Day 13: Columbia to Paducah KY

We started out towards St. Louis today on I-70 along with a hoard of trucks. Jim thinks the car to truck ratio on this stretch is easily 1 to 6 or more. They are everywhere. It has been raining since yesterday, off and on -- sometimes heavy. But we are used to that.

Rest stops have become a real challenge with all the new automatic fixtures that you have to figure out just to get your task accomplished. It is not always obvious how to get the toilet to flush or how to get to soap, water, or how to get your hands dry. The quest for a paperless bathroom is in full swing. I'm so glad that they have not found a way to get rid of toilet paper. That is a spooky thought...

Anyway, I spend my time waving my hands in front of anything, trying to hit the motion detector. Fortunately, they have those buttons on the toilets. I refuse to wave my butt around trying to find the sensor. And each rest stop is different.

Today, I encountered the "no touch, no move hand washing experience." It is a basin, recessed into the wall with various devices located top, center. When I first encountered it, I decided it was for hand washing so I put my hands in and waved them around. I felt some soap squirt onto my hands and immediately water started coming down on my hands. Then the water abruptly stopped and I pulled my hands out as I heard the hand dryer start up. Yep, they had one of those in there too. Problem was that the rinse cycle did not remove all the soap, and try as I could waving my hands back and forth, I couldn't get the water back -- just the hot air drying the soap on my hands. Once I figured out what was going on, I put my hands into the next NTNMHE basin, quickly moving my hands aside to try and avoid the soap cycle. Something is wrong when you have to outsmart an machine just to wash your hands.

Back on the road to St. Louis which was founded by a French fur trader in 1764. The first settlers came up the river from New Orleans and early explorers including Lewis and Clark gathered here. The settlement was almost wiped out by floods, cholera, and a catastrophic fire, but rebounded to a population of 300,000 in 1870. According to my AAA tour book, the population in 1904 was 200,000 so either the first figure was a misprint or lots of folks departed for points West during that period. Today the population is 348,000.

St. Louis was the birthplace of the ice cream cone, hot dog, and ice tea ( at the Great Louisiana Purchase Exposition.)

St. Louis is located at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi. Both rivers were at least as wide as the Columbia at Portland. Very impressive, especially since we have been following the Missouri all the way from the Headwaters in Montana.

We also encountered a highway confluence. We went from I-70 to I-370 to I-270 to (Illinois) I-55 to I-64. It was like an Interstate traffic circle. We travelled through the tip of Illinois changing Interstates several times until we ended up on I-24 to Nashville.

As we were approaching Metropolis, Illinois the car's "Service Engine Soon" light came on. Jim stopped at a deserted exit and went out to look at the engine. Almost immediately a white pickup pulled up and a friendly voice said, "need any help." The fellow got out and helped Jim look things over. He was a truck driver and mechanic. They decided everything looked OK and it was probably nothing important. He was very helpful and friendly and had gotten off the freeway to help us. We were very impressed. We later discovered the problem was that Jim had not put the gas cap on tightly. We fixed that and the light eventually went out. Crisis averted.

I made Jim exit at Metropolis, which was officially declared the hometown of Superman by the Illinois House of Representatives in 1972. I wanted to go to the Superman Museum which has the phone booth used by Clark Kent to change into Superman and lots more. Jim said he would not go in -- He considered this in the category of the California drive-through tree -- tourist trap. I finally coaxed him to came in and we enjoyed the vast collection of memorabilia. But he wouldn't let me take a picture of him anywhere near the museum.

We decided it was time to stop, so we pulled off just across the Kentucky line at Paducah (Pa duke ka). After checking in to a motel, we headed for downtown to explore. Old Town is right on the Ohio River which is very large at this point. They have a 10 foot sea wall along the port area that has been painted with murals depicting the history of the area. The area was charming with old brick buildings housing restaurants, bakeries, a market and other businesses. In the midst of this is a huge modern theater/opera house. We really enjoyed this town.

Off to find Jim's relatives in Tennessee tomorrow.

Day 12: Chanute to Columbia MO

This morning we went to the Chanute Cemetary where both sets of my grandparents are buried. I never knew my mother's parents. They died in their 40's before I was born. And my grandfather Mee died when I was very young. So the only grandparent I really knew was my grandmother Mee. She took care of my brother and I when we were young and was quite a character. She lived to be 107. We always thought that her secret to longevity was her stubbornness.

