This morning was rainy in Dubuque, so we talked the hotel shuttle driver into a quick detour to the river just so we could peek at the Mighty Miss. There stands an old shot tower next to a former brewery on the river walk. The tower has no connection with the kind of shots you might associate with beer. This was a tower they poured a stream of molten lead from. It passed through a mesh that made it into lead droplets that then fell into the water. This resulted in lead shot for muskets or some such weapon.
Since it was rainy on our intended route to Chicago and we have an airplane, we decided to visit sunny Houston. Not in Texas though, this one is in the vast forest reserve at the southeast corner of Minnesota. The airport terminal is slightly larger than the phone booth, both dwarfed by a magnificent barn in the distance.
We flew along the Mississippi a bit, and enjoyed the mazes of little islands that evoked images of boys rafting downstream.
We headed for Chicago just as sunset approached, chasing the storm that had been keeping us away earlier. A few minutes before landing there were two short vertical rainbows bracketing our path as if an invitation to the windy city. This pic out the passenger window shows the rainbow that was on our right (toward the left of the pic).
Tomorrow we’ll look at weather and decide whether to explore Chicago or fly along the lake shore for some pix and the continue on our way east.
John & Anne Wiley 