Kevin’s Birthday Gift & The Council Was Held (IA/NE)

Seaman Showing Us The Info, Omaha, NE 06/26

Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail in Omaha. We crossed over the Missouri River and went downtown. We got parked and went into the building. The directions said it was Region 3, 4, 5. Well, this place was an art building but the ladies nicely told us to continue on down the road a little more. We did and found the right place. Now, it turns out that this 3 story building is the headquarters for this area part of the National Park Service. The visitor center is on the ground floor and really just a hallway. We asked and there was a film. Yes, with captions (I am deaf) – this place gets an A. We enjoyed watching the film and then looked around at the few displays and store. Next we went back to the truck and got Seaman (footnote 1) and our picnic lunch of pizza Sourdough Runzas. After our picnic, we walked to the other side of the NPS onto a bridge.

Seaman & Kevin Showing Lewis & Clark Where Missouri River Is, Omaha, NE / Council Bluffs, iA 06/26

This walkway bridge goes over the Missouri River. We took fun pictures with Seaman along the way. OH, when we were walking in front of the building, we put Seaman on one of the sign boards and snapped a picture. Some ladies there that were handing out free Bibles laughed and said they thought he was a real dog at first. The extra funny thing is, it is very windy here and I was wearing my new ear muffs, even though the day was comfortable. (Wind in my ears often causes ear pain.) And Kevin would play with Seaman and swing him along by his back leg. Yes, ear muffs and swinging a dog…I am sure we were a sight! We went home (footnote 2) after that and enjoyed reading and relaxing. 

I offered Kevin for his Birthday Week today to go to the beach here at Lake Manawa State Park and rent a kayak or canoe. He said he didn’t want to and that is fine. We just stayed home and read and he played with his ham radio. This campground is a Parks on the Air so he was able to do something with that, which I think is neat. In the afternoon I did some sewing. I finished the July 4th celebration yard flag and we hung it outside. Then I worked on the block from the pattern and material we got at Silver Dollar City. It will be a two block wall hanging and it turned out really cute.

Kevin was sooo cute this morning…he couldn’t wait until dinner to open his present. The present has been sitting by the fireplace since we got here. Not a lot of places to hide it here in HOWE (footnote 3). HA Yes, he could open it now. He didn’t even have his hair combed. I got him Ambient Weather Station. I had researched weather stations quite a bit and had ordered it through Amazon when we were at our niece’s house a few weeks ago. She was nice to let it be delivered there and then she wrapped it for me since the box showed what was inside. Kevin was super excited about it and started unpacking right away. It took quite a while to set up plus one trip to Menard’s for parts to put it on HOWE’s roof. 

For his birthday breakfast, I told him I was going to spike his sugar. HA I made sourdough pancakes and they were so good. The recipe is from Everything Sourdough by Charlene Yoders. She swirls cinnamon sugar on the batter but I didn’t do that. For the syrup I made Cinnamon Cream Syrup and oh my gosh, you get a toothache just looking at it. It was outstanding. That recipe came from a friend of a friend. 

When Kevin went on the roof to install Ambient Weather Station I told him, “Be careful…you are older now!” He laughed so hard that I could feel it! Love it.

For his birthday dinner, he picked Texas de Brazil in Downton Omaha. We got dressed up and went down there…forgetting the college world series baseball is happening here. There wasn’t a parking spot to be seen! Kevin finally tried a parking garage and talked to the attendant. Yes, we could fit and park over there on the main level. Our truck is a long bed. Whew! And, it was only about a block away from the restaurant. The day was sunny and nice. This place is a lot like Rodizio’s. This one didn’t have the huge salad bar and sides that Rodizio’s does but had a few things. They also didn’t have alligator, snake, etc. That being said, the place was very lovely, fancy, and good. Our favorite was the bacon wrapped chicken. He tried the lamb and said it tasted like beef. When we saw the huge shrimp come out, we quickly both turned over our tags to green so the server would know we wanted some. HA We had a lovely dinner.