The Cemetery was huge on both sides of the road. One side was called the old side, and one the new side. Since the original graveyard dates back to 1865 or so, we didn't even know which side. Fortunately a lady we saw cleaning graves told us to go to the Public Works office next door. We mat a nice fellow who looked up the graves and guided us to them. He said he knew where the Mees are because my aunt, Lois, had been one of the best teachers he had ever had. That was nice.

While we were at the graves, he pointed out an area of the cemetary and said that that was the colored (black) part of the graveyard. He said that blacks could not be buried in the main cemetary until 1965 when a local Reverand filed a lawsuit so that his son who drowned in the swimming pool could be buried there. Interesting that it was 100 years after the Civil War before the dead could be integrated.

We then headed to Earlton, a small, shrinking berg where my greatgrandparents owned a general store. The building is sill there, turned into a clothing store -- still the only store in Earlton. Back in Chanute, we had lunch at the McDonalds which overlooks the corner where my grandmother's house once stood, and I once played. The house is gone and a bank stands there now.

Then we went by my aunt's and uncle's house on South Highland, still the wide brick street that I remember. Following the brick road in Kansas -- sounds familiar.

Chanute was named for Octave Chanute, a French engineer in KC who advocated for building and flying heavier than air machines. Orville and Wilber Write used one of his designs at Kittyhawk.

The railroad was important to Chanute, in fact, my grandfather came to Chanute originally to work on the railroad. Now the only rail travel is a private line that supports the local cement plant, a huge and growing operation in town. The old railroad station was restored and now houses the Safari Museum honoring Martin and Olsa Johnson, early explorers of Africa and Borneo.

We headed back to KC around noon, and braving the freeway traffic, we headed across Missouri on I-70. Missouri has lots of year-round fireworks stands - we noticed this yesterday too. And then we saw billboards for the giant "Adult Super Store." After we passed that store, we noticed these signs that had three X'x, "XXX." I told Jim that must have something to do with the Adult Super Store, and sure enough it was attached to an adult video store. Along the same road as this store, we saw a man in a horse-drawn carriage going down the street (Amish?). It looked like he was coming home from the XXX store, but I don't think so.

We decided to stop in Columbia, Missouri and encountered the worst freway interchange I've ever seen. The exit dumped us onto a 6-lane road. We needed to go three lanes over to turn left for our selected hotel. We didn't make it and had to go straight ahead which put us onto another freeway. We did an on-off and headed back, but to get to the hotel you had to exit. So we found ourselves going by on the freeway again -- just in the opposite direction. Another on-off and taking the exit this time put us on the right road but faced with three left-hand turns within a block and no signs that we could see. So we choose the second one and found ourselves going parallel to the frontage road, but entering I-70 again going east. I was driving and told Jim, "I'm never going back there again."

So we found a lone Super8 Motel at the next exit. It was right on the freeway. You could wave to the truckers from the swimming pool and the sound of the freeway lulled us to sleep. But we were just happy to have survived. ( I'm thinking of another hit show: When Freeways Attack )

Looks like the gas shortage has eased in the SouthEast, so we are off to Tennessee tomorrow.

Day 11: Chariton to Chanute KS via Olathe

From Chariton, we headed back to Osceola. I saw a brochure with a picture of a carved Indian statue that reminded my of the totem carving in Pacific Northwest, so we tried to find it. The only location given was highway 34, "outside." I ran into a convienence store to ask where it was. The clerk had never heard of it, but the customer behind me in line said she knew where it was. "Just go straight around the bend," she said. "It's in front of a bank."

And that's where it was. Strange location, but nice art work. After that detour, we headed south on I-35 towards Kansas City. Chariton and Osceola are on the"Mormon PioneerTrail." This was the way the Mormons went from Illinois to Salt Lake City.

Civilization hit us with a vengeance as we approached Kansas City, Missouri. I think the KC Metro area has more people than several of the states we've passed through! And they all seem to be driving. We took a jog towards St. Joseph, Missouri in order to avoid what I call the "octopus interchange" where I-35 and about 5 other freeways bump into each other. We've been through that before and it's not pretty. Our evasion plan worked and we made it to Olathe in one piece and good spirits.

