WST (Western States Trek) Day 3: Trailing Lewis and Clark

I dragged my suitcase down the stairs of the motel in Concordia for the last time!

We chose not to take advantage of the continental breakfast offered here and drove west on I-70 to the happening town of Independence, MO, 43 miles away. Breakfast at yet another Cracker Barrel; I discovered FB likes hash brown casserole. I opted for the steak & egg pepper bowl. Excellent, though I did leave most of the potatoes in the skillet.


I checked out why Missouri state highways have letters rather than numbers for designations.  (How did folks ever get questioned answered when they traveled before wireless communication??? I am so spoiled!)

Turns out in the 1930's, the state began to letter farm-to-market back roads to avoid confusion with existing highways. All state highways became lettered roads in 1952 when Missouri "took over" 12,000 miles of back roads, bringing state roads within 2 miles of 95% of all rural homes, schools, churches, cemeteries and stores.

Wisconsin is the only other state with "alphabet roads."





 Kansas City, MO has some interesting buildings that create an arresting city-scape rising from the plains.

And a really great bridge over the Missouri River, though when I looked north, the bridge I saw was much more prosaic.

Cruising through Omaha, Nebraska, we spy what we think is a fabulous Hilton, only to discover that the Hilton is the square building in front and the air-craft carrier/space ship structure is the Omaha Century-Link complex. (Mom is grinding her teeth at the expense!!)

 I had to look up the information about this bridge (pictured right) when I got to the hotel this afternoon. It is awesome. I am sad I couldn't grab the opposing bridge side with its other two sculptures.

Albert Paley's iconic gateway into Iowa and the City of Council Bluffs stands at 100 feet above Interstate 80/29. Located on the 24th Street Bridge spanning I-80/I-29.

While other single works of Paley's are larger in scale, Paley's Odyssey is comprehensively his largest composition, with each of the four individual sculptures ranging from 46 to 61 feet high and weighing in at 46,000 to 70,000 pounds.

We motored through the Great Plains listening to the further adventures of John Corey and the evil Kahlil, though we paused the tape frequently. FB educated me on slip form construction of 135' high storage silos when we passed some being created. When I wondered aloud who invented rebar and FB didn't know, Google told us rebar has been around since the 1400's when 2500 meters of it was used to construct the Château de Vincennes, but the "modern" rebar was created in the 1700's to form the Leaning Tower of Nevyansk in Russia, built on the orders of the industrialist Akinfiy Demidov.

While in Iowa, we turned off the highway to explore Lewis and Clark Trail State Park and Keelboat Exhibit in Onawa. Fascinating!! While several of the replicas are housed in a huge protected structure, the one docked at the pier is available for tourists.

I wish we'd been there on a boat-ride Saturday!  I could hear Mink Fink yelling at Davy Crockett as I  stood on the bow and looked for river pirates!!

Then we spotted the display of the secret code that President Thomas Jefferson created to communicate with Lewis and Clark and the guide for how to de-code it!





We drove through several states: Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa Minnesota and South Dakota (a first time for FB) where even though he was obeying the speed limit, other vehicles passed us like we were standing still.

I also noted we drove over the Missouri River about 9 times. What a twisted river course!

We decided to spend tonight at the Quality Inn in Lucerne, Minnesota so I could visit the quilt shop that's been a town store for 34 years and we could have dinner at The Howling Dog Saloon. The quilt shop ladies had me sign their guest book as I was the first Florida quilter they'd ever hosted. The buffalo burgers and beer we had for dinner were excellent.

While we were checking into our motel, FB commented on what a nice little town this is.  The desk manager shared with us a story about how small this place is. Seems her older children had opened the curtains in their house and she was so preoccupied with getting ready for work (her son had mowed over a neighbor's shirt that had blown into the yard and she'd been cutting it off the mower blades) that she had not noticed. So she took a moment after her shower to "air dry" while she skimmed her mail - never realizing she was on display in all her middle-aged glory to the neighborhood! By the time she got to work, the whole town knew - who needs Twitter?

FB and I are still chuckling!!!

I don't know if I'll have time to blog tomorrow as we're off to Wall's Drugs, Deadwood's famous saloon, then  picking up Nancy in Rapid City. I expect to be pooped.