The leaves all fell off in one week

The backyard as seen from the deck above.

I am going to have to shovel this deck with a snow shovel.

But we can see the Mississippi River from our deck and living room again.

Autumn leaves on the Iowa shore of the Mississippi River

Heron on the dock

Here is our old buddy from Canal Shore Drive, taken last week:

Barges are still running:

Houseboat pulled out of Mississippi River

Cargill and Living Lands and Waters combined forces today to pull a houseboat out of the river near New Boston IL.  It sank two years ago.
http://www.qctimes.com/news/local/article_5d4b6166-9128-11de-8797-001cc4c002e0.html
There are a couple of pictures with this story too.

I-80 approach to Mississippi–Getting closer to Done

Here are some shots I took coming home from work on July 30.  This shows the work on the Illinois side of the approach to the bridge.

I-80 Bridge over Mississippi River

Still closed eastbound to Illinois from Iowa.  I advise advance planning for travelers.

The Twilight, LeClaire to Dubuque

This boat makes a day trip to Dubuque, stays overnight and comes back to Leclaire.  Here is a view from the Mississippi River.

I-80 Bridge over Mississippi Closed to Illinois

So you think you can get from Iowa to Illinois just by driving over the Interstate 80 bridge??  Wrong.
The west-east route has been closed for a couple of weeks.  No date certain to reopen.  There is one lane open on the east-west route.
Inspectors are quite cautious about bridges over the Mississippi River these days.
Unfortunatley, the [...]

Spring is here

Check out the redbuds and the evening sun on the river after a thunderstorm.

The Lion of March

The weather warmed up and now it is cold again, nasty wind tonight.  No snow though, thank heavens.
We stopped by the cottage on the river tonight.  The river was angry, rollers coming in.  But then the clouds started to break and some sun shone from the west.
Here are some snapshots.  Lock and dam 14 is [...]