Lewis & Clark And Birthday Week (IA)

We had plenty, with a capital P, of time. (Sometimes I laugh at myself and what I write in this travel journal!) Check in at Lake Manawa State Park campground, Council Bluffs, Iowa, wasn’t until 4:00 p.m. We were here by 1:15 p.m. So we found a place to do our grocery shopping for the week. That worked out great as the parking lot was big enough for HOWE (footnote 1). We tried to kill time by looking at things we didn’t even want. HA They have canned boiled peanuts. We aren’t getting those! We had good emails about check in and we were given the 3 different gate codes for our time here. No one was at the check in booth but we tried the code and it worked. This campground is great! Asphalt roads, concrete pads and patios, great wire picnic tables and a fire pit. The site I had picked when getting the reservation is on the end and we have huge area on both sides of us. Behind us, out Kevin’s office window and to one side are a row of tall trees. You can kind of see the lake on the other side of the row of trees.

Oh, I think I forget to write this: yesterday when we got ready to set up at the campground, Kevin called me inside HOWE, told me to take off my shoes, and walk to the end of the counter and look. Well, I thought something must have broken but at least it wasn’t glass since he told me to take off my shoes. What was it? My new scale for measuring for my sourdough had flown out from the storage behind the TV as we went down the road and was clear across the room! HAHA Thankfully, it wasn’t broken. 

Kevin’s Thinks He Is Lewis, He & Seaman Pointing To Missouri River, Lewis & Clark Monument Park, Council Bluffs, IA 06/26

After work we drove to Lewis & Clark Monument here in Council Bluffs, IA. It is on the bluffs overlooking the Missouri River. We had so much fun posing Seaman (our toy dog that looks like Meriwether Lewis’ dog, Seaman) so he would point us to the path he and the Corps of Discovery went. 🤣

I had forgotten that this place was named by them because they had their first council with Native Americans around this area. The monument was very well done with good information and views. As we drove the side streets through town, we see the houses are small, close together, but “tidy” is Kevin’s word. Yes, and well lived in and taken care of. 

Back home (footnote 2) Kevin got on the roof to see if the A/C needed cleaning. It didn’t but he washed it anyway. 

I heated up my homemade sloppy joes and served it on the sourdough bread I made the other day. I toasted the slices and I thought it was delicious.

As we drove we crossed I-29 we saw the weirdest looking sculptures! Odyssey Spiky Towers. Here is a great article: https://www.houmatoday.com/story/entertainment/2010/12/01/spiky-towers-are-the-talk-of-the-highway/26950538007/

Much better weather today, for the midwest. For today, Kevin’s Birthday Week Activity was to go to Council Bluffs park for Farmers Market and Music in the Park. Unfortunately, there was only beets for sale and those are the only food Kevin refuses to eat! HA There were booths selling things not from farms. Then we went back to the truck, added more quarters to the parking meter ($0.50 an hour), grabbed our chairs, drinks, and picnic cooler. We sat in the shade in front of the gazebo stage. At 7:00 p.m. E String Band played for 75 minutes. They are a blues group. 4 old men; Kevin said their playing was great (remember I am deaf and can only watch). We enjoyed eating Charcuterie Board I put together: leftover pork tenderloin I cut into bite size pieces. Plus gouda cheese, bread and butter pickles, olives, and deviled eggs. The eggs tipped as I was putting them in the cooler and they kind of rolled out of the trays. HA They tasted good anyway.

Day 2 of Kevin’s Birthday Week – I took him to watch Omaha Storm Chaser minor league baseball. This is the farm feeder to Kansas City Royals. Kevin picked our seats and we got tickets that afternoon. He picked the 3rd base side and our seats looked right down the 1st base home plate line. That was a cool perspective. We were in the 10th row back. This is a smaller stadium and no one was higher on a second tier except for the speciality box. When we bought our tickets, we also paid $4.75 for parking in general. As we got there, the attendant scanned his iPhone parking ticket and we were in. Otherwise parking was $5.00. The parking is very close. 

