99 Counties to tour on the bike, 99 counties to tour, take one down, drive on around, 42 counties to tour on the bike. A few years back, a summer riding goal was to ride through each one of the counties of Iowa, and what was found was a wealth of interest and beauty. Each month I will revisit each county as a featured article. I will tell you about new things to see, places to ride, and give you a little spark of touring curiosity for our state of Iowa. Louisa County Iowa Louisa County, Iowa is in the southeast corner of the state along the Mississippi River. It covers 418 square miles. What it lacks in size it makes up for in personality! It came to be a county on December
I came into the county from the west on Hwy 92 and passed through the little burg of Cotter and slid right on into Columbus Junction, where I made two notable stops. The first was The Roadhouse, right on the highway; and the next being the Lovers Leap Swinging Bridge. The Swinging Bridge is located just a few blocks southeast of The Roadhouse on 3rd Street. The Roadhouse is surprisingly full service for a small town bar and the Rubens are wonderful! The Lovers Leap Swinging Bridge is said to have been the sight of a lovesick girl plummeting to her death. Today the 160 foot suspension bridge still swings and sways in the breeze. If you have the courage I highly recommend walking across it. Those of you with a little more fire in you may want to try it with a friend and add a little more shake to it!
7, 1836 and was named after a sixteen year old girl, but more on that later! There are nine little towns in the county with the county seat being Wapello. There are also NO stoplights in the entire county. More than one colorful character along my route pointed out that the county looked like a toilet, I am just thankful it did not I headed back west on Hwy 92 to grab X17 and travel smell like one! south. It was a fun little jaunt of hills and curves with great views! I linked up with G62 heading east to X37 south into the town of Morning Sun. I toured Louisa County on January 17; this is relevant to the story because as I stopped for fuel at the Casey’s where I met Bird, a great guy riding his bike to the nursing home to visit a “burly biker dude”, his brother. It was a very cold January day and Bird cared enough to take the time to give something back to his friend. It is always important that we take a moment and reach out to those we love. I continued east on Hwy78 across Hwy61 and followed H22 to connect with the X99, the “Great River Road” for a bit and stopped in Toolesboro to see the Indian Mounds. They are right off on the east side of the road. There is a little visitor’s center and two of the mounds are readily visible but the other five are back in the woods. The history behind them is worth a visit.
18 - TRMI MARCH 2015
Speaking of history, the county name of Louisa came to be because of a sixteen-year-old girl named Louisa Thunder Roads Magazine of Iowa on Facebook www.thunderroadsiowa.com