(59) Scott County 6.27.2025-6.28.2025

We knew Scott County would have a lot to offer, and we found that to be true!

 

It wouldn’t be Scott County without stopping at the I-80 Truck Stop, the biggest truck stop in the world- in little ol’ Walcott, Iowa. Even though we live in Iowa and have passed this hundreds of times, this was our first time really exploring it! Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to visit the I-80 Trucking Museum, but we really would like to come back to it sometime.

We did have time for the Putnam Museum and Science Center in Davenport though! We’ve been one other time when the kids were really little, and we enjoyed it just as much! It’s a good blend of learning and interactive exhibits. Their most known for their mummy exhibit, and even though it is small, it is very impressive.

 

We stopped at Union Station which now houses the Quad Cities Tourism Center.

 

Across the street is the Figge Art Center and the German Heritage Center, both of which we chose to pass up for this visit. There is just so much to do!

For “lunch” we filled our tummies with Whitey’s ice cream! This is maybe one of the best ice cream shops we’ve stopped at- this comes at the heels of visiting LeMars, the ice cream capital of the world- back-to-back good ice cream for us 😊

We attempted to explore the Village of East Davenport Shopping District but found it was almost all restaurants, including Lagomarcinos. Unfortunately, we had just eaten so we just enjoyed the little stroll.

We also enjoyed the drive around this area, viewing many of the historic riverside homes.

Maybe the most unique thing we did in Scott County was the Mississippi Spoon Gallery. The couple who runs the gallery are quite enthusiastic about their spoons; you just might find yourself leaving wanting to be a spoon collector or at least looking at spoons a bit differently :D

We wrapped up attractions for the day in Eldridge at Fun Station. It’s similar to your typical trampoline jump house, but it’s locally owned and only has a few locations in eastern Iowa.

If you’re in Davenport and wanting traditional Iowa food, The Machine Shed is a must. Although we have a Machine Shed in Des Moines, we thought we better try out the OG.

Day 2 of Scott County began at the Freight House Farmer’s Market for a little local feel!

We then headed to LeClaire for the day. First stop in LeClaire was of course Antique Archaeology, the home base of American Pickers.

LeClaire has a quaint riverside downtown so we spent the morning shopping and perusing.

Also, throughout LeClaire are buffalo statues as LeClaire is the home of Buffalo Bill Cody. Of course, we all chose our favorite Buffalo to take a picture with 😊

We enjoyed lunch at The Crane Pelican, in the Dawley House, a beautiful, 1851, 2 story brick on a bluff overlooking the mighty Mississippi!

We knew we were going to do Scott and Clinton counties this weekend but did not discover until earlier this week that this weekend it was hosting the ‘Buffalo Bill’s Best of the Wild West’ show! We couldn’t miss out on this once in a lifetime opportunity to get a feel for what the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show would have been like back in its hey-day.

We headed back to the downtown area and stopped at Cody Road Coffee for some drinks before heading to the Buffalo Bill Museum.

    

One of our favorite things we did in Scott County was a cruise on the Twilight Riverboat. We opted for the 1.5-hour cruise, but they offer 1- and 2-day cruises as well. It was relaxing and fun to just cruise along the Mississippi enjoying the nostalgia of days gone by.

We wrapped up Scott County with another original food favorite of Scott County- Happy Joes!

 

We also did a quick stop at the Dixon Pop Machine on our way home from Clinton County on Monday because, seriously, how could we pass this up?! What you see in the photo is what you get 😊

We didn’t get to visit all of the things we wanted to or probably even know about, but below, as always, is a list of further things to see and do in Scott County!

Rate: 5

Other Things to See/Do:

• Martin ‘Farmer’ Burns Memorial, Big Rock
• Forest Grove School Preservation, Bettendor
• Buffalo Shores Beach, Buffalo
• Bluegrass Drive Inn Theater, Bluegrass
• Buffalo Bill Homestead and Museum, McClausland
• The River’s Edge Ice Arena, Davenport
• Quad Cities River Bandits Baseball, Davenport
• The Current Iowa Hotel, Davenport
• Figge Art Museum, Davenport
• Catich & Morrissey Art Gallery, Davenport
• Galvin Fine Arts Center, Davenport
• Quad Cities Symphony Orchestra, Davenport
• River Center Adler Theatre, Davenport
• German American Heritage Center, Davenport
• Bix Beiderbecke Museum, Davenport
• Palmer Family & Chiropractic History Museum, Davenport
• Palmer Family Residence, Davenport
• Vander Veer Botanical Park and Conservatory, Davenport
• Nahant Marsh, Davenport
• Credit Island Park, Davenport
• Chocolate Manor, Davenport
• Wapsi River Environmental Educational Center, Dixon
• Cinnamon Ridge Dairy Farm, Donahue
• Miss Effi’s Country Flowers and Garden Stuff, Donahue
• Walnut Grove Pioneer Village, Long Grove
• Iowa 80 Trucking Museum, Walcott