We learned later that this team use to be called the Omaha Royals. They were too small for the big new stadium built in Omaha that has the contract for college world series ballgames. So this one was built and it is nice. The game was a lot of fun to watch. We enjoyed it very much and also the 7 minutes (literally) of fireworks afterwards. It is always scary to see where the ball goes and one ball came over us, hit the wall behind and then slammed into a lady in the front row, a section away from us. I thought it hit her leg but later I saw her holding an ice pack to her check. Ouch. The staff were there often to make sure she was okay and fill out a report. The stadium is about 35 minutes from the campground; but it sure felt like we got home fast. The weather was perfect. 

Sourdough starter: I made the dough for Runzas from the Amish cookbook I got in Jamesport, called Everything Sourdough by Charlene Yoder. I used my Ninja Food Processor to mix everything and it worked great! I wouldn’t be able to get anymore flour or ingredients in the bowl, though, it was full. I set it in the greased bowl to rise. In the afternoon it was ready but I knew I wouldn’t have comfortable time to cook them. So, I followed Charlene Yoder’s information and threw the bowl, covered, in the fridge. She said you can have the dough in the fridge for a week. That is nice to know and we will see if it works.

Strategic Air Command, Omaha, NE. I remember visiting here with my parents years ago. I was excited for Kevin to see it because he hadn’t been there before. A few months ago I emailed SAC to see if the had accommodations for deaf – films captioned or scripted, etc. Soon I got a respond from someone and she said they would get an ASL interpreter for me. Awesome. I let her know that date we would be there. Later she emailed that she had the interpreter and she would be there when they open at 9:00 a.m. I could have the interpreter for 2 hours, as that is the average it takes people to go through. So we made sure to be there early. We were ready and headed out about 7:45 a.m. It is about 40 minutes or so away. We got some alerts about severe thunderstorms. We could see from the radar and the clouds that we were on the tail end and the storm was just north of us. We got a little rain and some wind but it wasn’t as bad as it looked over there. We were happy to sit in the truck until the place opened. As we walked two ASL interpreters joined us. That was so great. The staff guy said they were short staffed but we were able to buy our tickets $17.50 each; interpreters got in free. We immediately went to the theater and the first show started at 9:30 a.m. We watched back to back films for two hours. The place was a big disappointment to Kevin and to me as well. Why? Well, this was Strategic Air Command – that took over the Air Force after WW2 and lasted through the cold war. Not one film was about that. All the films were totally about space and NASA. That is fine, but how about some info about the base SAC was on, how it worked, stories, etc. Nothing. Kevin and I went into the hanger and saw all sorts of planes. Nice, but we have seen them around and wanted info on SAC. Finally, literally in one small spot against the far wall, there was a display that had a few words about SAC. We both said if we would have known it was like that, we wouldn’t have gone. 

We decided to go to Omaha National Cemetery for Find A Grave (footnote 3). It is between SAC and our campground so it made sense to stop in while over in that area. At one section, we saw a couple walk past us. Kevin signed (ASL) to me that they were looking for a grave. He asked them if they needed help and said something about how I can look it up for them, if they wanted. I did and saw the person had recently died. I gave my condolences. It was new enough that the plot wasn’t listed on Find A Grave so I got on the national cemetery gov website that I use and was able to find it and give them the plot number. We were able to tell them it was in the columbarium section and where it was (we had just come from there) and the row and number. They were so appreciative and we were so happy to help. 

Back home I took the sourdough out of the fridge. I had looked at it this morning and thought it might overflow the top. HA Thankfully, it didn’t. Oh, the dough was so easy to work with and not sticky at all. I might keep putting it in the fridge for a night before making things. Hum… I made Runzas with the filling of pizza sauce, pepperoni, and mozzarella cheese. They were outstanding!

*The blog posts are taken from my daily travel journal. Would you believe – it takes me a 1/2 day every week to whittle down a week’s worth of journal so it won’t be too long for the post each week. HAHA Thank you for reading!

1. “HOWE” is what we named our Alliance Avenue 36-ft 5th wheel. See: Home On WhEels and we pronounce it Howie. We live and travel in it full-time around the country. HOWE has stayed at least one night in all 48 continuous U.S. states.

2. “Home” is where we park it. Home is our 2022 Alliance Avenue, 36 ft, 5th wheel.

3. Find A Grave – https://www.findagrave.com/about