Jumping off cliffs with Gina

I have found out that there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.  ~Mark Twain

Gina Lage Jones and I have traveled far and wide together. The highlights include my first trip abroad to London, a camping trip involving campgrounds in 3 states, a mountain biking adventure in North Carolina, visits in Florida, Alabama, Illinois….

Gi and I are the yen and yang of traveling….She’s organized and some sort of map whisperer and I am….well….compliant. She tells me where to go and I get in the car. And yes, mom, if she jumped off a cliff, I would surely follow.

This time she traveled to see me in Dubuque and now that she has been here and seen it, Dubuque and I are validated. This is a cool place!

A small crime spree notwithstanding, we were “good” tourists all weekend in Dubuque.  We ate, drove, walked and relaxed our way through an entire 11-mile area that is Dubuque proper.

Dubuque really rolled out the red carpet atop Eagle Point. The 164-acre park--which costs a dollar to drive through, or is free if you can park by the back entrance and jump the fence (okay that is an exaggeration…there is a free back entrance, with a gate that you can walk right through)--follows a bend in the Mississippi River from a 500ish-foot bluff.  From this back entrance, high above the river, you walk right into a rock garden of sorts. Paths, natural rock benches, a koi pond and small waterfalls that splash in and out of leafy patches of sun overlook the Mississippi at Lock and Dam number 11.

We followed a part concrete, part dirt path along the fenced bluff to take in unique views of the Mississippi as it dodges in and out of coves, around islands and up against Wisconsin. Benches, pavilions and walking paths offer Jesus-Mary-and-Joseph views at every turn. People with picnic baskets dot the park along the river and birthday parties, tennis players and wheeled vehicles weave in and out of the trees more inland.

Our red carpet welcome really was quite the feat considering Eagle Point Park sprouted because Dubuque wasn’t quite rolling out the red carpet for anybody….

Legend has it, Charles M. Robinson, who was famous for designing urban landscapes in Virginia during the early part of the twentieth century, visited Dubuque and said, “I have never seen a place where the Almighty has done more and mankind less, than Dubuque.”

Turns out Dubuquers didn’t much appreciate that. Judge Oliver Shiras and the Dubuque’s women’s club bought, collected and donated the land around Eagle Point.

It is called Eagle Point for a reason….Although, Gina and I did not see any Eagles when we visited, neighbors say once the leaves are off the trees you can see “flocks of eagles” around the point. There is an Eagle statue at the old streetcar turn around, which surely stands as evidence that the birds are present around there somewhere.

Streetcars and trolleys are still seen around Dubuque, but mostly as tourist attractions and rental vehicles for special occasions. There is a streetcar elevator to help climb the bluffs to a lookout point just above downtown. Gina, the consummate runner that she is, ran her way up the bluff and took some pictures of the 4^th Street elevator and the river. (I stayed in the flats by the river and WALKED around, while she iron manned her way to the top!)

I won’t tell you about all the wonderful food we had while she was here—from the Naughty Dog, which will get its whole on blog entry later, to L. May and Café Manna Java—I will just say we were not starved for things to do or places to eat within our 11-mile radius.

What also makes Dubuque worth the trip is the trip itself. Gina flew from Nashville, changing planes in Chicago, flying right into the Dubuque Regional Airport, where I met her the minute she stepped off the plane. One gate, one provider—American Eagle. In the lobby waiting area, where you can see the arrival/departure gate and the baggage carousel, there is a library of books that you are welcome to take and donate to while you wait! Gina’s round trip ticket cost around $300 when all was said and done. She got free room and board and a personal chauffer for that price. I am willing to work the same deal for you if you would just get on the plane and get here!