Keeping Warm - Travelling South...

Typical red farm barn near St. Donatus IA

Throughout the cold-snap affecting the north eastern United States we notice that the usual expression "have a nice day" when you depart a business has been universally replaced by "keep warm". TV, radio and print media are full of "be careful" and "stay indoors", but we haven't noticed any exhortations to say "keep warm". We don't know how this has become so common! Maybe we don't use the right apps? The news is now pointing out how the temperatures are lower than at the south pole! One hundred year records have been broken.

Spectacular church under steep bluff near St. Donatus IA

As we head south, following the Great River Road on one side or the other, keeping warm is becoming just slightly easier. The polar vortex has gone somewhere else. It's not that temperatures are rising much, but we just feel that it is just a little bit less bitter. In the Quad Cities IL/IA, for example, we were prepared to park and rush into shops, cafes and bars without our full compliment of clothing on. Maybe we are getting acclimatised, but the temperatures were still well below zero in Celcius.

Christmas themes decorate many houses, this one near Bellevue IA.

Bridge over Mississippi River between Sabula IA and Savanna IL

Every town features unique Christmas decorations. This example, Savanna IL.

Over three days, we made the drive from Dubuque IA to St. Louis MO, with overnights at the Quad Cities and Hannibal MO. When we are on the west side of the river, we are in Iowa, then Missouri. On the east side, it's Illinois all the way. We swap from one side to the other based on the towns we want to visit, and where the light is, for photographs. But the sky is mostly grey and the light isdead. Sunshine increasingly became a rare commodity. For the first time, we saw clear water on the Mississippi River at about Port Byron, IL. But the water was still mostly thinly frozen and no sign of any attempts at navigation. No ice fisherman any more - we suppose the ice is too thin. The countryside is still 100% snow covered. We made some navigational blunders following the river road stretch from the Quad Cities to Hannibal. The area is called "yellow banks" which we assume is a reference to the endless cornfields which are, at the moment, covered in snow. We were slowed down by a snowstorm and a whiteout for about half an hour. We did see an unexpected covered bridge somewhere in Henderson County, and the huge Mormon Temple in the tiny riverside town of Nauvoo was an amazing sight. The river was really wide along here. And departing Hannibal, we had to deviate from our planned riverside route because of a train derailment. We passed some pretty towns on the Illinois side of the river, and managed to miss entirely the supposedly must-see village of Elsha.

Penny farthing sculpture in Port Byron IL town square.

Suprise discovery of a covered bridge in Henderson County IL

Wherever we stay at night, we have adopted the habit of calling into a bar somewhere within walking distance (if possible) of our hotel. We get tips from the hotel receptionist and the app Yelp. Our drinking habits have solidified. Clare chooses a cocktail from the menu, and Mike has taken to ordering Jim Beam neat. It's cheaper than drinking Glenfiddich, and much more available. We are enjoying these bar visits - we go to trouble to engage the bar-keeper in conversation - this is not difficult because they know it helps them get a better tip. Mostly, barmen and servers easily recognise that we are not locals, but they can rarely guess correctly where we are from. A waitress at the Crumbles Cafe in Savanna IL seemed to think we were the most unusual customers she had ever dealt with - it's a small town way off the tourist trail!

The Quad Cities straddle the Iowa/Illinois border and comprise Davenport (where we stayed), Bettendorf IA, Moline (where we found a good Walmart) and Rock Island IL (where we got lost getting out of town). Our Great River Road bible Road Trip USA by Jamie Jensen, had warned us that the Quad Cities was an "enormous sprawl". We didn't hang around here any longer than necessary, but, superficially, we'd agree with that assessment.

Iconic Mormon Temple in the tiny town of Nauvoo IL

Hannibal MO is the boyhood hometown of Mark Twain, and it has the cutest historical downtown. On our visit, you could shoot a cannon up the main street and not hit anyone. Then we realised, this is a tourist town that may only come alive on weekends. Some shops were only open Friday - Sunday. But we found an open cafe, Java Jive, where, despite language and nomenclature difficulties, they tried very hard (and succeeded) at getting our coffee order right.

Snow clearing by the Mark Twain museum, near his boyhood home, in Hannibal MO.

The Mississippi River is crossed by dozens of spectacular steel bridges, this one from Louisiana MO into Illinois.

Road signs highlighting the Great River Road and the St. Louis MO area where the Illinois and Missouri Rivers join the Mississippi.

