Heading for Wabeno

Well we finished our bike ride on the Sparta\Elroy trail just before the rain hit as it started up just as we were loading the bikes in the truck. We headed back to camp and enjoyed our last nite in camp and had a really nice sunset. The sunsets here are just great almost every nite. We enjoyed our time here in La Crosse, especially with Dennie and Dee coming up from Colorado Springs and running around the area with us. A good time was had by all!!

Sparta/Elroy Trail

This area is called the Sparta to Elroy trail and it was the first former railroad bed converted to a trail back in the 1960's. This trail is almost 50 miles long if you rode the entire length and then it is connected to the La Crosse river trail which in turn is connected to the Mississippi River trail which ends up being over 100 miles long.

The Sparta trail has 3 tunnels along the trail, with the longest being 3/4 mile long and the other 2 trails are both 1680 feet long, just over 1/4 mile. We rode thru the 2 short tunnels, we actually walked the bikes as it is too dark to ride thru them and they are slick from the moisture. The trails go thru the local countryside and you can actually

stop in each little town along the route. We had lunch in Wilton which is considered the heart of the trail.

After finishing the ride we went to the local antique/flea market in Norwalk and I found a couple of Green Bay Packer items which I picked up for my Granson, Riley, who happens to be a big Green Bay fan(we dont know what happened there, I guess he just never was able to watch the Denver Broncos play)!!!

If you will notice one of the photos is a dog in the window. I could not resist taking that shot, he was laying the window of the local hardware store and I am sure he is the supervisor of the store as the other 2 people in the store were working!! ha ha!!

La Crosse Cruise Nite

We found out that one night each week this local drive inn had a cruise nite with older cars. The drive inn has been around since the 50,s and all the girls serve you while riding around on their roller skates. It was a lot of fun and a local radio station was broadcasting live from the corner of the parking lot. Someone even brought an old city bus that they must be restoring. There were a lot of very good cars in the lot and almost all of them were in perfect showroom condition.
We also enjoyed some rootbeer floats that they are famous for!! If you ever get to La Crosse be sure and take in Rudy's drive In!!

More of La Crosse

Here we are on a bike ride with Dennie and Dee on the Mississippi River trail.

The trail runs for several miles north out of La Crosse, some of it along the river.

All of the trails in this area connect to each other and end up being a total of 103 miles long if you took it all the way from the top to the bottom. We rode bikes for 2 different days along 2 trails and had a great time.

The statue is one of 35 in the La Crosse area that were all done by local artists for a fund raiser. The statues are cranes that have all been painted with different themes and are dedicated to someone and the funds raised will go to charity. They were all unique and we saw many of the 35, some of them in real out of the way places.

LaCrosse WI

Here some images of the riverboat and cruise. We went upriver to this railroad bridge that had to be opened in order for us to pass thru. They have an attendent that opens the bridge as needed for river traffic. Also along the way we saw many turtles sunning themselves on the logs.
The river above this area has locks on it to move the river traffic, which in this area it has a lot of barges moving items up and downriver. There are also a lot of houseboats along this area of the river and people use them for vacations or just weekends.
LaCrosse is home to Skipperliner boat building and they make many houseboats and they also built the riverboat that we were on for the cruise.