I asked Sam what he wanted to do this summer and he said, “Go Camping.” So we reserved a campsite at Pike’s Peak State Park in Iowa and soon we were on our way. Yeah, this is the view from Pikes Peak, overlooking the confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers.

Our first stop was the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium in Dubuque, where Sam learned about river rafting…

…and got to try his hand at piloting a barge on the Mississippi. He would make a great pilot, he missed the other barge.

While I sat around just being colorful. Soon thereafter we arrived at Pikes Peak.

We walked the trails to Bridal Veil Falls…

…and Point Ann, overlooking McGregor.

Dinner on the fire.

We also tried a new card game, two-handed Hot Rum with one deck. Interesting.

Soon it was time to head to the Villa Louis where British and American armies were camped.

There was a lot of marching and saber rattling.

The kids in the blockhouse enjoyed watching the troops drill.

People were standing around talking…

Kids played on stilts.

Dinner was being prepared over the fire.

But the soldiers were keeping their weapons clean.

The Indians arrived and they didn’t look friendly.

And then a fight broke out, a skirmish actually.

When it was over the redcoats seemed pretty satisfied with how it went. The British won the Battle of Prairie du Chien, but soon had to withdraw as the Treaty of Ghent was signed and the USA ended the War of 1812 with another victory over Great Britain. Interestingly, because of the history of that part of the Northwest Territories in the post-Revolutionary era, most of the people who then lived in Prairie du Chien sided with the British.