Approaching St. Louis, we had seen flocks of swans flying overhead with their necks outstretched in a beautiful formation, then we heard on the radio that rare Trumpeter Swans could be seen at West Alton on the northern outskirts of the city. These swans were hunted to near extinction decades ago, but are reported to be making a comeback. As we went through West Alton, we saw a bird sanctuary right at the intersection of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, and went into it. Lo and behold, we spied some of the endangered species on a rare patch of open water. There was only one other car there, and they had a camera with a much longer lens than ours! This tiny encounter with rare wildlife was a major highlight of the day.

Lighthouse at Grafton IL, together with statue of trumpeter swans?

Rare trumpeter swans have been seen in open water patches near St. Louis MO, and is distingishable by his black beak.

Onto the (frozen) Great River Road

The eastern states and the midwest of the US is effectively in lockdown. As we write this, it's Monday 06 January, and extreme cold weather has closed almost everything down. Today is the coldest day in 20 years. Where we are in Iowa, it's incredibly cold, with wind making it worse, but we have (so far) avoided the storms which have brought heavy snow to places further east. Even so, all schools are closed and the TV news is repeatedly warning us how dangerous conditions will be to exposed skin, and to not go outside. Last evening, well rugged up, we had a walk through Dubuque downtown, and the streets were deserted of pedestrians and cars. Everyone seems to have taken the stay at home advice seriously. It was true - even our excellent gear is not good enough to keep you warm under these conditions!

We found a bar, the Mason Dixie Saloon, and went in for a drink. At last some people! It was pretty crowded with football fans watching the Green Bay Packers playing San Francisco live. This game had been hyped for the last several days as it was be placed in Wisconsin and would be the "coldest game ever played". We watched for half an hour before leaving the brave the cold weather again - in the end, the home team lost, so they'll be dismal in Green Bay today. The next day, warned by fearsome weather reports, the streets were still empty of cars and pedestrians. Many shops were closed for the cold snap - we have never seen a town so quiet. Today, the temperature converted to -24C, and was -45C after applying the wind chill factor. No wonder there is no-one about. We have never experienced such cold, even when being in the northernmost part of Alaska in winter!

At the Mississippi Visitors Centre at Prescott, WI, the start of our long journey alongside the river.

We made it to Dubuque from Minneapolis over a couple of days by driving south down the Great River Road which tracks the Mississippi River quite closely, and passes through numerous small and historical river towns. There are two versions of the road, one on either side of the river. Midway, we stayed overnight in La Crosse WI, a very pretty town on the river.

Railway line drawbridge over the Mississippi at Prescott WI.

La Crosse is overlooked by Granddad Bluff which provides great views of the city.

A fine house in La Crosse.

Failing light does not hide the grandeur of the Mississippi River as it passes by La Crosse WI.

La Crosse downtown is not large but has many interesting shops, bars, cafes and restaurants.

Driving south in winter means that the sun is always in our eyes, and in retrospect, it may have been better to have attempted this journey the other direction. We have adapted a particular routine for road-trip days. The days start slowly - it's dark until 7:30am, and we don't get on the road until about 10-10:30. There are important rituals to perform: breakfast, getting our luggage out to the car, scraping ice and snow off the windscreen, warming the freezing car up, and, of course, finding good coffee somewhere.

Lake Pepin is a giant fresh water lake on the Great River, viewed here from the northern end.

Busy railroads run along the river on both sides.

We only do about 150-175 miles in a day, what with cautious driving in poor conditions, stopping for sightseeing and photographs, getting clothes on to fend off the cold, then off again for the car. The towns are interesting, some are very pretty, but its generally too cold to walk around them freely. Somewhere in the early afternoon, we try to find a sandwich and a cuppa for lunch. In these really small towns, mostly "closed for the season", our best opportunities are the little markets attached to gas stations. The sun never gets high - it's getting dark by 3pm, and fully dark by 4:30pm, so we hope to have found our next accommodation by them.

We have seen ice-fisherman everywhere on this road trip, usually equipped with giant augers and warming enclosures.

Driving the river roads informs us well on what makes this area tick. Busy railway tracks line both sides of the river, and we see a lot of commerce going on, with multi-kilometer long trains shuffling up ad down and servicing industry in the small towns. The heaviest industry we saw is mining shipping terminals and power stations. Away from the river, the countryside is thick with cornfields (snow covered and dormant) and cattle, feeding on rolled up hay.

Many riverside towns and cities line both sides of the river, and many are colourful and cute. This one is Fountain City on the Wisconsin side.

Typical colourful riverfront building in Lansing IA.

Unusually, the main street in Marquette IA runs uphill from the river.

Decorated housefront in Marquette IA.

The strongest visual element in Marquette IA is the casino which is across a footbridge to an old permanently docked riverboat.

The river road areas are populated by hundreds or thousands of corn farms. All have silos, the icon of rural properties here. Often there is cattle.

