By Shelby
This week started our first week back in the east half of the US. To me, it definitely has a different feel from the western half. We’re out of the vast plains of the central US and back into the forested and more densely developed areas of the east. The temperature is cooler and we already had a few rainy days. It is refreshing, but I already miss the unique landscapes of the west. I think because I grew up in this kind of climate, it doesn’t feel as special to me. Maybe to someone who grew up in a desert area, this would feel exotic. One of the differences between Omaha and western NY is that Omaha is in tornado alley and they do occasionally get tornadoes.
Monday we worked from the Omaha Public Library in Millard, a suburb of Omaha. It was pretty nice, not too big and it had plenty of free parking. After work, we went to a grocery store. The fridge must have been bumped the night before at some point because Spencer noticed it was off in the middle of the night and the temperature was 60 degrees. We decided we didn’t want to risk eating spoiled food, so unfortunately we got rid of the half carton of milk we had left, along with some hummus and turkey we had just bought. That was a bummer. We decided the sealed yogurt and cheese were probably fine.
After going grocery shopping, we went to a nearby park. Spencer surprised me with a pizza for dinner. After dinner, we relaxed and watched a movie. We were so busy for the last month or so visiting national parks. It was nice being able to do nothing. That night, we slept at Planet Fitness. This one was pretty nice. Instead of the showers being just a stall with a curtain, there was a second curtain so there was room to change there. There was even a waterfall shower head. The water felt oddly slimy, though, which wasn’t pleasant.
Tuesday we worked from the same library, which was pretty uneventful. After work, we went to another park to eat dinner and play some video games. Unfortunately our go-to game, Minecraft, doesn’t seem to work well when played through a hotspot, so we played a different game. We caught a nice sunset over the small lake we were parked in front of.
Since the weather was going to be nice Wednesday and rainy on Friday, Spencer decided to take Wednesday off and work Friday instead. Wednesday morning, we got an oil change. After that, we headed east toward Iowa. Our first stop after crossing back over the Missouri River was the Lewis and Clark Park. This is where Lewis and Clark met with Native Americans. There was a nice view of the Omaha skyline from the park.
Our next stop was a rest area along I-80 where we ate lunch. The rest areas in Iowa are very nice, we noted. We also stopped in the town of Shelby for gas. Our final destination was the parking lot for the High Trestle Trail trailhead near Des Moines. We ate dinner and played video games in the car until sunset.
That’s when we got started on the trail. This part of the trail featured a bridge going over the Des Moines River. It had beams going over the bridge that were lit up with blue lights at night. These were meant to mimic a mineshaft. The lights made for very cool photos. The entire walk ended up being about 3 miles. We used a flashlight to light up the path on the way back since it was pretty much pitch black out. When we made it back to the car, we drove on to Planet Fitness for the night.
Thursday morning, we went to Upstream Gardens & Orchard to pick raspberries. This was a farm just outside of Des Moines. As it was a weekday morning, we were the only people there. After picking all the raspberries we wanted, we picked some blackberries as well. Raspberries and blackberries are some of my favorite foods.
The farm also offered the opportunity to pick your own corn, which I had never done before. The farm attendant said we were a little late in the season for corn, so we were a little worried we wouldn’t be able to find any. Fortunately, we were able to find half a dozen ears of corn by wading deep into the corn stalks. We planned on grilling them for dinner.
After leaving the farm, we made a quick stop at a rest area for lunch. Mostly, we just munched on the berries we had just picked. After we had our fill, we drove on to our next stop, the American Gothic House. This is the house that was in the famous painting “American Gothic”. The house was located in the small Iowa town of Eldon. It’s pretty neat that something so famous came out of this tiny, rural town. We took our picture in front of the house, imitating the painting. The visitors center even had pitch forks for us to borrow.
Our final destination for the day was Burlington, a small city on the Mississippi River. Once we arrived, we stopped at a grocery store to pick up ingredients for dinner. Dinner was going to be grilled corn on the cob and BBQ chicken. The plan was to grill the corn in aluminum foil on our gas grill. We had done this before on a camping trip and they turned out delicious. When we got to the park we were going to make dinner at, we realized we didn’t have any aluminum foil. I went back to the store while Spencer started cooking the chicken.
