Yesterday we drove from the Black Hills in South Dakota to Council Bluffs, Iowa. The route took both west and south, from the mountainous Black Hills, through Badlands, the grasslands, across the 100th meridian, from the arid West to the flood soaked Midwest. Basically we had a ride and a geography lesson.
This was a longer drive than from Denver to Hill City so we didn’t dawdle quite as much. It make for a long day, but we did have some fun along the route. Besides the mandatory rest stop breaks, both of us being in our sixties if you catch my drift, we had a stop in a small South Dakota town for lunch at Joe’s Diner. Eat at Joe’s. The food was good, and inexpensive, the crowd was definitely local, and it looked like Joe’s had been there, if not from the founding of the town, then at least from the time the highway came through. We had an errand to run for Erich, so we also got to drive down Main Street in Emery, where he needed to do a bit of business.
There’s something about small towns in the Midwest, for by now we were, if not in the Midwest, quite close to it. A sense of order, hard work, and cleanliness pervade most of these towns. As with anything, there are exceptions, but Emery wasn’t one of them.
We did stop at the public library, did I mention we are both in our sixties? The librarian was a wonderful young woman who we chatted with for a few minutes before we moved on to the new courthouse to conduct Erich’s business. The old one burned down, spectacularly if the photos are to be believed.
And then we were off to our destination, Council Bluffs.
I first came to Council Bluffs, that I remember anyway as it’s possible I was there passing through as a teen, in 2013 when it served as the starting point for RAGBRAI. At my first RAGBRAI, in 2011, I stayed in Omaha across the river. Sadly, as in 2011, the area is inundated with floodwaters from the Missouri which runs between the cities.
As we neared the cities we began to see more and more stunted cornfields, or worse, bare ones covered in standing water. Closer to the river, a few miles out, the standing water became shallow ponds, and nearer yet, it some simply became part of the river. At one point I noted that a fence in a field eventually became completely covered in water. This is not going to be a good year for farmers.
Much of that photo, at least the foreground was a field.
By the time we got the hotel it was getting on and we grateful to be done with the road. After checking in we dashed to the local box store to pick up some new, smaller duffel bags, as it seems we both realized that we’d brought, once again, too much stuff. Isn’t that the bane of existence for many of us? Too much stuff. We hoped to solve this problem by…buying more stuff. Actually the smaller bags are in hopes we can leave more stuff in the van, mine being shipped to Hawaii later, and take far less stuff on the road; less for the Pork crew to haul around.
After we returned, I headed out again solo, to meet up with some friend local to the area for an hour. I had a great time meeting new folks, sharing a few tales, and drinking coffee; a bit later in the day than I should to be sure.
Back at the hotel, caffeinated in the night, sigh, I watched a bit of TV and, thankfully tired from the day, got a great night’s sleep.
I’m not sure what’s on the agenda today, but I’m sure it’ll be blast.
More later!
Slower, cheaper, less useful…