An Anniversary Roadtrip

To celebrate our 34th wedding anniversary, Liz and I hit the road for five days starting this past Wednesday. We went to Dubuque, Iowa, Galena, Rochelle, DeKalb, and Rockford in Illinois, and Beloit in Wisconsin.

We went on Illinois highways 47, 176, US-20, Stagecoach Road, Illinois highways 73, 72, 251 (the old US-51), 38 (Lincoln Highway), Anne Glidden Road, US-51, Wisconsin highways 81 and 67, some back roads along the Illinois-Wisconsin border when we got lost, US-12, some Wisconsin county roads, and Wilmot Road.

Along the way, we had to ford roads, drive through blinding rain, went to several bars including one with lots of animal heads, stayed at a mom and pop motel, played NTN at five new places and three old ones, ate at a 1935 steakhouse in a town that history forgot, stayed at a new motel that replaced the 1930s one we stayed at on our honeymoon, saw lots of algae in the Mississippi, enjoyed watching turtles and river otters at an aquarium, and went to Van's.

We also partied with a 60s band at a Lincoln Highway festival in Rochelle, saw the Beatles and ate corn at a festival in rain-drenched Dekalb, saw a movie in an Egyptian art deco 1928 theater, would have paid our respects to Gus (or do you call him William) Goose's marker at the flooded lagoon, saw some mighty young looking college students, received a blessing from the monsignor at the church we were married in, went to a bona fide surviving mom and pop type record store, ate at a Northwoods Cafe in Rockford, and went to a world-famous Japanese garden.

We essentially did things backwards from that date 34 years ago. We were married and had the reception in DeKalb and then, that night, drove out to Galena for the honeymoon.

All-in-all, it was a pretty good little drive of just over 500 miles.

Bringing Back the Memories and Making Some New Ones. --RoadDog