The trip began on a beautiful summer day. I took a detour for a first-time visit to Husher Wayside Park, with its beautiful vistas along highway 131 between Wauzeka and Steuben.

I arrived at Pikes Peak State Park in Iowa and the next challenge was to find out if I could set up my tent all by myself. It was always a 2-man job in the past, but I did it!

Looking out the front door of the tent, a beautiful forest!

Our classmate Rick invited the class to his house for a Friday night get together.

The house is on a ridge, overlooking the Mississippi River, with the Iowa bluffs in the distance.

The house is beautiful, wood paneling everywhere. Rick did most of the work himself.

The ostensible reason for the get together was for our class band to practice for the next night’s main event in Rick’s oversized garage.

Yes, the band is that good!

We enjoyed some great music, great conversation, great memories, and a great sunset.

The view just before the sunrise next morning was pretty nice also. Pikes Peak park overlooks the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers.

And then the sun came up, as it always does.

The path along the ridge beckoned me to follow.

One more glance, as the fog moved in, a train crossed the Wisconsin River trestle, and two men in a boat fished the Mississippi current.

The woods were quiet, not a lot of activity.

The trail led to Bridal Veil Falls.

By the end of my walk, the fog had taken over the river.

Wise words from Mark Twain on a Pikes Peak signboard.

For our class, the next amusement was visiting our alma mater, Prairie du Chien High School.

School District Administrator Bob Smudde gave us an extremely informative tour with lots of insights into the state of education in 2019. It’s a different world.

Occasionally we caught a glimpse of some technology that we recognized, such as this pencil sharpener.

We also recognized the name of our classmate, speedster Dave Stiff, on the track record board in the high school gym. His record still stands.

A few other exploits from our era were still on display in a dark hallway.

PHS has a brand new field house, seating 2200. That’s large enough to host a sectional tournament.

The school district has also built a new state of the art theater.

The theater is open to the public for community events, also.

This was a hallway I recognized, where I entered the school just about every day of my high school career.

After the high school tour came the class picnic on St. Feriole island, with lots more great conversation and memories.

And then the main event. Approximately half of our class of 126 attended and we were able to get most of them into one photo. It was so great to see everyone.

The next morning I attended services at the church across the street from the high school, a church I remember well.

The final event of the weekend was a riverboat tour of the Mississippi River, which I attended with Karen, Nora, and Anita.

Our riverboat captain, Robert Vavra, was ably assisted by his first mate, who kept an eye out for other river traffic as well as flotsam and jetsam.

Our captain pointed out wildlife along the river, such as these bald eagles.

We also got the riverside view of McGregor, Iowa, famous as the boyhood home of the Ringling Brothers. Our captain shared many great river stories.

We also explored some of the Mississippi River back water channels.

The first mate started to tire after awhile.

Finally we were on our way back to our home port of Marquette, Iowa, ending a weekend packed with lots of great memories.