Most people think Kansas City is in Kansas, and it is. But Kansas City, Missouri is like Portland, and Kansas City, Kansas is like Vancouver -- across the river and smaller. And then there is Johnson County Kansas where Overland Park and Olathe are located. I went to high school in this area and the change has been phenomenal. Where there used to be corn fields, they now have a city with a skyline, giant hotels, shopping centers, a corporate park and now the new corporate headquarter campus for Sprint. Simply amazing.

We got off at Olathe and drove by my folks old house, then out the the cemetery where we put flowers on the grave. Then we got out of town and headed south on country roads for Chanute, Kansas where my parents grew up and I was born.

This area of Kansas has oil and natural gas. We went by numerous mini-oil wells (about 3-4 feet high). And I found another city to ad to my list of awful city names: Gas, Kansas. I think this will be a nice companion to Petroleum, Montana.

We arrived in Chanute and went to visit my mother's "gentleman friend" of 12 years, Kenneth. He is 87 and my mom would have been 81 on Oct 7th. He looks great although he had a fall last year that put him our of commission for a while.

Jim's Grandpa Fry said that his long life (over 100) was due to "salt port and a judicious amount of whiskey." I think that Kenneth might be able to credit his long life to cigarettes and a judicious amount of vodka. My mother was very health conscious. She was allergic to liquor and made Kenneth smoke outside or in the garage. I figure she is probably still mad at him for outliving her.

It was Sunday; football was on; we settled in and had a very nice visit.

Day 10: Chariton, Iowa

Iowa is bordered by the Missouri River on the west and the Mississippi River on the east. Chariton is located halfway between on highway 34. With about 4,600 people and an area of 3.7 square miles, Chariton's population is 98.88% white and leans toward the Republican Party.

Chariton was the birthplace of HyVee (a large Midwest supermarket chain) and hosted their corporate headquarters until a few years ago when they moved to Des Moines. The huge distribution center is still here. We counted about 50-60 trucks.

Midwestern towns tend to have town squares instead of a main street strip. Since Chariton is the county seat of Lucas County, the court house is located on the highest ground in the town in the center of the town square. Old downtown buildings face the court house on four sides. There are old and new businesses in old buildings. Even a Ben Franklin five and dime store.

Our son is putting a new roof on his house, so when we got there, he asked if we wanted to go with him to Menards (like Lowes) to pick up some materials. We said, "sure" and hopped into the pickup. It turns out Menards, the closest lumber store, is 40 miles east in Ottumwa, Iowa.

We had a nice ride and visit. He showed us where a tornado had touched down and flattened a number of trees last spring and where the recent floods along the Mississippi had inundated areas of Ottumwa.

He drives a truck route over this stretch of the road and said he sees literally herds of deer. He said that a hunter had shot the largest white-tail deer on record near here. There was an even larger deer that the hunters were looking for, but they were disappointed when it was killed by a hay-bailer. (What did I tell you about farm implements....)

I was hopeful that the human to livestock ratio was improving in our favor, but turns out that the pig to human ratio in Iowa is 2 to 1. In fact, they have a large pig slaughterhouse in Ottumwa. Our son told the story about a large pig feedlot located on a hill overlooking the highway. The farm had a large pig sewage container that burst and covered the highway. They closed the highway, but I couldn't help imagining the poor driver on that road when this happened -- perhaps saying, "this can't be good."

We had several wildlife sitings. We spotted a white crane on the river in Ottumwa. Our son said that the cranes were as thick as seagulls when the river was flooded. Later we saw a family of feral kittens hiding under a car at the motel. They also have eagles, cougars, owls, etc. Iowa wildlife seems to be as plentiful as the pigs.

By the way, our son said that he actually had some anti monkey butt powder. Since he is a truck driver, someone gave it to him as a gift.

We went out to dinner at the local steak house and had some of that great corn-fed Iowa beef. I think our good weather may be ending. Thunderstorms are coming our way. We take off for Kansas tomorrow.

Day 9: Council Bluffs to Chariton

We headed out of the motel and pulled in at the adjacent gas station to full up as is our morning routine. All the pumps except diesel were out of order. We thought that was funny, but continued on I-29 where we passed by a refinery and number of BP petroleum silos. We turned off the interstate at Glenwood to head east on highway 34. The Glenwood gas station did not have regular gasoline either. Wondering how hurricane Ike got to Iowa, we continued east to Red Oak where we found gasoline at Chubby's with no problem. The strange thing was that super unleaded gas cost 10 cents more per gallon than regular unleaded. It fooled Jim because the super unleaded price is posted on top of the unleaded price. Our son later told us that super unleaded has ethonol -- from Iowa corn.

