Today we reached the Mississippi River.  What a huge milestone.  It represents many, many footsteps since Atlantic City – some pleasant and others difficult.  But we did it!  We continued walking through Clinton, Iowa.  Our walk went through both some depressed downtown areas and some really beautiful biking/walking trails on the outskirts of town.  We ended up, again, in the cornfields.  It’s up in the air whether we walk our last two days.  The sole of Mike’s left foot is raw and they are calling for severe thunderstorms both of our remaining walk days.  It will be a game day decision tomorrow.

We decided not to walk on day two and drove to Davenport to look for new hiking boots for Mike.  He was in too much pain to chance more damage to his feet.  It turned out to be a successful trip – we got new boots and got a rare opportunity to do sightseeing off of our planned walking route.  The Quad Cities area is beautiful this time of year – everything is in bloom and green.  Surprisingly, several of the towns have a Victorian/New England vibe, and equally unexpected when you think of the cornfields of Iowa, around the Mississippi there are acres of real swamp land.  Who knew?  Tomorrow we will attempt our last walk.

What a nice way to end our second trip.  May 12 had near-perfect weather, wind at our back, good walking surface, and new boots for Mike.  Our route led us to the nice little town of DeWitt.  We ended up walking at a fast pace to beat the threatened thunderstorms (that never arrived) and are looking forward to two weeks rest.

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