Mosey, Mosey, Mosey

Eric and I had drinks up in the top floor lounge while we were on the cruise. We were there to watch the beautiful scenery as we cruised by. Others in the lounge were learning to line dance. One of the steps they learned was the "mosey." I don't remember how it was done, but I keep hearing the woman who was teaching them, "left foot, right foot, mosey, mosey, mosey." Mosey is how I walk and how we have been driving. I tell ya', if we weren't The Ramblers, we would be The Mosiers.

We decided to travel from Minneapolis to Winona, Minnesota via Wisconsin on the Great River Road. The road on the Minnesota side was mentioned in a book I bought about scenic drives in the U.S. This would have been our first road following their directions. But I had seen an article on the Wisconsin travel website about the River Road on their side of the river. I couldn't find it again, but found a better one. It is

linked in both places.

This was a perfect short drive for a busy day on our national highways. The best thing was that I found a travelogue on that website that I could download to my pc and then somehow (magic?) get onto my ipod so I could play it in the car as we drove. E-magic. So as we traveled, historians and old river boat pilots told us about their experiences in the towns along the river, about piloting on the river and about the history of the towns. And it was a beautiful day. What more could we have asked for on the 4th of July? Fireworks?

I've had bad experiences in the past with untrained idiots shooting off fireworks willy-nilly. We avoided my worst nightmare. We somehow found the only town in America that did not shoot off fireworks. Nary a boom or pop was heard all night. It didn't matter. We were mellowed out by the clear skies and beautiful day, the slice of Americana that we had just driven through, and a couple of really good martinis. Remember, LIG. Life IS Good on the Mississippi in July.

Hey, we were in a parade! All the residents of one little town had their lawn chairs, blankets and picnics out on their front lawns. We couldn't figure out why. Karen had me pull over so she could ask one of the families. They told us there was a parade and we were the first thing in it. We both did our queen waves. They told us we needed to throw candy. It didn't look like New Orleans. It was fun to be part of small town America, if only for a minute.

The Ramblers.