Wednesday is foggy

It rained over ight and the fkg is still hanging low in Omaha.  Good thing we are across the river in Council Bluffs.

We are headed to our ultimate destination.  The Bob Kerry Pedestrian Bridge.  After that we start our journey home.

We tried to find the end of the bridge in Council Bluffs but it appeared to be far away from the street (it wasn't) so we went to the Omaha side and walked over.  Starting from Omaha let us see the "marathon" sign so we had to go get our sticker and walk about Old Town in Omaha before crossing back to Council Bluffs to pick up some sculpture and head south.

The last exit in Iowa on I-29 led us to Hamburg and the Stoner Drug store. (the small brown building on the right - not the painted one I thought it would be)

We headed into Missouri and took a detour into Nebraska to go to Peru to try to see some sandstone carvings but the trail was closed so we headed back to the interstate but not before stopping to see the grounded steam wheeler.

And another side trip took us to see the controversial president for a day.  In 1849, the inaguration was moved from Sunday to Monday so some say the President Pro Temp of the Sentate was technically the U.S. President for a day.  His hometown put up a statue of him.

Our goal was to make it to Kansas City for the night.  When we looked for hotels, we decided that Leavenworth Kansas was close enough (plus it gets us another state for the trip!)

We had a nice dinner at Bailey's Irish Pub and a quick trip to Walmart to pick up a keyboard and some dish soap.

The day started out foggy and drizzly.  We found some rain here and there.  But the sun came out and ended our day nicely.

Tomorrow is art and sculpture in Kansas City Missouri!

the rest of tuesday

Des Moine's adventure included a sculpture park where we were reminded of our children (at home).  Doesn't matter what is going on, they will always be picking at each other.  This sculpture is supposed to be figures dancing but it reminded me of the constant "Stop touching me... I'm not touching you" battle.

A quick stroll around the block of sculpture plus a couple extra blocks to find the Giant Trowel.  And then we were off to find the cemetery in the middle of the road. 

Boo!  The development in the outskitrts of Des Moines had reached the cemetery and it is no longer in the middle of the road (they moved the road).

The next point of interest was the Roseman Covered Bridge. Who doesn't love a covered bridge?  

 We stopped through the town of Winterset (birthplace of John Wayne)

and found a Ben Franklin store so we had to go in.  (we found at least one Christmas present - yep, it's still 5 months til Christmas but when opportunity knocks, you answer)

This is the one from the novel "The Bridges of Madison County".  

And if the gravel roads to the bridge weren't enough, we drove 10 miles on gravel roads to find the tree in the middle of the intersection.

A few more miles on gravel to hit a state highway to take us to see Albert the bull.

It was starting to get late so we almost skipped the Tiny Church but it was at the same site as the authentic Danish windmill so we stopped for a quick visit.

Then on we went, we were determined to get close to Omaha before bed.  We stopped one last time to check air pressure  (dust must have been in the sensor) and see the 76 foot corn stalk

We rolled into Council Bluffs in time for bed.  

fossils and sights!

This is the one stop that might have been more fun with kids.  We walked about in the gorge looking for fossils and had a snack.

There is the world's largest wooden nickel on the road to the park 

And Dennis pointed out a trunk stump that had been carved into a peace sign (hand with two fingers up).

We finally found an Iowa rest stop to pickup a road map.  And check out the sculptures.  The cooler sculptures were on the eastbound side but the long lens let me snag a shot of the pen.

And we saw the stack of grain wagons.  It's in private corporate property so I could only get a partial shot from the Kum and Go across the road.   Look under the tree to see the top 3 grain wagons

Now we are on the road making time to Des Moines to check on out a sculpture park.

swinging bridge

Morning walk to see a long swinging bridge.  We took the possum hollow trail to switch back our way across the valley and up to the other side of the bridge.

We tested at the shelter and checked out the sculpture in the flower beds.

Deep breath and cross the bridge.  It swings quite a bit in the middle.

After a rest on the other side (which right by a city street - we could have bypassed the trail), we went back to the middle for kisscam

So if you find yourself in iowa with time for a detour, it's worth a stop.

Welcome to Iowa

 After leaving the cemetery, we made tracks for Iowa and I searched for a Hilton property to spend the night.  We could have stayed in Davenport but the small town of Muscatine downstream.  The last bridge on I-74 before crossing the Iowa line had interesting supports.

And that brought us to the end of I-74.  We have driven the entire run from Cincinnati to Iowa.

One last bucket list item for the day.  The world's largest truck stop.

We took a spin through Muscatine looking for the Hampton Inn only to discover it was back out on the edge of town.  We found it, checked it and then headed back into the downtown area to find a local brewery.  We arrived too late for dinner (no worries, we had cheese and crackers in the hotel room) but Dennis did get a local brew.

Then we took a stroll along the river walk.  And crossed the bridge that is lit up.  The lights came on just as week were crossing the bridge.  We found an overlook back on the Muscatine side to get a quick picture.

Now it's bedtime.  More adventures await us tomorrow.

Evergreen Cemetery

A roadside America.com find.  A cemetery in Bllomington-Normal Illinois where we found Dorothy's grave (think Oz), a carved tree stump to remember a plane crash I'm the cemetery in 1948, another tree stump carved for a baseball player.  The world's long epitaph in granite.  And bonus find, the graves of both Adlai Stevenson I and Ii.

baseball and windmills among the corn and soybeans

We've entered the land of corn and soybeans fields.  In the little town of Ellsworth, the water tower is painted like a baseball. 

And just up the road is a wind farm with a viewing area.  Fun to actually stop and see the windmills up close-ish and hear the swosh swish of the blades.  The pathway was a life size representation of the tower and blades.