the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium. It was more of a museum with a few aquatic displays, so not like your typical museum with huge tanks full of exotic fish. One building was focused on the role rivers play in our lives and the need for balance between using the rivers and protecting them. One building was focused specifically on the Mississippi River, the world’s third longest river that happened to be flowing right outside the building in downtown Dubuque. We learned a lot about the M-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-p-i and got to see a lot of turtles on display, including a green sea turtle who just went on display this week. He was injured by a boat in Florida, leaving his back flippers paralyzed. He has been fitted with a weight on the back of his shell that helps him swim using his two front flippers. In between the buildings are historical buildings and displays about ship-building and you can tour an old steam boat that is on the water.

A few photos from our time at the museum:

We had lunch downtown (Lee had pizza again, which means he’s probably not going to want pizza on Day 3 in Michigan, which means the whole plan to have pizza in each state we stay in during this trip is already off the books … unless the hotel serves breakfast pizza) and then walked to Cable Car Square, where we road on the cable car at Fenelon Place Elevator Company. It is said to be the world’s shortest, steepest scenic railway: 296 feet in length, elevating passengers 189 feet from Fourth Street to Fenelon Place.

It was a really short ride but fun (we’ve also been on these types of cable cars in Pittsburgh, Albuquerque and Pikes Peak in Colorado). From the top we had a great view of the city’s downtown, the Mississippi River and three states.

A few photos from and of the cable car:

The drive was pretty ordinary, although we did see three Ford Pintos all getting gas at a Conoco Station in a small town near Ronald Reagan’s birthplace (didn’t realize he was born in Illinois).

Overall, an educational day, got some info I needed for an article to write down the line sometime and we made it a bit closer to Toronto, where we’ll be spending four days and seeing friends.

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#Schummer14 – Lee & MeLinda Schnyder are turning their home in Wichita, Kan., over to a friend and taking a month-long road trip. They’ll travel from Kansas to Ontario and Quebec, Canada; then through Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. The trip home will include stops in Ohio and Missouri. Beyond the blog, you can follow #Schummer14 on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.