We travelled through land which was formed by windblown glacial silt deposits called the Loess (pronounced luss) Hills. This natural geoligic formation is found in only two places on earth. Iowa and China. Iowa farmers have terraced their fields on these hills. Seems to me the Chinese do that too.

Unlike the plains, this is a land with green rolling hills, picturesque farmhouses and barns, brick houses and lots of corn fields. There are more trees here than in the plains, but they are still midgits compared to the trees in the Pacific Northwest. Jim calls the trees here "trees cleaverly disquised as bushes."

You know that show, "When Animals Attack"? Well, I think they should have a similar show called, "When Farm Implements Attack." We passed several trucks hauling farm implements which seemed to take up more than half of the road. And in Montana and North Dakota we were threatened by trucks carrying large round hay bails.

The weather is georgous again. Nine days of sun in a row. This is getting spooky. I don't know if we are exceptionally lucky or if the rest of the US just has better weather than we do. Probably a combination of both.

We arrived in Chariton, checked into the local motel and went to visit our son and his wife. We will be here for a couple of days.

Day 8: Watertown to Council Bluffs IA

Jim saw another sign yesterday on highway 12 in the middle of SD. Advertising a motel, it said, "Free Beer." I saw it too this time.

At Watertown we returned from the wilderness to find McDonalds, chain hotels and restaurants -- but no "free beer" motels. My phone, the one that has been on Central Time since Idaho, is now in the right time zone, but cannot get reception for some reason. No bars at all places. I can no longer blame the wilderness -- not sure what happened to it.

Watertown SD is in the plains, dotted with an unusual number of small lakes. They are everywhere. These "pothole" lakes are remnants of the ice ages (evidently there were 4 or 5 of them) when glaciers repeatedly dipped into the great plains an covered this area. The lakes formed from ice chunks trapped in low spots during the repeated global warming between ice ages. I guess the difference between these potholes and the massive glacial lake Missoula is plains verses mountain valleys.

Before leaving Watertown, we stopped at the local Walmart Trading Post to re-provision. then we stopped for a walk around the grounds of the Redlin Art Center. It is like a park with small lakes, flocking geese, several gazebos and curving walking paths leading up to an imposing colonial style building on a hill -- well, slight incline.

Terry Redlin is a very successful local artist who has given millions to charities and donated this center to his native Watertown. Inside, he displays 150 of his paintings. it looks like he also designed the building -- according to a copyright notice posted by the front door. I didn't know you could copyright buildings. And he furnished the three story mansion with his complete line of furniture. He is quite a versatile artist.

Terry grew up wanting to be a forest ranger, but a motorcycle accident cost him a leg and that dream. One good thing came out of it. He received a "handicapped student" scholarship to art school. He put in his time as a commercial artist until fear of being laid off during an economic downturn caused him to take preemptive action. People loved his work and the rest is history.

Jim loved the building and architecture. he said he could see himself living there. I said it was beautiful, but I couldn't see myself cleaning it nor him mowing the grounds, so he might have to go back to work. (might anyway the way the stock market is going -- ouch)

We finally returned to reality and the Interstate and headed south to Sioux country. On our way from Sioux Falls to Sioux City, we passed by the Centerville exit. According to my Roadside Geology of south Dakota, a small meteorite ( 1.6 lbs ) fell on Centerville in 1956 and crashed through an aluminum barn roof. This reminds me of a certain super hero.... The meteorite and a piece of the barn roof are in a museum in Rapid City. I wonder if it is green ??

We passed by the birthplace of Laura Ingles Wilder -- this is definitely Little House on the Prairie country. Sioux City is located at the confluence of the Missouri and Sioux Rivers. We stopped at the "Welcome to Iowa" Visitor Center located in an old river tug boat named The Sergeant Floyd. It had been removed from the water with some difficulty -- I guess they didn't account for the ballast. It is now a very interesting museum and visitor center.

I guess the river was once bustling with activity and a main mode of transportation for goods and people. Now these historic boats have been reassigned as visitor centers, museums, and casinos along the river. All that is left to remember that past.

The US Corps of Engineers had a fleet of these boats all named for a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Sergeant Charles Floyd was the only member of the group to lose his life ( natural causes - no Indians involved) and he is buried near Sioux City.

