Movin' Right Along: Life on the Mississippi

Sunday, Aug. 5, 2018

Wow what a day! So much has happened, I'm having trouble remembering this morning, although I seem to remember that we actually got going quite early, and Joe even got to take a shower before we left our campground at 9:30. It was kind of gray, but we knew we were going to spend the next few hours inside, so it didn't matter. On the way off the island, we passed the casino again (I think I mentioned it yesterday) and I looked up on Casino Camper to see whether they allowed overnighting. They do, and so I thought that if we ended up staying for a second night in Dubuque, we could dry camp in the casino parking lot.

Ten minutes away was our destination, the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium. I originally "scheduled" it for about a 3 hour visit on my original itinerary (meaning, it would have been yesterday's activity-- but THAT didn't happen!) But we got there a little after it opened, and I figured we'd have plenty of time. Well, we ended up staying there the ENTIRE day. This museum had several parts, all really excellent.


Paddlefish eating--that's his mouth wide open!

We started in the main building. The first floor was all about the Mississippi River. We learned about all the different environments in the river-- from marshlands to deep water to backwaters etc. Each area had an aquarium with the kinds of fish which could be found in that part of the river (including a bayou tank with a large alligator.) We watched a wonderful video about the barge traffic we'd seen yesterday-- more information about how critically important the barge transportation system is for farmers all up and down the river. There was a great exhibit on the locks, and the issues involved with managing the traffic. We spent some time there because we like locks so much . The issue at hand is how to expedite traffic, and whether having longer locks would help that (remember, yesterday we learned about the huge 15-barge tows, which have to be broken into two parts to get through the locks. That takes about 2 hours for each tow, and traffic can back up.) Some people are in favor of making the locks longer-- we learned the pros and cons for that question. As Joey said, there are so many issues, it is not at all black and white, and once you make a decision, you are subject to the law of unintended consequences. There are good arguments on either side of the question as to how to handle the river traffic. We found it fascinating, again, today.

Equally fascinating were the paddlefish! We walked past the big tank of paddlefish just as they were about to be fed. I was expecting them to all go up to the surface to feed, like other fish I've seen. But no, it was far more amazing. Paddlefish have a very long nose (it looks like a paddle), and their mouths are way back behind their nose, so they can't get their mouths to the surface like other fish do. Instead, they open their mouths SO WIDE, and as the food drifted down in the tank, they swam around with their mouths open, kind of scooping it up. When they do that, you can see right through their mouths to the back of their throats, where their gills are, and you can see how they are filtering out the food, while the water flows right through the gills. When there is light behind them (which there was, because there was a bright light over the tank), you clan see right through their mouths. Joe took a video which is too long for him to send to me, but I took these photos which I think show the fish pretty well.

There were lots of other things to see, including the backwater tank in the lobby, with turtles (including one which was very entertaining, as he tried to get out onto a sunny log which was too high for him and kept falling back into the water), an otter with his own pool, and of course things like snakes, frogs, toads, etc. All in all, we learned a LOT about the Mississippi, and really enjoyed it.


Models of various Leonardo inventions and visions

Then we headed upstairs for the museum's current special exhibit. This was on Leonardo da Vinci. I don't really know what he has to do with rivers, but so be it-- the exhibit was amazing! It included information on Leonardo's background and education, and some displays of his notebooks. Then there were full-size models of many of his inventions-- machines which he hoped would help man fly like a bird, his "ideal city", a couple of cranes, and a sort of diving bell and underwater suit he designed to help humans live under water (sort of like scuba equipment.) There were also models of machines he designed to wage war, including an armored tank (really quite like the ones we saw yesterday on Rock Island!), a multiple-barrelled gun (again, sort of like the howitzers we saw, but more than one barrel attached together and spread out in a fan shape), and bridges designed to be quickly erected by a traveling army. There was a section with his anatomical drawings. And of course, a large section with replicas of his paintings, including a full wall-size Last Supper. Joe has always reminded me of Leonardo, being so creative in so many fields, and we both really enjoyed the exhibits, especially all the models.