It felt like Monday to me because of the dinner and stuff for his birthday yesterday. 🙂 I didn’t do any sewing today. Late morning we went to Menard’s to return some parts and get new ones. This is to tighten up the Ambient Weather Station on HOWE’s roof. It took a while for him to find the exact thumb screws and ended up being metric. I said there needs to be chairs here for the spouses as we wait, just like some fabric stores have chairs for the spouse to wait. HA

I am concerned about the feeding and care of the Sourdough Starter. But Kevin told me that the pioneers and people going for the gold rush had the starter in a barrel along the side of their wagon, for example. In the heat and the cold even. It is hard to kill! HA He gave me great perspective. And, Sourdough Starter has been around for most all of time. 

Today we went to “Mile 0” Union Pacific Railroad Museum. It is right across the Bayliss Park where Music in the Park was last week and tonight. Parking was open all along the street and we added the coins to it. Limit  2 hours. The museum is in the old library, gifted by Carnegie in 1904. Beautiful 3 story building. This place is run by a non-profit and is admission is donation. This town was the starting point of the first transcontinental railroad. It met up with Central Railroad at Promontory Point, Utah (we have been there quite a few times). I was reading and saw that Abraham Lincoln was the one to get this thing going. General Dodge went to D.C. and talked with Lincoln about putting the start here in Council Bluffs. The options were along the Missouri River from Kansas City up to Sioux City. There were just a few people here and the sign said there were no railroad connections here and the closet was St Joseph, MO back in 1867. “The Missouri River, or the Big Muddy, was only navigable for three to four months of the year after the spring rise, and even then the river was treacherous with sand bars and snags.” I laughed and thought, “Was something offered under table for it to start here?” LOL  

A very great museum. Lots of wide spaces to move around and little arrows to point the way. One volunteer told us she went to this place when it was a library. Also, when we were figuring out the time to add more for parking, she said they don’t check the meters after 5:00 p.m. Whew. Plus, the spots were all full now due to the farmers market and the concert. We grabbed our picnic basket full of all things Cobb Salad and homemade Ranch dressing, our chairs and a sweater for me, and set up in front of the gazebo like last week. Fun to people watch, eat our dinner, and read our books. The band was 4 guys playing several saxophones. The name is Group Sax. They played mostly jazz songs. Very enjoyable evening.

After work we went to several places to try to find 1 inch numbers to add the years above the state sticker maps. We can’t find anything. We even tried Hobby Lobby. Kevin kept asking if we wanted to eat out, as we passed Longhorn, Chilis, etc. but no! I am making Sourdough Discard Pizza. HA And I did. I made it thick and added Tyson chicken nuggets (I wanted to use those up) and Blue Hog BBQ sauce that we got from our sister-in-law’s birthday party. It was really good! The recipe is from Everything Sourdough by Charlene Yoder. I highly recommend this cookbook!

Fort Atkinson State Historic Park, north of Omaha. This is the area where the Corps of Discovery had the “council” with Oto [and Missouri] Indians. Clark said this place would be a good place for a fort and 2 decades later it was built. We had to pay the $15 for a day Nebraska state permit and then the park was additional $5.00 each. Worth it. In the front area of the visitor center, they had a window that on the other side was a beehive right against the window. That was interesting to watch for a little bit. Outside we walked through the cut path amongst tall wild grasses. Every so often there would be a sign about a plant that was right there. Good information. One said it was good for cows to eat but it would kill horses and pigs. HA That would have been crazy to figure out!

We grabbed Seaman from the truck and walked over to statues of Lewis & Clark, several native Americans, and Seaman. One of the signs said, “Lewis’ Newfoundland dog, Seaman, also was at the First Council. Lewis wrote that Seaman was ‘active, strong and docile.’ The dog even swam in the river and chased beavers out of their lodge so members of the Expedition could cook and eat them for dinner.” (Can you find Seaman in these pictures?)

We decided to go to Costco since there isn’t one on our trail for a long time. We got a few things plus King Arthur’s 12 pound bag of flour. HAHA See what cooking Sourdough Starter does?! HAHA Stopped at Wells Fargo to fill up my cash reserves and then headed home. Nice day.

*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. Seaman – this is a toy dog we bought at the start of Lewis & Clark Trail. He is like the real dog that Meriwether Lewis had and took on the Trail with him. We thought it would be fun to take pictures of our Seaman as we travel along the Lewis & Clark Trail.

2. “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.

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