Winona MN is a city on an island in the river. This splendid building is the municipal office.

The river's path is defined by high bluffs on both sides. This spectacular example is near La Crescent MN.

In Dubuque, we stayed a couple of nights in the Julian, described as an "antidote to chain hotels". Regardless it is a historic building in a prime downtown location and has been finely renovated in traditional style, and was a good choice by Clare. Dubuque has some lovely old buildings and nice harbour scenery (all frozen solid) but there was no way we could stroll around this town like we normally would. The Julian is named after Julian Dubuque who was a French lead miner - he was apparently frustrated by not being able to viably ship his product away from the town.

Fictional representation of Julian Dubuque, with his indian wife Potosa.

Residents of the bluff houses over Dubuque have a funicular railway to enable the to walk directly to downtown.

Spectacular clock tower in Main St, Dubuque.

Illuminated church on a freezing night in downtown Dubuque.

Frozen condensation inside the window of our Julian Hotel room in Dubuque.

Instead we decided to hunker down, and spend the best part of the day in the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium. We still walked there (only about 500m) and staff at the museum thought we were mad. For a couple of hours, we were the only visitors to the museum, and we were treated right royally with personal guidance. They even fed the fish (inside) and the sea-otters just for us! And we managed to get a great cuppa there too. The museum is located on the river front on a site where riverboats used to be built. Apparently, it is one of the best on the river, the staff were exquisitely friendly, so it was a day well spent.

This eagle sheltering from the cold in the outdoor aviary at the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium.

Painting by John Gantz Jr on display at the Mississppi River Museum in Dubuque.

The weather in Dubuque for that day was splendid, officially described as "fair and breezy", except for the temperature. The sky was clear and 100% sunny. Of course, the sun never gets very high in the sky, but our hotel room faces south so it was very bright when we returned there. We seem to alternate sunny days with grey days. The photos we take on grey days aren't as vivid as those on sunny days, but we can't wait for the sun to come out!

No, not a McDonalds restaurant, but the magnificent Dubuque courthouse buidling.

The Julian Dubuque Bridge (US-20) and the entrance to Ice Harbour in Dubuque.

The Julian Hotel in downtown Dubuque is overlooked by mansions on the bluff.

Chilling in Minneapolis-St.Paul...

On New Year's Day, we sadly headed out of Duluth for the drive south to Minneapolis MN and our first sighting of the Mississippi River. Again, we preferred a scenic route (WI-35) to the Interstate. The road was in much better shape than the road we took into Duluth, although the country is still 100% snow covered. It was an interesting route, populated by many small towns, some of which were quite pretty. In particular, there was Osceoia, quite hilly amongst a lot of flat country, and featuring two cascade waterfalls in its downtown. A resident told us that they were lit up at night, and was disappointed we weren't staying the night. He also said the walk down the stairs into the valley for a better view is extremely slippery and hazardous and "you would die going down there", but it would be worth it at night! Also on this drive we passed numerous lakes and they all seem to have waterfront houses scattered around them, with the odd ice-fisherman in action. We discovered that the New Year's Day holiday is taken seriously in this part of the country - almost every shop and establishment was closed in these towns. At St. Croix Falls, on the St Croix River, the visitors centre was closed and we couldn't find the falls.

It remains bitterly cold. The news is full of the arctic storm sweeping across north-eastern states. The TV says its a three dog night! The front page of the Minneapolis StarTribune for 03Jan says "if you think you've been cold before, get ready ... the Twin Cities will experience the sort of bone-shuddering cold that your grandparents used to talk about". Schools are closed. But, here at least we are not getting heavy snowfalls. It is just plain, unbelieveably cold! On Monday, the expected temperature will be the lowest for 25 years, with -40C (incl. wind chill) predicted.

We first spotted the Mississippi River at Coon Rapids, a northern Minneapolis suburb. These rapids apparently define the upper navigable limit on the river, but all we really got was a glimpse here, limited by heavy uncleared snow and "area closed" signs and fencing for some undefined maintenance project.

This spillway was all we could see of the much wider Mississippi River at Coon Rapids.

In Minneapolis we elected to stay just out of downtown to save money on our roadtrip budget. We stayed at the Days Inn at the University of Minnesota campus - while our room was basic, the location proved to be good and the staff were very helpful. We used the free hotel shuttle to commute into town and back.

One of very many huge building atriums in the Minneapolis Skyway.