Further into Iowa, along the river we stopped at another Lewis and Clark park. This one had two full-size replicas of the keel boats used by the expedition. Jim saw a woman using a cell phone so he talked to her and confirmed that there is something wrong with our phone, not ATT coverage in this area.

She turned out to be a guide waiting for a tour bus of folks to arrive. She told us that Lewis's boat maker was a drunk, which caused Lewis to get a late start on the journey. After they were underway, they added the top cabin to the boat and installed hinged lids to the storage boxes along both sides of the boat so that they could open them to provide extra protection in case of Indian attack.

We stopped for the night in council Bluffs, across the river from Omaha, Nebraska. Laundry time, then the VP debates

Day 7: Bismarck to Watertown

We stayed at the Select Inn in Bismarck. Very nice accommodations for a very reasonable price. We noticed that there were electric outlets on posts in the parking lot. Jim thinks this must be for engine warmers. Another ominous sign of those nasty winters. I don't think I want to be anywhere near North Dakota or Montana after the end of October. You could really be fooled by the beautiful weather we have been having. It has been sunny and in the 60's or 70's the whole trip. We are not used to seeing this much sun seven days in a row.

We left at 9am -- or 8am. It is hard to know what time it is in North Dakota. Yesterday we kept running into signs saying, "Entering the Central Time Zone." Never any saying, "Leaving...", but obviously we had been going back and forth between Mountain and Central time. And we were on one road. To add to the confusion, my cell phone has been on Central time since we entered Idaho. And we forgot our car manual, so I don't know how to change the clock in the car so is permanently set to Pacific time. We've gotten into the habit of just looking at the clock in the motel room to see what time it is. We just eat when we are hungry and look for a place to stay when the sun is low in the sky. One of the joys of being retired. We really don't care what time it is.

We made a detour north today to visit Fort Mandan and the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center about 50 miles north of Bismarck on the Missouri River. We took a side road to drive along the river. The river, however, was covered with a ribbon of fog and we got stuck behind an erratic truck hauling drywall, so it wasn't as scenic as we had envisioned. The Interpretive Center was very nice and had a deck overlooking the river. Evidently the river in this area is pretty much the way it was back in the days of Lewis and Clark. The river meanders, moving course miles in one direction or the other along the river valley.

Lewis and Clark and crew built and stayed at Fort Mandan from October to April 1804. The fort sheltered 44 men and about 3 women through that harsh North Dakota winter. Sacajawea and her husband joined the group in November and her son was born there. The fort had small rooms with back to back fireplaces and sleeping lofts (like a short attic) that slept 9 men each.

Jim and I just went down to the "breakfast room" at the motel. They had a crock pot with warm soup which we had for dinner. We walked by the indoor swimming pool on our way back to the room where we turned on the heat because it was getting a little chilly. We have certainly come a long way in traveler accommodations!

In April the Lewis and Clark crew packed up and just walked out of the fort leaving it abandoned. The guide said they probably took the hinges with them. In the past two days we have seen a lot of old houses abandoned, leaning and weathered. I don't know if it is those nasty winters here or what.

Back on course, we headed south on highway 83 - called the Lawrence Welk Highway running through Strasburg ND where Lawrence was born. The countryside looks like it could be on the Lawrence Welk Show. We are out of the badlands and into the goodlands of the midwest farm lands. We saw a beautiful Dutch-style barn and lots of silos. Vast fields of wheat, corn, and sunflowers.

We turned left when we got to South Dakota, heading east on highway 12 which is called the "Yellowstone Trail." The countryside reminds me of Western Kansas here -- and does justice to the name, great plains.

We headed to Groton where Jim's great grandfather and mother are buried. This is grandpa Fry. The same grandpa who's old house we think we found in Montana. He moved to Groton when he was in his 80's to live with his son. We found the graveyard easily. It was very peaceful with corn fields in the background.

Shortly after Groton we passed our MILE 2000!!

The countryside is still rather void of human occupation, but we seem to be gradually improving on the human to livestock ratio. We are in Watertown SD tonight and back in the Interstate system (I-29). Watertown has a population of 20,000 and was founded in 1878 by Winona and St. Peter Railroad Co.

I've discovered that my cell phone has been unavailable since we launched into the wilderness. We apparently are still out of range -- see view from our motel window. I think we will be getting back into civilization tomorrow when we get into Sioux Falls and Sioux City.