April 2026 in Davenport
Our Time in Davenport, Iowa | Through Hiking the Hennepin Canal Trail | March-April 2026
This was our third year of coming to the Quad Cities in the spring, and just like the other years, it was one of the better outages that Curtis worked. We enjoy the hotel where we stay, the nearby restaurants, the familiarity of the Midwest while still being in an area we didn’t know well before this period of our lives, and enjoying whatever outdoor recreation and attractions we can find. This year, we were here for 3 1/2 weeks, and were thankful to be able to have at least one day off every week to spend together.
On our first weekend in the area, Curtis had both days off. It happened to be my sister’s birthday, so we spent our first day going on a little day trip back to our hometown to spend the day with her family and celebrate with everyone. After a busy day of playing with the kids and catching up with my parents and siblings, we made our return trip East. On our way, we stopped in West Branch to walk a couple miles of the Herbert Hoover Nature Trail.
The next day, we started our day with breakfast at Flip’s Pancake House, then set out on a little adventure. We drove into Illinois to hike a section of the Hennepin Canal Trail, which we had started hiking sections of last year and we thought it would be fun to make some more progress. We parked at Ty Massey Memorial Park in Colona, where we had left off last year, and walked East on the trail for just over 2.5 miles. Along the way, we passed by a couple of playgrounds where Easter Egg hunts were going on, and walked under I-80 before turning around at County Road 585 E.
Next, we drove to Moline to cross off something that’s been on our ‘Quad Cities Bucket List’ since the first year we visited: walking across the Mississippi River! We parked on the Illinois side close to I-74, and walked the bridge across to Iowa and back. There is a sidewalk just for pedestrians and bikers, separate from the interstate with benches to sit and enjoy the center of the bridge. It was a fun experience, and reminded us of walking the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge across the Missouri River in Omaha.
After the weekend was over, the outage started and so did Curtis’ longer work days. We did our best to make the most of his days off whenever they happened. On his next day off, we hiked another 7.5 miles on the Hennepin Canal Trail, starting at County Road 585 and ending at the Red Bridge at Lock 26. On this stretch, we met up with the Green River at Aqueduct 8, then paralleled it for a while before making it to the Little Red Bridge. After our long walk, we decided to make another quick stop in Moline at another attraction we had put off seeing: the John Deere Pavilion. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it as much as I did. But it was pretty fun getting to climb up into the huge combine and other tractors!
The following week on Curtis’ day off, we returned to the Hennepin Canal, parking at Lock 26, and walked East for 2 miles to a boat ramp before turning around. We had heard about a chain restaurant called Hawaiian Bros and decided to try it out for lunch, and enjoyed the plate lunch and dole whip. We rounded out today’s adventure with a little thrifting. Finally, on his last day off, we set out to hike another 4 miles on the Hennepin Canal. We drove to a small trailhead off E. 1200th St, West of Geneseo, then walked one mile back to the boat ramp where we had stopped the week before, then after returning we walked another mile in the opposite direction to the aqueduct over Geneseo Creek. It was much warmer and busier on the trail that day, both in fishers, bikers, and walkers, and also in wildlife. While we were used to seeing lots of geese on our walks, today we saw more turtles than geese, and even spotted a muskrat swimming in the canal. Having this goal of hiking sections of the trail was such a fun way to spend all our days off — it gave us the much needed exercise and time in nature that we needed, while not being too strenuous or needing much planning or preparation in advance, in the same way that the I&M canal trail had been a pleasant activity while in Ottawa this February.
Besides all our walking and fun on days off, we enjoyed frequenting our favorite restaurants: Pho Fusion, Los Agaves, Izumi Sushi, Biaggi’s, L&B Gyro, and best of all, we finally found really good pizza in Davenport (the one thing we’ve struggled to find in previous years): Tony’s Pizza! We also enjoyed watching Jamie Ding’s run on Jeopardy!, and watching the Scrubs season 10 every week. There were several big storms that came through the area, and while none were quite as severe as they were made out to be, we did see some cool clouds and rainbows. I went for daily walks and enjoyed seeing all the trees begin to flower as spring finally took hold.
As the end of our time here neared, we wondered if it truly would be the end of Curtis’ work season, or if they would end up adding Pennsylvania to his schedule at the last minute the way they did last year. Unfortunately they wouldn’t give us a clear answer on that, so we had a lot of difficulty in planning what we should do next. We tossed around ideas, but didn’t want to get attached to any lest we end up having to scrap it to go to PA. Before we knew it, the end of this assignment arrived, and suddenly it was decision time — and what we ended up doing turned out to be the best way to start our ‘summer’. More on that, coming up next!
