Excursion Journals: Friday June 25^th, 2004

Our adventure following the Grand Excursion flotilla began on Friday June 25^th, 2004. After several delays, we finally got on the road headed for Rock Island, IL at 11:30am. We had not gone very far from Winona when another technical difficulty delayed us another two hours. The water pump belt on the UMBSN Camper broke just outside of Twin Bluffs, MN causing the engine to overheat. We were forced to call for help. Dick’s mechanic Craig came up from Three Rivers Off Road in Onalaska to get us back on track.

 Leaving Winona: Dick and David Finally hit the road at 11:30am on June 25th. This photo was taken shortly before the fan belt broke causing us to overheat. Repairs delayed us another 2 hours.

After lunch, and with a properly functioning vehicle, we once again set out for the Quad Cities where the Grand Excursion kickoff ceremony was scheduled for 6:00pm. The time was a little after 2:00pm, and with five and a half hours of driving to get to Rock Island, we knew that we would miss the ceremony. We decided to stop at the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque and start our outreach efforts early. The Audubon Ark (Lilly Belle) was in port at the museum where it had been stuck for most of the week behind the flood gates of Ice Harbor. (As we found out later, the Lilly Belle was not the only riverboat delayed by high water. Both the Mississippi Queen and the Delta Queen were also held back by high water under bridges preventing them from progressing upstream.) We left six bundles of The Mississippi Monitor with Dan McGuiness of the Audubon Society’s Upper Mississippi River Campaign on the Lilly Belle and one bundle at the front desk of the museum. After exchanging news, literature, banners and updates on the positions of the riverboats with the crew of the Lilly Belle, we once again hit the road for Rock Island where several of the riverboats were scheduled to be on Saturday morning. We arrived in Rock Island just as the fireworks for the kickoff ceremony were filling the sky with color. Unfortunately, as we would find out later, that was nearly the most exciting part of the Grand Excursion event in the Quad Cities.