Minneapolis itself is a real eye-opener. It must be the biggest city on the Mississippi and it has adapted to its bitter weather perfectly. Downtown has developed the Skyway concept (that we first saw in Duluth) to perfection. The network is extensive and comprehensive, and many city buildings have effectively dedicated their second floor to providing public walkways. In the department stores (like Macys and Saks Fifth Avenue), the walkway passes right through the shopping space. Other buildings surround the Skyway with busy food courts and retail outlets. Some turn their Skyway into huge and beautiful atriums. Away from the shopping district, the Skyway network passes beside law courts and offices and municipal departments. The Skyway traverses the theatre district and sports stadiums, and most importantly, links directly to huge carparks and transport terminals. By contrast, the street level of Minneapolis (in this frigid weather at least), is almost devoid of pedestrians and shop fronts. Most shops open inwards, to the buildings containig them.

As the Skyway passes through a Wells Fargo Bank, we encountered the Bank's museum.

Good coffee and healthy food can be obtained at Caribou Coffee. We first discovered this franchise in Duluth, but outlets are abundant in Minneapolis (and elsewhere, we imagine). Six years ago, when we visited New York, good espresso was very hard to find, but we now believe that Americans are at last discovering the European (and Australian) concept of a cafe, and they are proving to be popular enough to ensure their success and growth. We note that most people are ordering very large concoctions with flavours and syrups added - the barista confirmed with us that what we really wanted was "small size skim cappucino extra dry", not larger, no flavouring etc. Dry means less milk, maybe more froth.

The best coffee we can find in Minnesota is at Caribou Coffee, and stores are everywhere!

Admittedly, it is the holiday season, but businesses are open, yet the streets of Minneapolis are as devoid of traffic as they are of pedestrians. The wide boulevards are mostly empty! The car parks are full, but the city has managed to keep th traffic off the streets. Compare that to Sydney! There are many buses, and there is also a light rail system which is currently under expansion.

The Minneapolis light rail passes one of the dozens of pedestrian bridges in the Skyway system. We had a picnic lunch looking out from a Skyway window here.

We got a much better view of the mighty river here. From the 3rd Avenue Bridge, we could see more cascades, but also locks to enable shipping to traverse. The water in the locks looked to be frozen, and we figure there is not much traffic at this time of the year. Unfrozen and running water was evident over the cascades. Even this far north, the Mississippi is a beautiful and very wide waterway.

Posing and freezing on the Mississippi bridge at the 3rd Ave crossing.

Old stone bridge and shipping lock on the Mississippi River at Minneapolis.

This eagle proved his fishing skills by finding something delectable.

A pleasant surprise was the Radisson Hotel, called The Depot which is in the old central station for the Milwaukee and Rock Island Railway. The public areas of the hotel are decorated in old railway style, and the walls are covered with railway posters and memorabilia. It's really well done, and looks great. The "shed" where we imagine the trains actually terminated is now a popular ice rink.

The Radisson Hotel is in the Rock Island Line's old railway station.

The hotel is decorated with statues depicting old railway staff and customers.

An ice skating rink occupies the shed where steam trains used to arrive.

A reflected railway station in 3rd Ave, Minneapolis.

That company, Target, recently beleagured by a security scandal involving customers' credit card details, is headquartered in Minneapolis. Target has a big presence here, and have naming rights to at least two major downtown sporting arenas.

Target Field, a major downtown sports arena connected to the Skyway. We think this is for baseball.

Next to our hotel is a sports bar called "The Hole" (this is a university campus, after all). We decided to eat there one evening, and in doing so learned something of American culture. We stumbled in on a bar packed to the gunnels with basketball fans on the way to a match, the Minnesota Golden Gophers vs. Michigan. This was only a college game, but everyone in the bar was dressed in team colours, maroon and yellow, with a big M. Suddenly (as predicted by the maitre d') everyone left and the bar became virtually deserted within minutes. Almost immediately, we could see on the multiple TV screens that the game had commenced. A waitress told us the stadium was only a few blocks away, but they couldn't possibly have gotten there in time, so it's obviously not that important to see the kick-off. (P.S. The Gophers lost a very tight game.) The following night, we had a drink at the same bar. We finally twigged that it is a "gopher hole". But the barman not only recognised us, but he remembered what we drank! That's pretty impressive when you consider how crowded the bar was last night.

You can't go to Minneapolis without visiting the Mall of America, reportedly the largest shopping mall under one roof in the USA, based on number of stores. Completely enclosed within the mall is a large fun park with a Dora the Explorer theme. With this huge fully enclosed air-conditioned space (surrounded by freezing multi-storey car parks), Minneapolis has again provided its citizens with an antidote to the diabolical cold.

A minotaur is one of many giant Lego statues at the Mall of America.

The Mall of America features a huge "Luna Park", fully inside and protected from the weather.