2017.06.03-Elkader, IA

2017.06.03-Elkader, IA

We explored the Elkader, Iowa area today starting in downtown Elkader.  This is not a particularly large town, so doing the historical walking tour was not difficult.

The Turkey River runs through Elkader.  We parked the car in the court house parking lot and walked across the river bridge.  These pictures are two of the nicer historical homes, both built in the mid to late 1800s.  I can’t imagine the money the owners have spent in maintenance to date!

Next on the agenda was the Motor Mill, which was built on the Turkey River as a wheat mill.  The owners named the hoped-to-be town “Motor”, hoping it would become a “powerful, moving and thriving town.”  Looking back neither the town nor the mill made it, partly due to the Turkey river flooding and partly due to a bug that caused the wheat crops to fail.  The building is slowly being restored.  It is a huge but lovely old building.  For more information, go to their web site  www.motormill.org

From there, we drove to Guttenburg to have lunch.  The restaurant had a wonderful view of the Mississippi Dam and Lock 10.

Guttenburg had an art fair going on, so we walked around the vendors for a little while.  I think there were maybe 10-15 booths set up along the mighty Mississippi, under some tall trees with lots of shade.  Jerry and I having done a number of art shows were envious of the beautiful vendor spots.

This was another gorgeous day, except it did get up to 91 degrees.  So on the way back to the coach we HAD to stop at a local burger joint to get some ice cream.  We thought you might enjoy their nutritional announcement.  😊