The day started out with a bit of a letdown — since US 63 has not been signed around Rochester on US 52 yet, I’d have to come back at some point. Otherwise, though, it was a very scenic day on both sides of the Great River Road and then back into Iowa.
Route: US 63, Route VV, WI 35, US 10, US 61, MN 316 and back, US 61, MN 43 to WI 54 to Route M and back, MN 43, I-90, US 63, IA 9 to V18 and back, US 63, C66, V25, Airline Hwy, US 218, IA 58, Viking Road, Hudson Road, IA 58, US 63
My last remaining, drivable gap on 63 this trip was between Lake City and Red Wing. I stopped at Frontenac Golf Resort, which I wrote about in a separate blog post.
When I got to Red Wing, I had clinched US 63 in Minnesota (as signed in July), and now it was time to close a gap on US 61. First, I crossed into Wisconsin again. WI 35, the Great River Road in Wisconsin, was a very pleasant drive. There was a visitors center in Prescott related to the Great River Road.
The US 61 bridge over the Mississippi River is in the midst of being replaced, so I averted that potential de-clinched area. I even had time to double back and drive all of MN 316.
Fun with fractions!
MN 50 doesn’t quite end at the same intersection as MN 20, but you can see it from there. The US 61 intersection is in the background.
On the south side of Red Wing, MN 292 parallels US 61/63 and serves a prison. Minnesota has little state routes serving state facilities all over the place.
I left US 63 behind for the time being at Lake City and continued down a very scenic US 61 to Winona. There’s no way this river-hugging road can be expanded to four lanes, although it needed it at times. The Mississippi River bridge at Wabasha was closed, leaving a gap for me in the bridges from St. Paul to St. Louis.
US 61 in southeastern Minnesota, south of Lake Pepin
At Winona I took the time to follow MN 43 through town and cross the river, then followed 43 the other way down to I-90. Winona to La Crosse will have to wait.
I got onto I-90, went west, and picked up US 63 again south of Rochester to follow all the way to Black Hawk County. Within that was one self-detour, going west on IA 9 to V18 since I had not been on that piece of road since the North Tama game at Riceville in 1996. Because of all the construction and traffic lights in Waterloo, I skipped that part of 63.
And that’s the end of my July vacation. I went to the Upper Peninsula for the first time, clinched I-35, 99% of US 63 in Wisconsin, added 34 counties in five states, and saw the north ends of five significant US routes.
Blog posts will resume Tuesday.
