The Search for Elvis' Dog

Frank ran across one of the bridges between the Quad Cities early in the morning just to annoy the lads whilst Mike explored the city. Meanwhile Vic and Eoin formulated cunning plans regarding where to stay that night while pretending it was all Mike’s idea.  Another calm and assured driving performance from Frank that only resulted in two near death experiences and a 7 car pile up. Stopped at Burlington at really nice coffee shop,  dodged a two mile train, lunched at Quincy on the water where Frank started on his 'best Reuben sandwich' quest and then went through Warsaw which is totally run down and properties go for $800. We stopped for a quick coffee in Hannibal, birthplace of Samuel L. Clemens (aka Mark Twain). He was right to get out of there as quickly as possible we all agreed. After heading for the ferry we discover on arrival at swamp town that it had stopped running years ago! All eyes turned towards Vic but he pretended not to notice. That was a bit of a sho...

With Mike at the wheel a sense of dark forebearance came over the group. We all settled our affairs in advance, said goodbye to the very nice breakfast lady at the Inn and made our peace with the late JC. First stop was an old german town of Guttenberg and a Memorial Day parade and photo of some veterans. The all you can eat chicken wings place was closed so we settle for a corner cafe where all the locals were drinking beer and ordering burgers, all before 11am. Very impressive. Followed by a nice car drive through rolling hills and a sandwich at Galana where Ulysses Grant was born.  We also stopped at Dubeque for their parade with Mike feeling up a teddy and Frank thanking the vets for their service. Eoin and Vic opted out of the parade and went up the funicular instead. After lunch we visited the grottos of Dickeyville which was a bit weird. We later explored the cultural highlights of each of the Quad Cities - there wasn't any- the best experience being with Tammy the...

We headed out to pay homage to Prince at Paisley Park which was great, purple everywhere and a tour guide named Marshall who was so clearly so in love with Prince it was quite moving. With Eoin driving everyone was a little on edge but it all worked out ok despite Mike being the navigator. While Minnesota with all its lakes (over 10,000 they say) was very nice the towns were all boring. Grand Rapids (voted 47th best small town in USA- who votes on this stuff) was very disappointing although Judith in the coffee shop was a star and told us to give the Judy Garland house thing a skip. We were happy to hit the Wisconsin state line and everything was better there. We were on the Mississippi, the towns had saloons and pie was everywhere, Vic was in heaven. After Eoin forgot to take a picture of the machine gun for sale in  the small town of Savannah all was not lost when we found a rock band in the biker bar next door. The lead singer was all action and energy and someone bought t...

After bad airport traveling experiences we were all looking forward to a nice easy start to the road trip, a few hundred miles and perhaps a beer or two catching up on family and loved ones. Vic however had other ideas...... We left at o eight hundred from Winnipeg and eventually arrived at our hotel in Minneapolis at o twenty two hundred, 14 hours and 550 miles later. Vic had us all in military talk and when someone meekly asked could we stop for an ice cream he barked at them ‘give me 50’ and the poor unfortunate had to do 50 press ups. After that we all knew the score. In fairness, the day was complicated by having to return a hire car but still, he was killing us all the same. The food at the Irish bar next to the hotel didn’t improve matters much either. Still, it was great to see the lads again. The sac on Vic in fairness.

We later found out that Machine Guns were allowed, very comforting. 

Never mind Ol’ Miss, what about our Eoin?