We all got up for another early start. We woke up with dry tent flys so I was happy faced that I wouldn't have to carry any extra weight through another day of lesser hills.
We had a small breakfast prior to leaving Dave's home from mostly what was left of the food we carry. The plan was to have a bigger breakfast in the city of Dubuque IA that was nearby.
Wendy was familiar with the city and had a trendy spot picked out that was adjacent to the route. We used a combination of city bikepaths like this and lighter used city streets to navigate to where we stopped to refuel prior to facing the hills south of town.
Dubuque's got three colleges and some iconic architecture like this clock tower in the downtown. It's always a fun challenge to bicycle through large cities. Many cities along the Mississippi River seem to have gone out of their way to accommodate bike traffic.
The route out of Dubuque took us through the Mines of Spain park which dates back to Dubuque's earliest days as a community. I made a wrong turn that sent Wendy and I up a steep hill to the Dubuque memorial overlooking the Mississippi and the city that he founded. It was a great spot to view the river.
Wendy and I made two longer stops between Dubuque and Sabula. The first was in Bellevue IA along the banks of the Mississippi for lunch.
We stopped at a grocery store and filled up on a combination of citrus Cuties, bananas, and of course chocolate milk. We made a table and chairs out of plastic milk crates in the shade next to the store.
Our last stop was just short of Sabula at an orchard along the route that Wendy had visited before. We purchased a handful of the eating apples that were just ready for picking and a couple of fresh Bartlett pears.
Sabula is an island community accessible from both the IA and IL shore of the Mississippi. There is actually an enclosed lake on the south end of the island that we would be camping at tonight. You can see the approximate center of the town by the water tower in the background. Good night from the middle of the Mississippi.