Adventures in Iowa

This blog is called "Bev and Dave's Grand Adventures" and today was full of adventures....not from choice.
(1) We arose to bright sunshine and high winds. We chose to leave our Davenport hotel and cross the Mississippi yet again to Rock Island to visit the Rock Island Arsenal Museum, an active military base that dates from the civil war days. We braved the blustery winds on the bridge and travelled to the Arsenal only to find the bridge to Rock Island closed. BTW, you need a passport to get in, which we had dutifully dug out.
Finding the road closed Dave made a left turn at the next intersection in search of an alternate entrance.  All he could hear was Bev's horn trying to alert him that he was headed down a one way street, the wrong way.  And as embarrassing as it was, Bev had to follow (Bev hates to get lost and just Dave all the time). They were able to pull into a lot and change direction. At that point they gave up on the Quad Cities area and headed west to Interstate 80.
(2) Interstate 80 presented huge wind gusts and "wash" from a steady procession of trucks.  We managed to get to the first exit west of Davenport and arrived at the world's largest truck stop.

(3) After a lunch break, we gave up on I80 and proceeded to cross Iowa on scenic back roads. All went well until we arrived in Iowa City where Dave and Bev got separated at a traffic light.  Dave had to drive a couple of km before he could find a shoulder to pull off on.  Meanwhile Bev was hitting every red light wondering how the heck they would reunite.  She had heard Dave say on the intercom turn left for Hwy 6 (just before the intercom disconnected due to distance).....but she never saw a sign and worried she had missed it.  Bev noticed a cop making a Uturn with flashing lights and hoped there wasn't an accident to put her further behind Dave if indeed she was still on the same road.  It turns out the cop was in hot pursuit of Dave who had pulled over in an absolutely no-stop zone.  As Dave was explaining the sad story of his lost wife, Bev finally pulled over yelling "what's up??" with the Canadian flag flying proudly from the rear of her bike. (no picture of this....the cop might have really been mad.)
(4) We continued westward following the Iowa scenic byway dodging thunderstorms.  Around Belle Plaine our luck ran out and heavy rain set in and we got drenched.  At that point we gave up on the day and stopped at the next town via the GPS as a guide to a hotel in Tolendo.  Of course when we put on raingear the rain stopped and we drove into hot humid sunshine.
(5) After only covering half the distance across Iowa, the hotel provided yet another margarita stop....featuring 22oz drinks for only $5.....we only had one each so Bev's socks will be neatly folded with the rest of her clothes.