On Friday, we had most of the day off. I had considered going to Chicago for the weekend with Yigang, but with so much work to do, not to mention boring stuff like clothes washing, I decided to stay in Dubuque and do a little catch-up. It also gave me the chance to go to a concert on Friday night. My new friend, General Bob, had said that he was covering the concert for 365Ink, a local newspaper, and that if I wanted to go the night would be on him. So I took...

Wednesday also held one of the best parts of this trip so far. We were scheduled to visit the Mines of Spain and the EB Lyons Interpretive Centre, but I wasn't sure what that was. Turns out, Mines of Spain is a regional park that was originally a lead mine, back in the early days of the settlement. Now, it's a very pretty hiking park, filled with all kinds of creatures. The EB Lyons Interpretive Centre is an educational facility primarily aimed at kids, tha...

On Wednesday I got to play with fire. Well, a fire truck. Well, go up in the basket of a fire truck. But that was still pretty cool. At the Dubuque Regional Training Centre, they have a purpose-built facility for police, fire, ambulance and emergency management to train together, including a fire training house which is set up with a fire simulation engine that is computer-controlled. It allows the trainer to set up endless different scenarios, add smoke, ...

Before I set off on my American adventure, whenever I told people where I was going, most people just looked blankly when I said "Dubuque." Those few that had heard of the place didn't sound too complimentary. Well, to all those who hadn't heard of the place, allow me to introduce you. It's a smallish city, a bit like Palmerston North, and the central part of the city is laid out in a grid also. But the architecture is quite different, with a lot of concrete p...