Davenport, Iowa

We left the campground around 8:30 saying good-bye to our son & family as they were heading out for a 14 hour trip back home to Virginia. It was a great week and the time just flew by. 

We had interstate all the way to Davenport, Iowa. It was Saturday and the traffic was light. It was a 300 mile day and we arrived at Fisherman’s Corner Corp of Engineering campground around 3pm. The campground was full except for our reserved site. This is probably the first campground that we have been to on this journey that many of the RV’ers are retired travelers from out of state. 

I reserved this site a couple of months ago and was able to select the best site of the park, right on the edge of the Mississippi River facing dam & lock No. 14. We had front row seats watching boat traffic and evening sunsets. It’s going to be hard leaving this site!

Davenport is very much an older industrial city that is married to the river. The rivers skyline is dotted with crisscrossing old and new bridges making for an interesting view. On each side of the river, there are extensive hard surface bike and walking trails. I’ve heard about this trail system for a few years and wanted try it. The trail on our side of the river, ran right next to our campground. It was an easy hop for me to get in a couple of hours bike ride exploring the scenery along the river. It’s reputation holds true!

The Mississippi River Lock & Dam visitors center is located on Rock Island Arsenal Army Base, an active base. We filled out the paper work, got background checked and was issued a temporary pass. The visitor center was manned by the Army Corp of Engineers and they managed all the lock and dams on the Mississippi River. Lock and Dam No. 15 was right in front of the visitors center which gave us viewing access.  Our luck, there was no boat traffic scheduled for the next few hours.  

Later in the afternoon, we had pre-arranged to get a John Deere factory tour. The tour is free, but reservations and background check (for competitors) is required. The factory has 2000 employees and manufactures grain harvesters (combines). This was our first time doing a factory tour and I would think it is much like an automobile factory tour. Lot’s of robots, lasers and people handling parts and pieces. The retail price for one of these big green machine is $800,000 and they make 10-14 per day.  Every machine they make is an order from a customer. There is nothing manufactured for inventory. They are shipped all over the world. The majority that we saw were going right here in the US/Canada grain belt. We enjoyed the tour. Afterwards, I got to sit in one of those big green machines and play with the controls. It was like sitting in a pilots seat. Very automated and comfy.

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Where did We Stay?

We stayed at Fisherman’s Corner CoE, East Moline, Il. My review is HERE (by Land Wanderer)

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We are currently in De Soto, Wi.—No Cell Service and a weak one bar hot spot with a very very narrow bandwidth. It’s taking a couple of days to make this post.