The BBQ chicken turned out really good. Instead of buying a bottle of bbq sauce, we used all of the bbq packets we got with fast food. It worked out really well. The corn was a little more difficult. First, I tried to place the aluminum wrapped corn directly on the burner of the stove but I felt like it was way too close to the flame. I decided to use the cast iron skillet instead to hold the corn. I let it sit for a few minutes and it started smoking, so I moved the corn around and turned down the burner. I think I may have turned the heat down too low because it took almost an hour for the first 3 to be ready. I gave up on the second batch and just boiled them. The boiled corn was finished sooner than the grilled. They both tasted good, though.
Friday, we worked from the Burlington Public Library not too far away from Planet Fitness. It was a historic building with a beautiful view of the Mississippi River and the suspension bridge going over it to Illinois. After work, we walked from the library to Snake Alley, supposedly the “crookedest road in the US”. It was pretty crooked with multiple switchbacks going down a steep hill. For dinner, we had leftover bbq chicken and corn (cut off the cob). We then returned to Planet Fitness and played video games in the parking lot.
Saturday was a busy day. We would be driving south down the Great River Scenic Byway to St. Louis. Our first stop was Fort Madison, which was built by the government in 1808 to be a factory trading post. It was destroyed during the War of 1812 and then rebuilt in the 1980s.
Our next stop was the town of Hannibal, which is well known for multiple reasons. It is the birthplace of Mark Twain and also the birthplace of the “Unsinkable Molly Brown”, who survived the sinking of the Titanic. Just before entering Hannibal, we turned off the highway to go to Riverview Park to eat lunch. There were a couple very nice scenic overlooks over the Mississippi River there.
After finishing lunch, we continued on into Hannibal. We briefly stopped at the house Molly Brown was born in before continuing onto the Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse. We made a brief stop at the Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn statue as well. The entire town seemed Mark Twain themed. There was Hotel Mark Twain, parks named after him, gifts shops, and a lot more.
We also stopped at the boyhood home of Mark Twain, which is now a museum. There were multiple preserved buildings that related to Mark Twain, along with a memorial garden. We stopped to take pictures of Tom Sawyer’s white picket fence. It was cool to see things that inspired events in such famous books.
Our last stop in Hannibal was Lovers Leap, a cliffside overlook of Hannibal and the Mississippi River. It was also a memorial to a Native American couple. The story goes that a Native American princess and a Native American man from warring tribes wanted to be together. The father of the princess found out about them and offered a reward to anyone who killed the man. The couple ran up the cliff of Lovers Leap. The man realized that he was about to be killed. The princess didn’t think life would be worth it without him, so they leapt off the cliff to their deaths together. Nowadays people leave love locks on the fence at the cliff edge.
Our next stop was the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, about two hours away from Hannibal. Once we were in St. Louis, before going to the arch we stopped at the Old Courthouse. This is where the famous Dred Scott court case was held. Dred Scott was an African American slave who sued his owners for freedom. Unfortunately, he did not win the case, but the case helped lead to the Civil War and freedom for all African Americans.
Next up was the arch. I thought it was pretty impressive. Despite being built in the 60s, it looked sleek and modern. There was a very nice museum underground beneath the arch. We decided not to go up in the arch. We felt the view would be better with the arch in it rather than from inside the arch.
After walking around the arch, we continued on to the river walk running along the Mississippi. We stopped at the Captains’ Return statue of Lewis and Clark. This statue memorializes Lewis and Clark’s return to St. Louis after their two year long expedition to the west. The sky was getting pretty dark and looked like rain, so we decided to find dinner. We decided on the Kimchi Guys just in time. It started pouring just as we went inside. I got a bibimbap bowl and a side of kimchi. Spencer got the Korean fried chicken and vegan Korean takos. After we finished eating, we walked back along the river and then to the car.
We crossed the Mississippi into Illinois and went to an overlook. We got a great view of the St. Louis skyline and the lit up arch. After taking some pictures, we went back to Missouri to a Planet Fitness in the suburbs to sleep. Our plan for Sunday is to finish up work on the website, do laundry, and relax. We haven’t decided our plan for next week yet. We may go camping in the Ozarks. Either way, I’m sure it will be good! For more pictures from Iowa, see here and for more pictures from Missouri, see here.
Fun Facts from Week 17:
- Iowa is the main producer of corn in the US.
- The Mark Twain Memorial Lighthouse was only ever a memorial; it was never actually used as a lighthouse for the Mississippi River.
- The Gateway Arch in St. Louis is actually part of the Gateway Arch National Park.
2 responses to “Week 17”
Love the American Gothic picture!
Yeah I didn’t know the house was a real thing! It was pretty cool to see it in real life!