Iowa, Another State Visited

Left Kearney yesterday morning at 9am, a tidge later than normal, just couldn't get going.  Got on Interstate 80 and traveled about 50 miles east and dropped off again in Grand Island, picking up the Lincoln Highway, Route 30, going eastbound.  Traveled under that Archway - if you didn't know what it was - I am not sure that I would stop just because it was there.  I think they should do more advertising along the highway explaining what the arch means and come for a visit to learn about the history of westward expansion.

Traveling under the Archway - I80

Pass one silo - see another in the distance

Grand Island (had never heard of it before) is a really large city, over 55,000 people.  You could tell how the city grew - right along the Lincoln Highway.  And you had no doubt that you were coming near a town - you could see the grain silos for many miles.  Most of the towns we went through had populations of less than 500 people, but still had a post office, grocery store, gas station, grain silo, and of course the Union Pacific Railroad running right along it.  Some had restaurants, a lot had schools, some Mom and Pop stores too.  When we came into the town of Newport we started our swing north on Route 77.  This took us with in 20 miles of the turn to Onawa, Iowa, but the fun thing is we had to cross the Missouri River right before getting to Iowa.  The town of Decatur which we had to drive through on the Nebraska side of the river had some very old homes.  Found out that it is the second oldest continuously inhabited community of Nebraska, the first being a suburb of Omaha - Bellville.  As we were crossing the iron bridge over the Missouri, you could see the flood marks from the past, lots of boaters on the river - and the current was swift.

Was supposed to be toll bridge over Missouri - abandoned

Water is moving swiftly

This town of Onawa is 30 miles south of Sioux City, and 30 miles north of Council Bluffs. Some claim to fame for this town - it has the largest/widest Main Street in the US.  It also had a POW camp for Germans during 1944 to 1946.  The Eskimo Pie ice cream was invented here and sold to Russell Stover candies/ice cream in the early 1930s.  We plan to visit Sioux City where there is a national monument and do some touristy stuff.  Maybe stay 4 days, we will see.

Been having some problems for the last week......one is mosquitoes.  Pesky little bugs.  And the second is humidity.  Haven't had to deal with either one in years.