But we did not get an early start at all haha. My step-grandma woke up a bit later, and then her garage door was broken so it took some work just to get the car out TT After all that we finally started on the roadtrip, unfortunately that meant we ended up getting home late.
The Great River Road is a roadtrip route that follows along the Mississippi river through many states. We did the Upper Great River Road trip, since that's the section that passes through Wisconsin and Minnesota. Here is a nice map that shows the route we took! Winona was our most southern stop.
We started in Wisconsin and came back up through Minnesota. Though we didn't make many stops on this trip, it still took 9 hours DX There were lots of great things to stop and see, but my step-grandma can't walk very well and we didn't want to just leave her in the car all the time so we passed them.
The Wisconsin side particularly has a lot of great tiny "towns" (what call a place with a population of 66 haha) with cute art studios, gift shops and food shops. We stopped at a creamery and mom bought cheese and cheese curds. And we also stopped at one of the locks along the Mississippi and I went on a scary metal grate bridge for photos haha.
We had a hard time finding the places we really want to go to and passed some important points, like Laura Ingles Wilder's house in Peppin Wis. because we weren't sure where they were haha! But I have to really recommend this road trip route because its so scenic and lots to see!
Downtown Wabasha, it's so beautiful!
On the Minnesota side there really is not so much to see, there aren't the little tourist towns, but there are a couple nice bigger towns. Like Wabasha which has a beautiful historic downtown and some shots of the movie Grumpy Old Men was filmed there.
We ate at Slippery's where some of the scenes were shot, I can't say it was that fun for me since I've never seen the movie and my salad was wilted. But others seem to find it fun! After we left Wabasha, which I wish we could have walked around in, we stopped at Peppin Heights Orchard and bought some apples. This is an important Autumn activity haha!
Autumn produce at Peppin Heights Orchard
We passed through Red Wing on the way back to my Step-grandma's. Their downtown was pretty yuppified, gentrified for the hipster type or something. (Like a Caribou Coffee in a "historic" building) but it still looked pretty and I want to go back. I plan to go on this roadtrip again next year but stop in every town!