By the time we were finished with that, it was noon! And there was another whole building to see. So we went out to the RV and had some lunch first, and walked Cassie. Then we came back and went to the other building, which is the "National Rivers" building. The exhibits included things like how the rivers were used as highways, the importance of rivers in building the country, and stuff like that. Our favorte was the section on canals. We watched a short video on the building of the Erie Canal, and how that ushered in the "golden age of canals." As we left, Joe says, "Houseboat on the Erie Canal!!!", which is something we want to do-- rent a houseboat and travel on the canal. There was also a big exhibit on various ways rivers have been utilized to provide water to growing populations.

We also saw two movies, each about 20 minutes. The first was on "The Age of the Airplane," which was about how airplane travel has affected our lives. It was very beautiful and included a lot of things which we don't usually think about--especially, how before flight, most people would never experience any culture or country other than their own. And how profoundly our lives have been changed by the ability to travel between countries and continents so easily. After that, we watched a very different movie about meercats! It was a bit anthropomorphicized, but they are very cute animals and i didn't really know that much about them (meercats live in groups and operate very communally, and the "leader" of the group is the dominant female, rather than a male!)

We finished up that building by observing some more aquariums, including one of tropical water and fish, and one with cold water, which included sea stars and our favorite, a large red octopus. We also looked at the tank with the stingrays, which could be petted (the staff person there said they are actually responsive and LIKE being petted) and a tank with jellyfish.

Joe was getting really tired by this point, but we had to walk back to the car via the outdoor exhibits-- including a family built and owned river tow boat, and the boat-building factory (which was the old use of the building we were attached to). We were too tired to go investigate the William H. Black, a side-wheeling steamboat which was used to dredge the Mississippi, and is now a National Historic Landmark. And until I looked at the brochure we picked up just now as I type this, neither of us knew there was an outdoor wetlands exhibit.

So how did I EVER think we'd be able to "do" this museum in 3 hours? It was 4pm by the time we left. By then we had several other things on our agenda. The "problem" one was that our house battery was dying, and Joe wanted to replace it. He said it was likely we'd find it at Walmart, and Google told us there was a Walmart less than 4 miles away. MY agenda was to check out the Fenelon Place Elevator. That was only 4 BLOCK away. So we went there first.

The Fenelon Place Elevator is "the world's steepest, shortest scenic railway." It was built by one Mr. J.K. Graves, a banker in Dubuque who lived on the bluffs overlooking the city. In 1882, Dubuque was "an hour and a half town," with everything shutting down at noon, and everyone went home for dinner. And Mr. Graves wanted 30 minutes to eat his dinner, and to take a 30 minute nap afterwards. Unfortunately it took 30 minutes to drive his horse and buggy around the bluffs to get to the top, and another 30 minutes to get back down to the bank after lunch. He didn't have time for his nap! As a traveler, he had seen incline railways in Europe, and he decided a cable car would solve his problem. So he built a cable car from the business district to Fenelon Place, on the bluffs, where he lived.

It started out as Mr Graves' private elevator, but eventually was purchased by 10 neighbors who had become dependent on it (Graves had started charging 5 cents/ride when neighbors kept asking for a lift.) The 10 men started the "Fenelon Place Elevator Comppany", and the elevator has been running ever since. It now costs $1.50 per trip, still pretty inexpensive considering the ride up that hill!

And we TOOK that ride-- IN our RV, because thank you, Google, for sending us to the TOP of the elevator instead of, as I'd expected, the bottom. So we rode it down, and then we rode it up. The view from the top is great-- you can see all of Dubuque's business district, and the riverfront, and across the river to Wisconsin and Illinois (Dubuque is pretty much at the border of those two states, although of course it's across the river in Iowa.) The roads we drove up were very reminiscent of San Francisco, and a couple were VERY narrow! But it was a fun way to end our touristy day. We may have been lucky (Joe certainly was) that at the bottom, where all the very cute little shops were located, they were all closed because it was after 5pm. So no shopping for me. We could see clouds coming along from our vantage point at the top, and there were a few sprinkles while we were on the cable car. So we walked back to where we'd parked Sam, and headed for Walmart for our battery.