Its Saturday 2 PM, I had something planned to do in home but being in the home for all day on weekends somehow makes me feel that I wasted my day. Though I watch movies, youtube videos, chat with friends & update FB :-), I get a feeling that i haven't done anything interesting on that day. So decided to go out somewhere. I started my car without knowing my final destination. I just hit the state road WI-35 and kept on driving.
Just on my way I decided to go to "Goose Island", a state park in La crosse, which I heard about, but haven't been there before. I drove about 7 miles in the state road WI-35 and destination arrived on the right side. I drove around the picnic shelters, campground areas and enjoyed the river & shore. Then I parked my car and walked into the kayak rental, thinking that let me do the kayaking for next 2-3 hours and return home, unfortunately they didn't rent the kayaks today as water level is more than 6 feet high. What to do next??? Again I started the car without knowing my destination. Once I hit the WI-35 road, I thought of driving further south in WI-35 to see what else is there.
The drive was scenic, Mississippi river is flowing on the right side and bluffs on the left side. Whenever I see the board "Scenic Overlook" I stop the car to see the scenic view. One such view came on my left side. I had to drive over a steep bluff. The view was beautiful.
View of river Mississippi from a bluff on WS-35
The bluff had picnic tables and small hiking trails too. I did hiking for very short time and returned to the car and started driving in WS-35 further south.
Trail head in the bluff on WS-35
The next scenic view came and its the "Lock and Dam No. 8". I haven't heard about this lock systems for river navigations. Who knows? I might have read about it in school/college, I don't remember now. I read about the locks & how it works in one of the near by boards. Its impressive to see how man customized the rivers for his navigation needs. The Mississippi river has 27 locks and the one I went is the no. 8. After spending sometime in that place, I started my car and drove again further south in the WI-35 state road.
Mississippi's Lock & Dam system
The next spot is the "Blackhawk park". This' again a park similar to the Goose Island park. I drove around the campgrounds & small ponds, and enjoyed the scenic views & gravel road.
view of Mississippi & gravel road in the BlackHawk park
The road to campgrounds
One of the ponds in the Blackhawk park
After this park I drove further south in US-35, couldn't find any scenic spots for few miles and it was already five in the evening, so I drove back to home and reached my place at 5.30. Its interesting, that I enjoyed the drive and explored new places though I started with no plans. I bet, life is also gonna be interesting like today even if I don't have any future plans but just able to appreciate the present :-)
