My boat got nudged

My friend Jane is lacking in life experience. She doesn't know how to properly identify a "dive" bar. I need to have her hang around with my pal Donnie for a while. That guy knows a dive!

Jane and her husband Ken have been inviting us to their family's vacation home near Guttenberg for the past couple summers. Between their schedule and ours, it just never worked out. This summer, when the invite came - I jumped right on it! We piled the kayaks on the Subaru and took the 4 hour drive to the NE part of the state. Their place is on a little island that most people wouldn't recognize as Iowa. Instead of cars, people drive modified golf carts around the 'hood.

Full moon over the campfire

When we arrived on Friday night, we hopped on the golf cart (Odie too) and drove to Jane and Ken's friends' house for pizza and a fire. A priest even joined us for the campfire. Hey, I need all the help I can get.

What is so therapeutic about fire and water? I got a dose of both this weekend - plus medicinal friendship with two great loving people. Jane and Ken are still relative newlyweds - having married a year and a half ago. They are fun to hang out with - though their level of activity wears me out!

On Saturday morning we drove an actual car to Guttenberg for donuts. First we checked out the barge going through the lock. It is an interesting process to watch.

Viewing platform at the lock

Then we hiked up a huge hill above the city, working every calorie from that donut off! Guttenberg has a nifty Farmer's Market - lovely along the river, featuring honey, syrup, flowers and plants. Later this summer there will veggies. Ken picked up fresh eggs.

No elevator - we walked up there

Next we drove to Frenchtown with the kayaks - where there was no town and no French. But we did take a picnic and paddles. It's backwater there - not the main channel of the Mississippi. It was fabulous getting out on the water again. Have I mentioned how great it is not having a broken shoulder? After a half hour or so, we scoped out a likely spot for a picnic. A snake swam by but he didn't want any of my food.

After lunch I lined up behind Ken as we went through a swampy area - and a fish jumped nearby, making me somewhat nervous. I have a phobia about a fish jumping into my boat. That would be bad! Heart attack, most likely. Then something nudged my boat (I'm picturing a sea monster) and I let out a shriek that scared Ken so badly he mentioned soiled shorts. I paddled quickly to get out of that area. Now that sport gets one's heart pumping! It was challenging going through a low water area and then across the channel to get back to the house, but the weather was great and I enjoyed the kayaking immensely.

Jane played guitar at church in Garnavillo that evening. We got to witness a lovely baptism ceremony during Mass in a church that had an altar that reminded me of SS Peter and Paul in Atlantic. And then we went to Bill's in Clayton - the bar Jane considered a dive. Um, nope. It had umbrellas on a deck. Immediate disqualification. Dinner on the deck with a cold one. It doesn't get any better!

There is a silica mine there. It was interesting to drive around to look at the mining activities, though some might view it as devastation. You can also see piles of sand dredged from the river. Clayton County is very rural - and could easily hang with that southern tier of counties in Iowa.

We spent the rest of the evening cruising the island on the cart. We ran into an old friend, Deb Enzler (don't know her married name) from college. Her parents are friends of Jane's. What a walk down memory lane! We saw a cart that is hacked to look just like a Jeep. How cool! On the island there are shacks, trailers, nice homes and mansions. At the end of the evening we sat in the screened in porch with Odie, while somebody shot fireworks. Odie vibrates when sparks fly.

Ken made us a hardy breakfast Sunday before we took off. We would have loved to play again that day, but we had errands to take care of back home. We swung by Paul's home place on the way back to DSM - boy has it changed! And the cemetery in Earlville. In case you're shopping. Payment plans!

Now that we know the way to Guttenberg, we need to go back. That was fun and I envy that sweet summer lifestyle those two can enjoy through this fall. Thanks for the invite buddies. Come back to DSM soon.