I wanted to take at least one day this year to introduce you
to McGregor. Yesterday I spoke of my family’s roots there. I have often
wondered if those roots account for my love of the place, or if it holds such
love because it was a place of reunions in my youth. No matter the reason, for
someone who has moved around a good bit in her life, McGregor has always been
the home of my heart.
I’ve lived in Iowa most of my life. People often think of
Iowa as flat. I would challenge that they haven’t been on RAGBRAI.
But overall, our state ebbs and flows more than rises and falls.
My Iowa has bluffs where bald eagles soar over the
Mississippi. Where Indian burial mounds are shaped like animals and remind us
of the history of our land. It has an historic main street that transports you to an era
before suspension bridges when the steam boat connected Iowa and Wisconsin, when river towns flourished.
If you have never heard of the The Great River Road,
it is worth checking it. It spans over 3,000 miles from the Gulf of Mexico
through Canada. In Iowa, it brings you through scenery that defies your ideas
of my state. If you are in or close to Iowa, the River Bluffs Scenic Byway
covers just over 100 miles in Clayton and Fayette counties. Drive it in autumn
for a visual feast.
McGregor is home to Pikes Peak State Park. Like the Colorado
Pikes Peak, it was named for Zebulon Pike. In my youth, the park had dirt
trails that we ran along. Today, there are wooden paths built
throughout the park. You can sit on an overlook and observe the confluence of
the Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers. My dad married my step-mom on one such
overlook at sunrise on the 4th of July.
I recommend lying down on one for a spell. Listen to the breeze whispering through the leaves. The sunlight dancing and playing with you. It's one of my favorite spots on Earth.
Beyond Pikes Peak, there is Effigy Mounds. Yellow River
Forest. Spook Cave (Iowa's longest underground cave where you get to take a boat ride through the cave). Nearby Decorah has my very favorite spot to kayak or canoe – the Upper
Iowa River. If you are a mountain biker, Decorah is paradise. The area has cabins, B&Bs, great restaurants and dives.
Tiny Triangle Park in McGregor (my family have literally held jobs as tourist guides there) hosts an art festival twice per year. You can rent a houseboat or go fish on the Mississippi. Tool down Lovers Lane. Catch a catfish. You need to get out on the water if you visit. It's well worth it.
My childhood has treasured memories of boat rides with my grandpa and grandma. We didn't fish. They liked to take it slow along the river, tooling around to check out the various islands. Then we'd get an ice cream. The boat represented an island of sorts. A small place where everyone was "in" and you got to spend time focused on each other and the beauty of the scenery. Sometimes my grandpa would let me take the wheel. Everything about it was special.
My dad has a boat there today. His boat is for fishing, although the pace is the same. Slow and steady. I suspect Aria would say much the same thing I did of my grandpa's boat. She loves her Grandpa Mustache's boat because it's an island. She gets to fish. She gets to spend special time with Grandpa. And she gets to tell big fish stories.
It feels nearly impossible to imbue this post with enough love for this place. I want to describe the depth of my feeling as we'd descend into the valley of McGregor via Highway 76. Ears popping with altitude adjustment, heart soaring as I anticipated seeing grandparents or my dad. Heart breaking as I left my dad again.
It was home. As I have grown and created my own home, it is less so. Home is me and Aria. I will always treasure the natural beauty of the place though, and the memories I planted in that soil.
There used to be this restaurant called the White Springs in McGregor. It was a very popular local spot that served fried chicken, catfish, steaks, drinks in tiny PBR glass cups. The White Springs had a jukebox. Sometimes I was blessed enough to score a quarter to spin a tune. It played this.
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